Here’s a photo of my grandparents in 1931. How do I know that? Because my grandfather wrote it on the back. “In the rumble seat of my first car. Model T Ford 1927. Grand Haven, 1931”
Please caption your photos! (And while you’re at it, print a few of them).
@jack I’ve been thinking about this lately, about how all of the photos we capture digitally don’t carry as much meaning or usefulness as their printed counterparts. Whether a return to film, which is unlikely I guess, or investing in a suitable printer and photo paper, getting back to printed photos that can be passed around, kept in a photo book, written on, seems like a worthwhile endeavor.
@aa Very much worthwhile! I have a big digital printer that's expensive to run and maintain so I only print with it occasionally. Recently, I also picked up a little Canon Selphy that only makes 4x6" prints but they're easy, cheap, and the quality is fine. I'm printing like crazy now. I may even need the mythical shoebox to keep them all in :)
@jack the shoebox!!! The Selphy is actually what I’ve been looking into, glad to hear it seems to work well!
@aa @jack this calls to mind something B.D. McClay wrote on her Substack:
I’ve said this in various bits and pieces across the internet and will no doubt say it again but I do think one of the problems of grief today is how much relics of a person’s life don’t age. A text chain always looks new and a Twitter page or a Facebook page always seem like they could be updated. Pictures and videos can age, in terms of quality, but they don’t have to, and are probably increasingly less likely to. But there’s nothing telling you that a person’s gone.
@aa Our son & his wife take digital photos, but have the ones they want to keep printed, and put them in photo albums. They don't keep any long-term files of digital photos. One thing that's impressed me about their method is how it forces you to select photos rather than just keeping thousands of photos in the cloud somewhere.
@JMaxB That's a calming yet terrifying approach! :). I suffer from "but what if one of these turns out to be really important?!" I delete a lot of digital images, but could never be radical enough to delete all of them.
@hollyhoneychurch A great touch: even as they're locked in a passionate embrace, she's wearing a hat. Style!
