Picture Display Movement. Step 4. PRINT

{Click the links for Step 1, Step 2, or Step 3 if you missed any of the previous posts}

Ah.  The step that seems to give me the most trouble.  Well, at least it used to.  Cause things are changing around here.  And I already have a good start.

I take loads of pictures.  I get them on my computer.  And now I have them all organized.  But what a bummer if it ends there.  What's the point of taking them if no one ever gets to see them?  All those memories, emotions, and STORIES of our lives sit on a hard drive and remain untold.  And add to my mom-guilt that is already never ending.

So one of my bigger priorities this year is to print and display the pictures I take of our family.  In albums (which I'll talk about) and other forms of display (which I'll also talk about).

When deciding what to print, I start with the END in mind.  I do this before I even take some of the pictures I take.  What is the point of taking this picture?  What story am I trying to tell? And how am I going to share it?  Will it be on the wall? The magnet board? In a slideshow? Or a photo album?

Let's start with just basic prints for a photo album.  I have recently discovered a new way for displaying my photos.  It's called Project Life.  And I'm kind of obsessed because it is exactly what I've been looking for.   (You can visit the website here)

But let's talk printing for just any photo album OR a photo book you can create online through Blurb or Shutterfly or similar companies.

Here's a quick and easy way (because those are my most important criteria in pretty much everything these days) to pick the pictures you want to print.

Since I'm still playing "catch up", here's how I'm doing it right now.

In iPhoto, I clicked on the folder for 2013 ( I'm starting with the most recent and working my way backwards.)  All the pictures from 2013 show up in my screen.  I started at the top and scrolled through the pictures.  I click on the pictures I want to print and "flag" them.

See how some of those pictures have a little orange flag in the top left corner.  To "flag" a picture, you select it (you can select multiple pictures by clicking on one, then clicking on another while holding the "command" key) and then click "flag" at the bottom left of the screen.

Once I scrolled through the whole year, I clicked on the "Flagged" tab on the left of the screen so I can see all the pictures I have flagged.

It also tells you how many photos you have flagged.  So for 2013 I have 1103 pictures I want to print.

The next step is to select all those pictures that I flagged and put them in a folder on my desktop. Click on the first picture, hold down Shift and click on the last picture to select them all.  Then drag and drop them into a folder.  My folder is labeled "TO PRINT".  

Once I have them in the folder, I do a quick edit on those pictures.  (To see how I edit my photos for print in a photo album, click here.)  And by quick edit, I mean quick.  I don't spend hours editing photos.  Because if I do, they'll never get printed.  I know this about me.  It has to be simple. It has to be quick.  It's just the way I work.

Once edited, I upload them for printing.  I'll have to do this in batches so it doesn't feel as expensive.  

My plan is to stay current with the year I'm on, and add in photos from previous years until I have them all printed.  But I have to stay current with this year so I don't just keep falling further and further behind.

So at the end of January, I will print January's pictures using this process.  I will also print a bundle of the photos from last year.  Previous years pictures will go into a Project Life album in no particular order.  I just want them where we can see them.  Just gettin' it done.

But the current year will go into albums according to month.  

I will have a date set to print pictures each month and a date set to put those pictures in the Project Life albums.  Scheduling a consistent and regular time to organize and print photos is more important to me than just about anything else I can schedule.

Step 4.  Print those pictures!!!

{To see my suggestions on where to Print pictures, both for an album and for display in other ways in the home, go to this post.}

{To learn more about Project Life, check out my post here, or go to the Project Life website here}

Step 5 up next.  Displaying your photos.

{To be notified of future posts, subscribe to the blog in the right margin.  Your e-mail is safe with me.  Promise}

Project Life

"Cultivate a good life and document it"

That's the slogan of Project Life.  And I can't believe it has taken me this long to find out about it.

I am NOT a scrapbooker.  The thought of designing and even worse, creating a scrapbook page makes me want to cut my fingers off.  It does not appeal to me.

