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walkitoutI don't seem to ever come up with new ideas; I always come up with ideas that other people have had before. The first example of this that I can distinctly recalled involved my first digital watch, a swingset, and my 7 years older sister grilling me about whether I really had figured that out on my own, or if someone had told me about it before. Really, the law of the pendulum is pretty damn exciting even if you aren't the first person to figure it out and it would have been more fun if she could have entered into the spirit of the thing.
But never mind that now, I'm here about a completely different re-invention of the, er, scrapbook. After I got over my never-leave-town-lest-it-be-destroyed-in-my-absence issues, but before I left permanently to marry R., I took a series of long-ish road trips (about 3 weeks -- I never got the hang of keeping the condo, bills, etc. running for longer periods of time than that). I collected all the bits of papers -- tickets, receipts, brochures, etc. -- that passed through my hands on these trips and collected them in page protectors and a 3 ring binder. I used to joke that if I ever took up scrapbooking, that's how I would do it.
Little did I know, that's kinda how current scrapbooking got started a few decades ago.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scrapbooking#Modern_scrapbooking
But I never had the energy to mount the items on something before dumping them in the pockets; I figured if I ever got that bored, I could do it later, but I would at least have the souvenirs all in one place either way.
As part of the decluttering project, I started collecting all the photos in the house into an empty file drawer. I also started collecting frames, but there were more photos I wanted framed than frames and, honestly, some of the frames were not very attractive, so I took to buying minimalist, black painted wood frames and using those (except I did buy 10 Disney frames because of the mickey ears in the corner and using those for WDW souvenir photos. I figured I'd have them in a drawer for years to come, but they are actually all up on the wall or easel-style on top of book cases already). After getting through school photos, Picture People, Yuen Lui and Jane McDonogh photos, I realized I had an enormous number of photos still in envelopes that people had mailed me over the years: good friends from college who had gotten married and had kids, cousins, friends of R. and family on his side, etc. So I started collecting files of those (usually labeled "Cards & Fotos", or similar). I found about four such files, and was really impressed with myself for getting a whole ton of these into sheet protectors (or 8x10 pockets), at least as a place holder for a better arrangement, when I realized there was a gallon zippy bag and a stack of those photos sitting on top of a filing cabinet right in front of my face.
*sigh*
Oh, and I found another file down in my hutch.
It's an open question how many photos there are lying around, but I will say this much. The genealogy project had the unexpected benefit of creating a knowledge system that contains my entire family's birth dates (ditto for R.'s). The scrap booking project is going to have the related benefit of putting within quick access the birth information for virtually all of our close friends' children.
Will this result in me actually sending people birthday greetings/cards? Unlikely. But you never know. I never would have expected to have gone this far down the path to photo albums.
Oh, in case you are curious, here's what I am currently using:
Ultra Pro Platinum 5x7, 4x6 and 8x10 Hologram Pages
The 5x7 have 2 slots; the 4x6 have 3 (1 horizontal; two vertical). All three styles are letter size. I'm using Pioneer Fabric Frame Memory Binders with D-rings. You cannot overstuff these because there's no locking mechanism on the D-rings, so if you put too much weight in the binder, the rings will start to open up and the pages will slide out.
But never mind that now, I'm here about a completely different re-invention of the, er, scrapbook. After I got over my never-leave-town-lest-it-be-destroyed-in-my-absence issues, but before I left permanently to marry R., I took a series of long-ish road trips (about 3 weeks -- I never got the hang of keeping the condo, bills, etc. running for longer periods of time than that). I collected all the bits of papers -- tickets, receipts, brochures, etc. -- that passed through my hands on these trips and collected them in page protectors and a 3 ring binder. I used to joke that if I ever took up scrapbooking, that's how I would do it.
Little did I know, that's kinda how current scrapbooking got started a few decades ago.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scrapbooking#Modern_scrapbooking
But I never had the energy to mount the items on something before dumping them in the pockets; I figured if I ever got that bored, I could do it later, but I would at least have the souvenirs all in one place either way.
As part of the decluttering project, I started collecting all the photos in the house into an empty file drawer. I also started collecting frames, but there were more photos I wanted framed than frames and, honestly, some of the frames were not very attractive, so I took to buying minimalist, black painted wood frames and using those (except I did buy 10 Disney frames because of the mickey ears in the corner and using those for WDW souvenir photos. I figured I'd have them in a drawer for years to come, but they are actually all up on the wall or easel-style on top of book cases already). After getting through school photos, Picture People, Yuen Lui and Jane McDonogh photos, I realized I had an enormous number of photos still in envelopes that people had mailed me over the years: good friends from college who had gotten married and had kids, cousins, friends of R. and family on his side, etc. So I started collecting files of those (usually labeled "Cards & Fotos", or similar). I found about four such files, and was really impressed with myself for getting a whole ton of these into sheet protectors (or 8x10 pockets), at least as a place holder for a better arrangement, when I realized there was a gallon zippy bag and a stack of those photos sitting on top of a filing cabinet right in front of my face.
*sigh*
Oh, and I found another file down in my hutch.
