Yes, That's Us!

One day last October, a friend stopped by. As we were standing outside talking, a vehicle drove down our street...

That's the Google map photographer, taking pictures of Ottawa's "street views," Terry commented - so we all looked.

Sure enough it was!

A few days ago, Terry happened to check our "street view" - and, sure enough, there we were!

Summary of a Year

I find it interesting when my iPhone photo app picks up significant photos from past years. Digital photos have date and time imbedded in them, but how does the app know which to choose? However it's done, one photo can tell so much.

Recently the app showed me photos from 2021 and 2022. In 2021, our granddaughter - visiting from Toronto - transformed one bedroom upstairs into her personal "Barbie Room." I took a picture of her Barbie set up next to the bed.

A few months later, in 2022, the family moved to Ottawa - and suddenly needed a snow-blower for their much-larger driveway. A new toy!

Going back in time, in 2019, baby brother Jericho was born. 

In 2020, the Covid pandemic arrived. Our daughter started working from home. She didn't get out as much as before, so she enjoyed taking day trips with Terry and me whenever we visited. The picture chosen by the app shows a scene in Goderich, on the shores of Georgian Bay - one of the places we visited together.

Going back again in time, in 2017, our granddaughter turned one in April. An earlier picture shows her before she began to walk.

A year later, in 2018, not only is she walking and talking - she's looking very grown up!

All this reminds me...  What a difference a year can make!

Where Was That Picture Taken?!

The camera on my cell phone is the only one I use these days…

It’s easy - point and shoot, then edit. This is the edited version of the picture below it.

There’s another feature I really appreciate as well…

When I can’t remember where a photo was taken - it tells me. (It also supplies the date and time of day.) Both the above photos were taken in Perth… at around 4 pm on June 20.

Now I remember! We were returning from Guelph and stopped in to watch our granddaughter’s outdoor dance recital… 

(Our multi-purpose cell phones are visual diaries as well!)

Hard to Be a Pet Photographer!

Pets can look so cute… especially when they’re young.

There are two highland lynx cats in my older son’s home.

When I try to photograph them, it’s hard to keep them still - unless they’re sleeping. 

Will it help if I lie down on the floor?!

It takes a certain skill… I should check out pet photography tips online!

Deadlines... and Stress!

A while back I mentioned that the operating system on my old laptop will no longer be updated as of January 1.

I'm not sure whether I should  try to update the operating system... There are other computers in the house with the new system, and I prefer the look of the old one.

So January 1 is a deadline that looms in my mind...

At the same time, I've been "harvesting" photos on the old computer - creating photo books using my digital photos stored on the computer. I've created four in the last month, and there are three more I'd like to do.

The photo company keeps sending me coupons for a generous discount on future photo books - but the discount expires a week from today.

This too has created a deadline of sorts in my mind! I retired so as NOT to have DEADLINES!! I'm not used to stress like this!

But, on the plus side, it is making me stop procrastinating...

(Maybe I need more stress in my life - to get more things done...!!)

Our Neighborhood's Beautiful Trees

You'd better take a picture of those two trees at the end of the street, Terry said... The leaves will soon be gone...

The trees he was referring to are relatively new - planted when the college landscaped a few years ago.

I'm more drawn to older trees - ones a few streets over that welcomed us when we first drove into the neighborhood, house-hunting. At the time, our daughter was a year and a half old.

I could live here, I remember telling Terry. I love these trees!

It was October when we first saw our house and made an offer...  We moved in on December 31.

The neighborhood made such an impression - all because of the trees!

Remembering an October Trip to the Laurentians

On my photo book "to do list" is to create a souvenir book of two days Terry and I spent at the ski resort, Mont Tremblant, north of Montreal.

We were there in October 2015.

Most people drive there in winter, to ski.

But neither of us are skiers, so we picked a few mid-week off-season days in October to head up.

We had a lot of fun!

Some deer showed up as we were wandering around! Terry tried to make friends with them.

