Due to the wonders of technology, we live in a society that loves to take photographs, and takes plenty of them.

We are the most photographed generation ever.Whether it is cellphone "selfies" or images captured on a tablet, a point and shoot or a DSLR, everyone has become a "photographer."People have acquired hundreds, if not thousands of images and store them on their phones, computers or even in "the cloud" and enjoy the ease of sharing those images with their friends and even the world through the various forms of socialmedia.I myself have numerous discs, flash drives and even an old PC loaded with all of the images I have photographed over the past few years but ironically, few physical prints of those images.I looked around my home and realized that the photographs I had hanging on my wall were all very old and void of anything within the past decade, save three school/graduation photos.I suspect this is the case in most homes these days.I have recently begun having some of these images printed and purchased frames to hang them on the wall, although they have been sitting in a corner for a month now waiting for me to actually do it.Lucky for me, I have taken a great interest in photography and have spent much time and money learning the art, (and yes, photography is an art), and I have beautiful images that soon will grace the walls of my home.Recently, when trying to clear out some of the thousands of photos that I have on my PC, it hit me as to why I haven't bothered to print them; there are just too many to choose from and my home is nowhere near big enough to accommodate all of them.I started to feel a wee bit of anxiety at the thought of having to deal with all of these electronic files as the sheer number of them is quite overwhelming.However, determined to finally hang those beautiful memories up on the wall I knew I had to come up with a plan of attack.The first involves weeding through all of the discs and drives to narrow down each occasion or event to no more than 5 images that I really love, which means deleting many of them and leaving others to remain on the disc.Then I must determine which ones will hang solo, which ones will be printed smaller and end up in a collage frame and which ones will make it into an album.Remember those?I can recall numerous times in my youth where we went to a family member's home and broke out the old family albums to enjoy viewing and reminiscing together.Those moments brought out many smiles, laughter and even a few tears.Do families even do that anymore?Gosh, I hope so.As for the ones that will be hung up, I have come up with the idea of grouping them by season, holiday or event and storing several photos within each frame so that I can easily switch them out as the season, month or holiday changes.For example, I may display various Christmas photos in December in one room, winter outdoor shots and landscapes in another, etc.Perhaps during the month of April, I will display photographs of my husband in honor of his birthday, wedding photos and pictures of just the two of us together during our anniversary month you get the idea.Yes, it will be a little bit of work to set it all up, but I don't think it will take too long to switch them out every now and again and it will always provide something fresh and new to look at.For those images that are really exceptional, I think I may opt for a canvas wrap to really draw the eye in and create some dimension in the room.As for the boxes and boxes of old printed photographs that collect dust under my bed, my goal is to sort them by year, select some to go into albums that will remain in my home, and then split the rest up with my children and plan a night (or perhaps 10 in my case) to sit down together and enjoy an evening of reminiscing and creating albums that each of them will hopefully cherish.This will be a big undertaking, no doubt, but it will be an awesome excuse for all of us to spend time together as a family.Finally, while it does seem that everyone is a "photographer," this really isn't the case.While there are a few very talented individuals that take very nice photos on their own, the truth of the matter is, if you want a photograph that genuinely tells a story, conveys an emotion, or takes your breath away, it is absolutely worth every penny to hire a true professional.Photographers have an eye for things that you may not see.They can capture moments, feelings and expressions that most people cannot.They have a passion for what they do and it shows in their work.Their vision and creativity has the ability to take an ordinary moment and transform it into an extraordinary capture that you will want to gaze upon every day for the rest of your life.