What did we ever do before digital cameras? I’ll tell you what we did. We actually took our film, had it developed and had photographs in hand. I am the worst about taking hundreds of pictures and keeping them stored on that little memory card forevermore. Are you?
Earlier this week, I collaborated with Lindsay Hart (the photographer who took our recent family pics) for her segment on the local talk show, Charlotte Today. (No, I wasn’t on camera. We’ll leave that to Lindsay.) She shared some great ideas for how to display your family photos in your home once you actually print them out.
You can watch the whole segment here.
(Lindsay also did a recap of all the tips on her blog.)
One of my favorite tips from the show is one you may already know about. You can have a huge 3x4’ print made of one of your photos at Staples for around $7. It’s called an engineering print, and can also be ordered online:
I have plans for one (or maybe several) of these in our house this year. When it comes to displaying family photographs in your home, I’m a bigger fan of a few, fun, oversized prints as opposed to lots of little frames that get lost in the mix.
Do you put your family photos on the wall? Or, are they trapped on your memory card, too?
I did this for my daughter room. Downloaded some chalk art for $5.00 online and had it printed on a 36 x 48 engineered paper. I found a large, kelly green frame at homegoods and stapled it to the inside. I'd love to share the finished product with you... turned out amazing!
ReplyDeleteThis sounds so cool! I know this wasn't intended for me, I would love to see this! :-)
DeleteDitto for me--love to see it! :-)
DeleteShe emailed me a photo of it. I'll post to my Facebook page this afternoon. Off to feed babies right now :)
Deletefeed your babies real quick aha! I cant wait to see it
DeleteI have waaaaay too many photos on my memory card, and my only saving grace is that I go on a scrapbooking trip once a year, so I print photos for that and usually some extras to display around the house. We did get a family photo taken this year though, and I'm getting a large canvas of one of those shots. Does that count? ;-)
ReplyDeleteEven if you don't plan to print them or display them right away, you should download your photos to your computer and then back them up on a disc. Your memory card can become corrupted and fail, at which point you might be forced to pay someone to retrieve your photos, and it is not always possible.
ReplyDeleteAgree! We try to download ours on an external hard drive every other month or so... That still doesn't mean they get printed :)
DeleteI try to use holidays and special occasions as a good excuse to have pictures printed and framed -They get them off my computer and make great gifts!
ReplyDeleteThey're mostly trapped on memory cards, but I have in the last year at least gotten them downloaded to the computer so that I might be able to do something with them. I just sent a picture to a canvas making company (deal on Living Social) -finally! I've probably been contemplating that for about 2 years but I could never decide on a picture, so I'm quite excited that I finally did! I like the thought of big pictures, but indecisiveness is my problem there, so I mostly occasionally print off my favorites and put them in small frames around the house or on the burlap ribbon board in the kitchen. There are WAY more pictures around of my children when they were babies, toddlers & preschoolers. I've done a sad job the last 5-7 years.
ReplyDeleteMostly trapped...I have boxes of great photos from the kids' early years, because I have a wonderful manual SLR that I LOVED to use, and then once we got the digital SLR, the prints died! I did manage to get a few large prints made and hung last year, and will be updating as one of my Home Goals this year!
ReplyDeletemany are trapped unfortunately - but I have been wanting to do the "engineer print" for a while. I saw one on a blog, can't remember which one, last year. Why do I wait to do these things?? haha I'm going to the Staples link NOW.
ReplyDeleteMy sister in law did the big "engineered prints" from Staples. I think they look terrible. They look just like cheap, large, photocopies (which is what they are). It's no where near the quality or the clarity of a real canvas or prints.
ReplyDeleteThe photo has to be high enough resolution for them to come out well. (I know this based on my actual day-to-day work for an engineering firm, where we print presentation boards and posters to this size with the big plotter). If it's not, they will look crummy whether cheap engineering print or expensive canvas/print!
DeleteLove it, my are framed piled up in a corner, haha.
ReplyDeleteI love the larger scale! Beautiful! I have two pictures from our wedding done on 30x40 canvas that I adore.
ReplyDeleteI love this idea. What about that Staples says that engineering prints are not for photos? Did you just proceed anyway?
ReplyDeleteI haven't printed any yet, but Lindsay did. Yes, I think you can just go ahead. I'm sure they put that as a disclaimer for the quality since they're technically not meant for photos. As long as your image is hi-res enough, it should be okay.
DeleteYou have given me some great ideas. I love displaying pictures, so much cheaper that art and much more interesting. Great ideas here.
ReplyDeleteThat's such a great tip about getting the prints done at Staples! Thank you!
ReplyDeleteI am the worst about getting pictures printed. I don't like have a lot of frames all over the place but I do love going to homes where there are lots of pictures of family to look at...so I am in the process of going through old pictures turning them all black and white and putting them in a couple of collage frames. I hope it turns out the way I want. Good luck with your picture printing!
ReplyDeleteI just put about 20 picture frames on my HUGE family room wall (it leads to the upstairs hallway, so it's 2 stories high). Actually, seeing your wall gallery behind the TV (from a few years ago), gave me the idea and the courage to do it. I'm pretty happy with it. Maybe one day I'll be more bold and with 3x4' pics.
ReplyDeleteAlso, I love your blog!! Thanks for all that you share.
One of my goals this year is to personalize our space with more family photos. I'm all about a few big impact photos, too. And I also have plans of trying out an engineering print but maybe not with a family photo.
ReplyDeleteI love this reminder. I had some beach shots of my girls enlarged a few years ago...but its time to update as they grow. Thanks for the tips + great sources. Have a great weekend!
ReplyDeleteI love to display favorite photos of loved ones, it personalizes the space so uniquely. I am not the hugest fan of photo murals, but I am slowly getting on board. Have a great weekend.
ReplyDeletexo Nancy
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This is a huge goal of mine this year! And I feel extra guilty because my pro photographer sister takes all of our pictures {for a sweet deal}! No excuses, and I LOVE this!!!!
ReplyDeleteTotally trapped on my memory card! Guilty!
ReplyDeleteI believe the first bloggers are probably good, That's great, always keep that away im checking for the following this blog page! furniture restoration
ReplyDeleteit is definitely a goal of mine for 2013 to make yearly, family "year books" out of all our photos (and get all these photos off the computer)! I recently did blow up a photo of 2 of my girls and used 2 16x20 ikea frames to put in his office. It was fairly cheap to get large photo prints at Wallgreens (with their 40% promo code). this is also how I announced we were expecting our third :) http://www.kasia.labocki.com/wordpress/his-space/
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