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| Image Credit: Pixabay Archives |
For as long as I could remember, I was the girl who would
flinch and cover her face whenever someone brought out a camera or took their
phone out to take a selfie while simultaneously dragging me into the frame with
them. I was the girl who didn’t really understand why her friends or family
would waste time taking photos of food before eating it even if it wasn’t that
special to begin with. I was the girl who had less than 200 photos on her phone
instead of the 1000+ her friends had.
In short, I didn’t really take pictures unless I had a
really stunning view of the sky or some exotic dish.
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| Image Credit: Unsplash (modified) |
After going through middle school and freshman year without
many photos to show for it, I decided that this summer, I’d take more pictures. I’m terrified of losing memories and forgetting something
really great that happened one day. With photos, you can preserve those memories. It’d also give you a really great
incentive to go out and do something fun
and exciting every day (or nearly every day) of the summer. When you’re
motivated to get out of your house and do something productive, you just feel
so much better about yourself. Plus, you’ll be living a fuller life.
To me, a fuller life means a life with a purpose and with
goals and with you being motivated to go out there and do something. It sounds
like a big ambition, but it’s all about taking baby steps. Before you go out
and do a bunch of crazy things, take a smaller plunge and vow to, say, take a
photo a day so you feel like you have to do something special with it in order
to document it.
What should I use to
take my photos?
There are a few different ways you can go about this. The
easiest one would probably using your phone to take photos because you probably
always have it around, plus you can easily edit the photos on
Instagram or various other photo editing apps right there.
You could also use a point-and-shoot camera that you already
have lying around which will most likely give you better quality images
depending on how many pixels your phone and camera have. But another cool thing
you could do is take photos using an instant camera like with the FujiFilm
Instax cameras that have been getting a lot of hype recently. There’s the most popular model, the Instax Mini 8 and the more expensive one with more advanced options called the Instax Mini NEO90.
Yes, these are definitely much more expensive options
compared to simply using your phone to capture these moments, but if you have the room in your budget for it, by all means, go ahead!
I’ve taken the
photos. Now what do I do?
It’s great if you’ve taken a ton of photos, and while it’s
nice to have them on your phone or stored somewhere in the cloud, it’s also really nice to have them displayed somewhere as a keepsake.
First off, you might want to edit your photos a bit (fix the lighting, colour, etc.) which you can do really easily through
websites like PicMonkey and Pixlr Express which are geared towards beginners.
PicMonkey has really great fonts, embellishments, as well as basic photo editing
options, but if you’re looking for more filters, check out Pixlr Express.
Once you have the pictures just the way you want them, an excellent keepsake option is a scrapbook. It’s
an investment due to all the paper and time that goes into making one, but it’s
something that you can share with your friends and loved ones and keep in with
you for years to come. Plus, you can completely personalise it.
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| Image Credit: Shutterfly |
If slaving for hours over patterned paper and stickers is
not your thing, check out Shutterfly’s photo books. It’s like making a scrapbook
for yourself, but it’s all digital and you can get them printed for really
reasonable prices and they have a really nice professional look to them. It’s
something that can really bring your family together. Who knows, maybe after
seeing your awesome photo book, they’ll want to make some with old family photos
as well.
Another option is to document the summer through a photo
blog with your friends. Yes, it’s still a digital method, but it’s also a cool
way to share what you’re doing, especially if you’re not going to be in the
same city. Like your own little personal Facebook minus any pesky ads or
friends that you don’t really want to see your photos. Of course, you can
private your blog or something so that it’s a bit more secure and you don’t
have to worry about strangers getting a hold of your photos.
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| Image Credit: Fiona McLaren |
Finally, you can simply print your photos out and start a
photo wall. There are so many options when it comes to a photo wall. You can
print the photos out in different sizes, for example, some 4x6, some 5x7, and
some 8x10 to give you a more mix-matched and quirky feel. You could also do an
Instagram wall if you’re an avid user of the app.
For both options, you could put the photos into cool shapes
like a heart (like this one!) or in the form of a word/phrase. You could always
just frame them if a sleeker and more traditional approach is more up your
alley.
Taking
pictures can really improve your overall quality of life. It might seem like
such a small and simple thing to do, but it can really make a difference for your memories.
What do you think of this idea? Are you an avid day-to-day photographer? What do you usually like to do with your photos? Leave your comments and share your stories below!
- J
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