How to Better Use Your Photos
We live in the age of smart phones, which puts an incredibly powerful camera in our hands at any moment. This allows us to snap a photo or video at any time. This is wonderful because we are capturing memories with such ease. You may be the type to forget to take photos or you may have a zillion photos and videos hogging the storage on your phone. Wherever you are on the photo taking spectrum, we’ve got some ideas on how to better enjoy and use those photos…
Chatbooks is one of the easiest ways to get photos off of your phone & into your home. Their process is simple and their products are affordable and beautiful. You can choose between an ongoing book series (a new book is printed every 60 photo uploads), a standard photo book (you choose the custom photos printed in this book), or monthly minis (30 page photo book each month). Each of these options offer a great way to create a rhythm for how often you are getting photos printed.
Calendars are a great way to use your photos in a way that is serves a function. There are so many online services that allow you to upload your photos into a variety of calendar designs that work for you and your family. These are also great gifts for family members. A few to try: Shutterfly, Snapfish, and Vistaprint.
Artifact Uprising produces some high quality home decor items that feature your photos. Their design is effortless and will make any photo look nice in your home. Here are a few of our favorites pieces:
There are so many creative ways to get your photos incorporated into items you use in your home. You can use your photos to create personalized magnets, mugs, potholders, blankets, pillowcases, puzzles, keychains, notepads, and the list goes on. As always, we’d encourage you to consider the functionality and need of that item before creating lots of personalized stuff for your home (which can turn in to unintentional clutter).
1 Second Everyday is an app that creates a movie culminated of images and short videos from each day. No pressure, if you don’t have a photo or video for each day of the year. It’s pretty sweet to review the days and months past in images and videos you’ve taken. You can allow the app to remind you each day to take a quick photo, even if it’s a photo of something very ordinary and not “special” or what you’d normally think of as photo worthy. Here’s a quick & interesting TED video about the creator of the app.
Google Photos is a great tool to use if you are a Google user already. It allows you to store unlimited photos for free (up to a certain image quality) and share those easily with other Google users. This also allows you to delete photos and clear storage space on your device. You can create albums and easily organize your photo library by dates and locations.
Lovely photo by @erinmccall_
Lastly, we encourage making the investment of hiring a professional photographer once in a while to document your family, specific milestones, events, or your home. Here are some local professionals we highly recommend- Suzy Collins, Erin McCall, and Tracie Ancelet. After you get these quality photos, it’s important to get them printed and displayed on your walls or coffee tables. Use those photos in your space!
What are other ways you are using and enjoying the photos and videos you take on your phone? We’d love to hear!
The snapshots we take today will serve as rich reminders of the days past us as the years go by.
Everyday moments are so worth recording and remembering.