Digital Scrapbooking 101

Curating Leads to Creativity

I often find that the more time I spend in my library curating images and looking things over with searches in different contexts, the more creative ideas come to me - like this layout for my daughter Grace:

With my digital photo organization and digital supply library it is very easy to find photos to create with and then also to quickly search for matching papers and templates.  I pulled this together in less than twenty minutes.

Another note for those of you in Finding Photo Flow who are knee-deep in photo tagging - taking time away from organizing to create is really good for your creative soul...

**Products used:  Template, Journaling Block, paper by Holly McCaig (retired kit).

What "Finding Photo Flow" Is

I’ve had a few people ask me what I mean by “photo flow.”  Let me start by sharing what Photo Flow is not: A one-size fits all workflow solution.

Workflow is a term that is used by many when describing working with your photos.  On the professional photography circuit you can find class after class of photographers sharing their personal photo workflow. 

Workflow involves software, it involves steps and process (star ratings, keywords, etc.) and often a “best practice” idea of what works.  Students learn this workflow and then go home and apply it step by step in their workflow with a few tweaks.

While Photo Flow does involve some of these things (i.e. you can choose to use star ratings & keywords in your photo flow), it is very different.  There is no "best practice" involved in Finding Photo Flow.  

Finding Photo Flow is kicking things up a notch to work on a higher level.  It's more about how you feel about your workflow.  It’s about looking at a bucket full of blocks, each block representing a step you could choose to add to your workflow, but don’t necessarily have to.  It's about creativity. It’s about being engaged, happy and excited to work with your photos and building a process for yourself that supports that.

Most photo organization classes focus on how many photos you can keyword, rate, and print during class.  While the end goal of Finding Photo Flow is to help you process images and create amazing results, the four weeks in this class are about thinking, inspiring and creating an amazing workflow that will last long after the initial excitement fades.

After teaching photo organization for years, the one thing that gets to me is students who have followed my work all this time and write to me again and again saying, “This is it. I know what I need to do. This time it is going to stick and I’ll get caught up with my photos.”

Finding Photo Flow  came out of my thoughts of how to help students find something that "sticks."  In my own life there have been times when I have tried to adopt something someone else was doing because it looked amazing, and yet I never could keep it up for the long haul.  The lesson I learned from that was this: When you try to do something over and over again and it doesn’t stick, the reality is you just haven’t yet found flow.

Finding Photo Flow is about looking at your time, the current season of your life and then creating photo flow that supports that.  It’s about letting go and enjoying.  It doesn't matter if your workflow is highly complex or completely simplified, what matters most is that it engages you and supports your creativity.

Finding Photo Flow is about taking the time to absorb different ways of doing things in your workflow.  I want you to think about what is working now with your photos and creating a simple system that is sustainable.  A process that doesn’t overwhelm and at the same time gives you what you want from your photo library.

Quite simply, Finding Photo Flow is about finding joy in your photo library.  It's about inspiring creativity.

I hope to see you in the classroom!  You can learn more about Finding Photo Flow here.

 

 

 

Sharing Memories

I love this video because it illustrates how many "little" efforts add up to big payoffs.  Imagine what a treasure this little girl will inherit someday from the insights and memories recorded.

This is a great reminder of how the "little" things you do to curate a photo library add up to be a very BIG thing someday.    I encourage you to take two minutes and watch this - I promise it will give you the oomph you need to keep on keepin' on in your photo library.  Onward and upward. :)

 

Another Reason I LOVE My Photo Library...My Kid Thinks I'm Magical!

Friday morning dawned with a sleep-deprived mom at our house (yes that's me) and five kids hurrying to go to school. Ten minutes before the elementary group was supposed to walk out the door, my 1st grader shows me his "four things cup" that needs to be filled with four things about him - oh and he wants pictures.

I didn't stress one bit. I fired up my Mac, opened Lightroom, searched for items with his name (keyword) and then keywords for what he wanted to share with his class.  I then selected four photos as picks, went to the print module, dragged them into a Lightroom print template, and printed.  

I literally went from request to printed photos in less than five minutes.  My kid thinks I'm magical...in reality all I did was take advantage of technology to save me time and energy. 

