With the holidays approaching, I’ve been thinking a lot about family, especially those large family gatherings defined by delicious food, gift giving, games and singing. For years, my family had a ritual: we photographed these celebrations and took the film to the drug store to get prints made. Some of those photos made their way into photo albums, but most did not. They live, to this day, in boxes or envelopes.

When I visit my family in Tennessee, I love to pull out these photos and look at them and remember. Remember those Thanksgiving tables all set with china and the turkey as the center piece. Remember how we all used to look and the things that made us laugh. Remember our beloved family pets and the joy they brought to us growing up. Some of my fondest memories are pouring through old photos with my grandmother when she was in her later years. Those photographs helped her remember and enjoy so many people from the past. There’s just something comforting about the fact that those photographs exist and that I can look at them and remember, anytime that I choose. They have a physical presence.

Fast forward to today. It’s chilly outside, and I’m wrapped in one of my grandma’s Afghans in front of the fireplace on the sofa enjoying some photographs from last year. Sounds idyllic, right? Well, it is pretty cozy, but instead of snuggling up with a photo album, I’m balancing a computer on my lap and browsing through images on Facebook.

Photographic rituals have changed, to say the least. We take pictures with digital cameras and store images on hard drives or on websites such as Flickr and Facebook. Though some photos get printed, 80 percent remain as pixels on a screen, according to the Photographic Marketing Association. On the one hand, this saves paper and processing costs, but, on the other hand, it makes locating and organizing photos more challenging. In fact, unless we are careful and back up our computers and hard drives, we might lose these images forever. As technology races forward, everyone also faces the question of whether they will be able to open photo files in the future as software moves to the next version.

Digital photography isn’t going away, and I wouldn’t want it to. As a professional photographer, I am able to capture images and accomplish things in the digital darkroom that were near impossible, if not impossible, in the film days. Personally, I want the best of both worlds, so I take pictures with my digital camera, and in addition to storing the images digitally, I print them on my own photo printer. Gone are the days when printing at home meant sacrificing quality. The snapshots look terrific. Some of the latest photo printers are priced very economically and make the process so easy, it’s a no brainer! I can simply take my memory card from my camera, place it into the photo printer, press “print” and, voila! I have great snapshots that I can hold in my hand, place in an album or store in an archival container for safekeeping. And, I can find them and look at them and remember, anytime I choose! I invite you this holiday season to make a pact to actually print your snapshots, either at home or elsewhere, and start a fresh, new family album that you and your family can enjoy remembering, together, for a lifetime.

For an extra special gift to yourself or others, you might consider having a professional portrait made for the holidays. The whole process is a lot of fun, from the photo shoot to the delivery of the portrait itself. If you are interested, please check out my website to see some of my work. I am scheduling appointments right now.

I wish all of you a joyous holiday season!