It's an open question how many photos there are lying around, but I will say this much. The genealogy project had the unexpected benefit of creating a knowledge system that contains my entire family's birth dates (ditto for R.'s). The scrap booking project is going to have the related benefit of putting within quick access the birth information for virtually all of our close friends' children.
Will this result in me actually sending people birthday greetings/cards? Unlikely. But you never know. I never would have expected to have gone this far down the path to photo albums.
Oh, in case you are curious, here's what I am currently using:
Ultra Pro Platinum 5x7, 4x6 and 8x10 Hologram Pages
The 5x7 have 2 slots; the 4x6 have 3 (1 horizontal; two vertical). All three styles are letter size. I'm using Pioneer Fabric Frame Memory Binders with D-rings. You cannot overstuff these because there's no locking mechanism on the D-rings, so if you put too much weight in the binder, the rings will start to open up and the pages will slide out.
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Last person you thought you'd get this comment from...
Date: 2013-01-09 02:54 am (UTC)It took me a LONG time to move from my fully manual medium format Pentax to my Canon 5D Mark II (and a Mark III soon I hope- or maybe I'll hold out for a IV). Scanning is, to me, such a pia that I have had things scanned at what used to be a pro development facility which now offers drum scanning services, conversion to digital, etc..
I will admit I have gotten slightly addicted to creating digital photo books(the digital equivalent of a scrapbook, sorta?).
I do still keep a couple of very special albums of PRINTS taken over the years of friends and family, usu. by pro photographers(like the lovely ones you've sent me) and I use renaissance albums with mats. The pages and mats are laid out in such a way that the surface of the photo is never touching anything(except the edges where anchored) and the albums are stored in pretty amazingly thick boxes. There is just something about a *real* photo album ... but maybe that is just the old fashioned photographer in me that still likes to shoot manually with film.... I actually got the girls some Holgas to shoot medium format at the ocean. :) Despite the wonders of technology, I feel like some things just shouldn't go away. My Yugo *really* *Really* sucked tho.
Re: Last person you thought you'd get this comment from...
Date: 2013-01-09 03:33 am (UTC)Do you think I'm going to have trouble with the photo pockets strategy? The items are not (yet, anyway) mounted on anything, altho I may mount some things later. My goal was to have them in a form that I was willing to look at with the kids (I previously just kept photos in a photo box. As in, _a_ photo box. Also, I had an incredibly ancient album (pretty sure the pages were not acid free, no protective film at all, I used corners) I got from my grandmother's estate. She'd never used it, and I thought at the time it was kinda cool -- I quit using it when I was in my 20s, as I started to be slightly concerned about the paper quality, and tonight I took all the photos out.
There are several obvious problems with my pocket strategy: the pockets don't seal, for one thing, so while they are enclosed on three sides, an upside down album is going to dump the looser items out.
I should note that I have not and do not intend to create anything for these binders. The goal was to take the contents of a bunch of file folders and store them in a stabler way that was more accessible. So I'm not taking photographs and having prints done; when I take a picture, it has a digital only lifestyle. Altho it is nice to collect all of the pro photographs in the collection of binders (many of which were taken by you at the wedding! But also the ones we have done of the kids).
ETA: I should also note that I've been extremely resistant for most of my life to acquiring family/historic photos, so none of this stuff is especially old. Do you really have tintypes? That's kind of cool. I have copies of old photos, but they are all ones that other people in the family have copies of and there was a CD put together of what my sister scanned and I used that CD to put pictures up on my tree on ancestry.com.
Indeed!
Date: 2013-01-09 05:18 pm (UTC)Black and white prints hold up better over the years, imho.
For pics I am especially fond of, I am def. scanning and using a prO service to have digital albums made.
Dean's mom gave us OLD family pic in a three ring binder. She photocopied them and then slipped them into Avery folders. They have held up well.
If you want something that can be passed down through generations, I would def. look into something like Renaissance that creates albums for weddings, etc. that are meant to last. They can be quite expensive but you get what you pay for generally. Not sure if you are interested but I use Picaboo or similar to make little albums of family outings, birthdays, etc. and the nice thing is I can order 4 of the same album with little hassle- one for each of the girls and extras for the family. It also allows for quotations, dates and prose printed next to the photos to give context.
I ended up being te only one really interested in photography and genealogy so I inherited several generations of photos from "I have a stick up my butt daguerreotypes", glass negatives and tintypes. Very cool stuff but I am still researching trying to figure out years and who is actually in te prints. (All were passed down from my grandma). I still scan- my pro photo days made me vey paranoid.
BTW- I had a huge stack of prints sitting atop their negatives. This is before I went digital. A huge class f water spilled on the lot unbeknownst to me and dried. I sent several days with casserole dishes and soaked them, freeing each picture which then had to be hung to dry. When reasonably dry, I tucked them one by one into a massive coffee table book so they wouldn't war. Maybe that is when I really stated pursing digital :)
Re: Indeed!
Date: 2013-01-09 08:11 pm (UTC)Wedding photos
Date: 2013-01-10 07:55 pm (UTC)