Why Most Families Never Get Their Photos on the Wall

Most families have more photographs than they could ever look at.

They're on phones, computers, cloud storage, old hard drives and social media.

Some of them are beautiful.

Some of them are genuinely important.

Most of them will never be seen again.

That isn't because families don't value photographs.

It's because digital photographs make it incredibly easy to keep putting them off.

Taking the photograph feels like the finish line

You have the family session.

You get the gallery.

You download the photographs.

You tell yourself you'll print some when you have time.

Maybe you order a few holiday cards.

Maybe you make a photo book someday.

Most of the time, life gets in the way.

The photographs are still there, but they slowly disappear into the background of everything else on your phone.

Your favorite photograph deserves more than a download

There is something different about seeing a photograph every day.

It becomes part of your home.

You walk past it in the morning.

You see it while you're making dinner.

Your kids grow up underneath it.

Years later, you may notice something you didn't see when the photograph was new.

A photograph on your wall doesn't require you to remember to look at it.

It is already there.

The problem isn't that you don't have enough photographs

Most families don't need more photographs.

They need a way to do something with the photographs they already love.

That is one of the reasons I don't believe the traditional gallery link should be the end of a family photography experience.

A gallery gives you access to photographs.

It doesn't necessarily help you decide what belongs in your home.

This is where the reveal changes things

At Smyer Image, I bring your photographs home.

After your session, I curate a collection and have a set of 4x6 prints made for you.

You can hold them.

Spread them out.

Look at them together.

See which photographs make you stop.

The experience is completely different from scrolling through a gallery on your phone.

Your photographs become something you can actually see and experience.

You don't have to imagine what artwork will look like

Choosing wall art can be difficult when you're looking at a photograph on a screen and trying to imagine how it will look above your sofa.

That's why I project your portraits onto your actual walls at their finished size.

You can see the photograph in your home before deciding whether you want to print it.

You can see what feels right.

You can see what doesn't.

There is no guessing.

Artwork isn't required

This part is important.

The purpose of the reveal isn't to convince you that you need to buy something.

You already have your photographs.

Artwork is optional.

If you decide that one of your portraits belongs on the wall, we can create it.

If you decide the 4x6 prints are enough, that's fine too.

The decision comes after you've experienced the photographs, not before.

Your home changes the way you see your family

A photograph becomes different when it leaves your phone.

It has a place.

It has a size.

It becomes part of the room where your family actually lives.

That's what I want for the photographs we create together.

Not more files.

Not another gallery sitting in an inbox.

Something you see every day.

The photograph you almost forgot about

Years from now, you probably won't remember where a particular photograph was stored.

You won't remember the name of the folder.

You probably won't remember which cloud service held it.

You will remember the photograph on your wall.

You'll remember the age your children were.

You'll remember how small they looked.

You'll remember what your family looked like before everything changed again.

That is why I believe photographs deserve to be experienced, not simply stored.

Your family deserves to live on your walls, not in your phone.

If you have been meaning to do something with your family photographs, this is a good time to stop putting it off.