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How to Feel Comfortable Having Your Picture Taken

Welcome back! Yesterday I shared a layout I made about myself (oh hi! I'm Amy!) and encouraged you to make one about YOU.

Then I realized: you can’t make layouts about yourself unless you have pictures of yourself.

(Well, I mean: yes, you can. You can always make layouts without photos. But, let’s go with needing photos just for the sake of argument.)

Which brings me to something I feel pretty passionate about, and that is photographers getting in front of the camera. You know: letting someone take a picture of you.

And I know: this is really, really hard. Especially for those of us who are used to taking the pictures.

It’s hard to ask someone to take your picture, because it makes you feel vulnerable.

It’s hard to be the subject of a photo because you can’t control it.

And it’s hard to feel like you are enough to be in the picture.

But it matters. It matters so much that we get ourselves into our family’s pictures.

I learned this—not just in theory, but deep down, bone-deep, soul-deep—when my dad died. I was given the task of putting together a slide show of photographs of him. I had a ton of pictures of my dad—with my kids, with my mom, my sisters, my nephews and nieces. Even my husband. Even the cat. But I had exactly one (one!) picture of me with my dad.

ONE.

And now he’s gone and there’s absolutely nothing I can do about it.

Except for making changes moving forward, which is what I’ve done. I thought about the reasons I feel uncomfortable with getting my picture taken and came up with some solutions. So I thought I’d share what I’ve learned with you.

1. You’re going to have to ask someone. I hate asking my husband to take my picture. Not because he’s a jerk about it (he’s not!) but because I feel like I’m being vain. But, since he’s the adult I’m around the most (and thus trust not to drop my camera!), he’s the default. So I talked to him about the possibility of him every once in a while just offering, out of the blue, to take a photo of me. As he is also not a fan of having his picture taken (99% of my photos of him have his hand in front of his face), I thought this would be a big deal. He just said OK and now he’ll sometimes just offer to take my picture. (He's also my Official Press Photographer—lol—when I run races. He's always at the finish line, elbowing people aside so he can get a picture or two of me. Which, you'd think who wants a photo of themselves hot & sweaty after running for two hours? but really: you want a picture of yourself even then. Especially then!)

Moral of the story: communication helps! Talk to the people who might be willing to take a picture or two of you. Tell them if you feel uncomfortable about it, but also tell them why it’s important to you. Give them some suggestions about good angles. Think about how the light might look and then move yourself if you need to. Most importantly, relax! Remember that person loves you!

2. Find more than one photographer. My daughter, who loves having her picture taken, also loves to get her hands on my camera. She’s taken some awesome pictures of me when I wasn’t even paying attention. My son, who hates having his picture taken more than just about anything (I think he’d rather have his eyelashes yanked out than pose for a picture), will always offer, every time I am taking family pictures, to take a picture of me instead. It’s his way of getting out of having his picture taken…but it’s OK because we both get a little relief from our discomforts!

Moral of the story: If someone asks to take your picture, say yes. If your best friend wants to take a selfie with you, take a selfie. If your mother gets out her camera, smile back! Also, if someone else takes a picture with your camera, it will be ok. Put the neck strap right over their head before handing it over, tell them to be careful, and then smile.

3. Make it a tradition. When I was trying to figure out how to get myself in more pictures, I realized that every once in a while, I’ve had someone take a picture of me with my child on his or her birthday. (I was there for the birth! So their birthdays are important to me not just because of their existence and their celebration, but because I loved the day they were born, and on their birthdays I remember it fondly.) This realization helped me create two traditions: Now, I have someone take a picture of me with the birthday kid on every single birthday. It’s become another part of our birthday celebrations, as inherent to the party as cake and candles. The second tradition is that either on my birthday or on Mother’s Day (my birthday is in April, so they’re close), whichever works out best, I have someone take a picture of me with all of my kids. These have become some of my most cherished images.

Moral of the story: when you create some photo traditions, it feels less & less awkward to ask for the picture, because it’s just what always happens. Do it long enough and you won’t even have to ask anymore; they’ll just know to do it.

