The Family Snaps

[Bill Pierce]

I’ve always made prints of the photographs that might be exhibited. But when the “digital age” came about, more and more of the family snapshots lived only in digital form, emailed to friends and family even though we had conventional family albums covering a half dozen generations.

The digital family snaps have been stored on CD and DVD, something for which my current computers have no built-in ability to play. Of course there were the Zip drives, but my computers don’t have connections for them anymore either. Of course the RAID system that is my current image storage solution along with additional back ups on hard drives does a pretty good job but will eventually be replaced with solid state drives. That’s fine as long as I’m around to transfer the material from one digital storage system to another. But those conventional albums that cover 6 generations are a gentle reminder that nobody lasts forever.

So, I’ve started printing the family snaps, little prints that don’t cost much in time, effort or dollars and have the secondary purpose of keeping my printer’s ink flowing. No albums yet, but a lot of boxes of little prints that that anybody can put in albums.

Your thoughts???

 

[Pfreddee]

Makes sense to me. I'm going to start the same thing, and wade through several decades of film photos to put together an album I can leave to our daughter and granddaughter.

With best regards,

Pfreddee(Stephen)

 

[michaelwj]

I always print out 4x6 family snapshots. They go on the fridge, and get sent around to family for their fridges. It something I've kept up throughout the digital shift, so I have family snapshots going back many years. Of course, there's no order to it, they all end up in boxes or files or somewhere - but they exist, and it is nice when you come across them again.

I think this is the duality of photography - as art and record keeping. Both are important and both have their place.

Cheers,
Michael

 

[majid]

I'd make photobooks if I were you. Much more convenient than a shoebox full of 4x6 prints. Archival life is still open to question, but they can't be worse than Kodak photo paper.

Don't forget to caption the images, that is as important as anything else if the photos are to remain relevant to younger people who don't remember the subjects.

 

[Dave Jenkins]

I am going through a collection of negatives going back more than 55 years and scanning the keepers. I will probably make photo books through someone such as Blurb and give them to my kids and grandkids.

 

[willie_901]

I'd make photobooks if I were you. Much more convenient than a shoebox full of 4x6 prints. Archival life is still open to question, but they can't be worse than Kodak photo paper.

Don't forget to caption the images, that is as important as anything else if the photos are to remain relevant to younger people who don't remember the subjects.

I agree 100%.

Nothing lasts forever, but I suspect photobooks have a better chance of being seen in the future than digital images.

If one is not picky about post-processing and editing, throwing together a family phonebook would not be that time-consuming.

Existing prints are another story altogether, scanning and, or mounting thiose in a phonebook is time consuming. My fantasy is to stumble upon a younger teenager who wants to make a bit of money and have all the old photos scanned.

A more realistic approach is to send them off to a commercial bulk scanning service. There are several that charge by the container size. Then all you have to do is organize the digital images for the photo book(s).

 

[Roger Hicks]

Dear Bill,

Yeah, I'm printing more and more too -- and like you, "little prints that don’t cost much in time, effort or dollars and have the secondary purpose of keeping my printer’s ink flowing". I make them in sets of half a dozen to two dozen. I gave my daughter a set for Christmas (she's 25 next birthday, and was delighted) and I'm just about to send my father a set (he's 88 next birthday, but he hasn't seen the pics yet).

Books? No thanks. I'd much rather control the quality myself. Besides, there's something much more intimate about a print I've made and deckle-edged ( have a couple of old Johnson's deckle-edge guillotines), rather than just sticking a jump drive into a printing machine or e-mailing an order. And part of the joy of snapshots is coming across them unexpectedly: a book is too formal.

Cheers,

R.

 

[jsrockit]

Smart move regarding using this to keep the printer running right. I'm going to have to implement this as well.

 

[Photog9000]

Glad to see a number of folks are taking to printing their family photos. I have started in the last year to print not only the family snaps but images that I think define my photographic life such as it is. I have taken to compiling images in books (four so far) that I have given as Christmas gifts to my kids and put in my own bookcase for future reference/legacy. Since I am no longer shooting for pay or recognition, it seemed like the best way to go for me.

