Documenting

For a while now I have been watching other bloggers and creative folk on the interweb create Project Life scrapbooks. And I have been thinking a lot about documenting life as of late.

I never loooooved photography when I was younger, it always seemed somehow serious to me. It was fine to snap a few photos at birthdays or the holidays (when everyone was "dressed up"). But the idea of taking pictures of the little things seemed like a lot of work; as if taking a picture of just my hands, or something I ate for dinner would be wasting film. And I think it used to be hard to argue with that; film cost money, and you only got 24 pictures on a roll, and you would have to wait to have the film sent off to be developed....it all just seemed like a lot for what could turn out to be a blurred mess...

But now...

Now the whole concept of how and what the average person can document is almost limitless. Between the clarity we can achieve from just our cellphone pics, to all the free photo editing software out there, photography is now a daily part of so many lives. Most of us find ourselves snapping away and accumulating 100's (let's be real 1,000's) of  photos, stored on our computer. And it's cool right?! 

So now what do you do with all your collected moments?

It is a good question. Blogging is a good tool, instagram, flickr....all sorts of social media.....but there seems to be a missing element. For me the best part of taking pictures with film was getting them back after being developed, scrolling through them reliving the moments and holding the pics trying not to smuge them. 

That being said I am determined to print more of the photos I take and put them into some sort of organization. Because I really do like taking pictures now. And  because it tuns out that the super embarrassing photo taken of you with food on your face, is the best moment of that vacation. Or that the selfie you took that you thought cut off your face, turns out to be the perfect artsy crop. Photography has a way of capturing more than just our visual memory of an event, but the feeling that the moment conjures up. And these memories are the good old days we are going to miss in the years to come.