everyday life Archives - Page 5 of 7

Picture Display Movement. Step 2. Load and Back up.

{Click here for Step 1 of Project Picture Display}

After I am focused on taking more photos, the next step is to get them on my computer.

I’m really good about doing this with my dSLR, but horrible about doing it with my phone. Some pictures sit on my phone for months before I ever put them on my computer. And a lot of the pictures I take these days are with my camera phone for convenience/logistical issues. (I’m still busy just trying to keep track of the four little humans I usually have around me and all the “stuff” that seems to accompany them). And without that handy camera phone, I’d miss pictures like this. Of my kid hugging a mannequin. Not weird at all.

Here’s the key to the rest of The Picture Display Movement. There HAS to be a system and it has to be SIMPLE or it will never get done. So find a system. Schedule a consistent time to do it. And keep it simple!! We schedule time to clean. Time to do laundry. Time to exercise. We should DEFINITELY schedule time to organize, print, and display our photos.

Here’s the system that works for me. This will have to be tweaked for each family just like chore charts have to be tweaked for each family (still working on fine tuning our chore/money system), but find something, anything, that works for you and stick to it.

I load my photos directly into iPhoto. When I plug in my camera or phone to my computer, iPhoto automatically pops up and the pictures go straight in there. The pictures automatically sort by date.

Once the pictures are loaded, I make sure they are backed up onto an external hard drive. You can get those at Costco. I just bought a 3TB external drive (most people won’t need one that big) for about $120. Worth every penny if my computer hard drive crashes. This is a step that should never be skipped. It’s not hard and only takes a few extra minutes. You can just drag and drop the photos onto the icon for the hard drive and it copies them to the hard drive.

I also back up my entire computer hard-drive to an online site. I researched several online storage companies and finally settled with Backblaze because it is unlimited storage for a really affordable price ($5 per month) and it allows me to back up all my external hard-drives as well (as long as I plug them in every 30 days). I have 7 full external hard drives and a nearly full computer hard drive. I see the “your startup disc is almost full” message more times than I care to keep track of.

I need a lot of storage space. Backblaze backs up my entire hard drive (photos, documents, music, etc.) so if (more like when) my hard-drive crashes, I know everything is backed up on Backblaze.

When deciding on an online storage company, I wanted something that was:

1. affordable

2. I personally knew someone who used the company to recover photos

3. unlimited storage including external hard drives

So after looking at and comparing several well-known companies (and talking to several photographer friends), I decided on Backblaze.

If your photos aren’t backed up, I can not emphasize enough that you NEED to do this step. Even if your photos are a big hot-mess right now. Back them up. Then worry about organizing. Trust me on this one.

Step 2. Load ’em and BACK THEM UP!!!

Click here for Step 3. ORGANIZE those Photos.

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Organize your cans

The cans in my pantry were driving me nuts.

My solution. These magazine-holder-thingies from Ikea. You get 5 for $1. Can problem solved.

Picture Display Movement. Step 1. Take pictures!!

I was talking to a friend the other day and she said she had misplaced her SD card with an entire years worth of photos on it. I skipped right over the part about her saying she lost the card and couldn’t wrap my head around the fact she had an entire years worth of photos on one card. I can fill up a 4GB card in about 20 minutes taking pictures of my kids.

And after seeing how often my sister and a few other relatives who will remain nameless take pictures, and by often I mean never, I realized maybe this is an issue for a lot of people.

So I decided Step 1 for most people would have to be TAKE MORE PICTURES!!! This applies to me as well. And probably a lot of other professional photographers I know. Because we’re so busy taking other people’s pictures, we sometimes forget (or choose not to) pick up the camera and take pictures of our own people.

The actual process of taking a picture costs me nothing. Monetarily speaking. So why not take more?

Even if they aren’t always (or ever) “great quality” photos. The few pictures I have of my childhood won’t ever make it into a magazine, but I’m so grateful I have them 🙂

And the benefits of photographs in our lives is so great, I should be taking as many as I can!

When I pick up my camera and take a picture of something, intentionally or unintentionally I send a message. A message that whatever I am taking a picture of is important to me. Because taking a picture of something signifies I want to remember it, whatever “it” is. A person, a moment, a feeling.

