Take the photos, share the stories, save the best…

A photography mentor of mine has one single call to action for anyone with a camera. Let me tell you first, what his guiding words are not. He does not tell us to plan the perfect shoot. Nor does he tell us to have the latest equipment. Instead, David DuChemin tells us to choose our 10 best photos from a photoshoot and print them.” Shoot, print, enjoy, and repeat. Though his advice is for professionals or photography enthusiasts, everyone should take note.

Before we all had digital cameras, we took about 24 or 36 photos at a time, crossed our fingers, said some prayers and hoped for the best. The greatest photographers didn’t expect to keep 100% of the photos they took.

Now, we store away thousands of photos: good ones, bad ones, duplicates. And we need to stop! When photos were printed, most of us inherited somewhat curated collections of photos. Let’s say your family didn’t cull the bad photos over the years and you inherited 40 or 50 boxes of photos and film, you can appreciate the monumental mess we are planning to pass along in the form of 10’s or 100’s of thousands of digital photos to our families. Instead, let’s choose those that are meaningful to you. For some of us, we will choose the ones we think are beautiful. For others we will choose the photos that capture a fleeting precious moment or occasion, even if the art is imperfect.

Though we cannot predict the platform for sharing and storing photos in the future, what we do know is that the photos we create today will be the photos that family gather around, whether online or in person, to tell the stories of family in the future. Our photos will outlive Facebook and Instagram. So print them, protect them, hang them and treasure them. They will continue to spark memories and moments for generations to come!