I thought about this the other day as I was writing a blog post. This is what came into my head: "We take pictures because we want to remember. And then we treat them like we want to forget." Isn't that the truth?
And isn't it sad? Think about it. We take pictures BECAUSE we want to remember an event, a moment, a person, a sunrise. And then what do we do with the picture? Usually, nothing. It stays on the phone or camera, or maybe if it's lucky you back it up on a computer or hard drive. Usually, photos just live somewhere as a jpeg file, and they're never really seen or looked at again. Why would we do that? Why would we treat something we created to remember as if we actually didn't care about it and preferred to forget it?
I read a {great blog post} recently where the blogger asserted that pictures in today's society are seen as frivolous and even vain. But I love the conclusion she came to: If the moment or the event makes you happy right now, why WOULDN'T you capture it so it can make you happy again later? The ability to look back on a moment, or see a person again, is {good for the heart and the soul}.
One of the main purposes of this blog is to help our actions toward our pictures be more in line with their real value. My hashtag #dontletyourbabiesgrowuptobejpegs is a real goal here at LifeTales Books!
There's something more. Your pictures can be something more! Rather than files to scroll through, back up, and possibly lose, your pictures can be seen and preserved in a high-quality way that will allow you to add meaning to the photos by writing details. Let me give you an example.
This is a really special photo. And you have no idea why. You don't know who is in this photo, where it was taken, why it was taken, or what makes this photo special. This is how someone else (maybe your kids, grandkids, spouse, friend) will look at your photos. Over time, you may even look at your own photos the way you're looking at my photo here.
If you're not careful, your photos will be as useless and meaningless to someone else as this one of mine is to you.
But at least this is a photo. Most of our "photos" today aren't even photos--they're just files. They need to be brought out of file form and into a tactile form that can be held and seen, even if the computer has crashed or the cell phone has been stolen. (There are some astonishing statistics of the likelihood of these {at this link}.)
This blog has a lot of great resources for doing just that. Everything you'll find here (especially at the purple tabs across the top of the blog, under the header) are better quality than the vast majority of photo books you find online. You can {read more here}.
While I always encourage people to {find a memory-keeping method they will love} so that they're more likely to do it, I'll share two of my favorite ideas here, plus one super speedy option.
This is the one I always recommend to people who have so many photos that they don't even know what to do with them or where to start. This video gives a fantastic solution, but it also goes over some strategies for getting a handle on many, many photos.
Get started preserving your photos and memories here.
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