Q: Is printing professional photos still important in 2026? 

A: Yes! Printing professional photos is still a great way to bring the joy you feel when you’re with your favorite people, into your home through practical decoration.

It’s 2026, and you might not think it’s important to print photos anymore.

We live in an increasingly digital world. We communicate via social media, which is digital. So many of us work on our computers, which… are digital. The movies and shows we watch are digital, and I don’t know about you but I’ve not bought a CD in years. Physical media has been on the way “out” for a long time, and photos can all easily live on an external hard drive that gathers dust in that one drawer next to your desk, because… that’s just kind of how we interact with media now.

I get it – we all have phones, and spend so much time in our digital world

And that might feel easy! There are fewer steps in saving the pictures from your family photo session to a folder, and then not thinking about them again until you’re going through your digital storage. Kind of the computerized version of going through those boxes in the attic, with your grandma’s photo album, but for our new digital world. And also with a lot less nostalgia, because let’s face it, scrolling through a folder doesn’t exactly hit the same as blowing the dust off a linen album cover before flipping through faded polaroids, right?

And we spend so, so much time in our new digital world, that it just feels normal. Which is okay! It’s only natural that we would, I mean, times change, right? Some things fall out of fashion, and it would be easy to say that’s what’s happened with physical photo printing. Who needs a printed photo, when you can have thousands of them on a little magical chip?

But digital photos don’t make great heirlooms

Today I’m here to tell you that there are LOTS of reasons to still print your photos, and I’m going to focus on the biggest ones. First of all, that album I mentioned? The one from your grandparents, that sits in a box in the attic? That’s an heirloom. It’s your family’s history. You can flip through it, and feel connected to those people from the past. It’s a little pocket of magic.

But you know what you CAN’T flip through, and reminisce about? Digital photos. I mean you can scroll through the folders like I mentioned before, sure. But what’s going to happen to those digital files when you’re not the one taking care of them anymore? Will the digital files end up on your great great granddaughter’s computer? Will she scroll through the folders too? Let’s be honest here, the answer to that is probably “no”. Digital files are, like I keep saying, digital. If you spill a cup of coffee on a photo album, you can wipe it off (especially if it’s one of the albums you order through Jessica Strobel Photography, because they’re kid-proof). If you spill a cup of coffee on digital storage? We’ve all been there, and it’s heartbreaking.

Printing your photos makes sure that there are highlights. Important moments, frozen in time, that your family can look back at for generations, without worrying about how volatile digital storage can be.

Unless you have a ton of those digital frames… your house needs non-digital decoration!

Up next on our roster here, is the fact that unless your hallways are lined with those digital frames? You know the ones, where you can put in a slideshow, and it’ll flip through the photos over time. Unless you have a ton of those everywhere, digital files can’t decorate your home. They can’t be in your hallway, reminding you of your mom’s smile. They can’t be the reminder of how adorable your newborn was before they entered their terrible twos (we all go through it, and it will be okay, I promise).

Photos are powerful. And you deserve to experience that power when you walk through your home. Every time you enter a room. Your favorite people should be there with you! And as we’ve covered, that’s just not possible if your photos stay digital. Gotta print ‘em, to get those benefits!

You can’t accidentally delete a photo on your wall

We’ve kind of already talked about this, but we’re going to go into a bit more detail here, because it’s not all coffee-spills and corrupted hard drives. It’s also straight up human memory, and human error. That whole thing about digital files not being physical? Well, it comes with other problems, too. Like not remembering exactly what’s in that one folder that you’re pretty sure is just a duplicate, with a vague name like “family” or “summer 2022”, and then because you were maybe just not being through… you deleted it. And then emptied the digital trash can.

Two years later, you think to yourself, “I wonder where those photos are, from our family reunion”. Great question, right? Except, they’re gone. You didn’t think about it when it happened, but… you deleted them. Not a spilled coffee, or a hard drive that sat on a shelf too long – simple human error. Like that time you accidentally threw away the box with that item you intended to return, because sometimes life is just like that.

And while you can accidentally throw away a printed photo, or spill something on it – sure – you can’t delete it. You can’t forget what you labeled a folder, and accidentally wipe the photos of your newborn. I wouldn’t say it if I hadn’t seen it happen before – because I’m not here to be a fearmonger, we’ve got enough of that in 2026. I’m just here to help you avoid the pitfalls I’ve seen other people fall into, and to help you remember the magic that is your growing family.

2026 has changed a lot, but printing your photos hasn’t!

Literally none of us can claim that our world isn’t changing massively under our feet. I mean just look at the changes in AI over the last few years. It’s wild, and it’s not slowing down anytime soon. And neither is the persistent digitization of our world, whether the Gen Alpha’s and Gen Z’s embracing “low tech” living might want to believe. But one thing that will never change, is the magic of being surrounded by printed images of the people you love. Or the nostalgic, sometimes-just-a-little-bit-sad feeling of flipping through a family photo album. And those little bits of magic? Well they’re just not possible without photo printing.

Looking to book a Minneapolis photo session?

So… print your photos. Just do it. You’ll thank me later. And if you work with Jessica Strobel Photography, there are tons of options for printing your photos in basically no steps at all, directly through your gallery after your session. It’s a win-win! You get gorgeous photos sent right to your door, and you barely have to do any work to make it happen. Best of all possible worlds!

And of course – if you’re looking to schedule a family, newborn, maternity, or really ANY photo session here in Minneapolis, I’d love to talk! We can make a session happen that both fits your vision, and will look amazing printed and hanging in your home after the fact.