It’s important to document the day to day – the everyday things that make your life unique, just to you.

I also think its important to take care of your back:)  My camera, fully loaded with my favorite lens weighs in around 4lbs, not exactly the lightest thing to carry in your bag.  It’s similar to carrying a 1/2 gallon of milk all the time:)

Despite its heft I have tried to have it with me all the time.  How can I document my life without my camera!   What I found was I would have my camera with me but I wouldn’t use it.  It was too big to use in stealth mode or while I was also trying to participate in the life I was documenting.    Taking the time to get out the “big” camera interrupted the flow of conversation or action and I didn’t want to do that.

So in the mid-point of last year I abandoned the idea of having my camera with me all the time and committed to documenting the day to day on my iPhone.  It helped that at this same time the new iPhone came out and the in-phone camera is super great for this type of thing.

Do you know what I found?  I actually started taking more pictures of my own life!  It was easier to make an image of my nieces playing Rummikub with me if I could do it between turns!

At the end of the year I had a great collection of images of my day to day.  Then it was time to figure out what to do with them.  Given some of the news I am reading in the film industry lately about digital files having some long-term storage issues (see article here: http://www.variety.com/article/VR1118048861)  I do what I did in the days of film – I printed them:)

Blurb has a great partnership with Instagram that allows you to create a photobook from your Instagram images.  I made my first one with my images from 2011.  It now sits on my coffee table and I can share the images with friends and family who come to visit – which is exactly what you should do with your images – share them!

xo,

audra