The hardest thing about a low-season visit is the lack of restaurants that are open.

They take times like this to give their staff holidays - or to clean and renovate.

But we had a good time.

The weather was cool but sunny.

At this time of year - before the snow falls - I think it would be fun to go again.

A Few More Photo Books

My aging computer - with its hundreds of family photos stored on it - will soon no longer be "supported" by Microsoft...

What exactly does that mean?! my daughter asked me recently...

I don't know. No updates, I guess...

But will it really make a difference?

I don't know - but the thought is making me get to work and create photobooks, something I've been meaning to do for a long time.

I guess any deadline that motivates you to complete a project isn't a bad thing!

Photo Books - Almost Caught Up

I have hundreds of digital photographs stored on my aging computer...

What if the computer dies before I transfer them to a form that's easier to share?! Words can't express how disappointed I'd be!

So, a few months ago, I started creating photo books. I decided that a chronological approach would be best... It would help me remember when certain events (like weddings) happened, and when I traveled to this place or that...

It's been a long haul, but I've managed to complete half a dozen books so far. (I confess that 50% off coupons motivated me!)

I plan to make three or four more...

Perusing the photos and REMEMBERING has been a lot of fun... But I'm glad I'm almost caught up.

Churning Out Photo Books!

Winter is a great time to organize digital photographs into photo books. (Ever since I started blogging, I've taken dozens of pictures every month, so it's really an editing process, as I select the ones that tell "family stories"....)

Fortunately, at this time of year, I've been able to find half-price specials. These "time-limited" bargains have motivated me to keep at it!

I've been churning out photo book after photo book!

Two recently arrived in the mail - three are in transit - and a few more need to be created! Each one takes a day or two of concerted effort. Hopefully I'll soon be all caught up!

One Thing Leads to Another: Organizing Old Photographs

I was recently hunting for an old photograph of my father which I wanted to use to illustrate a blog post. I remember loving the photo because it pictured my dad as I remember him well - sitting reflectively in our family boat, next to our dog Moochie, who also loved being out on the water.

In the process of digging through boxes of pictures and negatives, I found some interesting old photos of friends, which I posted on Facebook...

Other old family pictures, like this old wedding photo of Terry's parents, together with both sets of grandparents, I really don't know how to share, except online.

Should I create some family photo albums?

Reflecting on this, I thought about the hundreds of pictures I have stored on my computer... I wanted to make photo books with family pictures someday... Maybe someday is now!

And so I began...

Hunting for one picture (which I haven't found yet!) has set me on a task that could occupy me for the next few weeks... maybe even months!

Family Photo Books

I've just finished creating three new photo books - from digital pictures stored in my computer.

These three are memories of Hawaii, photos from last year's Rideau Canal cruise, and our personal photos of our granddaughter's first year.

I'd like to do several more books - one of family photos over the years, another of day trips and family vacations.

Ever since we started taking digital pictures, we rarely print them out. I don't want to lose them when the computer goes...

I know photos can be saved on memory sticks - but recently one of my memory sticks was considered "unreadable" by my computer!

Technology changes all the time - but books capture the images in a format that is timeless!

Photo Books for Family Stories?

I was recently going through old photographs - some, of Terry's family, a box we "inherited" when his grandmother Hutchins died. Neither he nor I know who most of the people in the pictures are.

(Should we just throw them out?!)

I have also been going through old albums, taking digital pictures of childhood photos to post online... Memories from years gone by. (Like this picture of my father at the beach with my brother and me in the summer of 1950.)

As I look at old family photos of places that have changed - and people no longer around, I wonder: Will my children even know who these people are when I'm no longer there to tell them?

(This is my father and me outside his garage in Hay Lakes, Alberta in 1947, before his gas pumps were modernized. I was a year and a half old.)

What to do? The easiest thing would be to go through family albums photographing each of the old pictures with a digital camera - or cell phone! Then, using the new digital format, I could create family photo books - identifying the people in each picture and, in some cases, saying when and where the photo was taken.

