3 Simple Ideas for What to do with your Summer Photos
As the world begins to open and you venture out to make some memories, I want to give you a gentle nudge.
Your phone makes it so easy to capture photos and video of your summer season, but what are you planning to do with what you capture?
It doesn’t take much planning at all to consider what you’ll do with those memories, but your answer to that question can shape what you capture on your upcoming adventures - and how you capture it.
I’d encourage you to think beyond sharing a few pics on Instagram or letting those vertical video clips of your kids languish on your camera roll.
Here are three really simple ideas for what to do with your summer photos, videos, and memories.
3 steps for your memory keeping
I’m sharing three key steps for each project:
Capture
This just refers to how you’re capturing memories for that particular project. Because this differs depending on what you want to hold in your hands in the end!
Curate
In this step, I narrow down what I’ve captured - photos and videos - and choose the best before I start making my project.
Create
You made it! You’ve captured your memories, curated your favorites, and now you get to make the thing. If you pay attention to the first two steps, this one is a breeze - and fun.
Summer Project 1
Make a simple photo book
Photo books are such an easy way to preserve your memories.
Capture
Be sure to capture a range of photos - landscape and portrait, close-ups and wide shots, people and things, details and candids, selfies and groups.
A wide variety of the types of photos you can include in a photo book will ensure it’s interesting, editorial, and heavy on storytelling.
It’s the difference between 30 pages of group shots smiling at the camera and layouts that toggle between blurry candids, silly selfies, meals, beverages, morning beach walks, and evening game nights.
Curate
Narrow down the photos you take to the ones that best tell the story you’re documenting.
If you’re putting your entire summer in a photo book, then include not just travel but also the things that made up your summer closer to home.
My general formula is to take your page count and multiply by two.
And always include less than you think you need.
Create
Choose a photo book vendor, upload your pics, and don’t overthink the process.
If you like to edit photos, be my guest; but lots of your summer pics will be taken in daylight, which is hard to improve upon with editing.
Let summer photos and photo books be casual, breezy, and a joy to create and flip through.
Further reading:
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Download my guide to tackling sentimental clutter
Summer Project 2
Make a modern home movie
Video can be intimidating, but it doesn’t have to be.
Capture
Take lots of little video clips, 5 to 10 seconds long, of everything from meal times to outings to your morning coffee and the setting where you’re reading a book or grabbing an afternoon ice cream.
Capture photos, too. Those can go into your video right alongside moving clips.
One thing I insist on is that you turn your phone so it’s horizontal.
If you’re only planning to share this video to social media, then okay - vertical it is.
But think about it this way: if you’re wanting to make something your family can enjoy, what’s the best place for them to watch it?
Together, on a screen that’s bigger than a few inches.
Shooting landscape (horizontal) photos and video will mean your kids are larger than life on the TV screen.
They’ll get a kick out of it and you won’t have those large black boxes on either side of a small slice of video.
Curate
I’d upload all of your video clips and your favorite landscape photos to the native video software on your computer.
I have a Mac, so I use iMovie. It’s free and the interface is simple.
Get all of your videos into one folder and import to your program before you start editing.
Create
Before I add any clips to my video, I choose music. If it’s a long or repetitive song, you can clip some of it or just taper off the sound. Remember: we’re going for simple here!
For summer, choose something light and fun.
If you’re not sharing to social media or YouTube, or trying to monetize your family videos, you don’t have to worry about using licensed music.
If you have a favorite Taylor Swift song for summer, buy it, drag it into your video program, and use it as the soundtrack for your summer memories.
Add video clips and keep it all short. Attention spans are brief, and you don’t need more than a few minutes (3-4) to document your summer vacation - or your summer in general.
Remember, this is a snapshot, not a documentary!
Export your video to a site like Vimeo if you want to easily share it with family and friends, or just export it to your hard drive and stream it to your TV.
Your family will love it.
Further reading: 5 videos to capture on your next vacation
Summer Project 3
Print, frame, and display a photo
Capture, print, and frame a fabulous family photo. Sounds simple, right? That’s because it is!
Still, pay attention to the steps below so you actually get it done if this is the route you want to take.
Capture
I’m just saying, when I’m really relaxed on a trip, I don’t always want to break out my phone or pose for a picture.
My hair is usually a disaster, I’m not wearing any makeup, and I’ve been eating chips and guac as a fourth meal everyday.
But if you’re determined to get one great photo of the family - something you want to print, frame, and display, then make it happen.
It takes a little extra effort on vacation, but hand your phone to someone and make it happen, or take a fun selfie and keep it casual.
Curate
Choose one! You just need one photo to print and frame. Pick your favorite, and do a little editing if you’re up for it using Lightroom or A Color Story (free editing app for your phone).
Create
I definitely recommend sending your photo to a lab like Persnickety Prints. The quality is significantly better than your local Walgreens (no offense - works in a pinch!).
Or better yet, upload your photo to a website like Framebridge and get the printing and framing done in one fell swoop.
You’ll be so happy to have that photo on a console table or added to a wall collage.
Get another printed and framed next summer and you’re on your way to a minimalist collection of memories.
Further reading:
