P365/52/Project Life – Don’t forget the small stuff!
Angie here, with an actual scrapbooking related post. Inspiration comes at me outta nowhere, what can I say? 🙂
It is getting to be that time of year where people start falling off the P365/Project Life bandwagon. The first few weeks, we are all gung ho taking gorgeous portraits of everyone in our family, our dog, and so on. Then February rolls around and we seemingly run out of things to take pictures of, or we start to feel like the pictures we are taking are not ‘good enough’. Well I say phooey on that! It’s time to step back and take a bigger look at what we are doing here, and more importantly, WHY?
I have often said in the forums (so if you read there, you’re probably sick of it by now), image if your grandmother had done this project. First of all, I know that I wouldn’t look at the pictures and say “gee, if only granny had been a better photographer, this photo of grandpa when he was 31 is total crap!”. I also wouldn’t say “I wish she hadn’t taken so many photos of herself!”. At this point, with both grandparents gone, I would love all the photographs I could get my hands on, whether they be good quality, bad quality, and regardless of whether she’d done her hair or needed to lose 30 pounds. I loved my grandma no matter what her size / how sloppy her outfit / whether or not she was wearing make up. Get in the pictures! No matter what!
Also, I think about things I’d have liked to see from the 30s/50s/70s/etc. I’d love to see what style of shoes and clothes she had. I certainly wouldn’t think a picture of her outfits to be ‘dumb’. I would love to see what her house looked like when my mother or father were young – both from the outside, and each of the rooms. What kind of sofa did they have? How ugly was it? I want to know!
I’d love to know what town square looked like in 1950 in the town where I grew up. I’d love to see a photo of her grocery receipts so that I can laugh at how much a pound of butter cost back then. I’d love to see the label on the cereal box, the latest ‘gadgets’ that just came out, and the car she drove.
Once I started thinking about my P365 from that perspective, it became a whole lot easier. Some days, all I have is the stupid iPhone photo that I took of my lunch at Chipotle. But you know what, that’s ok! Even if the quality is crap, it’s still ok. No matter what photos you stick in there, I promise you that it will be a cherished album for generations to come.
And I will let you in on a little secret… some days, I forgot to take a photo. I just used one of the photos mentioned above (the McDonald’s sign, or my coffee maker, or my new shoes) to fill that day. In 40 years, it’s not going to matter if I took that photo of my son’s new bike on June 8th or 17th, he will still enjoy looking back at it and remembering.
I will leave you with some complete caka photos that I used in my 2010 Project 365 book, which is printed and already cherished in my family. The kids love it now, and they will love it forever!
I made new curtains for the den. Imagine how ugly they’ll be in 40 years!
Crappy photo, but look how cute my little guy’s art project is.
If I’m to be known for anything, it will be my love for Chipotle. Here’s what their sign looked like in 2010. Check back in 2065. Will they even still be around?
I wanted to show that Sean definitely wasn’t all happy and awesome at soccer. I only had my phone with me, not my camera. But that’s ok, I still captured the moment I wanted to capture.
My daughter will enjoy looking back at what a slob she was one day. Here’s a secret for you – my house isn’t always spotless. So why would it be in my project about my life?!
Our small town Christmas tree on the square. Always a sign that Christmas is coming, and something I hope will be a cherished memory of all. Was no big deal for me to go snap a quick photo of this, and I could stick it in any day in December that I needed a photo!
Hopefully this has inspired you to just take pictures, no matter how dumb/bad/ridiculous/whatever! What’s important is that it has meaning to you, and to future generations. We’re the archivists! Let no detail go unarchived! 🙂
Click on, my friends.
