Three Tips for the Summer

Hello!

Have you ever found an old note you forgot you had written about a seemingly mundane aspect of your life? I had that experience a few weeks ago when I decided to finally finish assembling my month-and-a-half attempt at photographing my daily life in 2009. More than a year had passed and I didn’t remember that I had added a note about almost every photo into the metadata.

“Now that Aiden is pretty sturdy on the bike, we went for a bike ride through our neighborhood, over to the neighborhood on the other side of Broadway, and then to Skyline Park for lunch and more bike riding. It was perfect weather and we had so much fun!”

I surprised myself with a reminder of some of my day-to-day intentions…

“Made hot cereal with coconut, nutmeg, and cinnamon. Since we eat hot cereal multiple times a week now, I’m constantly looking for new ways to dress it up so the kids will enjoy it more. The coconut spin was a winner!”

“The kids invaded my scraproom today and we spent a little time with our photos and memories. They made pages while I organized my stuff.”

These observations of the normal, unremarkable things the kids do fascinated me and will probably fascinate them someday…

“Checking out each others’ flavors.”

“Trinity was so happy setting up a home on top of books, which rested on the back of her bed, for her little animal toys. It surprises me that she does this despite the fact that she has a number of doll houses. Maybe they just don’t suit her own imagination?”

“I found Aiden playing his recorder and Blake acting like he was whistling the tune. Just a funny little glimpse of being together and doing your own things at the same time.”

And then there were these notes from a significant event from that time. They’re brief but it was chilling for me to find them in the context of my everyday life. I’m so grateful to have jotted down these quick thoughts…

“Printed up some photos for Mom, and for Israel to frame for his birthday. Grandma Holt died late that night, around 10:45. We got the call just after 11.”

“For Grandma’s viewing Jerry and Debbie gave me a box of pictures to arrange for display. Today I put it all together. What a wonderful chance to spend some time reviewing moments in her life and thinking about her.”

“Today we listened to the Edison music box that Grandma Holt gave us just months before she died. It belonged to her own grandmother and we wanted to listen to it in memory and honor of Irene before going to her viewing.”

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Three Tips For A Summer Project

Today our kids get out of school for the year and I have decided to repeat this daily documentation for the first two or three weeks of our summer, just to capture the everyday pace of all of us being home. If you want to join me, here are a few tips:

1) Locate Your Metadata
Learn where your photo manager stores the metadata for your photos. Metadata is information your camera stores about the picture, including the date you took it. You don’t have to take notes — matching a description of the photo with your date — if you know how to view the metadata of your photos.

2) Add Notes To Your Metadata
Find out if your software will allow you to add your own notes to the metadata. Mine does. It’s called a “caption” and I seem to be able to add as much text to a photo as I like. This is where I jot my thoughts on each daily photo.

If this is not possible, you can keep a notebook. But the ability to embed your thoughts into the metadata is valuable, not only because it simplifies the process of putting your pages together, but it also becomes a backup in case you ever lose your albums.

Even if you choose not to do a daily project like this, you might want to add a thought to the meta data of some of your photos, just in case.

3) Choose A Simple Format
You can scrapbook your daily summer photos in a simple format like this that you can add to your regular scrapbook album, or you could make a daily mini-album like Ali Edwards’s December Daily project. I haven’t decided on my format yet. Either way, I’m sure it will be simple.

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I’m excited to kick off our summer vacation with a little family photojournalism. You want to join me?

Tags: Newsletters

This entry was posted on Thursday, May 27th, 2010 at 12:05 am and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

Legomom

Wow, those are fantastic peeks into your life, Noelle. It really inspires me to not just drag the camera out for the 'events' but for the 'mundane' things (at least what seems mundane at the time) to chronicle. These are the pictures that will spark conversations in the future when the kids, as adults, will look at them… at least that is the plan.
Antoinette

What a fabulous idea. Wishing you luck with the holidays and as always Thanks for Sharing!
http://lauraslayouts.blogspot.com Laura

So simple and yet so brilliant idea. Thanks for sharing that tip.
DebD

Your life memories triggered a need for me to call my Mom. Thanks for reminding me what is truely important in life.
Tutor Carol

Noell, one more tip for the summer – take architectural alphabet photos in your local area — You can arrange them in frames to spell – Believe, Together,…You can find letter shapes in fences, awnings, etc. I see the letter X in the popsicle sharing photo! THis is a project in which kids can be totally excited, and use up creative and physical energy. Each child can make up their own mini-book — and the rainy day project is built in !!!
Donna U

I really enjoyed seeing your newsletter on the website – pictures and all – thanks!
bobbysgirlforever

Noelle, thank you so much for giving me a gentle, but swift kick to start using the notes area of my photos metadata! I am always in a state of perpetual “behindedness” and need all the tips and shortcuts I can find!

I'm good about organizing my digital photos by date and event folders, but have never spent the time to take notes and this shall surely be a huge positive for me when I begin to creates albums and/or photo books. Thank you, thank you, THANK YOU!

Have a lovely weekend and an INCREDIBLE summer!
JenK

I don't know what the Paperclipping Festival is, but I'm so there! :D
Sandy

I have used that Metadata file (if its the same one I bring up on PSE) but have forgotten about it. Thanks for reminding me. It's so much better to add a note when it's fresh on your mind. Thanks for sharing your pic's what great memories.
http://www.paperclipping.com Noell

Awesome idea! We love giving the kids cameras for projects and fun!
kim strother

AWESOME!!! I did not know I had a Metadata file. But it was easy to find on my Apple and I know it is something I will use ll the time. Thanks!
Sandra

Brilliant, I often get too busy to stop and just look at stuff, having us come here to your page was a wonderful idea. Metadata, mmm, funny ya know, this is the third time this week I had heard this word, and now that I know what I can do with it, well, lets just say that I'll be using it alot. Thanks again for helping me to stop and smell the roses and not just look over them.
Kimb

What a wonderful idea!!!! Off to have a look at my Metadata!
Peg

Thanks Noell,
Even though my “kids” are grown , I'm going to try to sneak in a few photos of them and my granddaughter in the beginning of summer anyway. I'm sure I don't have to tell you, but like to remind moms to take lotsa pictures, even if you just put em in a photo safe box and not “scrap” them all. One day you'll look back and appreciate it, like you did with these above. I always enjoy your style. Have a fun time with the “kids” off for the summer.
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KatieK.

I love adding notes to the metadata. I even have started to write more there about the daily everyness then in my journal ‘cuz that is where I will want to read and enjoy it later – with the images that decorated that day. Sometimes I copy it all from that week’s worth of photos and paste it into a Word document so I can print out and save and refer to for journaling for my layouts. I also like that when I share my photos with friends/family they get the info I typed there also.

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