What do you do with your photos?
Do 99.9 percent of them live on your computer’s hard drive?
I believe it is important to live with your photos.
Print them.
Frame them.
Turn them into canvases (like I did with the photo of my newborn son, shown above).
Design photo books.
Create photo gifts.
Photos give us the opportunity to reflect on the blessings God has placed in our lives.
I love having the faces of my loved ones throughout my home. Since I work full-time, my office is also filled with photos of my family.
Weekly, I thumb through the dozens of photos books and scrapbooks I have created over the years. They chronicle stories that otherwise would have faded away with time. Turning those pages gives me a chance to slow down and be thankful.
Frames, canvases and photo books are just the beginning though.
I have started creating photo plates and incorporating them into our every day life. I never would have thought something so simple would make me smile so much.
Other items also bring smiles too – my photo make-up bag that my sister gave me, a trivet of my son eating watermelon, photo notebooks that are found in almost every room of our home.
None of these items are difficult to create or costly, but they all bring simple joy and gratitude to my spirit. On the days that are long and hard, sometimes a photo reminding me of a loved one’s presence in my life is all that I need.
Today I want to encourage you to go to your hard drive, upload some photos to your favorite photo developer and print some memories. (chances are, you can even get them for free…)
You won’t regret it.
And as you look through those hundreds, maybe thousands of images, thank God for blessing your life with people who love you and experiences that have changed you.
By Jessica from The Mom Creative
Leave a Comment
Emily says
Thanks for the reminder! I have so many photos stored on my computer and so few actually out, ready to enjoy. This needs to change soon!
Claire says
Thanks for the reminder! I need to take more photos.
Cxx
Betty Draper says
just got some new awesome pictures of our daughter and family and with God’s help i plan to get them in print tomorrow. I say with God help for we live in Papua New Guinea and there is one place to get pictures made, it the machine working. you are given only choice, 4×6 or 5×7, nothing fancy paper, and I am praying they have just put fresh color in the machine. I may try to go on line and try the walmart, make up a photo book and have my friend send them over….you are so right these pictures are priceless. I made one for our little 2 1/2 grand daughter of her pope, her beloved grand pa and she loves it and carry it around all the time so i need to make one for the other little one. since we live over seas we don’t wants these kids to forget us. thanks for encouragement me to get on this project.
Missy June says
As mentioned above, our children treasure the stories of their lives and those photo books make wonderful keepsakes! I love photos and do live with them daily. What stories a photo can tell!!!
Lisa says
Thank you for the reminder… what a way to bring our friends and family closer…
Have a wonderful afternoon…
Lisa
Paula says
I totally agree. We can have the digital frame or tag with car keys or even regularly look at our computer archives and see what we’ve taken, but nothing beats a picture in hand, reachable and touchable, even if it’s up on the fireplace mantle.
Here’s an experiment worth trying. Look up your photos and remember the moments. Then, get out a picture you can touch and remember the moments. I can’t prove it, but I think the in-the-hand connects with some part of our brains the digital screen cannot reach.
Real beats virtual every time.
Lisa H says
I love to have photos all around me also! I have put printed digital photos onto muslin fabric and used them in quilts. I have 2 favorites, one is a memory quilt that I made for a friends husband and her daughter after she had passed away–I had no idea where or when the picture was taken they had given me. When I gave the daughter her quilt she told me the picture was of her mom from her wedding! My other favorite was a quilt for a young couple from Ukraine that our church sponsored so the husband could finish his degree here at CCU and go back to Ukraine to pastor. It was a picture from their wedding day and I surprised them when they came back to the states after their wedding!
Kristen says
Sadly, 2 months ago our computer hard drive suffered a major crash and we lost many photos of our precious children. I was heartbroken about it.
(http://murmursofmyheart.wordpress.com/2011/04/12/when-the-purging-is-unexpected/)
I am now the ‘poster child’ for backing up your hard drive!! And for doing those photobooks while you can! And for printing out photos, framing them and enjoying them! Just do it!!
carmen reyna says
I thank God for What he lets me capture through the lens of my camera
Cherishing the moments… » Ginger Unzueta Photography says
[…] in my daily google reader feed. it was from a wonderful blog (in)courage. the post was titled living with your photos. the wonderful author spoke about getting your photos off your harddrive. i know i am so guilty […]
Stacey says
I love this! Thanks for posting. I bought one of those photo books off of Groupon a few months back. I think it is time I remember all the wonderful people in my life!