Digital Project Life Layouts: January 2014
Sharing my Project Life Pages is a little bit intimidating. Scrapbooking is such a personal hobby that it’s tough to think of the best way to make these posts useful for you, the reader.
Here’s what I’m going to try to emphasize for you with each layout:
- The random stuff I like to capture and document for myself.
- The simple approach to Project Life that I take. There are a lot of photos and very little embellishment and journaling.
- The way I organize some spreads into themes or stories.
You can click on each image below for a slightly larger view.
Capture Idea: Anomalies in the weather. Fog is pretty rare here where I live, so I snapped that pic on the left side.
Capture Idea: Christmas decorations back in the box.
Capture Idea: A shadow selfie on the bottom right.
Simplicity Point: Use digital paper to fill in the journaling spots if you don’t have much to say.
Capture Idea: In-store displays that catch your eye.
Simplicity Point: Don’t have a square pocket for your Instagram photos? Mat it onto a 4×6 card, add a border, add a caption, and call it done.
Capture Idea: Trying a new hobby? Take pictures of your early attempts. It will amaze you how far you’ve come when you look back on it.
Capture Idea: Anything unusual in the sky? The upper left was a shot I got on the way to work of the smoke from a local wildfire.
Capture Idea: Any weekly rituals? I paint my nails every week, so I try to remember to snap a picture of my finished manicure.
This entire spread was taken with my DSLR
Capture Idea: Take a stroll through your backyard one day. Document how the plants look. It’ll let you look back later and see how it changes.
Story Idea: Organize all those backyard garden photos into a single spread.
Resources:
Photos edited by RadLab. (Affiliate Link)
Templates by Cathy Zielske: 01, 02, 05
Fonts: ABeeZee and Klinic Slab
Kit: Jade Edition
For more info on my general approach to Project Life, check out this blog post.
Project Life is a memory-keeping system created by Becky Higgins. She’s awesome. Go visit her website for more information or watch her 3-day course on CreativeLive.
Utah State Capitol Photos and Tips
I had some time to be able to walk from my hotel to the State Capitol on my Utah trip. Oh man, they are not kidding when they say Capitol Hill.
The capitol building itself is quite beautiful, but really does look similar to many other state capitol buildings across the nation.
What’s neat here is that there’s a lot of wide open space around the building.
Photo Tip: Get pictures of the same building from multiple angles. I got one straight on and one from the side.
There was also this other statue on the grounds. I neglected to look at the plaque, so I’m not sure what it is.
Photo Tip: Don’t forget the plaques. Your memory isn’t that good.
From the side of that statue, I was able to get both the statue and the building in the same shot.
Photo Tip: Incorporate two subjects in the same photo to provide context.
This time I did manage to get a photo of the plaque explaining the significance behind all the beehives I had seen around town.
The stairs leading up to the capitol building had two giant beehives on the sides. I managed to get a detail shot on one of them.
Photo Tip: Experiment with getting up close.
Photos edited by RadLab. (Affiliate Link)
Instagram Challenge Round-Up: November 2014
I love Instagram. I spend way too much time there than is healthy.
I also love the benefits that come from joining various photo challenges: 1. You get to practice your photography, 2. You’re part of a group of people participating in the same thing, and 3. Other people can find you and see your pictures.
Here are a handful of the photo challenges that and prompts out there for this month. Click on the image/link for more information from the author of the challenge.
#fmsphotoaday by Fat Mum Slim
#chelleydarlingpotd by Chelley Darling
#chelleydarlingpotd by Chelley Darling
#thedailybon by Create as Folk
#thedailybon by Create as Folk
#ourthankful30 by Click it Up a Notch and ShutterBag USA
#ourthankful30 by Click it Up a Notch and ShutterBag USA
Any challenges that you participate in that I missed? Leave them in the comments! I’d love to learn about more challenges.
