If you know one thing about me, it’s that I’m a HUGE believer in the power of the print!

Digital files are great for storing and archiving your images, but how often are you opening up that hard drive to scroll them???

We make our photos to be enjoyed daily. To look at, to touch, to flip through, to share with our friends and family, to be reminded regularly of our memories. There have even been studies done showing the improvement in children’s self esteem and identity when seeing printed family photos around the home versus looking at them digitally.

So let’s get our photos off the computer and phone and into prints!

As a family photographer, you might assume that my home is covered in photos. Yes, I’ll admit, there are a lot! But I also have paintings, drawings, macramé, woodwork, ceramics and travel memorabilia on display, as well as quite a bit of wall space left untouched. Not all of your photos need to be on the wall! You just need to get creative and work within your own tastes and space to find ways of displaying them.

But I get that it can be overwhelming! We take hundreds (thousands???) of photos every month. Where do you begin with printing them? And what do you do with all the prints? How do you display them?

Here are a few ways I have my personal photos printed and displayed in my home:

Loose Prints

Loose prints are so versatile! They can be kept loose in a box or envelope, hung on walls and fridges, or displayed on an easel or stand. Having a box of loose prints to pull out and go through is probably the easiest way to start with prints and we have a few of them. Your box doesn’t have to be fancy (a shoe box will do!). It doesn’t have to be on display either. Just keep it somewhere where you can easily access it to flip through, add more prints to, and pull out images you may decide to have on display.

We have a glass box of prints from a family session we had on our coffee table. We regularly flip through them and rotate the top photo that we see daily as it acts as a frame. I take a lot of Polaroids so we have a linen box full of them on our tv cabinet. Our wedding photographer provided us a box of prints from our wedding. It’s a basic black box from a stationary shop, but we pull it out every year with our album on our anniversary to look through them. I also have a plain Kraft box in my desk drawer full of prints that I regularly add to.

If you want to get your loose prints out of the box and up on display there are literally hundreds of ways to do it that don’t involve a frame! I have a photo block on my desk that holds a stack of photos that I regularly rotate, we have some hung on string with mini clothes hangers mixed in with our kids’ artwork on the back wall in our kitchen, we have some hung on the fridge with magnets as well as some hung on a cork board in our office. There are SO many options (Pinterest will be friend if you’re looking for some ideas)!

Frames

Framing your prints is the classic way to display your photos! They come in a huge variety of sizes, materials and colours and can be hung on walls, sat on shelves and furniture, or put on picture ledges. You can display them individually or as a group, either a random grouping or as a curated collection.

They also come in a variety of price ranges. Personally, unless I’m having a photo professionally framed or looking for a large centrepiece frame or feature, I prefer to invest in a good quality archival print that will last more than a lifetime and use a cheaper frame. This makes it cheaper to a) have more photos framed and on display and b) update my frames from time to time as my style tastes change or if I want to move an image to different location and need a new frame to match. Great places to look for inexpensive frames are charity shops, Target, Kmart, and Ikea.

We have a collection of 3 large black frames together on the top shelf of our bookcase in the living room (I invested in these frames as they are a feature), some small single framed images on our desks, our bookcases, and our bedside tables, and even one on our counter in the kitchen of our kids eating together (think outside the box on where to put them!),

The fine art torn edge prints are one of my favourites and I think they look great framed in a floating frame. We have a few of these scattered throughout the house on various shelves and furniture. Although they are different colours with no set theme to the images, the matching fine art print type and frame style add cohesion as you walk through the space.

Albums and Photo Books

If your family loves to have a collection of photos all together to look at, I highly recommend a photo book or album (my kids regularly pull them off the shelf and LOVE looking through them!). I make my yearly and holiday photo books through @blurbbooks. These are available in various sizes and covers with different paper and page options to suit your needs. For my phone photos (that are often unedited, fun quick photos and lots of felfies) I love @chatbooks. I use the small 60 page 6x6 softcover books. They are inexpensive, really easy and quick to make. For my really special and most meaningful photos, I use my print lab to make an heirloom album.

There are lots of different companies to use, but be sure to use one that is of good quality and prints true to your photos colours (especially if you’re investing in an heirloom album). Many offer regular sales throughout the year (and almost always on Black Friday), so if you want to make a few or want to make them on a regular basis, it’s worth signing up for their newsletters to keep on eye out for discounts.

Gallery Wall

We created a very large gallery wall in our one of living rooms. It’s an eclectic mix of family photos, artwork, travel memorabilia, children’s art, and personal items of special meaning to us. It’s hung in an organic pattern where the items feel random, but are actually very intentionally placed. It’s full of different frames, textures and colours and is my favourite wall in the whole house.

You don’t need to go as a large as a full wall (even a few pieces will do!). Yours may just be photos and hung in a linear pattern like a grid. You may wish to use the same frames or colour palette. You might want to make one of just travel photos or your kids’ baby photos. Find your space, choose your theme and do what works best for your family’s tastes.

Great walls to consider for a gallery wall include the dining room, above a bedhead or sofa, in the front entryway or a staircase.

These are a few ways I love and that work within my own home, but a quick google search will give you ALL kinds of wonderful and creative ways to display your prints for any room or space you search for. Calendars, magnets, ornaments, wood prints, matallic prints, canvases, mugs, mouse pads…there really is no reason not to print your photos!

Happy Printing!

Jenny Rusby is a natural light, lifestyle and documentary photographer and specialised newborn photographer, maternity photographer and family photographer. She services all areas of Victoria, including inner Melbourne suburbs such as Richmond, Northcote, Fitzroy, Collingwood, Malvern East, South Melbourne, Elwood, as well as outer south eastern subrubs, bayside areas such as Morntington, Sorrento and Red Hill. She also services the west of Melbourne and will travel to Geelong and further on request.