Print those pixels

The amount of photos I have on my phone, laptop, digicam and hard disks daunts me. The age of digital photography has made us all go snap happy and we take a lot more pictures than we care for. Like most others, all I was doing with my precious memory snippets was editing and sharing them to social media or dump them onto a hard drive. Don't get me wrong, I do enjoy sharing pictures online and bask in the glory of instant publicity. But somewhere deep in my mind, I had this feeling of getting lost in this digital noise while feeding the culture of 'now and 'more'. 

So I have started printing my photos now.

Printing a bunch of photos, after careful selection, is a mind gym. It makes you smile. Or become teary eyed. It gives you a chance to reminisce about the time that has passed. Shoot, edit, print, repeat - that becomes the new cycle now. When you stumble upon a random selfie that you took while assembling an IKEA cupboard and finally print it out, it is satisfying.

Printed albums are forever. Remember the last time you searched for your childhood picture in those old, vintage looking photo albums back home? I am sure that felt good. It made you thank your parents for preserving precious moments on a tangible medium. Clicking a good picture involves lot of hard work and it deserves to be printed out. The transition from an image to an artifact, at least for a select few images, is a must.

A printed picture is not made for social media 'likes' or 'comments' or 'reactions'. It is for you. You can hold it, hang it on a wall and appreciate it. This is a powerful thing.

I wrote a letter ( I know, quite old school!) to my grandmother last week and posted it along with a printed photo. It was a photo from Denmark where my husband and I are posing prettily in front of colourful buildings. It made my grandma's day. Or perhaps week.

So do not let those pixels perish on hard disks, go print them!