Why Your Photo Library is More Important than Scrapbooking

I am still organizing my photos.  I keyword and caption images at least weekly, daily if I can find the time.  I also have a backlog of photos and information dating clear back to the 1800's to scan and organize.  It may seem overwhelming, but one step at a time I am making progress.

I love this system!  Every time I go through a month's worth of photos with captions, keywords and ratings - I feel relief.  I no longer feel the stress of trying to stay "caught up" with all my scrapbooks.  

The reality is that when you record the caption to a photo - the memories and the why - along with keywords to identify Who, What, Where and When - you have almost everything anyone will need to know why that image was important to you.  Ratings are icing on the cake - they will tell future generations which photos you liked the most while the captions will tell them why.

Honest question - if you could be given ten scrapbooks with 25 layouts each, and a decent amount of journaling OR a digital library of 21,000 images (each with journaling, keywords and ratings) which would you choose?

I can see the appeal of the scrapbook and yet I would choose the digital library EVERY TIME.  Let me explain.  

This layout was created a year ago with lots of different photos of mine and my best friend's children.  It is a layout that captures the essence of the many things we did that day and it basically says that time with friends is wonderful.  

Yet when I peek into my photo library I learn much more...

The story behind the milk cow that inexplicably licked my friends daughter over and over.  My feelings about a friendship of over 20 years, the reason one child isn't smiling in a photo, thoughts on the bond between my twins, and more.  There are literally 9 different stories for the photos in this layout.

I may not have the time to scrap 9 different stories right now, but with captions recorded in my photo files in my photo library, I am ready to do so with the "in the moment" thoughts of my heart thanks to my system.  It takes a LOT less time to record the caption to a photo than it does to create a layout.

Now don't get me wrong - there are a lot of layouts I have that document the story -

This layout tells the story of the first day of school.  I love it.  However, if I adopted the workflow that all my stories should be told in my scrapbook layouts, I'd lose the opportunity to preserve those stories with the photo files.

So yes - it is WONDERFUL to tell your stories in your layouts.  However, I think we sometimes forget that scrapbooking is  a CREATIVE PROCESS.  You can alleviate a lot of the stress of being creative while trying to find space for journaling by simply recording the stories in your photo files. That way when your creativity is sparked - you can go back to your photo library reservoir of memories and tell the story just like it happened yesterday or leave the journaling off the layout and save it to the file in other ways.

A lot of people tell me I think to far in the future.  I have to say it is because of this woman:

This is my great-great-great Grandmother Mary Taylor Simmons Robinson.  I first heard her story when I was 18 years old.  She traveled from England all the way to the United States and walked across the plains until her legs were frozen black all the way to her knees.  Along the trail she lost a child, her husband, and her parents.  

I often have wondered what kept her going.  For years all we had of her were a few photos like the one above and this photo of the tiny cabin she lived in next to my great-great grandfather's home.

Yet even with these photos (where everyone was identified in the photo), I still was left to wonder until 2002, when an amazing set of circumstances led our little family to stay with my grandmother for five months.  In those five months I was given more pieces of my family history  - which included several handwritten letters to my great-great grandfather from Mary in the late 1800's.

Having these letters is like having crayons to color in the pictures from a coloring book.  I learn details of Mary's health, her love for her children, her spiritual strength and more.

The photos are beautiful, but it is the details recorded in these letters that are the treasure to me. Stories of the everyday - recipes for herbal remedies - thoughts on daughter in laws and more.

So yes, I may look too far in the future but how can't I?  Looking back to my family in the 1800's has given me a perspective I can't shake.  I think of the questions I would love to ask Mary if I had twenty minutes.  Am I answering them today for those who will follow  me?  Keeping a photo library with detailed captions, ratings and keywords with BACKUP seems to be a wonderful way to do just that.

Don't get me wrong, I still scrapbook quite a lot - and yes I still tell my stories in my layouts. However, with the way my workflow is now, I don't stress quite as much about journaling in my layouts when the stories are embedded in my photo files with my Lightroom Library.  I am FREE to create layouts however I want - following my heart.

When I follow my heart there is bliss in creativity.  How about you? 

 

Comments

[Katherine]

Thanks for this terrific post. I really appreciate your "geeky" approach to cataloging photos and memories. It's a powerful message and makes me feel like the time I spend taking photos and keeping them organized makes a difference. I also understand what you mean about feeling like there is so much out there. Often overwhelming, but know that your voice is unique and I'm happy you've decided to stick around and share your point of view. I'm still using Picasa for my cataloging but have purchased LR and am anxious to make the switch. Have to say the process still feels a bit overwhelming ... new program, etc. Glad to know you'll be here for continued advice!

[Jill]

Beautiful post. I totally agree with you. The pictures are great but to know the story behind the pictures is priceless. I've often been in antique stores or Cracker Barrel looking at old pictures and wondering about the people in them. To have that kind of information about your family is awesome.

[Wendy T.]

I totally agree. Afterall, scrapbooking is putting images and words together (which you are doing in your catalog). Everything else is just extra!

[Michele]

I have been using PSE Organizer to caption most of my photos for several years. I agree with you!

