First of all, let me let you in on a little Flyhippie Studio Secret. When you come in here for a portrait experience, consultation or Final details meeting or any other time you are here....we laugh. We smile, we laugh, and we connect. I'm that person. I love people, making new friends, cracking up, and having a diverse group of great people around me. So in this studio, we laugh and we smile. A lot.

You know what laughing, smiling and connecting creates? It creates endorphins. You know what those are? They're the happiness hormones. When you feel happy and smile and laugh, you're having fun, and you're excited (or nervous...excitement and scared are only a mindset away from the same emotion)... that's creating dopamine. Dopamine is what's released when you're feeling all those good vibes and energy.

Oxytocin is what gets released when you're connecting, bonding and forming relationships.

So all of the endorphins are happening in this studio during meetings and photo experiences! For all of us! There's the first mental health insight.

The second? Well, let me tell you. Confidence.

Think back. Back to visiting your grandma's house. Remember when you'd walk in and see all of the prints of yourself and the family? On the walls. In frames sitting on tables. Photographs of the people they love surrounded them in the home. When you walked in to that home and saw yourself as part of that home, you knew that you were loved. You were a part of that home and you knew of your importance there due to your photograph being in that home. That sparks confidence. Confidence is another mental health boost.

My granddaughter came to me one day a year or so ago after we'd been looking through photo albums and photos.

"You're the best, you are the only person who saves our pictures."

Now. Clearly this isn't true. Her mom has all of their pictures. Nobody throws them away. We all have pictures of all the things with all the kids. The problem is that we don't print them. We put them on social media where the kids can't see them. We keep them in our phones, where again, we don't see them. They simply disappear into the backup place of time. Especially if you're a child and you aren't on social media and you don't have mom or dad or grandma or whomever's phone. You don't see them like we use to. Now? We take WAY more pictures than back in the 90s or before. All of us have phones in our pockets. The problem is, we print them less. We show them to the kids less. They have less access. They don't get that confidence boost as much. We have so many more photos and so much less proof of their existence.

Another example: My foster kids. The oldest two we've had before. When they arrived this last time and came into the home, guess who was on the walls? They were. They're as big of a part of us as anyone and they instantly felt it and knew it. They weren't in an unfamiliar home...they were in a new place that they were A PART of. Instant confidence boost in a much, much, much needed circumstance.

Which brings me to the third point. Memory.

No, not like taking photos to capture the memories. More like PRINTING the photos to help with those memories! Think again to a GREAT childhood memory. I bet there's a photo that goes along with it. You remember the photo because it helped cement your memory of that time! In all honesty, the photograph is probably what helped you remember the great time even more. When you revisit the photos in an album or on the wall, you lock in a memory before it fades. Once it's locked in and you revisit the photo, then you revisit the "OMG I HAD FORGOTTEN THAT!!!" and it's sparked once again. Which makes you smile, laugh, and remember that connection. (is this sounding familiar?) It's also helping your memory. Don't bogart those memories into some storage device... you're not helping yourself.

Okay, Okay....I know. Now is the time to explain WHAT TO DO if you found yourself at the mercy of a full iphone, a plethora of facebook memories, or realizing you used that photographer that was "reasonable" and didn't "cost an arm and a leg"... (inset eye roll here)

You have....a CD of images? Well, print those. Then upload them to the cloud. Why? Well, read the whole blog again if you need a recap of why prints matter. Secondly, CDs retain their information for a year to five years. The optics corrupt and your photos don't exist. (you paid for nothing at that point). Get the prints. Upload them to the cloud as backup (until that technology changes, too)

Oh, but we have a THUMB DRIVE!

Awesome. If you haven't lost it to the junk drawer, you're one up on me. So let's assume (you know what THAT means) that you have a specific thumb drive storage system. It can happen. My folio boxes housed thumb drives. Thumb drives are ALSO not created for long term storage. You have about 10 years for those before your information is corrupted or gone. Again, print them. (If you have one of our folio boxes you're already ahead of the game) and then, upload them to the cloud for your backup. Same as above. This way when you want to show a next generation what came before them, you'll have something to show.

Are you seeing why prints are important? Why having them ACCESSIBLE is important? It's really tied to mental health. Clearly, you won't be cured of anything that ails you, but just like sunshine and fresh air....it sure won't hurt. Your kids will be happy. Don't have kids? You have friends and people that love you and that you love. Celebrate every bit of this life journey. Photographs don't end when you're not a kid. Smiling, connecting, laughing, relationships, confidence and memory are for a lifetime.

An. Entire. Lifetime.

Celebrate that. Exist in the Photos. Exist in Printed Photos.