Back when I was a first time mom, it was still the days of buying a roll of film, and waiting days to see whether or not the photo you tried to capture actually worked.
As a result of rolls of film and being a first child...Megan has a photo album devoted to each year of her first six years of life.
And then I got a digital camera.
And a few more kids.
And now I have hundreds of photos stored on a computer, very few printed out, and Drew (and I actually think Joshua) don't even have a photo album, let alone more than 2-3 printed out hard copy photos of them.
So the blessings of digital cameras are certainly the instant knowing whether the photo worked. But now I have 5873 other photos sitting on my computer that really aren't that important but then I feel all sorts of motherhood guilt deleting a photo of a beloved child...
Even if it only shows half a face or a blurred moving body part.
I don't scrapbook anymore.
I do blog (duh). And I have printed out a blog book for 2008 and 2009. I even made smaller, individual ones for each child from 2009.
I own one photo album from Mike's childhood that spans anywhere from baby pictures to junior high. And we glance at it frequently (mainly to compare the uncanny resemblance between Mike and Drew). It is very doable. Much better than Megan one day having to lug around six different albums to find a photo of her at a particular age.
What will Drew (or Joshua) do one day when they are Student of the Week and I have to make a poster complete with photos to send to school? They won't have as much luck finding photos of them in the 'photo drawer' that the other kids will...
How will our children view photos one day?
What do you do?
Do you store them all electronically?
Please, please, please give me some ideas?
Tiffany, you should try one of the free online scrapbook programs. You do it all online, and then send it to be bound into a book. I absolutely LOVE it and it's sooo much faster than old-school scrapbooking. Plus, if one of your kids ruins the book for some reason, it's all saved on your computer so you can just have it re-printed. I've been wanting to try Costco.com--you can compile a book on there, but I haven't tried it yet. I use the one that came with my Apple computer, but there are MANY good programs you can use online. Now that I know what I am doing, I can put a 100 page book together in about 2-3 hours, and it looks awesome! If you want, I can maybe bring one to show you at our mother's group tomorrow.
ReplyDeleteI'm stuck between the old and the new. I scrapbook...(i try...not caught up) I blog....(i try...not very good at keeping up...btw you rule at that) you kinda have to figure out what works for you and stick with it. miss ya girl
ReplyDeleteI'm in your boat! When you figure it out - let me know....
ReplyDeleteI do the blog book but I also make digital scrapbook pages with Memory Mixer. I LOVE IT! I print as many copies as I want or just print them in the blog book.
ReplyDeletePS I print 12x12 pages at Costco.com for very cheap. Especially when you consider I don't have to buy paper or any of the stuff along with not having to print pics.
ReplyDeleteI too have boxes of my son when he was a child. They sit in my closet until I need them. Now, with digital, I have everything filed on my computer by month and year and make scrapbooks on line for the special occations. I don't know, it seems to work ok.
ReplyDeleteI DO NOT scrapbook either. We bought a digital before Cooper was born, but I developed every print and put it in a photo album of his first year. Then every year for his birthday I've made a small 5X7 online book with highlights of the past year. I blog as well and it is my scrapbook. Thanks to the nice books online I made a nice one for Hudson's first year and will do the same for him each birthday. All the other photos are stored on my E: drive. I do need to print out my blog....
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