Lessons from Digital Scrapbooking with Project Life
My interest in Project Life started in 2012. I had been witnessing bloggers like Ali Edwards and Elise Blaha Cripe posting their layouts online and thought that it was a neat system that I could get on board with. Plus, what a great way to actually get photos off my computer and into books that I could flip through!
I valiantly started documenting 2012 in the digital format, to be printed in a photobook all at once when I was done. I started in July 2012 with zest and excitement. And then I realized that this was a lot more difficult than I expected (so many options for photos and digital supplies!). And then the procrastination set in. And then I finally finished that 2012 book in March of 2014, with 2013 and 2014 memories completely untouched.
Here’s what I thought of my first completed year of layouts and my plan for ongoing layouts.
1. Time and Effort
I thought I would be able to keep up and document every week as it happened, like all the other bloggers I saw. I was wrong. I realized that I needed to keep the pressure off myself.
New Plan: It’s supposed to be fun. Set aside some time each week or month. Turn on some music. Spend an hour or two. And just chip away at it.
2. Weekly Format
It was entirely too difficult for me to fit the quantity of photos I had taken (either too few or too many) into a Sunday to Saturday weekly spread.
New Plan: Monthly format, with spreads just telling the stories of the month. Not too much fussing with the exact dates or chronological order within that month.
3. Sorting and Selecting Photos
I had created photo folders with dates for each week ahead of time, separate from actually working on the layouts. Even though I was super behind on making layouts, I had already pre-populated the photos I wanted to include by putting them in my folders. This worked out so well for me to have the photos ready and waiting when I was sitting down to do layouts.
New Plan: I continue to do this with monthly folders instead. I’m also using PhotoMechanic to help me select out the winners from the month and then make a copy for Project Life-ing quickly.
4. Templates
My first book was made entirely with the official Digital Project Life page templates. These mimic the designs available in physical format. I like the flexibility of using digital templates because I could merge “pockets” together or rotate the template around. I didn’t love how round the corners were though…
New Plan: I switched over to Cathy Zielske’s Life Basics Templates: 01, 02, 05
5. Title Card
When I started out, I wasn’t using a core kit. I was just cobbling together a variety of digital supplies that I found for free. My title cards were usually some digital paper that I liked, with maybe a ghosted text box, and then text giving the week number and the dates for that week. Too many choices; too much time wasted making these decisions.
New Plan: The first spread of each month gets one “pocket” dedicated to a month card using the 2014 calendar designed by Jasmine Dowling.
6. Photo Editing
You could probably spend a lot of time “perfecting” your photos. But I certainly don’t have time for that. I’m already strapped for time!
New Plan: RadLab. My style is to add about 50% Oh Snap! and maybe 10% of Punch Out!… and depending on the photo: Lights On at full blast.
7. Fonts
I could spend all day deciding which fonts to use. And some days, I spent way too much time hemming and hawing over fonts. I also didn’t really know which font size would look best, so I basically just guessed. Once I got a printed book back though, I could look to see the font size that was optimal from the variety of spreads I had.
New Plan: I pre-selected a set of two font styles to use for the whole year. And also, pre-selected the sizes for various functions (captions for spreads, photo captions, and journaling).
8. Journaling
Uh, practically nonexistent. It’s pretty tough to actually remember stuff when you’re doing layouts 6 months later. But I realized that the photos tell a lot by themselves. And if journaling isn’t for me, then let’s just keep going with layouts being photo-heavy.
New Plan: Add a few more captions to photos, but keep expectations low for extensive journaling.
9. Ephemera
This one is tough for digital. It’s not like with the physical pockets and filling them with physical objects. You pretty much have to photograph ticket stubs, etc. My problem is that I won’t always remember to photograph them on the day it’s happening. And then my file-sorting goes to hell if I took a picture of stuff after the fact.
New Plan: Eh, I get what I get. If I miss it, no big. It’s about documenting what you have. Something is better than nothing. And it doesn’t need to be perfect.
