Let me expound upon Nick Kelsh’s quote (have I told you how much I love him and his tips?) !!
Because in the background, my family is shouting, hooting, singing ‘Oh Yeah’.
You see, MeMaw (that is what my first grandchild named me) carries around her red DSLR camera to every sporting event, every family get-together, every school performance, etc. embarrassing everyone by taking photos, and more photos….and guess who LOVES her photos later?
But here’s my real point: these photo subjects (and their offspring) will in 20-40-60-100 years be ever-so-grateful that she not only took the photos, but printed, preserved and added the stories or details to make them stick around as part of the family history.
Just ask yourself “Would I like to see some photos from my great-grandmother’s life as a little girl and know a story of an important part of her growing up?” I know! ME, TOO!
STEP ONE: Take the photos….
STEP TWO: Print the photos putting them into albums OR create digital albums online and print them.
DURING STEPS ONE & TWO: Whatever form works (diary, phone notes, notebook) – WRITE DOWN the story that goes with the photos.
As my mom entered her late 70’s, she was bed-bound and (thankfully) dug into the dresser drawer full of her family’s generational pictures and all of our family photos and memorabilia. She put them into album books. Unfortunately, these were the “unsafe” glue under plastic page albums and I knew they needed to be moved as quickly as I could.
BUT – best move ever – I asked her to go page-by-page with me and tell me who, what, where and the stories behind them. I wrote as fast as I could as she talked and turned pages. (I know, should have had a recorder)
She left for her Heavenly Home not long after that.
I started transferring the photos and memorabilia to safe albums, adding the stories and wishing I had asked more questions.
I quickly switched to doing it online creating digital albums. Why? Found I wrote more online, could re-size photos to fit better, and the best part – I could easily order multiple copies of the digital books.
Yes, I made 8 volumes of her digital storybooks — all duplicated and distributed.
Not only did my siblings get copies but also my grown kids – now the heirloom photos and stories are spread out amongst others so that fire or flood or tornados cannot wipe out those memories.
Were ALL the pictures and ALL the stories in there? No – but I just could not let that stop me. Instead, it inspired me to work on the additional family genealogy items – AND my own – think through, cull out, and decide where to spend my efforts.
STEP ONE MUST BE FOLLOWED BY STEP TWO! Power to you – and start thinking about the subjects, the treasures, the photos which are calling you – and how you want them preserved. Start gathering them. I have courses coming to help us “gitterdone”….
