More Than Just a Holiday Card | Boston Family Photographer

It’s fall, and around this time of year my schedule becomes very, very busy with families who want photos for their holiday cards. And while I always get several photos that I know will work for your holiday cards, I also get a bunch of those in-between moments where you’re being you, and your kids are being completely themselves, and those are the ones that I think you wind up treasuring the most.

My clients’ galleries usually contain dozens of images, and this raises the question: what should we do with our photos after we download them? First things first: I highly encourage you to store them in the cloud somewhere (like Dropbox) so that you’ll have them, always. But what next?

It’s easy for all of those sweet memories to stay locked up in the cloud forever, but I’m here to tell you that it doesn’t have to take a lot of time or effort to get them in real, tangible formats! Here are my favorite resources:

Prints

Some of your family members will want prints they can hold, and maybe you want to order some for a slip-in album. My recommendation is always to print through Mpix, which offers high-quality prints at incredibly reasonable prices. I’d stay away from your corner store photo labs because the quality can be iffy. It takes an extra couple of days but you’ll be much happier with your prints if you order them through Mpix. I’m not affiliated with them at all, I just think they’re the greatest!

Frames

If you’re anything like me, you have every intention of getting your favorite images framed…and then months go by. Maybe even years! I think the problem is that it’s a multi-step process of choosing, printing, finding a frame, and then getting your print into the frame. That’s why I’m a big fan of Framebridge, where you can simply upload your favorite images, choose a frame, and get the whole thing shipped to your house. I’ll warn you that it’s so convenient and fun that you might want to frame every photo you take, ever.

Albums

One of the best things about this age of lifestyle photography is that you’ll get a lot of sweet images, but you’ll easily forget about them if you leave them in digital form. Everyone loves an album but not everyone wants to spend time designing one. In fact, despite their best intentions I’ve found that basically no one does it because something that’s done at any time is done at no time! That’s why I’ve begun offering albums as the sole print product in my packages. They’re beautiful clothbound albums with archival quality paper. Once you order one, I’ll design it, send it off to my printer, and have it delivered straight to your doorstep. Lots of people buy these for grandparents or in-laws because it’s an incredibly thoughtful gift—and no one needs to know that you didn’t have to spend hours selecting the images, choosing exactly the right format and flow for them, and getting them printed. Call it a win-win-win. Or a holiday hack!

I hope that this post inspires you to get your family photos printed, so that each day you have these little reminders of how much love is in your home.