A month or so ago, I asked my facebook friends to send me pictures of their Beth Carter Photography portraits on display in their homes. I don't think I ever blogged about it, so I'm sending out the request again. If you haven't "liked" us on facebook yet, please do that first! Here's the link:
facebook.com/bethcarterphotography
I'm asking this so that all my clients can get ideas of how to display their pictures in their homes. Selfishly I have loved seeing the finished product actually in use instead of in a bag or a box on my table at the studio. So please send me your pictures so I can share them with everyone!
On that note, I wanted to share a display idea that I just put up on my own wall. Growing up, my mom had two 8×10 frames on her piano. She always kept the most recent picture of my sister and me in these frames. As they were replaced each year with new school pictures, the old 8×10's went into an album that she kept on a table in her front room. Now that album is a collection of 8×10's that show how we both changed each year…baby teeth, no front teeth, braces, home perm, no perm, braces off, acne, etc. I LOVE looking through that album!
Now that I have my own children, I wanted to have a similar way to display the most recent images of each of my kids. As much as I would love to order a big 16×20 canvas every time I do a photo shoot of them, that's just not realistic. And as much as I would love to sell my clients a huge print or collage every time they bring their children in, I totally understand that that's not realistic either. So here is an idea of a way to display the most recent image of your child, and still be able to change out the image and not the display every time you have their picture taken.
This is the front room at my house. Irecently bought the two square frames on the left from The Picture Frame Company online. Here is their website:
The problem with hanging a couple of 8×10 frames on the wall is first of all, 8×10's are really too small for hanging unless you have a bigger frame with a mat. The other problem I was worried about was the orientation of the image. What if I had a favorite horizontal image of Sydney and a favorite vertical image of Austin? How do you frame those on a wall together? So I decided I would look for a square frame with an 8×10 mat. That way the frames would never have to move and I could just flip the mat around depending on the direction of the image. (This is impossible to find in the store by the way!) So I started looking online. I didn't want to go to a custom frame shop because the frames are too permanent, I wanted something I could take the back off of and be able to switch out the picture.
The Picture Frame Company let me choose the size frame I wanted (these are 12×12, but I could have chosen ANY size), and the size mat I wanted (again, ANY size). I added on the glass/backing/hanging package and poof – the perfect frames for my project! It couldn't have been any easier to order from them, and the turnaround was so fast! I also have a slip in photo album that holds 8×10 prints that I have started to fill with the 8×10's I'm done displaying in my house. Every now and then I take a picture of my children that has the WOW factor. When that happens I order a collage or large mounted print to display indefinitely. But for the rest of the pictures I have of them, it's nice to know I can just put them in my new square frames. Hope this helps some of you out there with limited wall space like me!
An aunt of mine has something similar in her house. She has a photo of each of her kids, taken when they were about 4-5 years old. Lately, two of those photos were replaced with graduation pictures. It’s an endearing idea, don’t you think so? I hope you’re successful with your project. Though if you plan to do all phases of their childhood, you may have a bit of problem with wall space.
Good luck!
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