Bits and Pieces

Today we are home from church, Katie has a yucky cold, and even though she is always a trooper when she is sick, out of courtesy to our church friends, she and I stayed home. Something on Facebook caught my eye about “on this day” and it reminded me of a series of posts Cathy Zeilske did:  “On this day in Zeilske history“.

So I started going back in our photos to see if we had any good ones from this date. I realized that Feb/March are traditionally lean months for photo taking in the Wright home. I was reminded that this date is the birthday of a family friend who has gone to be with the Lord. And that we have been sick with colds on this date before.

And I re-discovered this:

On this date in 2009, I took Katie’s 11 year portraits. And while this is not the pose I chose to send to family and friends,  if I had it to do over again, I would. This is why I never delete photos- I never know how the passage of time (and technological advances) will effect how I look at my photos.

It’s the first of the month, and that means it’s time to get last month’s photos backed up. Let me show you what this process looks like for me:

1. Get all photos off every memory card (including my husband and I’s phones).

2. Download them to a folder labeled with the month and year on my computer’s hard drive.

3. Tag them with keywords according to people in the photo, events, and activities.  i.e.  Katie, birthday, CoCo Key Water Park.

4.  Rate the best photos for the month to go into rotation on my digital frame.

5.  Burn the entire months photos with keywords and ratings to a DVD.

6.  Back the same photos up to a off site location. I really like Flickr.

7. LASTLY, once each of these steps is complete, format your cards and start taking photos in the new month.

I know this seems like a lot, but if you get in the habit of adding keywords each time you get photos off your memory card (which I hope is several times through out the month), the process is much quicker.

Another tip is to set your photos to burn to DVD, or upload to a backup site during a time you will be away from your computer.

thats right, it means its time to:

Download all of last months photos onto your computer

Backup those photos

Clear your memory cards

its time to backup January’s photos and then clear (format) your memory cards! I recommend Shutterfly or Flickr for online backups.

In honor of my ***SIX YEAR digi-versary, I have an announcement that has nothing to do with me, other than making me very happy,

The back story:

I was in a couple of chats (scrapbooking) featuring my VERY FAVORITE scrapbooker in the entire universe, Cathy Zielske, a few weeks ago, it was SO much fun!  Not only is she a wonderful designer, she is incredibly funny.
Several of us were encouraging her to take the leap to the dark side, and share her wonderful design style with the digital world. She hinted that she was really interested, and was learning Photoshop (being a graphic designer she works mostly in In Design.)
And a couple of weeks later, we have the joyous news the CZ has joined Designer Digitals and will be selling Photoshop templates!!!!
Can you tell I am just a little tiny bit excited?  Check out all the goodness right HERE.

*** I have been digitally scrapbooking since October 2003- WOOT!

Liz of Paislee Press, one of my favorite designers, said this on her blog today, and I could not agree more.

I love the ordinary, candid and everyday-ness of this photo because it captures the essence of us at the time – learning how to be a family of four. I didn’t realize how meaningful this photo was on the day it was taken. That’s the challenge of the ordinary and everyday occurrences. At least for me it is a challenge. Sometimes I need the passage of time to see.
~liz tamanaha

LOVE IT!

Cathy Zielske has been doing a fun little thing on her blog lately. She posts a photo of a family member taken on that exact day a couple of years ago. She also has a great tutorial for creating photo overlays, like the one I used here.

Here’s a fun pic I found of K, taken 4 years ago. Look how little she looks!!!

Robert Couse-Baker / CC BY 2.0

from Photo Bliss at Blissfully Domestic

It is the end of an era in photography. Photography has moved to a more digital world, and with this shift companies are beginning to phase out product. Kodak has announced that after 74 years of production the Kodachrome Film will be retired.

To many photographers this is a sad announcement. Kodak has been manufacturing Kodachrome film since 1935. It was invented by two professional musicians, Leopold Godowsky and Leopold Mannes. Kodachrome was the first color film on the market that used a subtractive method. The brilliant colorsit produced made it a perfect film for publication and print media. In fact, the famous National Geographic photo of the “Afghan Girl” was shot on Kodachrome film. Kodachrome was also admired for its long storage life. Kept in darkness a Kodachrome slide retains its accurate color and density for over 50 years! Developing Kodachrome film is a complex process. It requires technicians with extensive chemistry training and a very large, difficult machine. Currently there is only one certified facility, located in Parsons, Kansas.

Kodachrome film enjoyed its own little share of controversy. When it was first introduced one would purchase the film and the processing together. Once used, the film was sent, in the provided envelope, for developing by Kodak. In 1954, as a result of the lawsuit United States v. Eastman Kodak Co., this practice was found to be anti-competitive. Photographers from that point on were free to have Kodachrome film developed by independent processing labs. As this era of photography ends we are treated to this slideshowfrom Kodak, showcasing some of the outstanding work shot on Kodachrome film.

Additionally, you can treat yourself to examples of photographs taken with Kodachrome film at the Flickr Kodachrome Pool. Enjoy. It is a thing of beauty, and will be missed. RIP, Kodachrome.

I love June. Even if school let’s out in late May, it just doesn’t seem like summer to me until June. And here we are, June 1st. I am so excited for the summer ahead of us. Not because we have lofty summer plans or are going on any elaborate trips. Summer just makes me happy!

Speaking of plans though, Janet Phillips at one of my favorite digi scrapping sites,
the Daily Digi, posted a list of 100 things she wants to do this summer. Some of the items involved going places, others where to do list type items. It inspired to make our own list as a family. I really want to feel a sense of accomplishment at the end of the summer, not my typical “Oh no, where did the summer go?”

So I have challenged Shane and Katie to come up with 33 things each that they would like/need to do this summer, and we will combine our lists and see how many we can cross off by the end of the season. I can’t wait!

And of course I will be continuing to document everything through our Project 365, and this blog, so when it comes time to scrap all those memories, I will have great reference material,

What are your family’s goals for the summer?

Time to start our December Daily series of photos! Let’s all try to take at least one photo a day from now until Christmas!

Today I am wrapping up some gifts, so i will take a photo during that process for our photo today.