I have been doing something similar in the photo books I made to document recent travels.

The old black and white digital images would have their own charm, I think...

The whole project would take time, no doubt about that. But I think it would be worth it.

Reference Photographs

I usually take my camera with me when I go for a walk. I never know what I'll see!

Nowadays, I'm not only looking for interesting neighborhood "news"... I'm also looking for photo reference material for my painting.

Never know when I might need to be reminded what an old tractor looks like...

...or how to shade a pile of rocks...

What colorful branch looks like in fall...

The shading of a wooden fence...or a leaf-strewn field...

Photographs always come in handy when painting!

Organizing Photos

I have a lot of digital photographs stored on my old computer...

With my computer acting up, it's time to think about removing them - perhaps making them into little albums, like these I made up after trips to England.

(This winter, there's no lack of organizing that needs to be done!)

There Must Be a Lesson in This

A few days ago, I mentioned losing some quilting fabric I had purchased in Paris, France. I "lost" it in the house after tidying up. Fortunately, it did turn up again... several years later!

I have written other blog posts on how easily I lose things: I take great pains to find just the "right" place for them... and then forget where that "right" place is!

Recently it happened again! Last summer I decided that the time had come to organize my digital photos. A lot of them were on my old computer. Should that computer suddenly break down, I would lose years of pictures. So I painstakingly transferred them all to a memory stick. In fact, I transferred them to two memory sticks (in order to have a backup copy...)

Then the other day, a former student contacted me. After chatting a while, I offered to share some digital photos I had... But when I looked for them, I couldn't find them!

I then realized that so many memories on such a small (easy-to-lose) device was really pushing my luck! I need online backups of all my photos - perhaps on Shutterfly - or Picasa - or BOTH!

(And I should never keep the back up memory stick with the other!!)

Maybe I need to follow my daughter's advice and burn all my photos onto a CD. Perhaps onto 2 CDs - then keep a one and give the other to a friend.

Or maybe I should give lots of copies away. Years ago one of my friends lost most of her possessions in a house fire. She later commented that the only photos she now had were ones she had originally given away to family and friends, which they were now returning to her.

Well, the good news is that I did eventually find my memory sticks. (Yes, the original and the backup were in the same place!) How did I find them? My usual method - by going back and looking again... in the most logical place I would put them...

In fact, I've posted a blog about that strategy too!

Creating a Personal Travel Souvenir

Problem: Now that I take digital pictures, I rarely print them up or have them developed. Instead, I upload them to a memory stick and view them on the computer. But hidden away in digital form, they are all too often forgotten. I haven't created a photo album for years. (Which is a pity...)

That may soon change.

Before booking my recent trip to London, England, I did a lot of online research, using the Trip Advisor website. So after returning home, I posted a review of the hotel we had stayed in. We were very happy with our choice - and since people usually only write to complain about bad experiences, I thought a positive hotel review could be helpful to others, like me.

After uploading my review, I was pleasantly surprised to receive an online gift coupon for a 20-page photobook from Shutterfly (an online photo developing company in the US). I would only have to pay for shipping - and any extra pages I decided to put in the book.

I quickly decided to take up the offer. Uploading and arranging the photographs was fun.














I was even able to use photos on the front and back covers of the book... which arrived a few days ago.














Now I am thinking of creating picture books of other memorable vacations I have taken!

Time for a New Camera

My old camera has been acting up - sometimes the first picture I take is completely blurred... but then it recovers...














It's an early Canon Power Shot - and it has served me well, for about seven years now... (It was a bargain - I got it FREE by accumulating air miles points!)














After hours of internet research, my husband thinks this Lumix camera would be a good replacement...

So I take pictures with both to compare them...














The Bleeding Heart taken with the Lumix...














And with the Canon...














Our lilac tree, close up - taken with the Lumix...














And with the Canon...














Tiny pink flowers that MAY be carnations... taken with the Lumix...














And the Canon...

Mmmmm... Years of improving technology... Not sure I can see a difference!