10. Supplies
I saved the big category for last. Sometimes I’m fighting a losing battle with sifting through files to find the perfect journaling card to go with my layout. So many minutes and hours just shuffling back and forth between folders and folders of supplies. Some core kits, some other designs, loads of miscellaneous freebies.
New Plan: One kit per month of layouts. Embellish minimally. Reduce decision fatigue. Creative constraints can actually be freeing. And I’m feeling way more accomplished and happy about it.
The main takeaway: Don’t get too bogged down with what everyone else is doing – Sometimes you just have to close Pinterest.
Project Life is a memory-keeping system created by Becky Higgins. She’s awesome. Go visit her website for more information or watch her 3-day course on CreativeLive.
Photos edited by RadLab. (Affiliate Link)
Saltair Photos and Tips
One of the shooting excursions at Click Away was a bus trip to Saltair on the Great Salt Lake. Saltair has an interesting history as being a recreational hub, but is now deserted since the shore line has receded.
Photo Tip: Try to get a wide shot of a building to show the expanse of space around it.
The bus dropped us off over a mile away from the building, so I didn’t quite make it close up. I did however manage to get this sign with Saltair in the background.
Photo Tip: Grab pictures of signage to help you remember where you’ve been.
This was the visitor center where the bus had stopped.
Photo Tip: Auxilliary buildings will help tell the story of where you’ve been. They might not always be pretty.
The Great Salt Lake.
Photo Tip: Go wide. It’s a big lake.
More of the lake. This time, with ripples.
Photo Tip: If you’re photographing a body of water, try to get both the stillness and the movement if there is any.
More lake. This time, with salt.
Photo Tip: Anything neat washing up on shore? In this case, I could see small deposits of salt along the edges of the water.
And you may have already heard that I have a thing with photographing my feet.
Photos edited by RadLab. (Affiliate Link)
Salt Lake City Street Photography Tips
One of the types of activities featured at Click Away were the photo walks. I took one of them which involved street photography. The walk was led by Courtney Slazinik of Click it Up a Notch, who walked us around the convention center area, down some random interesting-looking streets.
In Salt Lake City, all of the crosswalks have this super cute decal reminding people to look both ways before crossing the street.
Photo Tip: See if the city you’re in has anything interesting in the crosswalks. Are there any patterns in the street? Are the crosswalks brick or some other texture?
Around the convention center, there were signs for Click Away helping people figure out where they were going. This one, I snapped outside in the bus loading area.
Photo Tip: Get a picture of signage that’s related to the conference that you’re attending. It’ll help preserve some of those fun memories of the conference.
I generally like photos of the “Push to Walk” buttons because I can try to get some cool depth of field action going.
Photo Tip: If you collect a lot of these, it’ll make for a neat photo series.
We even found a row of window washers! (Note: dirty water does indeed fall on you)
Photo Tip: Look up!
This was some detail on a street lamp pole.
Photo Tip: Look for interesting textures and emblems on poles.
I found this texture on the sidewalk where the flagstones were coming up. Yes, they were a little wobbly to stand on.
Photo Tip: Another photo series idea that I’ve talked about before.
This was outdoor seating from a cafe. I saw these perfectly set empty tables and thought it looked pretty.
Photo Tip: This would be more meaningful for you if it was someplace you’d actually eaten. Try to look for shots like this in restaurants you’re visiting.
I kind of have a thing for trash cans…
Photo Tip: See if the trash receptacles look unique where you’re traveling; who knows, they might be quite photogenic.
I also have a thing for flowers…
Photo Tip: Try to frame your flowers in unique ways or try to give some context to where you are.
Courtney was so fun to walk around town with! (even if she’s not highly skilled at reading maps…)
Thanks for a great photo walk, ladies! (Here’s a group picture that Courtney snapped of us standing on a street corner)
Photos edited by RadLab. (Affiliate Link)
My Photo Taking Journey
Hello! I’m heading out to Salt Lake City this week to attend my first ever photography conference! I’ll be practicing my shooting skills at Click Away. If you’re there too, I hope to meet you! Here’s a peak at my photo-taking history and journey leading up to now.
