Photographs, Pictures, and Prints

Right before my son was born we invested in a digital camera. Digital photos have a lot of favorable qualities over those of regular film. A person can take seven million photographs of their children without having to go through the expense of developing all seven million photos (although because a person tends to take so many more photos it is likely that they print more as well); they are easy to email to family and friends who are not able to see the kids often; and they can be viewed and accessed immediately. There are definite drawbacks, however. No more simply dropping a roll of film into a box for development. Now there is the waiting in line and loading your images into a computer. I only manage to get to this three, maybe four times a year, so I have loads of images to sort through while the next person in line impatiently waits behind me for their turn. I’m beginning to wonder if it is redundant to print pictures that are to be relegated to photo albums, especially since the albums are on a shelf in the office right next to the computer where they can be viewed at the touch of a button. The problem is that I can’t stop now considering I have so many pictures of my son already organized into pages of four-by-six slots: I feel that my daughter should be shown the same consideration. Not that I would be the first parent in the history of the world to hear, “Mooommm! How come there are so many pictures of my brother and none of mmmmeeeeeeeeee?”