Allison Patel Photography

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Size Matters

Once upon a time, there lived a girl who covered her bedroom with photos of people she loved. The size didn’t matter; she had professional 8×10 photos hanging beside 5×7’s, casual 4×6’s, and 3.5×5″ prints, and even larger prints that had been “edited” (read: cut) down to smaller sizes, all in a mishmash of people – friends, family, and even pretty, shiny things that made her happy.

Then when the girl went to college, she did the same thing to her residence hall room, the bedroom in her first apartment and her second apartment.

It wasn’t until she got married and bought a house that she had trouble filling her space with photos of her loved ones. She wasn’t sure what the problem was – it wasn’t that she loved less people, or had less photos of those people. It wasn’t that she didn’t have enough space to hang photos, but maybe rather it was the opposite: she had so much space that her little 4×6’s and 5×7’s, and even her 8×10’s weren’t big enough to fill that space. They looked awkward and out of place, and swallowed whole by the big beigeness of her walls.

She needed help, but didn’t know in what form that help would come. So she wasted time, and soon years had passed, and the big beigeness of the walls was close to swallowing HER whole, and she almost went crazy from the beigeness of it. It was ugly, and she was ashamed. As a photographer (spoiler alert, she is me), shouldn’t she have the answers? Why were her walls so barren? Was she ashamed of her loved ones? Wasn't she tired of talking about herself in the third person? (Yes. I'll stop now.)

I'm not saying that small prints are bad. Definitely not. You just need to know the best sizes for your space. I enjoy a good small print size as well as the next girl, and I have small prints framed on bookshelves, on my desk, and hanging as part of galleries. I also have big framed prints, and canvases, and find that in my house, a combination of all these things makes me happy. It took me longer than it should have to find the right display combination for me, mostly due to too many blank canvases (walls) and too many options.

If you want some expert help to find the right combination for you, I can be that expert, at no charge. Email me and let me know what questions you have and what design dilemmas you’re facing. I can help you decide between framed prints, canvases, or other options, and find the right size for you. Having hired me as your photographer is not a requirement. I want to help get your photos up on your walls, where they belong, so they can be seen and enjoyed. Don’t get mad, hit me up!