In this digital age it is possible - and impossible - to keep up. If I made print and books and folders of every shot I have taken, we'd need a separate storage unit. How do you share what is relevant and interesting to the next generation - and the next?
By default, my mother had the best idea. She meticulously made photo albums of trips and events - shot with Brownie or eventually Instamatic! Taking one of those off the shelf seemed time consuming and daunting. No one wanted to commit to a bunch of pictures, only a few of which were really interesting. So after a polite first view, they gathered dust.
But the ones that were too silly or someone had a grumpy face or just did not fit went into a large white box. To take that box down was not a commitment. When you were tired, you stopped. More often than not these pictures showed the true spirit of the event - I really was grumpy on the trip to Colorado! And here is where my sisters and I looked anything but sophisticated at Prom. The white box was accessible and fun. If the pictures on top were boring, dig down a few decades.
So I carefully make photo books of our trips as a couple, but know they are our memories. Engaging the grandchildren is a different tactic. Look all of us they love pictures of themselves. I have a small chap album for each one that includes some infancy pictures as well as more up to date ones I change regularly. I throw them in the bag I take to restaurants, finding that the electronics go away so parents and children engage as they relive the memories. Far easier than hauling baby books!
I keep picture on the walls of our travels, pictures the children as children, and a easily changeable one with the latest of the grandchildren. They don't always look at all of them, but once in a while one will talk about doing a report on India or Yellowstone, and I am ready to walk them to the wall. I make special frames of baptisms, first communions, and confirmations.
And, yes, I keep a box of "throw away" - from several generations and printed out as I take them. Like letters and notes, it is good to have some non-electronic pictures to paw through and laugh at.
By default, my mother had the best idea. She meticulously made photo albums of trips and events - shot with Brownie or eventually Instamatic! Taking one of those off the shelf seemed time consuming and daunting. No one wanted to commit to a bunch of pictures, only a few of which were really interesting. So after a polite first view, they gathered dust.But the ones that were too silly or someone had a grumpy face or just did not fit went into a large white box. To take that box down was not a commitment. When you were tired, you stopped. More often than not these pictures showed the true spirit of the event - I really was grumpy on the trip to Colorado! And here is where my sisters and I looked anything but sophisticated at Prom. The white box was accessible and fun. If the pictures on top were boring, dig down a few decades.So I carefully make photo books of our trips as a couple, but know they are our memories. Engaging the grandchildren is a different tactic. Look all of us they love pictures of themselves. I have a small chap album for each one that includes some infancy pictures as well as more up to date ones I change regularly. I throw them in the bag I take to restaurants, finding that the electronics go away so parents and children engage as they relive the memories. Far easier than hauling baby books!I keep picture on the walls of our travels, pictures the children as children, and a easily changeable one with the latest of the grandchildren. They don't always look at all of them, but once in a while one will talk about doing a report on India or Yellowstone, and I am ready to walk them to the wall. I make special frames of baptisms, first communions, and confirmations.And, yes, I keep a box of "throw away" - from several generations and printed out as I take them. Like letters and notes, it is good to have some non-electronic pictures to paw through and laugh at.
