Why YOU should print your PHOTOS

This blog’s topic is about printing out your own photos and why I encourage people to do so rather than just having only the digital copies of them. The digital copies provide great and easy ways to view your photos from basically anywhere, but I think there are still good reasons why printing your work can be beneficial for you, no matter how far you are into your photography journey.

There are the obvious reasons people always talk about to get you to print your photos such as having a physical copy of your photos in case your digital copies get corrupted or lost, but I don't really like that reasons just because nowadays, there are easy ways to back up your data and even have a back up for your back up so that's not really a concern honestly.

The 1st reason and probably what I see is the most important reason: viewing your photos PHYSICALLY is just different than viewing it digitally. Not only do you get to see the great details the photo even closer in person, it brings me much closer to those moments of taking the photo. Being able to see my favorite photos and physically view them on paper brings me back to those times. This first photo of the LA Skyline is a special photo for me. I took this one morning during a hike at the Griffith Observatory and I actually didn’t really feel like being out then. I was tired and everything felt dull and I didn’t really know if I could get anything good. I snapped a couple pictures and ended the hike pretty quickly in about an hour or so. At night that same exact day, I looked at the photos and I actually loved some of the pictures I got, this picture being my favorite. This taught me the important lesson of pushing yourself even when conditions don’t seem the best. Even when things aren’t going your way, try waiting it out and seeing if you can get something since you’re already there. Even though I wasn’t feeling it that morning, I at least stayed for an hour or so instead of immediately going back.

This is a picture from Beoksal Busan temple. It reminds me of the hike to get to this actual temple. It was one of the hardest hikes I’ve had to do and we actually got lost for quite a while. This photo reminds me of the hard times we had to get through to get to this temple, with the result being able to see this beautiful temple. It is a very fun and nostalgic experience.

This isn't even including the actual moments of me putting together the photobook. This lets me reflect through all my work for the entire year to pick and choose what I consider the best/favorite photos. This analyzing of your photos lets you reflect on them, allowing you to refine your photography and see which kind of photos you like taking, what edits you prefer for certain types of photos, what compositional skill you like using, etc. Including that analytical side is great to go through, deciding which order which photo goes in and which photos go next to each other to tell the best photographic experience for the book is also where a great amount of fun comes in.

For example, the picture on the left is a picture from Seoul and the picture on the right is a picture from Tokyo. I wanted to find a way to transition between Korea and Tokyo. I saw that these photos had a similar type of composition with the subject being on the left side of the frame. I thought this would be good as a transitioning point between the time periods and decided to go with that. I had no plans to actually take the photos with the photobook in mind. The situation called for those photos to be taken that way for me and I made the decision while actually making the book. This is part of the fun of making the actual photobook.

My 2nd reason why I believe you should print your photos is it acts as somewhat of a deadline. By "deadline", let me share an example. One thing that I like to do is to print out all of my favorite photos from the year in November. It gives me a goal to work towards and when November comes, it's as if I'm getting closer to a "finish line" for the year. This encourages me to get out and shoot more throughout the year so that I have more photos to include in my photo book. Photography is a never ending journey with constant learning for everyone, pro or not, and for some, that can be a bit discouraging I feel since there is no clear markers to show your improvement or set "tasks" you need to complete to achieve a certain goal of yours. With this "deadline", it gives a temporal marker for your journey which may help if you start getting lost in your photography journey.

This actually leaks into my 3rd reason: The ability to compare your photos easily with each other. When making a photobook, you can make it for various reasons such as having a project to encourage yourself to shoot more (a photobook of your family, your pet dog/cat, only street/landscape photography photobook). For myself, I have only made photobooks for what I consider some of my best work for the year. So because of this, I'm able to look back at my photobooks and see what I believed was some of my best work for that year and compare it to the most recent year I had. It's always interesting to compare the works and see if you're able to spot anything you would do differently compared to your past self. Or maybe you won't. Maybe you'll still absolutely love your work. Both are fine and perfectly normal.

Printing out my photos is a great way to summarize the year for me and get myself ready for another great year of photography. Thinking of all the photos I've taken, it gives me a reason to go out and try to get more photos to add to my "collection". Whatever the reason, it doesn't matter as long as we all go out and shoot as much as we can. That's the only way we can improve. Instead of watching multiple gear videos talking about the latest tech having 731 mp and you absolutely needing it to become a better photographer (spoiler alert: you probably don't need it and it will not make you a better photographer), try finding ways to encourage yourself to shoot more. Whatever the reason is, just get out there and be creative.