4. Take advantage of group shots. It’s infinitely easier to be in a picture if there’s someone else in the frame with you. So when you do something—anything, really, where someone takes a picture, which these days is nearly every situation we can imagine—get in the group shot. Let someone else, a total stranger, take the picture so you don’t have to. (I’ve asked people on the top of mountains, in the Coliseum at Rome, at races, on the beach, and of course at restaurants to take a group picture for me.) When you go on vacations, get in the shot in front of the museum or historical monument or beautiful mountain or stunning lake. Family party? Get in the picture. A hike, a family trip to the bowling alley, a day at Disneyland? Get in the group shot.

Moral of the story: If you take all of the pictures of an event or experience, there isn’t any visual proof that you were actually there, too. Your memories and stories matter just as much as everyone else’s.

5. Realize that you are worth it. Even though I had my big ah-ha moment after my dad died, and I promised myself to get into more pictures, it didn’t really hit home until a year later, when my mother-in-law also died. (Sheesh! Could I be any more depressing? I learned a lot from those deaths, though, so forgive me!) I had realized that I didn’t have any pictures of her and my husband, and I’d gone so far as to make her promise that sometime in the fall, once she was feeling better from the surgery she needed, she’d let me take some pictures of the two of them. She wanted to wait until she’d had her hair done and she felt pretty again. But then, unexpectedly, she passed away. And I was devastated, of course, but it hit me even harder when I remembered that I’d never done that photo shoot. (And even later, when I realized that I have exactly ZERO photos of her and me together, I felt even worse.)

I understand her wanting to look her best. But now that she’s gone, it wouldn’t matter. If I had a photo of her with my husband, and she still looked a little bit pale from her surgery, and her hair wasn’t perfect? I would still cherish it.

So here’s where I’m going to get a little bit harsh with you.

Right now: look at yourself in a mirror. See that face? That body? That is you. That is what people love and are grateful to have in their lives. So even if you look in the mirror and think “holy ^>=~ *&$*@!~`+=, I’m wrinkled! I’m fat! I need to get my hair colored, when did I get that mole, is that an age spot on my cheekbone? Why do my eyebrows grow back in faster than a 5 o’clock shadow?” (or however your particular complaint(s) about yourself manifest, that’s just my own personal inner dialogue), guess what? The people in your life love you anyway. Strike that—they don’t love you despite your faults. They love you for you, warts and all. (Or age spots. Or moles.) They likely don’t even see the faults that you see, because they love you, the whole package.

They love you for you.

And here’s something else. I’m in my forties now, so I can tell you this is true: It’s all downhill from here. You will never be less wrinkled than you are right now. You might be skinnier—but you might not! You’re going to age; it happens to the best of us. Think about it: I bet when you were ten (or twenty! Or thirty!) years younger, you still had those same negative thoughts about yourself. But when you look back on that twenty-something version of yourself, wouldn’t you like to have it back? That taut skin, that flat belly, those eyebrows that weren’t kamikaze regrowth demons? In another decade, when you look back on the self you are right now, there will be things you’d like to have back.

So celebrate who you are right this very minute. Even with the ______________ (insert whatever you don’t love, double chin, appeared-overnight zit, shadows under your eyes). You are beautiful, someone loves you, you are worth being in the picture.

Moral of the story: just do it. Put some make up on, and your favorite necklace. Definitely your favorite lipstick. And then get in a picture or two.

And you know what that is, don't you? It's a challenge! No, not even a challenge. It's an assignment. Sometime this week, get yourself into a picture. Before March comes. You could even come back here and let us know how it goes. And just so you know I'm not joking, here's a collage of some photos of myself.

(Including the one picture I have with my dad.) (These are all pictures that I both am grateful to have and cringe over. I could point out the flaws...but I'm still glad to have them.) Come on: if I can put a photo of myself in a swimsuit out on the Internets, you can take a picture of yourself. Not even in a swimsuit—wear a sweater if you want! or a parka! Just get in a picture.