Sure, I love the end product.  But even then, I always had an "issue" with scrapbooking because it felt like it was more about the "stuff" than it was about the pictures.  And I want my displays to be about the pictures.  About the people.  About the story.

So I've tried several different ways of displaying photos.  And, unfortunately, I've just left a lot of my photos on my computer where no one gets to see them but me.

Until I found Project Life.  It's exactly what I've been looking for.  Simple.  Affordable.  And something I can keep current with.   And it supports my intent to display photos that will enrich our family's life.  Project life is about the STORY, not about the STUFF.

I listened to a 3 day conference Becky Higgins (the creator of Project life) did online and decided we should probably be friends.  Because our mission is the same.  Document your life.  Tell a story.  CREATE a story/life (cultivate a good life).  And in the process of doing that, you become more grateful, more aware, and more intentional.

"The truth is, if what we choose to do with our lives won't make a story meaningful, it won't make a life meaningful either."  Donald Miller

Cultivate a good life, and then tell the story by documenting it.

Project Life goes hand-in-hand with the Tell My Story class.

Here's how it works.  You buy a Core Kit, an Album, and Sheet protectors (I use 40% off coupons and get them at Hobby Lobby or Michaels).  Select and print your photos.  Then it's simple.  You just slide pictures and journaling cards in pockets.  And in no time, you have a completed album.  (You can watch video demonstrations on the Project Life website)

There are a few reasons I prefer Project Life over an album you design digitally online.

First, I sit in front of a computer far longer than I'd like to for my business.  Any more hours in front of the computer and my eyeballs might fall out.

Second, I like to be able to do it while I'm doing something else (like catching up on all my DVR shows, or sitting by kids while they do homework).

Third, it's FAST.  And super simple.  Both of which are requirements in pretty much anything I do these days.

Fourth, they look AWESOME when they're done.  More visually interesting than a traditional photo album with pictures in pockets.

Fifth, my kids can get involved and help.  They become invested in the project.

Sixth, you can also journal in the albums.  There are "journaling cards" where you can write small amounts of information to supplement (note I said supplement as the pictures are the main focus of the album for me) the pictures.

Seven, you can make some killer unique gifts with Project Life.  I'll post some things I've done with them so far in a separate post.

But the biggest reason I appreciate Project Life is that I'm able to look through my albums and see what we've accomplished and what efforts we've made at living a good life story, but it also helps me see what we're missing so we can be more intentional about our future and live the life we want to live.



The boxes also make a great spot for folding paper cranes.  Folded 30ish of those (out of 1000) for a friend fighting stage 4 Lymphoma.  

Try it out.  I'm pretty sure you'll fall in love like I have.
And your kids will love you!

Click here to visit the Project Life website.

And for another idea on displaying photos in your home, click here for a super awesome wall display.

FUNBOOTH. The perfect alternative to traditional family pictures.

I get it.  Getting family pictures can be super stressful.  Finding the right clothes.  Getting everyone ready.  Finding a location.  Getting there on time.  Making sure the kids don't still have ketchup on their face.  Trying to act calm and happy while your kids are being terrors.  

I get it.  Trust me.  I do.  

But.  Family pictures are SO important.  So so important.  One of those things you'll always be glad you have and never regret that you did.

I also realize sometimes the stress is too much.  Too overwhelming.  And you have a kid that simply will NOT cooperate during family pictures.  So you just never get them done.  Even though you want to.

Which is why I came up with Funbooth sessions.

They're fun.  They're FAST.  They're easy.  And they work for kids with all different types of personalities.

The point is to be casual.  Crazy.  Fun.  Like a photobooth.  

Low stress.  No weather elements.  Sessions only take about 25 minutes.  And you end up with a bunch of photographs with your family, your kids, and their personalities.

I'm doing a Funbooth sale during the month of April.  Book a funbooth shoot in April for only $150 (normally $225).  That includes the session fee as well as a disc with about 50 images in color AND black and white and a print release to make whatever prints you want.

Here are some samples of a session I did recently.

