PHILADELPHIA DOCUMENTARY PHOTOGRAPHER PRINTS AND PRODUCTS — I’VE GOT THE POWER

“Displaying photos prominently in the home sends the message that our family and those in it are important to one another, and we honor the memories we have experienced.”
— Cathy Lander-Goldberg, Licensed Clinical Social Worker, Professional Photographer

I believe in the Power of Printed Portrait Art.

This year I’m making it a priority to educate myself and my clients about the value and power of the Printed Portrait. Psychologists have studied our physical and mental reaction to printed family photographs and have revealed extraordinary benefits to seeing and touching these photos on a daily basis.

I’m taking their word for it and challenging you to join my “Power of the Print” Challenge. This year I invite you to join me in welcoming more printed portrait art into your home. Let’s commit to this challenge and to reaping the benefits!

Philadelphia Documentary Family Photographer

BRAIN HAPPY

“My personal and clinical bias is there is something very powerful in touching your fingers to an actual print. Touching the photograph where a face is smiling or the shoulders, it is the same thing as touching a book when you read it. There’s a lot of stimulation of the brain when you have that sensory experience. That is a bit lost in the move to digital. ”
— Craig Steinberg, Licensed Psychologist

In 2009 Bangor University and branding agency Millward Brown conducted a study about the different effects of paper and digital media on our brain. They found that physical (printed) material is more “real” to the brain. It has a meaning, and a place. Looking at printed photographs involves more emotional processing and produces more brain responses connected with internal feelings because printed material engages with our spatial memory networks much better than digital material.

Philadelphia Main Line Chester County Photographer

BOOST MY CHILD’S SELF ESTEEM?
YES PLEASE!

“A photographer’s job is to create and make the image look like a safe holding space for kids... Kids get it on a really simple level... I am very conservative about self-esteem and I think placing a family photo someplace in the home where the child can see it every day without having to turn on a device or click around on a computer to find it really hits home for that child this sense of reassurance and comfort. They (photographs) have a certainty about them and a protecting quality that nurtures a child. It lets them know where they are in the pecking order and that they are loved and cared for.”
— David Krauss, Licensed Psychologist

Psychologists have studied the effects of portrait photography on children with surprising results. In 1975 a group of fourth graders took part in a 5 week study by taking Polaroids of themselves with various instructed poses, emotions and compositions. The children created scrapbooks of their photos each week. Those students saw a 37% growth increase in test scores, behavior and self-esteem as observed by their teachers. This is compared to the 10% increase from the controlled group that did not use the power of photos. Wow! These kids spent time looking at portraits of themselves and got a big bump in self-esteem! In fact, some psychologists use family photographs as therapy tools for their clients.

PRINTS LIVE ON

“We are taking photos more than ever, but they’re nearly all digital files with very few tangible prints being produced. By now we know that digital never means safe, yet millions of memories are currently being entrusted to servers, clouds and phones. The risk could be felt by our entire generation, as we grow up without a printed, photographic record of our lives. The most photographed generation of all time could wind up being the next Lost Generation.”
— Jean Moree, Photographer

The “Power of Print” challenge doesn’t discriminate between professional and snapshot photography. It challenges us to print our everyday snapshots too (I’ll get to the professional side later). I have a few photo boxes filled with prints from my childhood and spanning through the time that I bought my first digital camera when I was in my early 20’s. Since then I’ve printed a handful of photos for my walls and a few photo albums, but nothing close to the quantity of the prints I have from the first half of my life. Instead of adding real prints to my photo box these past years I have stored my photos solely on outdated and even obsolete digital data devices. I still have a zip disk (do people even know what this is anymore?) that contains my senior art project from college (how in the world will I ever look at those photographs again?) and dozens of DVDs that my Mac can’t even play without a special device. Obviously there’s no guarantee that the computers of tomorrow will be able to read the digital photos that we take today! We can continue to modernize our digital storage (unlike me!) but even then there is no sure way to keep our digital images safe. Even the companies that store our data for us will not always be reliable, relevant or even existent.

Photographs are our legacy and the heirlooms that we will pass down for generations, that is unless we haven’t printed them!

“The problem then with the virtual piles of photographs isn't really a sign of our failings as scrapbookers but rather, lamentably, as personal archivists. Counting on your kids to be able to scroll through your Facebook photo albums or your Tumblr? Think again. It's likely that if the photo sharing site you use goes under, your collections won't endure either. It's easy to wax poetic about the virtues of a printed photo you hand your kid or slap in a photo album. And however inelegant, dumping photos in a shoe box mostly ensures your kid will get to see these stories of their lives. Lose your phone full of baby photos or fry your hard drive? Those photos are gone forever.”
— National Public Radio

Spring Mini Sessions Philadelphia Photographer

WILL YOU JOIN ME?

Printed family photographs stimulate our brain creating an emotional sensory experience. They help our children by boosting their self esteem and allowing them to take part in our story by passing that story down for generations. They’re the most precious of our family heirlooms!

SNAPSHOT PRINTING MADE EASY
There’s absolutely no comparing the lasting quality of the professional Photo Album to books offered by companies like Snapfish and Shutterfly, but for everyday phone snapshots or for vacation photos they’re a very affordable option making it easy for you to enjoy the benefits of your printed photos. Companies like Chat Books are making it super simple to print photographs and albums straight from your phone. They “find your best photos, remove the blurry ones, toss the screenshots, and exclude the duplicates.” What could be easier than that? Maybe instead of all the scrolling we do we could start sending our photos to be printed!

TAPROOT IS TAKING PART IN THE MOVEMENT

Taproot makes it easy for you to start enjoying the benefits of printed family portraits. As a full-service professional photographer I am committed to providing stunning PRINTED heirloom photographs that you can touch, feel and enjoy every day. I provide complimentary in-home design, samples of my printed products for you to touch and see the quality of each piece before you buy, portrait hanging services and so much more. And of course, I only offer the best quality products from dependable sources! Custom printed Heirloom Story Books designed to compliment your style are a spectacular way to tell the entire story from your portrait session, keeping your photographs together in one safe place. Add a debossed date to the front of your Story book and even add custom text to your archival pages. I’ll take care of all the details for you! Preview your album before it goes to print so you know that you’ll love it the second you open the box and peek inside. In addition to Heirloom Story Books, professionally printing at least one large wall print, metal or canvas print of your absolute favorite image completely transforms your home and allows you to reap all of the benefits of a printed portrait. For the full Taproot experience, check out these 4 ways to tell your story through the Printed Portrait.

MY GOALS FOR THE “POWER OF PRINT” CHALLENGE

This year I’m challenging myself to print black and white photographs for a gallery wall above our living room couch. I love larger photographs and will be likely printing them as 16x20 or 16x24 inch prints and framing them. I can’t wait to share the final product with you later this year!
I’m committed to making an Heirloom Story Book with the professional images from my husband’s and my vow renewal in 2017. Our photographer, Valerie Joy Photography told our story through the most beautiful portraits and they’re just sitting here in my computer.