And after that? Make a layout! About yourself, because it’s important and fun and a great way to use some supplies. Your stories matter. Your images matter. Even if you detest having your photo taken.

But that's just me. How do you feel about getting your picture taken? Let me know!

Scrapbook your Autumn Traditions: Signs of the Season

Happy Black Friday! Carey here to talk more about our Autumnal Traditions before we jump full swing into Christmas! I've enjoyed all the inspiration this week and hope you've been getting some great ideas to document your autumn traditions.

Of course a big autumn tradition is Thanksgiving and all of the yummy food and fellowship that comes with it! But our traditions include not only the things we do, but also the things and people we see routinely this time of the year. I love this time of year - a time of change, where the air is cool but the earth is warm, the sunlight glows lovely orange as the days shorten, the boots and sweaters come out, and our slow cookers become our new best friends. 

Here's some ideas of how to capture and document the signs of autumn:

1. Take photos of the same thing during the same time of year and see how they change from year to year. I try to take a photo of my house from the same vantage point throughout the seasons and the years.

The last several years I've taken a self portrait (using a timer) of our little family gathered around the table for Thanksgiving lunch. It's fun to see not only how we've changed, but also how the food and decor on the table has changed.

2. Photograph and write about the things you look forward to seeing that only appear this time of year.

3. Document what sights signal a change in the season: warmer clothes, changing colors, shorter days, soups and comfort food, fall decor. Do you change the decor around your home during autumn? Has it changed over the years?

4. What are the sounds unique to fall? Gusty winds, rustling leaves, crunching acorns underfoot, and even leaf blowers all signal fall to me. I love to hear the sounds popping and crunching beneath my feet.

5. Don't forget about the smells of fall: the earthy smell of dry leaves, and of course, pumpkin spice everything!

For those of you braving the stores today, happy shopping! If you're not, I hope you get some time for crafty fun and document some of your autumnal traditions.

Happy Scrapping!

Vacation Photos

Hi, again. I am back today to share some of my photos from the Deutsch Family Road Trip, 2015. (I am not sure why I feel the need to title our vacations, but I do.) Yesterday, I wrote about writing our vacation stories while on the road, without feeling the need to scrapbook them right away. Today, I will share some photos. In a way, this is the easy part of documenting vacations. Pulling out your camera, large or small, and snapping photos to capture all the fun and scenery.

As a scrapbooker though, as I take photos of our vacation, I wonder at the time, "What is the story here?" And that dictates some of the pictures I take. 

There are the posed family photos that simply say, "we were here."

 

There are the photos that cover some of the details of the journey of our life on the road.

 

And there are the photos that tell the really rich stories.

Like, who we spent time with:

 

And how a city boy, who does not love nature, managed in a cabin surrounded by moths:

And about his brother, who is happy to be close to nature.

 

And then there are the photos that capture beauty and scenes that we don't get to see every day.

 

Trust me, there are many, many more. Some will get made into scrapbook pages, and some will just exist on the computer. Some of those scrapbook pages will tell stories, and others will just help display some favorite photos. I will share some of those layouts tomorrow.

Click: Using photo templates for a vacation album

Hello! It's Jennifer Larson again, continuing to share with you how I build a vacation album. Today I'd like to share how I select photos for the layouts and fit many photos on the page.

Yesterday I determined the subject for each layout in the album. Next I open up my photos in Photoshop Elements Organizer, scrolling through my vacation photos and opening every photo that fits that category:

Once I do, I select 2 of the best photos that I will print 4x6, though I will probably trim them to fit the page. The rest I will use to create a photo collage. Side comment here: I usually make my vacation albums 8.5x11, so the photo collage I usually make that size with a white border. I then trim it and affix it to cardstock.

I used to make photo collages to keep on hand forever year's vacation, but it's easier for me to size the template to the photos I select for each page. Here's a video showing how to create a collage (ignore the part where I forget if I should use control, option, or command. Gah.):

   

And here's the finished collage:

As I mentioned on the video, I like leaving a spot or two empty for patterned paper and embellishments after I print the photo. I have also found that with an 8.5x11 template, I can comfortably fit about 6-9 photos. More than that, the photos are so small they lose all details. If I want to fit one or two more, I might print it in a 4x6 format and then circle punch the subject out and add it on top of a corner of the collage with dimensional stickers, plus some embellishments.

