The importance of family photos

This is my Nana. Dulcia Valda Shadbolt, Nana to 20 grandkids, and 12 great-grandkids.

I’ve created this video for my first blog post to not only introduce you to my nana who we sadly lost during lockdown last year but to share with you my why. Why I do what I do, and am so lucky to love my job so much, and why I am so passionate about everyone leaving my studio with stunning printed photos to display in their home.

Nana was a huge lover of photos. She had images right from when we were little displayed throughout her house and was forever badgering us for an updated one for the mantlepiece. Nana took great pride in her family and was never happier than when she was surrounded by all the love and noise that 20 grandkids, their parents and great-grandkids can make.

While we were nursing nana we spent a lot of time looking through old photos and reminiscing about time past. There is something so special about being able to see your grandparents as babies, celebrate and relive their wedding day with them, and look back at hilarious moments of your own parents growing up. These photos that Nana so treasured are now proudly displayed in my mums and aunties homes, as well as on my own wall. Looking back and being able to remember those we love who are no longer with us is the most special thing about photographs. 
This is why I became a photographer so that all of my clients, their babies and their future great-grandbabies can look back and laugh at the horrible fashions and haircuts of the time, work out which one of their grandparents gave them their big ears (thanks pop) and enjoy their family history. We wouldn’t be who we are today without those who came before us. 

As much as I am a digital lover and have grown up in the digital era, the only way we can keep these memories alive and be able to look back is to print our photos. Nana had photos of everything tucked away in a drawer and we had a lovely time pulling them out and sorting through them. Had she not printed these photos, they wouldn’t exist today. 

We’ve all had hard drives fail, and technology is changing so quickly that things like floppy disks and CDs don’t exist anymore and even USBs are becoming extinct. Unless you follow a rigorous backup system our digital photos will be gone – and let’s face it that just becomes another one of those jobs on the to-do list, that we never get around to. A print however will be here for years to come, and can always be scanned and turned back into a digital file.

So my plea to you is please go print those photos, pop them in an album, note down who is in them (something we were grateful Nana did, as it was hard to tell someone of us apart when we were young and even harder to know who people who had passed away were) and tuck them away somewhere safe. This way you, and your future family can enjoy them forever.