Oh, and I'm taking that "magical mom" title thing as far as I can.  He'll be a teenager in a blink and I'll probably need these "magical mom" memories to get me through.

Do you want to be a "magical mom" too?  Sign up to be the first to know about the next round of Finding Photo Flow here.  Learn more about Finding Photo Flow here.

True Confessions

Some days my download folder looks like this (especially after a BIG sale at my favorite designer's store):

You might think because I teach digital asset organization, my library is perfect.  Not so. ☺  Just like everyone else my life gets busy, I take on projects and I let things slide.

However, just because I slide doesn’t mean I don’t have a way back to organized.  Staying organized is a little like laundry.  Just because you finish doesn't mean there won't be more piling up tomorrow. 

We live in the digital age.  There’s always going to be something else to download - photos from friends, inspiration, freebies, new kits and programs.  And that’s just my download folder - how about yours?

I have a lot of tools in my tool box that I use to get things back on track and I share them more in depth in my classes and newsletter.  Today I’m going to share a sampling of one of my favorites.  It’s called 

So many write me to say, “I don’t have the time...”  With The Power of 20 I'd say you have more than you realize.

Here are the basic guidelines:

• Set aside 20 minutes 

• Close your internet browser (unless required for your task - in that case stay locked to one page).

• Shut down your email.

• Turn off your phone.

• Shut down all social network applications.

Work toward your goal.  It may feel like you don’t accomplish much, but over time these little things add up and before you know it, you’ve built your own personal haystack one bale at a time.

Try it.  Come back and share what you accomplish.  Looking for more tips and tools?  Don't forget to sign up for our newsletter here. 

 

We've Got a BIG Announcement!

Wow - what a week it has been!  So much going on I had to write a special post!

Thanks so much for all your kind comments on my posts lately - you all are the reason I blog.  When I write something that resonates , I am especially grateful.  

Fabulous Freebie

In this post I shared a layout using a template by my friend Anna (her amazing work is here) and she was kind enough to hunt down a template freebie link from quite awhile ago.   So if you are into beautiful and artistic templates that are FREE - you can find Anna's template here.

Fun Show on Digital Organizing

I had a great time this week discussing digital organization on The Digi Show.  Steph and Katie are always a hoot but this time the addition of Peppermint just made it that much more fun.  I love Peppermint's One Little Bird Designs and The Digi Files so being able to just chat about organizing was icing on the cake. 

We've Got A Class Room!

It's been a long time coming  and so much work this past month but I can't even begin to tell you how thrilled I am to have a classroom environment for Digiscrap101!   This new class is all about Finding Flow with your photos.  I've been working on the content for awhile now and I am so excited to share it.  

If you are a newsletter subscriber (you can subscribe at the right of the blog page here), you received an email announcing the class.  We didn't even make it to the blog because we sold out on the first class in a matter of hours!

If you missed getting into the class, be sure to sign up for our Be The First To Know email list. Subscribers to this special list will be emailed class announcements 24 hours in advance of our blog newsletter subscribers.  The blog newsletter subscribers get special class announcements 24 hours in advance of this blog.

We will be offering this class again in a matter of weeks - so stay tuned.

Whew!  Great week.  Exciting stuff.  I'm hoping for a long and lazy laid back weekend.  How about you?

 

 

Reader Q&A: Lightroom Ratings and Labels

Krystal in AZ asks, "I am curious if you have found an effective way to use the colored flags, and if you ever use 4 & 5 stars?  Also, how do you track which photos have been printed or scrapbooked?  I've looked through the content quickly and not seen where you might have addressed these . . . I'm working backwards through my massive collection of photos, and wishing there were a way to "flag" entire folders so I could remember where I left off lol.  Only about 40,000 pix to go!"

Great questions!  If there is one thing I have learned over time it is that simple is better.  My goal with my photo system is to keep things as simple as possible so they are easy, repeatable and sustainable.  It is really easy for me to overcomplicate things so I constantly work to simplify.

