Pictures!

Does anyone remember film?  No, not film like movies.  Like film...for a 35 mm camera.  Does anyone even remember 35 mm cameras?  Do you remember that you would get a roll of 12, 24 or 36 pictures and have to go to a store - like those Kodak kiosks - drop off your film and wait a couple days to see the pictures?  As a kid I would hope that my finger didn't cover half the shot or that my picture wasn't fuzzy from being out of focus.  Now we have ridiculously smart cameras that do everything for you and give instant access to your photo.  To me, it's both a blessing and a curse.  It's great because you can take as many pictures as you want until you get the right one.  It's bad because you can take as many pictures as you want until you get the right one.  I sometimes have 12 pictures of my kids doing the same thing hoping that their eyes will be at just a little more open or the smile will be just a little bit better.  After getting the perfect picture then I have to worry about cropping, red eye reduction, borders, lighting, saturation, captioning, and more.  After shooting gobs of pictures in a week does anyone actual print them???

I have photos of me from when I was a baby that are in a picture album.  Photos from old fashioned film!  As a kid I would look at them, touch them, and rearrange them.  I remember reading that kids are losing their histories and identities because we don't print photos any more.  There is nothing for them to hold.  Digital pictures and pictures printed directly on the paper don't give kids that same connection that I had growing up.  So I was determined to print actual pictures and make albums for my kids.

It's harder than I thought.

In today's digital age printed photo books are cheaper, easier and faster than printing out actual photos.  Nevertheless, I was (and still am) determined to make at least some photo albums with actual printed pictures.

Derek and I bought frames for the boys that have a space for twelve photos - one for each month of the child's first year.  I figured if we did this we would have to print some photos and I'd get my wish of having pictures the kids can touch.  The space for the photo is maybe 1" x 2".  I guess you're just supposed to take a close up of your child's face. 

Well, we don't do boring pictures in our house.  The pictures we are taking won't fit in that tiny oval because of our creative set decoration.  Yes, that's right.  We do set decoration.  There are shopping lists of props and costumes.  We scout out locations.  Yes, that's right.  We shoot on location.  So the pictures won't look great in the frame because you can't see everything.  But now I get to make an album for each kid with their monthly photos!  After six months I wanted to share these pictures with you.  I don't share a ton of pictures.  I don't yet know how I feel about posting my children's entire lives online, but these are too cute to not share with my blog fans.   

 April Showers

 

 May Flowers

 

Happy Father's Day

 

  

July 4th

 

Final Days of Summer

 

 Back to School