Thank you for visiting today! I hope you now have ideas to easily fit many photos on a page. Come back tomorrow so that I can show you how to finish up the album with a very simple design.

click | editing out unwanted things

Happy Tuesday and welcome to this week's edition of Click. Today we are going to talk about editing out unwanted portions of a photograph. 

 

As I was trying to complete the layouts for last year's beach trip, I found this photo. 

 

I liked the picture and the moment it captured, but didn't really want the bare back and I did want to crop the photo tighter so the girls' faces are more visible.

 

 

I did like seeing the girls more clearly, but I felt like the extra bodies still cluttered things up. I added some elements on either side of the photo and the a strip of ribbon across the top. There were still some bit of the kids in the background that were visible so I used the cloning tool (in Photoshop) to get rid of them.

I am so much happier now and feel like the photograph better suits the layout and story now. How about you? Have you thoughts about taking out superfluous items from your photos? Tell me what you think!

Other People's Pictures

Hi, everyone! A funny thing happened to me a couple of weeks ago. Or, rather than funny, it was kind of a scrapbooker's version of Hades. I had a few days off of work. My husband and kids were out of the house for those days. Two of those vacation days were spent cleaning closets and scrubbing floors. While that sounds like the terrible part, I actually liked getting those things done. On my  final day off, I said, "Ahh! Now I have no housework to do, I have the apartment to myself, and a nice open block of time to scrapbook." That is like heaven on earth. But the heavens quickly closed, when no matter how hard I thought about it, I could not think of one tiny, little story to scrapbook. I searched through my photos, and discovered that I haven't taken too many recently. (Those darn teenagers!") What is a woman with a very tidy home to do? 

First, I took a nap.

Then I played a lot of solitaire on my phone. 

Then my husband came home, and I found the solution to my problem! I went to my husband's phone, and I quickly found inspiration for some new stories. 

First, there pictures that I found from my husband's work, featuring my husband, a fez, and some finger puppets. If that doesn't tell a story, I don't know what will:

And then I found some pictures from my husband and children's annual trip to Coney Island. And since it's an annual trip, I have some similar photos going back pretty far. I put them together for this page:

I have photos for a couple of more pages that are still in the works. 

So, the next time you are feeling at a loss for photos and stories, try looking though someone else's photos for some inspiration.

 

 

 

Click: Contrast

It's Jennifer Larson sharing some ideas about photography. 

Whenever I post about photography, I feel compelled to share that I am not a photographer: I use either a point-and-shoot or my phone, and I do little processing of the photos after. (For the next photos, I used my iPhone 6, and I used PicTapGo, primarily Lights On, AutoColor, and Crispity.) Still, there are some things I do to make my photos look a little better.

Every summer I take pictures of my perennial gardens. The photos sustain me during the winter (and it's a lot easier to take photos of my flowers than my boys--they stand still much better!). I spend a lot of time trying to make the composition of the shots look better, and the thing I've been focusing on lately is composition. Here's how I've used contrast within the composition to make the shots more interesting:

Texture

When I take pictures, I look to combine different textures in my shots--in the above photo, the smooth daylily leaves contrast with the intricacies of the columbine blossoms.

Color

Pictures in my garden automatically have contrasting colors--the green of the foliage versus the color of the bloom. Here I captured two floral colors that contrasted sharply--the pale Siberian iris and the lush color of the peony--in addition to the green. (For anyone who has kids that are Pokemon fans like mine, does the central iris look like a Pokeman to you too? It does to me!)

Light

This is a hard one--too strong a contrast will make the image difficult to see. I took this shot of a perennial geranium in my shade bed with more dappled light. The blossom is in full light while the leaves and wood mulch are shaded. This draws more attention to the blossom.

