Caption This...
My Great Grandparents on their wedding day.
Instagram, Facebook, Boomerang, Layout, Prisma, Waterlogue, Shutterfly, and Techlab are the 8 apps I have on my phone in addition to the camera function. There are multiple albums and hashtags and places to store and share both the big and mundane daily moments of my life. My daughter's days are covered and then some. I love that so many things are saved. Do I share them all? Not a shot, but I certainly treasure them. Gone are the days of dropping off your film, waiting to pick it up, requesting "doubles" to share with your friends, and then being excited to see how they turned out.
I can't tell you how often I was disappointed by entire rolls of blurry photos because the flash wasn't working properly or multiple closed eye shots that would never make a frame. (Don't even get me started on my near constant red eye which I blame on my large pupils and/or my demonic possession.) This aspect I don't miss, but I would be lying if I didn't admit to actually liking to hold the photo and then put that photo in a frame.
Being hired to organize someone's home is very personal. I see their closets, and their bedrooms, I'm in their private space and I am very respectful of this position. I find all sorts of items when cleaning but consistently I come across boxes of photographs and albums, long since forgotten and never usually sorted through. I'm not trying to pry but I've found beautiful young brides, charming children playing from vacations in a bygone era, parties filled with cocktails and cigarettes, and handsome men in uniform. Even though these people aren't my relatives I always find the photos to be beautiful and nostalgic. I'm always struck by how young the people look and how different the time was yet how similar the family photos are to the ones most likely on your phone right now. I hope that when I turn them over there will be a name scrawled in old fashioned cursive, a date, or even a location. All too often there isn't and it's such a shame. The photo is there but it would be hard to tell the whole story because family trees and memories get muddled over time and faces change with age.
If I could convey one thing it's this: Caption your photos with a quick note of Who, What, Where, and When. Years from now it will be a treasure you've left behind, a family story that gets remembered. Here is just one of mine. I have a lot of old family photos up around my home, mixed right in with more current family memories. This photo is hung next to my bed and is of my maternal Great Grandparents, the Hathaways. This was taken on their wedding day in the 1920s. If you look closely you'll notice that my Great Grandfather is standing on a wooden box so that he appears taller than his bride. I love this small detail for the humor it brings to an otherwise serious photo. You can imagine the awkward suggestion by the professional hired that day, I sometimes wonder if the bride was amused.
What I love though is that I know the story and have shared it with my daughter for whom these are her Great-Great Grandparents. It makes me a bit teary to think of the two very tall sons this young couple went on to have, my Grandfather and late Great Uncle. Although they would never have a chance to meet them, they would have 10 grandchildren, 18 great grandchildren, 7 great-great grandchildren, and 2 on the way. This is where it began. All of the family members have copies of this beautifully framed wedding photograph and we all know the story, thank goodness for the caption and this wedding day.
-Ashley
Ashley Ingraham is a very organized Mom of a daughter in Baltimore, Maryland. Always creative she was a double major of Studio Art and Education at Furman University and spent the beginning of her career as a teacher in Baltimore City. After staying home with her daughter she founded Home Perspective to share her Organization skills and life experience to make others homes and lives better. Her business has been featured in Baltimore Magazine, Oprah & Entrepreneur. When not busy helping people organize their lives she can be found at concerts all over the country or busy raising her tween daughter.