And here are a few I did with my own little family.  We did these on a whim on a Sunday afternoon.  We just wore the clothes we already had on.  Simple.  Easy.  These are my favorite sessions to do with my own kids.  The pictures I am in were taken by my husband.  I know he'll want proper photo credit.  :)

Here's how I displayed them in my own home.  This is the first thing people see when people walk into my house.  And people LOVE IT!!  So do I.

Maybe I should have moved the vacuum.  Oh well.  Not taking it again.  :)

So if you've been feeling guilty (or better yet, excited) about getting family pictures but haven't done them for awhile, this is a great option.

Or, if you get family pictures regularly (GOOD FOR YOU) this may be a good alternative to change things up a little bit.

To book a Funbooth session, e-mail me at ltross17@yahoo.com

Sale runs until April 30th, 2014!

Picture Display Movement. Step 3. Organize

{For Step 2 in the Picture Display Movement, click here}

For me, this step initially felt the most overwhelming.  But once I got started, it turned out to be no big deal and went really fast.

I use iphoto for all my photo organizing.  BUT.  You don't have to have iphoto to organize photos like this.  You can use the same "folder" system on any computer, Mac or PC.

But the problem for me initially was the lack of organization within iPhoto and being able to effectively choose what I wanted to print and keep some sense of order in doing that.

All my pictures were in iPhoto, but that's it.  I started using iPhoto in 2009 so I had 5 years worth of photos in there and was overwhelmed by the prospect of organizing them.

Until I came up with this system.  Keep in mind there are hundreds of different ways you can organize photos.  Which is what overwhelms me.  So I had to pick something simple. That I know I would do and that I would maintain.

To organize the photos that were already in iPhoto, 5 years worth,  (you can google the steps on how to do all of this) I created folders for each year as well as a "vacations" folder.  See the photo below, under "albums" where it has folders for each year and one for vacations

I then created an album for each month in that year as well as an album for Holidays in that year.  Then I moved those albums into the folder for that year.

Then I clicked on "Events" in my library so all the pictures in my iPhoto library would come up and went month by month and put the pictures in their corresponding folder.  The physical pictures don't move so they are all still visible in the events part of your library.  But then when you click on one of the months folder, only that month shows (which can make it easier to find certain photos).

To do this quickly, you can click on the box with pictures from the first of the month, then hold down the shift key and click on the box with pictures from the last of the month.  Then just drag and drop them into the appropriate album.

{See how the boxes for July are highlighted in yellow.  Then just drag those into the "July" album.}

After each month, I would look through that month for any holidays or vacations, highlight those pictures and drag those into the appropriate albums as well.  You can have the same picture in multiple albums without moving the original file.  It just makes a "copy" of those pictures which takes up very  minimal space on your hard drive.

This entire process of organizing 5 years worth of photos (I have about 30,000 photos in my iPhoto library) took me about one hour.  Quick.  Easy.  And simple.

And I feel So. Much.Better now that it's done.

Now to maintain, my plan is, at the end of each month (on a SET date) I will move those files into their album for the month and put them in the folder for their year.  Should take about 2 minutes.  

If you don't have iPhoto, figure out a photo organizing system that works for your family.  Just keep it simple and schedule regular times to maintain it.  If you have the right system, it really doesn't take very long.

You can still set up a Folder for each year, then folders for each month and drag the photos into those folders.

Step 3.  Organize those photos

Now don't stop there!  Step 4 is to PRINT THOSE PICTURES!!!! 

If you have questions, please feel free to contact me!  I'm happy to help where I can.

Where should I print my pictures?

I get asked this question alot.

My answer:  It depends on what you're using the pictures for.

I know most professional photographers will say to only get your photos printed at a professional lab.  The only time I disagree with this, is based on your answer to the question, what are you using the pictures for?

If I am printing pictures 5x7 or smaller and they are intended for an album, like Project Life, I print my photos at Costco (if I want a white border around them or if I need them quickly).

