May 2021

So where do you hide your photographs?

We were fascinated to read in the press recently about Kate Middleton’s hidden photographs.

If you didn’t see the story, The Duchess of Cambridge recently launched her new photography book, Hold Still: A Portrait of our Nation in 2020. The book, published by the National Portrait Gallery, features 100 portraits photographed by Kate during the Covid-19 pandemic in the UK.

As part of the launch, Kate hid 150 copies of her book at various locations around London. Each copy included a bookmark with a secret note from Kate.

What a wonderful surprise it would be to find one of these books, and to enjoy browsing through the photographs inside. It is such a change to be able to sit and look at photographs carefully, rather than having them flash briefly before your eyes on a screen.

Because, for many of us, our photographs are also hidden. Or they may as well be.

Where is the best place to keep your photographs?

Just have a quick think now. Where are all your photographs? Could you lay your hands on them in an instant, if you needed to?

Many of us have various combinations of old photograph albums, loose printed photos, and hundreds – if not thousands – of digital photos. And the ones we really want are probably hidden amongst all that chaos. Somewhere . . . . .

Isn’t it time to change all that?

We have a three point plan to help you.

Physical photos

The best thing to do is find and bring all your photos together in one place. If there are far too many photos to cope with, it might be a good idea to buy some pretty new albums and transfer all the best ones into those. This would also give you a better sense of ownership of the photos, and as you curate them they become more meaningful.

To save them from damage and decay, it is definitely also worth digitising the ones that you treasure the most. We looked at some options for this in our article Save your Photos Day.

If there are old photographs that you don’t particularly want any more, you have a tough decision to make. Might there be anyone else who would like them? A family member perhaps. Or you could simply put them all in a big box out of the way somewhere such as the attic. But that still means that you or someone else is going to have to sort them out eventually.

It might be time to let them go? After all, you can’t keep everything forever. And if you want to do this to save space, you could still digitise any that you think may be important.

Digital photos

We’ve already mentioned digitising existing photos. Which is a wonderful way to store as many photos as you want, without taking up any room in your home! However, it’s all too easy to let the numbers creep up and up.

One of the advantages of digital photography is that you can snap away until you get the perfect shot. But the idea is then to get rid of the ones that you don’t want. Otherwise you can become overwhelmed by the number of photos that you have.

It is well worth spending a day or even a weekend getting all your digital photos sorted out. You are likely to have photos stored in a variety of different places: folders on your desktop computer, photo libraries and apps, your phone and social media feeds – both your own and other peoples in whom you are tagged.

Once you have finished, and the photos you want are organised wherever and however you want them, it is essential to make sure that you have them all backed up somewhere rather than just stored in one location. We also explored various options for this in our article Save your Photos Day.

Future photos

If you have spent time and effort getting all your existing photos organised, the key thing is to keep those good habits going from this point forward.

Photography is all around us, and you may be adding to your stash of photos on a daily or weekly basis. But try to sort them as you go, to save a backlog building up again.

And, coming back to our original title, make sure you don’t hide your photographs away. Why not display them around your home and surround yourself with special memories? You could have framed photos on your shelves and furniture, stylish albums for special events or stunning wall art.

At Venture Studios, we would love to create some stunning photographs for you and your family that you will be proud to display in your home. Each of our special photography experiences include not only a fabulous photoshoot but an image of your choice to take home, either in one of our bespoke frames or as a stunning piece of wall art.

So, as the perfect finishing touch to your big photo sort out, why not treat yourself to a photography experience at Venture Studios? You can book online or call your nearest Venture Studios.

We look forward to meeting you very soon, and creating some stunning photographs that will never be hidden away.