journalling

i have got asked about my journaling a lot so though I'd best write it down for prosperity...

I use  what i call "the 10 minute death bed rule" for my journaling..

supplies: photos, pen & paper - normally 6x4 index cards.

concept - you are about to die, you have to tell someone something specific about what this photos is all about in less than 10 minutes - its to make me focus on what I want to tell about the photograph...

two very simple questions:

why did I take the photo?

why did I keep the photo?

thats the story because you only use photos you like so there has to be reasons for it. keep to the point and get the feelings & facts down.

do only 2 paragraphs per photo ie each side of the index card, more than that and you are either telling a huge story ie a double page layout or you are not focusing enough. Each story for the photo get a new index card. so like for the example below for Fay - i had 3 index cards, with 3 different facts or stories on them (actually i have 6 in total that live in the photo album but only done 3 layouts). Often i have 20 to 80 photos taken in the same 10 minutes or an hour - so i pick the ones i like the best and do the card to that. if it is an event.. with lots of different sort of photos i do a general card with the facts ie date, place ie the zoo, what we saw, general feelings etc, then i might do specific ones about any special things that happened during that day ie how fay loved the ponies out of all the animals etc.

I used to use a timer but I've got used to what 10 minutes feels like for journaling. try to stick to 10 minutes because after that you mind starts to wander. my first cards were like "ian, date, place, took photo because he looked 'x', made me feel 'x'. or "fay, place, date, yellow dress from grandma, like how her hair looked'... you can always expand later but get it down on paper is a start.

also i keep my printed photos with the index card ready for when i have time to do the layout. its good to do it when the photos are fresh because that is normally when the memories are fresh too. i also do it on the computer and save the document in the same folder as the photos are because I don't always print out my photos on a regular schedule.

also if there are multiple stories to the photos, do multiple layouts... there is no rule that says a photograph cannot be used multiple times.. i have many layouts of the same photos because there are many stories to tell about it.

same type of photos (ie photos from same photoshoot) - different stories:

example 1 - Tattoo
*wuss*
*10 years*
*my daily passions*
*A to Z of me *
*my goals*
*journey*
*inked*
*bloom*

example 2 - family photo
*family Joy*
*dora*
*family laugh often*

example 3 - my man
*rarity*
*mine*
*ian*
*my Man*

example 4 - Fay
*your hair*
*not girlie*
*goth chick*

Comments

[cheryl]

Those are AWESOME tips!!! And all of the example layouts are great!!

[Maggie]

What a great idea. Thank you for sharing your journalling tips...I am determined to try and spend some time doing the journalling for some recent photos BEFORE starting the LOS. Thanks again :)

Maggie