4 sad-but-true reasons to turn your wedding pics into OMG REAL LIFE ACTUAL photo prints

Guest post by Dustin Cantrell

You might remember wedding photographer Dustin Cantrell from when we interviewed him about New York wedding photography. Now he's back to remind us all about why we should care about photo prints…

Photo[s] by Dustin Cantrell
Photos by Dustin Cantrell

As a wedding photographer, I hear these two statements all of the time: “We aren't worried about prints right now” or, “We will order prints after the wedding.”

The truth is most couples never get around to having their wedding photos printed because life just takes over and you end up putting it off until you completely forget about it. Here's why you should think about going through the pain-in-the-ass process of turning that convenient USB drive into real-life wedding prints…

Social media kills the magic

The majority of couples getting married these days only care about choosing a photography package including only digital files. You end up posting your digital files onto Facebook and they get lost very quickly in the feed. Everyone is hitting the refresh button and ready to move on before you even have time to reminisce. Unless you have a viral hit, you don't feel the love from family and friends on social media for very long.

Technology is evil

Scrolling through your images on a screen is great and convenient, but sometimes lacks the magical feeling you get when going through a pile of photographs. Electronic devices make it so easy to scroll through your images and to always have with you, but have you noticed that, once we have all these photos on a device, we rarely-to-never look at the images. We've all become digital hoarders. I strongly believe this is a cycle that needs to be broken. Having a tangible print makes you slow down and relive what you felt during that exact moment. Personally, I have a terrible memory (especially of my childhood) and the memories I do have are because of the prints I have etched into my mind. I can't say this about any image I've posted onto social media.

Portion control

Photographers will give you lots of edited digital images, and I'm not saying you should get all 500+ images printed. I recommend having your photographer print 50 of your favorite images from a quality printing company and keeping them on display in a cool wooden box. This way you will occasionally sit down and reminisce about your wedding with friends and family.

Technology is evil, part II

The number one reason I recommend having your favorite images printed is because we've all been there: a file goes missing, a hard drive crashes, or DVD stops working. You can prevent these frustrating experiences by backing up your images into multiple locations. The only problems is the majority of us are too lazy or never get around to it before doomsday occurs. Even if you don't want to purchase high quality prints still get your favorite wedding photos printed cheaply and store them in a safe place. I've had numerous clients lose their wedding DVDs and didn't create a backup. Luckily, I still had them archived on my old hard drives.

The truth is not all wedding photographers will keep your wedding photos archived and your wedding photos will be lost forever, but IRL prints don't glitch.


photography: Dustin Cantrell

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