Keep in mind when printing anywhere, what you see on your screen isn't necessarily what you get from the printer (unless your monitor is calibrated to that specific printer).  I have learned that Costco prints tend to be a little "dark".  So before I send them to Costco I lighten them up a little (bump up the exposure).  All of the photos in this wall collage I did are from Costco.

OR I print my 4x6 photos at York Photo online.  If you google "free 4x6 prints" a code for 100 free prints to york photo should pop up.  You can use that the first time you order prints from them.  They also have sales on their prints all the time so I have a folder on my desktop with pictures I want to print and I wait until there is a sale and then send a batch of those pictures in to be printed.

If I am printing bigger than 5x7 or printing anything large that will be hung on my walls, I use Pixels Foto and Frame (for the Utah readers, it's on 90th S. and State Street in Sandy) or online I use Mpix.  These are both professional printing labs with affordable prices.  And their customer service is killer!!

I use pixels for regular prints (they'll do custom sizes which I love to do) and I also use them for matboard prints like this one:

Mpix has a bunch of novelty photo items like calendars and photo books and cards along with regular prints.  I also use them for printing stickers and business cards.

Any photos I print I use a matte or lustre finish instead of glossy.  Makes them look better in my opinion.

If you have never printed somewhere before and don't know what the prints will end up looking like, just send a few photos to be printed.  Then if you like how they look, you can send a bigger batch for prints.

I have also printed at Persnickety Prints in Orem, UT.  They do printing for Instagram pics (square photos) as well as Project Life album sizes (3x4's).  I also love their polaroid type prints.  Hoping to get a lot of those for a wall display I have in mind.  The printers at Persnickety have a different color than what I see on my monitor, so if you plan to print there, do a "test" print first to make sure it looks the way you want it to.  (For anyone who cares, my monitor reads an RGB color space, and persnickety does heavy stock prints which are CMYK color space.  Different from photographic prints which are RGB)  Regardless, the prints still look awesome!  I'm sure I'll be posting more about Persnickety in the future.  Killer customer service and response time!

I personally would never print at Walmart.  For anything.

Picture Display Movement. Step 1. Take pictures!!

I was talking to a friend the other day and she said she had misplaced her SD card with an entire years worth of photos on it.  I skipped right over the part about her saying she lost the card and couldn't wrap my head around the fact she had an entire years worth of photos on one card.  I can fill up a 4GB card in about 20 minutes taking pictures of my kids.

And after seeing how often my sister and a few other relatives who will remain nameless take pictures, and by often I mean never, I realized maybe this is an issue for a lot of people.

So I decided Step 1 for most people would have to be TAKE MORE PICTURES!!! This applies to me as well.  And probably a lot of other professional photographers I know.  Because we're so busy taking other people's pictures, we sometimes forget (or choose not to) pick up the camera and take pictures of our own people.

The actual process of taking a picture costs me nothing.  Monetarily speaking.  So why not take more?

Even if they aren't always (or ever) "great quality" photos.  The few pictures I have of my childhood won't ever make it into a magazine, but I'm so grateful I have them :)

And the benefits of photographs in our lives is so great, I should be taking as many as I can!

When I pick up my camera and take a picture of something, intentionally or unintentionally I send a message.  A message that whatever I am taking a picture of is important to me.  Because taking a picture of something signifies I want to remember it, whatever "it" is.  A person, a moment, a feeling.

So without saying anything, when I stop what I'm doing and take a picture of something, I show that moment/person/thing/feeling/event was worth stopping for, was worth my time, and was worth documenting.

Photographs tell the story of who I love.  What relationships I cherish.  Moments that make me laugh.  And moments that make me want to cry.  What daily life events I find value in.

If I don't have those photographs, what story do I have to tell?  And what message do I unintentionally send when I choose not to photograph anything (or many things?)

I'm not saying I need to spend my life and every waking moment taking pictures.  But I definitely think I should be intentional about the photographs I DO take and to make it a priority to document our stories.

So.  Step 1.  Take a lot of pictures.  :)


Click here for Step 2.