Prize Photo

My camera card died recently - full of fun photos with Grandma & the kids. I took Kevin's camera to the zoo & I tried to make up for it by snapping more pictures throughout their visit, but couldn't recreate the magic in the kids faces as the played with the new toys from Grandma. I did manage to snap one photo of an elusive creature (above). Grandpa prefers to observe the craziness from afar, but this day he was right in the action, watching the kids & dog run (into each other) through the sprinklers.

I've been trying to decide how to present my photo-a-day project. In hindsight, maybe I should have just done a simple photo book with three pictures on one page & four on another. I could have journaled right on my photos. Maybe I'll do that next year. Instead, I bought some digital scrapbook templates that are designed for this project. I've learned a thing or two as I've started this project such as:

1. This isn't going to be an historically accurate book. And I'm OK with that. After losing a week's worth of pictures, I was just glad Grandma was still in town & we didn't lose any "milestone" pictures. I recreated a week of photos for the book. Last year, when I started the 365 Self Portrait project on Flickr, I felt extreme pressure that the self-portraits HAD to be taken on a specific day. Very happy I didn't feel any stress when I realized my photos were gone.

2. That little black area in a scrapbook template is a clipping mask. I spent a ridiculous amount of time trying to crop my pictures to the same size as the template when all I had to do was click on the photo & the parts outside the template disappear.

3. I am doing a terrible job contemporaneously journaling. Maybe that will next year's goal. I'm doing what I can this year.

4. I am really happy I am doing this book. I may be the only family member who appreciates it, but it's fun to see the first three months in pictures laid out on pages.

This is my first digital scrapbook. I've done lots of photo books, but never a book with fancy papers & embellishments. I'm going to try to do some test runs of single pages at various printers before I publish the book. Let's hope I can keep up the momentum - maybe this book will be done before the end of 2010!

I'm so far behind on my scrapbooking that I think adding some digital pages along the way might be a good way to preserve the memories quickly. Within the week, I will finalize Ella's photo book from San Diego. It may not be as cute as the handmade one I did for her last year, but it will be done QUICKLY!