Shape

The contrasts between the smooth, almost linear daylily leaves and the star shaped leaves of the potentilla and the even more intricately star shaped blossoms of the allium make this shot more interesting. The contrasast in shapes invites the viewer to look deeper into the image.

Background

"Background" isn't really a design term, but I thought about it with this shot. I wanted to flowers to be in the foreground,  but it looked much more interesting to capture the rusted birdbath and the pale lamb's ears and the lawn in the background than to just fill the frame with peony blooms.

Thank you for visiting! I hope this gives you ideas to play around with this summer when you are taking pictures.

 

Click.

Hi there! I want to begin today´s post by saying I am sorry that I have been abscent from the blog for a while. I have moved houses and life has been a little crazy lately so I had to take a little break. But I feel back to normal now and I look forward to getting back to regular blogging, both here and on my personal blog. 

 

Today I want to share a fun idea for your vacation photos. Summer is right before us and even if you will have a staycation I bet there will be days for going to the park, ice cream place or the pool. When you are there you might want to try this little project. 

I follow Olya Schmidt on Instagram. She is a fellow memorykeeper and artist. While on a European vacation recently she brought project Life cards from the Inspire edition and used them in her photos.

 

She simple held up different cards while sightseeing. Fun, right?!

 

She also used a few wood veneer pieces. 

Becky Higgins regrammed this collection of Olya´s photos.

 

I thought this was a fun and different way to shoot vacation photos. Last summer I did this a few times too. 

 

 

I used my Instax camera for this one.

 

I hope that this gives you a litte inspiration for your summer photos!

Lisa

Click | Little aspects in our lives.

Hello everyone it's Cari here! Today I want to talk about photographing those little aspects in our lives. 

When I think in my scrapbook, I think that I'm doing something for the future. Today something that seems meaningless it can become something really nice to remember in the future. I believe that I'm not doing my layouts to see it tomorrow, I making my layouts to see it in ten year and remember how my life was ten years ago.
And the same goes to photography, today unimportant things may be something really nice to remember in the future. Today I'm going to share four things I try to click every now and then.

Your view: the view from your windows always change, even if you think they don't. When I was a little girl, my parents moved to a new home at the outside of the city, with hardly no houses, today there is a school, supermarket and hundreds and hundreds of houses. There are some old photos that show how empty was the neighborhood I is so fun watching them and to see how much have it change.
Now I live in an apartment in the middle of the city and just in front my window, a new building is being made. I took this photo just before they start the construction and I know It's going to be fun to see this once the building is done.

Your plants: I have to face it... my plants always died, I love them so much and I took really good care of them, but then all of the sudden they die. Yes... even my succulents die =(

Your Supplies: We change a lot what we use, we change our phones, our computers, our planners. It's fun to remember how gigantic was your phone or simply how they look.

You: Even if we don't want, we change and we need to be in front of the photos sometimes to make memories of ourselves. 

Do you take photos to those little things? If you have something else to share please leave it on the comments so I can add it to my list!
 

click | daily living

This month I have been thinking a lot about our daily life and how it is, or isn't, represented in our scrapbooks. I realized that when I had just one child and a much quieter life (retrospectively deemed, of course), much of our life was captured on our pages. But now that I have three and our daily routine includes lots of on the go things, I'm not sure that my pages represent our busy selves anymore.

For instance, my girls both do dance and gymnastics. Between the two girls and the two activities, we spend countless hours in the car. It is really just in between time, right? Until you start adding it up and then it becomes its own activity. Until now, I have totally failed to document the hours and laughs that we have spent and had in the car. 

 

To right this "wrong," I took a pic of the girls in the back seat coming home from dance pictures (hence the makeup). I actually did a video and a screenshot--much safer while driving. And has the added benefit of a very funny video! (Four minutes and 21 seconds of them singing some homemade song at the top of their lungs. Awesome!)

 

I love moments of reckoning and reset. It allows me an opportunity to change and adapt. So this month I am trying to capture photos of those things that I/we do all the time. So often, in fact, that I sometimes forget to include them in my pages. Hopefully this month I can create a selection of "boring" pages.

How about you? Any thoughts on getting those mundane details?