[Natalie]

OMGoodness! WE ARE RELATED! Mary Taylor Simmons Robinson is my great great great grandmother too! I LOVED reading this post...what a treasure to have the letters and pictures from her life! Most of the information I have on her came from "The Five Branches of Love" book about Joseph Lee Robinson. (We should talk.)
I've always admired your vast knowledge and love reading and learning tips of the trade from you. Thank you so much for sharing what you know with us. You do make a difference.

[Sherrie Ray]

Kayla this was an awesome post! I love how you have so much of your family history - you are so blessed to have this! I love getting your emails with your latest blog update! I can always relate and learn so so much! Thanks for taking the time and for teaching me new thing almost daily!

[Kayla Lamoreaux]

Thanks for taking the time to stop by and make my day! :)

[Kayla Lamoreaux]

That is really cool! You will have to email me (lightroomlady at gmail dot com) - I have an entire book of her letters I did in PDF - also depending on how closely we are related I have lots of other items you might find interesting. I also am starting a blog to share a lot of the items I have with extended family. Its always fun to find a new cousin! Thanks for stopping by! :)

[Kayla Lamoreaux]

Thanks Katherine! Glad to know my geekiness is a good thing. :) I am excited for you to switch to Lightroom - I know you will love it and yes I will be here to answer questions! Have a wonderful weekend. :)

[PattiP]

I love this post, Kayla! I've only recently been searching out family history, I have a few photos back into the 1800's, but not many. I am so grateful to my mom, who typed up pages of her family's story years ago. Now that her generation is gone, it's all I have to rely on for a picture of what their life was like.

I was only recently made aware of the idea of journaling in the metadata by Noelle Hyman's post. I don't use lightroom, so I didn't follow your class for LR (I do not like Adobe products even though I use PSE9. They are not at all intuitive to me and it's the one program that consistently freezes.) I love that the stories can be kept with the photos.

My only concern is making sure the backups will be readable as technology changes. I have old video tapes, for instance, that we can't view because we no longer have a working VHS and didn't get them into digital format. Maintaining all of this data is a challenge.

[Kayla Lamoreaux]

I once found an old photo book of antique postcard photos - adorable pics of families from the early 1900's - made me so sad I bought them and scanned them in and hope maybe someday through the miracle of the internet to find someone who they belong with... Inspires me to keep going on this documentation! Thanks for your comment!

[Kayla Lamoreaux]

:)

[Kayla Lamoreaux]

Love that you have been captioning for years! Way to go!

[Paula N.]

Oh my goodness. Are you related to Joseph Lee Robinson? I'm descended from Maria!! That's such a neat coincidence. I have a hard copy of The Five Branches of Love, plus a digital PDF of the book. But I treasure the hard copy so much ... I had to write myself in (LOL) because I wasn't listed when it was published. (And I thought that was so rude! I was a kid! heh heh)

Anyhow, I have been going back and reading your posts and saw this one and just had to comment on it! I'm going to start captioning my photos. I used to write so much info on the back of the photos, in the old days. Don't know why I haven't been doing it and I really need to start!

[Kayla Lamoreaux]

Another cousin. :) Such a small world - so glad to see you here! Email me if you are interested in other items I have on JLR. :)

[Paula N.]

I am interested in whatever else you have on JLR. I have a few things I've found online, and a copy of his journal that is typewritten is somewhere in my genealogy box. I keep thinking I need to retype some of the information I have from my maternal grandma (she was a Wilcox, granddaughter of Anna Maria Robinson -- JLR's daughter). But if you have other goodies and can tell me where to get copies of them ... that would be awesome! My mom would be thrilled too.

[Kayla Lamoreaux]

Ive added you to my Robinson Family newsletter - as I post new information you will receive emails. You also can unsubscribe at any time. Also you may find this site helpful -http://planetnielsen.com/joseph_lee_robinson/index.htmlThe work was done by Kevin Merrill who I call my honorary cousin as he has spent hours putting the journal and other books and information on JLR into PDF format. Hope that helps! Glad you stopped by here! :)

[Jean Rood]

Someone mentioned this above but I am also interested in how we go forward with the technology as it changes to be able to view and read all this information that may be outdated. Technology changes so fast and I don't see how we will be able to keep up with the new, let alone putting it all onto something new so it is accessible. I do agree strongly with the journaling of the stories though. That is far more important than a lot of pretty pages decorated with the latest embellishments.

[Kayla Lamoreaux]

Great point. The thing that makes me feel confident in adding the metadata to the files is that journalists have been using IPTC and EXIF for years and I believe they will continue to do so. I think that future software will make it easy to extract to updated technologies - a much easier process than our generations scanning and typing. :)

[liz]

I totally TOTALLY TOTALLY agree Kayla! Ever since I started project life and have been keeping a pretty good log of the little bits of our everyday life, including the funny things my daughters are saying pictures they draw, etc. it has been quite freeing. I never realized how much the weight of "oh dear, when will I get organized/caught up/have time to do xyz" negatively impacted my creativity until it was lifted. And like you pointed out, there is bliss when you are creating for the sake of creating (vs. "catching up).

I'd like to get to the point where you are, with your impressively organized and robust photos. I think once my photos are easily searchable, making photobooks will become that much easier for me. I'm looking forward to getting more organizational tips from you Kayla.

[Kayla Lamoreaux]

Thanks Liz! You made my day! :)