Recently, I was going through my childhood photo albums to prep them for scanning and long-term archiving, and I noticed sometimes there would be photos of my parents and younger brother, but without me in them. I realized that as the older sister, I was the one tasked with taking the photos. Based on the years on the albums, I was probably about 7 years old.
By Christmas of age 8, my parents gave me my own camera for Christmas. Film, of course, was the rate-limiting step back then, so I didn’t take that many pictures. I was probably allotted to one roll per vacation.
I used this camera for various snapshots and school trips up until I was 17.
When I was 17, I went digital. It was the summer of 2001. I had my first summer job and my own spending money. I bought myself a HP PhotoSmart 315. (aside: thank goodness for metadata because I do not have superhuman memory) So high-tech for 2001. It took four AA batteries and everything. Unfortunately, the batteries died so quickly that I still hadn’t gotten used to taking tons of photos yet. Also, I didn’t yet grasp the concept of saving in high-resolution format.
By 2003, it was time to upgrade. Got myself a Nikon E2500. This was seriously the coolest because the lens could flip around in various directions, including towards myself for the old-school selfie. This was the camera I used throughout college and it was just so handy!
2007: Another upgrade. Nikon Coolpix S50. So sleek and compact. It was perfect for the plentiful trip and vacation photos I would be taking.
Meanwhile, the camera phone technology was advancing. Back when camera phones were crazy pixelated, I figured I’d stick to the brick cell phone and a point-and-shoot camera. When I finally got a smartphone, that changed for me as well. I started with an iPhone 3GS in 2009. I still didn’t take many photos with this phone. It just wasn’t super handy for me. With the next upgrade for an iPhone 4S in 2011, I seriously increased cellphone photo frequency and quality. Using the volume up button to release the shutter changed my world. Now I was definitely taking way more phone photos.
In early 2012, I started to read more about photography, but I still just wanted a handy point and shoot. Combine this with a good sale at the local big box retailer and I got the Canon PowerShot SX260 HS
And as I learned even more, I decided it was time to take the plunge. In early 2013, I bought a Canon EOS 60D
But really, the camera I use the most? The one that’s attached to me everywhere I go? The one that can instantaneously put pictures up on the line? The iPhone 5S. Rocking hard since September 2013.
Overall, I love taking photos. I love trying to find new angles and try to see what I can capture. It’s amazing to look back and reflect on how I grew into this hobby. And really, it’s totally not about the gear. Technology totally changes the way we take photos now, and it’s awesome. Digital lets us experiment with stuff and document our everyday lives like never before. Pretty cool.
Do you remember when and how you started taking your own photos? Are you the family historian or does someone else fill that role?
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Photo Series Idea: Look at Your Feet
So, I tend to look down a lot as I’m walking around, mostly because I feel like a klutz and want to make sure I don’t trip on anything.
I’m also looking at any interesting patterns on the ground. I’ve posted quite a few photos on my Instagram account of my feet and the view from where I stand. This is something I do see regularly on Instagram, so I won’t try to claim any credit for making it up or anything. But I’m usually trying to find a new angle to capture in seemingly mundane places. Most of my pictures have been outside a local drugstore or at my local library.
Funny enough, when I was sorting through my archive of digital photos, I realized I’ve been doing this unknowingly since 2002. I even managed to catch a shoe photo of every member of my family on a single family outing from 2003. Stuff like this is pretty neat to look at a decade later. Sort of like, “hey, I remember I used to love those shoes!”
Over the years, I’ve continued with the feet theme and I like how it gives a different angle to my family photos. I’m happy that now I get to include my husband’s feet on our adventures too.
What unique ways do you document yourself, where you’ve been, and your family?
Photos edited with RadLab. (Affiliate Link)
