*This is a collaborative guest post.
Family photos are, thanks to the emergence of the smartphone, easier to take than ever before. You might have hundreds, or even thousands of them, sitting in your pocket. The best of them might end up being shared on WhatsApp. But if you really want to appreciate those images, and to share the experience with the rest of your family, it might be worth taking things a stage further.
Let the Family Choose the Favourites
The secret of great photography is to simply take ten times as many photos as required, and then pick out the best ones later on. This selection process provides us with a chance to bring members of the wider group into the activity. You might select images from your days out, or particular celebrations, or even day-to-day life.
Get children to look through the selection whenever you’re choosing which ones are going to be displayed on a wall. You can throw them up on your main television and go through them yourself, if you’d prefer not to give children too much hands-on screen time.
If possible, you might elect to print out a selection of photos, and have the kids pick out the ones they prefer from a physical assortment.
Turn Digital Memories into Tangible Displays
Seasonal displays, rotating frames, scrapbooks and seasonal displays might allow you to add visual interest around the home, and to appreciate images without staring down at the screen of your smartphone. Online photo printing provides a convenient way of doing this. Once you’ve ordered a stack of fifty or so prints, you can pick out the best ones and display them on a suitable wall.
In some cases, it might be worth using your favourite image-editing software to make small adjustments to the colours and overall contrast. This can help photos taken in different environments to feel as though they really belong together. Just try not to go too far with special filters and effects, since this can make those snaps look amateurish.
Use Photos in Games and Creative Activities
Certain games demand the use of images. You might think of things like Snap and Memory Snap. If you’re creative enough, you can make cards of your own, and play these games using images of your family members. Other games, like treasure hunts, might be appropriate, as might be story prompts for younger children, or reference images for older ones.
Remember to use copies of your original images whenever you’re engaging in this kind of activity. Fortunately, in the age of digital photography, this is quite straightforward.
Create Personal Gifts for Relatives
Relatives might appreciate images of your family activities whenever big occasions like Christmas roll around. Photographs of children doing interesting things over the course of a year, presented in a family album or a collage, are almost certain to be well received. If you can make these things yourself, rather than relying on shop-bought options, then the appeal might be even greater.
