Photo Albums and Traditional Film Photography - A Thing of the Past?

With the digital age upon us, do traditional hard copy photographs now seem rather old-fashioned? Or does the nostalgia conjured up by flipping through and turning over the physical form of a photograph in your hand still hold a certain magic?

The benefits of digital cameras and photography is obvious, the very ability to be able to take thousands of pictures without the need for expensive film or the storage problems this poses. Additionally there is the option to be able to view an image instantly and retake it a potentially infinite number of times, all without wasting that precious and expensive film.

Since digital cameras dropped in price and became readily available to the masses, the trend surrounding photographs has moved away from printing them for prosperity to sharing them online through emails or social media portals such as Facebook and Twitter. The instantaneous shoot, view and share capabilities of the digital camera suits our fast paced, impatient society. No more the anticipation of waiting for a roll of film to be developed, just plug into a computer and go.

That said I can't help but feel that we take photographs for a reason, as a way to remember important days, fun days and days spent with friends. Memorable days that we wish to capture forever, relegating them to only be viewed through the screen of a computer or clicking through online somehow seems cold if not impersonal and what if you want to display those pictures at home? Granted, the invention of digital photo frames allows us to display a certain number on continuous rotation but just think of a wedding day immortalised forever in a series of pixels. Could you imagine such an important day forever displayed on loop in a small black digital photo frame, when instead you could reach out and pass around an album full of glossy shiny pictures. Personally I just don't think there's any comparison.

It's for these reasons the printed, physical existence of a photo will always hold its charm, digital photo frames can't ever fully replace a photo album full of pictures displayed in their full glory.

Photo Albums allow you to express your individuality, to choose a style of cover, an album for 6x4 photos or larger 7x5, even self adhesive types for odd sized photos or ones with slip in pockets. Self adhesive albums allow you the flexibility of displaying your pictures in a way a digital frame could never afford and can double up as a scrap-book. How wonderful to be able to display wedding pictures alongside orders of service, baby pictures next to tiny handprints or groups of friends grinning happily in the sun mounted with the festival tickets -- rather like a story book of your personal adventures. Many photo albums incorporate storage pockets allowing you to keep CD stored photo's together with their album so you can easily replicate a copy of a print in your album as many times as you like.

Perhaps time is being called on traditional film photography but digital can bring you the best of both worlds with simplified image capture, allowing you to point and shoot then edit your images, as long as you don't forget to print them out and share them.