 

[Out to Lunch]

Another vote for self-published photo books.

 

[Corran]

I just made two 8x10 contact prints of a big family photo, for said family.
Still don't get any enjoyment from digital.

 

[froyd]

I'm a big fan of books as well, though the print quality is not as good as that of my prints and I'm not too sure about the quality of the binding.

I do appreciate how they allow me to put together yearly family albums that are neatly laid out and more appealing than the old mylar-leaf photobooks of my youth.

However, my favorite album, a memento of a trip to Paris, is made from prints held by corner stickers. On the down side, twelve years later some of the corner stickers have come unglued and had to be replaced, and a couple of hastily washed prints have yellowed.

The only loose family snaps these days come from the Instax or are occasional proof prints that survive the purge after I frame them for the "Hall of Photos" -- a corridor filled floor to ceiling with family snaps. I'm sure some of our guests have thought my family must be pretty self-obsessed, but I really enjoy going to other people's homes and look at their framed family picture and photo albums.

 

[robert blu]

I always print.I like editing and printing. Sometimes albums, sometimes boxes, sometimes small handmade books. It's part of the fun!
robert

 

[NickTrop]

In my man cave at home, I frame my 6x4 prints (a few larger) with cheap frames I get from the dollar store. I break off the cardboard stand in the back, and secure them to the wall with mounting tape (which sometimes doesn't work...) My goal is to "tile" all the walls in the room with framed family pics from ceiling to floor.

 

[Jamie Pillers]

In my man cave at home, I frame my 6x4 prints (a few larger) with cheap frames I get from the dollar store. I break off the cardboard stand in the back, and secure them to the wall with mounting tape (which sometimes doesn't work...) My goal is to "tile" all the walls in the room with framed family pics from ceiling to floor.

I'm in the process of doing the same. The family said they wanted a "family photo wall" somewhere in the house. I've cleaned off the 'art' prints from a wall and repainted it. Now there's a small group of family 'snaps' in the center of the wall, mounted in frames I've picked up here and there over the years. My plan is to grow the collection outward as time goes by, eventually filling the wall. I must say, its quite wonderful seeing generations past peering out at us from the wall.

 

[Dave Jenkins]

I read recently that in 50 years the most-photographed generation in history will have no photographs.

 

[NickTrop]

I'm in the process of doing the same. The family said they wanted a "family photo wall" somewhere in the house. I've cleaned off the 'art' prints from a wall and repainted it. Now there's a small group of family 'snaps' in the center of the wall, mounted in frames I've picked up here and there over the years. My plan is to grow the collection outward as time goes by, eventually filling the wall. I must say, its quite wonderful seeing generations past peering out at us from the wall.

It's an excellent project, isn't it? Mine has a long way to go. I do a little at a time but it's getting there. The cheap frames are light enough so they can be "usually" secured with some mounting tape. The only two non-family snaps I have are an original Dave Berg (MAD magazine) illustration and a print from a local artist.

 

[robbeiflex]

I make a combination of yearly photobooks, random snapshot prints, and the occasional large B&W wet print. This ensures that a good 5 to 10% of my best family shots are in multiple households and on multiple continents, and therefore immune to loss, damage and/or digital catastrophe. I hope my little ones, and future generations appreciate the effort. And if not, then I'm having fun and will be long gone by then.

Cheers,
Rob

 

[pete hogan]

We're enjoying Pix-Star digital frames for family photos. Handles a large quantity of pictures, and we've had many old ones back to the '30s scanned and loaded. New pictures go in from the Internet. Run all day. Fun for all ages from 1 YO and up.

 

[Ko.Fe.]

We have tablets, phones, laptops and external HDs at home. Our living room PC changes pictures every 30 second at the screen. About 6K of them.
But all of us are enjoying small prints in albums. They are "discovered" once in a while. Now we have them in the media room.
I think, I'm wrong with 8x10 darkroom prints size 🙂