So without saying anything, when I stop what I’m doing and take a picture of something, I show that moment/person/thing/feeling/event was worth stopping for, was worth my time, and was worth documenting.

Photographs tell the story of who I love. What relationships I cherish. Moments that make me laugh. And moments that make me want to cry. What daily life events I find value in.

If I don’t have those photographs, what story do I have to tell? And what message do I unintentionally send when I choose not to photograph anything (or many things?)

I’m not saying I need to spend my life and every waking moment taking pictures. But I definitely think I should be intentional about the photographs I DO take and to make it a priority to document our stories.

So. Step 1. Take a lot of pictures. 🙂

Click here for Step 2.

Uniquely awesome photo display.

The walls in my home are sacred space. Whatever goes on them is something we’ll see every.single.day. So I’m pretty choosey about what gets a spot on those walls.

Which is why many of the walls in our home are still bare. Just waiting for the perfect thing to hang on them.

The wall in my office is one such space. I spend a fair amount of late night hours on my computer. And I wanted something inspirationally awesome to go on the wall I see the most while in there.

I’ve held out. And I finally found the perfect thing.

It went from this:

To this:

It took a little longer than anticipated to get on the wall. And I didn’t finish during naptime (which created some challenges with a two-year-old who will remain nameless that was eventually banished from the room) or before my girls got home from school so they sat on the floor and watched me finish.

While I carefully selected photos out of my rather large pile, the girls commented on the photos. The things they said were unsolicited. I asked for no commentary on what was going on (because usually by that time of day, I’d like to give my ears a time-out). I was in full concentration mode to hurry and get those things on the wall before the previously mentioned two-year-old sabotaged the entire project.

Mya: “Whooooa. I can’t believe you put so many photos of just me. All by myself. I must be special.”

Jaida: “Mom, I’m really glad you can take such good photos of us”

And my favorite (and most gratifying since I have an intentional purpose for taking SO many photos of our everyday lives):

Mya: “Wow, Mom, you sure do take a lot of photos”
Me: “Why do you think that is, Mya”
Jaida: (without a pause) “Because you think we’re awesome!”

Intentional parenting for the WIN!

I got the photoclips at fotojojo.com

I went back about 4 years and looked through all our pictures, picking out some of my favorites. I printed them at Costco (I know, gasp–but when I’m only printing as a 4×6 and I’m printing THAT many, I just use Costco).

I started with a block of photos put together first. I taped those to the wall, and then added pictures one-by-one directly onto the wall.

There probably was an easier way to do it, but this worked for me. Eventually.

It took a few hours. But it’s my favorite spot in the house right now. The kids too. We’ve all spent a lot of time gazing at that wall, reminiscing about a lot of really good family memories in our home!

I ended up with 153 photos on the wall. At some point I may go down the wall further, but for now, I have to keep the pictures out of reach of certain little fingers who like to destroy things.

And the view from my desk now. I dig it.

Of course it looks cooler if the photos are good quality. So if you want to do this in your home, learn how to improve your photo skills. Not just the quality of the photo, but also the type of pictures you take. You won’t regret it. One of the best investments you’ll ever make.

Family friendly hiking.

In an effort to continually expose our kids to new things, especially in nature, and keep them (and us) active, we hiked to the Fifth water hot springs in Diamond Fork Canyon in Utah.

It is a MUST do for a hiking adventure.

Annnd because I had to heft a human child on my back, the big girl camera was left at home and these are all iphone pics courtesy of myself and my husband Mike.

It was more of a walk than a hike. Our girls, who were 8 and 6, easily made it with minimal complaining. Our 3 year old probably could have done it as well, but we didn’t want to go that slow.
So we packed him and our 1 year old in on our backs. I think it was a little over 2 miles each way.

We brought swimsuits and a change of clothes, as well as lunch to eat by the springs.

On the internet it said a lot of things about naked people being there. Mercifully, we didn’t see any.

The hike up was beautiful. Kind of reminded me of hiking in Hawaii. Seriously. Super green. Trees branching over the paths. Little stream running by.

As you get closer you can start to smell the springs. And the water in the river starts to get warmer. Our kids thought that was pretty awesome.

When we got to the top, we ate lunch, then played around in the different pools.

Definitely worth a visit. We’ll be going back. When the kids get a little older, I want to do it in the winter.