11/24/2025
Most of my bestest photographer friends, including Jessica here, print art lovingly for people too. I love this what she wrote so much!
I love thinking that the digital file is the master copy of the fine art. The art of your loved ones. Don't just trust anyone to print it. Gah, especially some of the fast return consumer printing places. In my photography journey I've tried all the cheap places. Wallgreens, Walmart, Shutterfly, Sams, Costco with crazy results. Even with the same files! I and many other photographers out there spend hours researching the best fine art products designed to last generations. Plus we spend our own hard earned money to have samples of those products. It's a love I have to be able to create for people art to enjoy!
You know what’s been keeping me up at night me up lately?
Somehow photographers everywhere started giving away digital files like Oprah. “YOU get a JPEG! YOU get a JPEG! Everyone gets 742 JPEGs!”
Meanwhile, I know so many photographers sitting in their car after a session doing the math like: “Okay… if I edit until 2am for 7 nights straight… I might clear $8 an hour.” (A joke… but not really. You can Google it. 😅)
Here’s what most people don’t realize (photographers and clients): A digital file isn’t a cute little “freebie.” It’s the master copy of the art. Once you have it, you can print it forever, crop it, filter it, or turn Uncle Bob neon green at Walgreens. Endless possibilities of things your photographer might be horrified to see 😂
And somewhere along the way, everyone forgot that digital files used to be the coveted negatives. Back when I started (yes… THAT long ago), no one in their right mind sold a negative. Let alone gave it away for free.
But here’s the truth that actually matters: The portraits on your WALLS will outlast everything.
They survive moves.
They survive broken phones and data crashes...
They even survive natural disasters, hell I’d be tossing mine in the car and buying clothes later.
Digital files? I’ve got thousands of my own kids… all living in a “print later” folder next to 3,000 screenshots of recipes I’ve never cooked but were taking up too much space on my phone.
The ones I actually enjoy are the ones I printed (like this one).
I’m not anti-digital at all, I give my clients options to preserve their memories. I just think your family deserves more than a dusty hard drive or vanishing cloud file.
And the artists creating your memories deserve to earn more than gas money. (It's a fact that MANY photographers running businesses on giving away files don’t even make minimum wage.)
So here’s my gentle PSA: Printed portraits matter. They last. They get passed down. And they don’t accidentally get deleted by your 9-year-old clearing storage for Roblox.
Lovingly signed,
A photographer who believes your memories deserve better than the junk drawer (or folder) 😆
