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I mentioned in my last post that I’m not sentimental about things.  But then my sister pointed out I am sentimental about photographs.  And that’s definitely true.  I don’t need to keep the stuff.  I just need a photo to remind me of the way the stuff made me feel.  And the people who made me feel.

That’s why I LOVE this photography project so much.  Connecting generations through photographs.  Then and Now photos.

I went through some of my parents photographs.  Boxes of photos, scrapbooks and albums of photos, slides, etc.  Photos of them as kids and some of their ancestors.  I picked out some of my favorites showing some of the every day moments/things of life.

Then I looked through the photos I currently have OR took photos of the same moments/things to have comparison photos between the generations.

I was initially inspired to do this from this video I saw on Becky Higgins YouTube channel.

After watching this, I wanted to do the same thing with my photos.  And you can do the same too (cause it’s cool and you’ll have fun doing it-promise).  Just look through the albums you have, pull out some of the photos, find photos you have that are similar, or TAKE photos that are similar.  It was so interesting to see how things were back then and how they are now.  How some things have changed SO much and how some things haven’t changed at all.

With the old photos, I just took photos of the photos with my phone camera (near a window so I could use the natural light and no flash).  You could also scan them.

Here’s what I came up with:

THEN and NOW.

Carseats then…….                                                                       Carseats now.

 

Lawncare then…..                                                                      Lawncare now.

 

Bad days then……                                                                      Bad days now.

 

Cribs then……                                                                    Cribs now.

 

Babies in laundry baskets then……                           Babies in laundry baskets now.

 

Cute bums then……                                                        Cute bums now.

 

Daddy pile then……                                                         Daddy pile now.

 

Technology then……                                                        Technology now.

 

Baths in the sink then……                                              Baths in the sink now.

 

Family portraits then……                                                     Family selfie’s now.

 

Traditions then……                                                               Traditions now.

 

Mom doin her thing then……                                        Mom doin her thing now.

 

Summer swag then……                                                               Summer swag now.

 

Pool fun then……                                                               Pool fun now.

 

Babyseats then……                                                                      Bumbo’s now.

 

Photos then……                                                                     Photos now.

 

Cars then……                                                                    Cars now.

 

Baby swings then……                                                       Baby swings now.

 

Birthday parties then……                                              Birthday parties now.

 

Kids in buckets then……                                                 Kids in buckets now.

 

Snow day then……                                                           Snow day now.

 

Strollers then……                                                             Strollers now.

 

Family photo album then……                                      Family photo album now.

This was such a cool project to do.  I can’t recommend it enough.

After you’ve gathered all the photos, and found the comparisons, you can put them in Dropbox, access them on your phone and make some super quick and simple Project Life layouts using the Project Life App.

Man I love photographs and ALL the many things we can do with them!

I’m not a terribly sentimental person when it comes to stuff.  I don’t get attached to much and like to get rid of as much as I can.  In fact, this past year I’ve been slowly trying to get rid of the excess in our house and reduce the amount of clutter around here.

But I’m trying to hang on to at least some of the stuff my kids create around the house and things they bring home from school.  The papers, art projects, coloring pages, homework assignments, church activities, tests, etc. sometimes seem endless and I wasn’t sure what to do with all of it.  As more of my kids started going to school and bringing home more stuff, piles of school work starting accumulating.

Things that they worked extra hard on or seemed particularly proud of get a spot on our magnet wall or on the garage door for a little while.  Other things get some praise from mom and dad, left on the counter for a few days, and then I quietly slip them in the garbage (of course I mean recycle bin) and put a paper towel over it so the kids don’t see it in there.

Some of the original stuff we decide to keep gets put in protective pages and put in a binder.  It will be fun for them to be able to flip through some of the original items when they get older.  But I only keep a handful of things from each year.

We don’t (can’t) hang onto everything and I was trying to decide what to keep and what to toss. Then I saw this great idea from Becky Higgins.  Some (most) of the things (especially big things hard to hang on to, or stuff we don’t necessarily need an original of) I’m taking photos of and putting them into pages using the Project Life App.  I know some people scan their kids artwork, but I’ll never actually do that (and some of the stuff is too big to scan).  So when the piles get big enough, I take 10-15 minutes and take photos of the pages with my phone and then put those photos into layouts using the App.

Some tips for doing this:

**Put the original item on a white table (or posterboard) or wood floor, and get it as close to a natural light source as possible.  I do this when the sun isn’t shining directly through the window.  You could also open a door.

**Hold your camera directly over the item.  You may need a stool to get higher up if needed.  Try to keep your elbows braced by your body so you keep the camera steady.

**Turn off your flash.  Natural light will always look better for this type of photo.

**Occasionally include photos of your kids hands holding the artwork and/0r photos of them while they’re actually writing or drawing.  I take these type of photos with my “real” camera.  Otherwise, my phone camera works just fine.

**If there are several similar items you could photograph them all together.

**Use the Project Life App (or other photo collage app) and make layouts of the different projects.

Fast, easy, and significantly reduces the amount of paper clutter in our house.  And makes it a tiny bit easier to convince the kids to throw stuff away if they know we have a photo to preserve it.  But only a tiny bit.  I usually still have to hide the stuff under paper towels in the garbage.

 

For more tips on photos you take with your phone, check this out.

And for more ideas on organizing different parts of your home, you can follow my “Organize” board on Pinterest.  One day I’ll work my way through all of those ideas and have a smooth runnin’ house.

It forgot to snow this year in Utah.  It pretty much forgot it was winter completely.  I think it only snowed 3 times at our house.  Huge bummer for someone like me who loves seasons.

The plus side was not having to deal with snow clothes on kids.  Not my favorite.  So the one time it did snow a few weeks ago, I pretty much forced these two to put their snow clothes on and let me take some photos.

 

A few photo tips for anyone who cares.

When taking portrait type photos like this, I get them as close to a window as I can.  This front room in our house has the best natural light so it’s where I take a lot of our photos.  I also try not to ask them to look at me for at least a few of the shots.  If I’m always saying “look at the camera” I miss photos like this one.

Then I’ll get a few looking at the camera photos but I still try to let them do their thing and show a little personality without giving them much direction.

When I’m shooting a close-up photo like this, I always always always focus on their eyes.

I always try to take at least one or two “detail” shots.

And then I just let them go and try not to interrupt what they’re doing.  I just sit, observe, and take a boat load of photos.  And watch them shovel the road instead of our driveway.