• I don't currently use 4-5 stars because over time my library is going to grow and I want to have the room to expand - to always be able to pull the needle out of the haystack so to speak.  Over time my library collection of 2 star images is going to grow to the point where it is difficult to find what I need by choosing keywords and 2 stars - I think I am about 10 years away from that but still.  When it does, I'll move a select few of my 3 star images to 4 stars and then only pull out my true favorite 2 star images and make them 3 stars.  Not using 4-5 stars right now is giving me the freedom to expand later.

• It is easy to track which photos have been printed or scrapbooked by simply adding a keyword to the image.  Currently I don't use either in my system for photos.  I've moved away from worrying about whether or not a photo is scrapbooked or printed because most of my photos are never printed until they are in a layout.  I do share them - but mostly digitally on Facebook and slideshows for grandparents.  

• Lightroom keeps track of everything in Facebook for me through the Publish Services (I spoke about this in a very recent video tutorial on this blog).  However, when it comes to my layouts I do add a keyword to delineate if the layout is printed and if it is published.  This just helps me to keep track.

• I realize that for a traditional scrapbooker it may be more important to keep track of your photos being printed as that is how they are scrapbooked and catalogued in your system - so it is all good! :)

Lastly, if you are organizing those folders of 40k pictures in Lightroom it is very easy to flag the entire folder to know where you left off - 

• Click the folder you want to flag on the left side of library and press "G" to make sure you are in Library mode.

• Press CTRL/CMD + A to select all the images in that folder.  Right click on one of the thumbnails and choose Set Color Label and then the color label you want to differentiate which photos you have worked on and those you haven't.    You could repeat this for every folder that hasn't yet been processed.

• When you are done working in a color coded folder, select the group of photos processed and then set the color label to none. This way when you return to the folder it will be very easy to see where to start working again! :)

Hope the answers are helpful to you in your Lightroom workflow - happy Lightrooming! :)

Reader Q&A: Lightroom Publish Service vs. Export

Today's question comes from Carm,

"What is the difference with publish service and export with presets?" 

 This is a great question because the way Publish Service and Exports work in Lightroom are very similar.  In this video I cover the differences and a little of how I use each - there are very good reasons to use both at different times in your workflow.

Also, a few reference links from the video:

• 2011 Spring Lightroom Class
• Lightroom Publishing Video 

 

Yes, I Caption My Layouts

After spending a few more months in my system, I'm still captioning my layouts but changing things up a bit.  You can read a lot about my process for captioning layouts here.  In addition to the things revealed in that post, I've added a few more.

The Lightroom caption for this file reads: Photo taken Jan. 31, 2006.  Emily was up in the loft of our Centerville home pulling faces and I snapped away.  She is the "girly girl" in the family.  Her favorite quilt is the Butterfly quilt given to Troy and I by my Grandma LaRue.  I love her expressions.  Products Used: SugarPlum Paperie Chocolate Kiss Kit

The journaling is a bit dry - but it is there.  This is another reason I love the system.  I can just jot down my journaling without worrying if my writing is perfect whereas with layouts it seems so final and on display - so I spend a LOT more time.  By journaling in the photos, by the time I get to making layouts it is a lot easier to refine my writing.

If you read my first post on captioning layouts, you will know I primarily use captions to record products used in a layout.   Since I wrote that post, I've begun to change a few more things.  I often write the date the photos were taken, the story behind the layout or things I wanted to say in the layout but didn't.  

The Lightroom Caption: I just HAD to create this layout once I saw the photos in Lightroom.  With Hyrum's ADHD sometimes things are a struggle and he takes a lot of heat from teachers and others who don't completely understand him.  He may not be the perfect student, but he excels at things others could only dream of creating.  Such are the many sides to having ADHD & being gifted and talented.  What a fun ride - I am always learning so much from my son.  Products Used: Kitty Designs Template - 365Inspirations6, One Little Bird and Leora Sanford Tranquility kit, Paislee Press Storyteller kit

Also - keep in mind that after I create a layout with a caption that details products used, I strip all the digital scrapbooking keywords from that layout and replace them with Photo Memory keywords - i.e. Who, What, Where and When.

So in a way, the captions on my layouts are also my side to why I am telling the story the way I am.

What about you, do you caption your layouts?

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?