Photo-inspired storytelling that starts with an intent endures. Grab one of those photos sitting on your camera or phone or hard drive and tell its story today.
Give your photos stories
Go beyond the who, what, where and why to what it means. Answer the 5 prompts below before you write the journaling.
1. Look at the photo. How do you feel?
2. What are the specific things in the picture or that I remember from when it was taken that make me feel that way?
3. What else? What does it mean to me that I’m feeling this way?
4. What’s going on micro (i.e., how did the image in the photo come to be right then)?
5. What’s going on macro (and what in our lives brought the micro about and what in the world brought us here . . . keep zooming out)?
[toggle title_open=”hide” title_closed=”Click here to see how this photo made me feel and my prompted notes.” hide=”yes” border=”yes” style=”default” excerpt_length=”0″ include_excerpt_html=”no”]
How do I feel when I look at this photo?Yearning
What are the specific things in the picture or that I remember from when it was taken that make me feel that way: It seems my cousin’s daughters who are now in their 20s should be the teens here and that my son and nieces and nephew should still be young children. Especially seeing them against the backdrop of the barn — a place my cousin and I played when we were children — younger even than the kids in this picture.
Time flies. Yep. It just always seems to come down to that doesn’t it? When I’m faced with evidence of how fast time goes I feel nostalgic and that I should make sure I’m living well.
What’s going on micro (i.e., how did the image in the photo come to be right then?) This was after Dawn’s wedding shower, We were playing croquet and goofing off — somehow they posed themselves this way! Very fun.
What’s going on macro (or even just a bit farther out)? Isaac and I traveled to NY for this shower and to see family — but Josh didn’t come with us. First time that’s happened. He’s growing up. Mom worked very hard to put this lovely party together. Her yards and the land around the house is gorgeous. And Dawn’s getting married! Exciting.[/toggle]
2. Write the story.
Sentence one: Set the context.
Sentence two: Tell us a detail that’s evidence or a driver of how the photo makes you feel. (You’re not talking about your feelings, here. You’re providing the details that contribute to your feeling.)
In between: The details that matter.
Last sentence: Finish it up with something that connects to how the photo makes you feel.
(Check out an example in my pages below).
Give your stories a home
3. Put the photo and story together
Get the photo and story connected permanently–in a way you can find and view and share later.
Possibilities:
- Use Word. Create jpg file. Put them both in a word document on one page. Save it. Export to a jpg file that you can print or view with your computer, smart phone or tablet.
- Use Photoshop Elements to put them both on a document. Save it (as a psd if you want to edit later and) as a jpg that you can print or view with your computer smart phone or tablet.
- Put your journaling into the metadata of your photo. (Look for instructions on this in a future article).
- Put your photo and journaling in “pockets” and put that pocket page in an album.
- Make a paper or digital scrapbook page. Put your paper page in an album. Get your digital page printed OR organize to view digitally with your computer, smart phone or tablet.
Photo and story are both put on one landscape 8.5″ x 11″ page using Word and then printed or exported to a jpg file and viewed and shared digitally. 
This is a “pocket page.” The photo is in one pocket. The story is printed on cardstock and cut to fill two pockets. The extra pocket holds pretty paper and a title for the page.
Cousins Here Pocket Page: Pockets by Valerie Wibbins at The-LilyPad.com. Additional supplies – see layout below.
This is a scrapbook page made with papers and alphas and embellishments. It can be printed and put in an album. It’s also great for sharing digitally. Post it to Facebook or put it on a cloud drive that you can access with your smart phone or tablet to show friends when you’re out at lunch.
Cousins Here by Debbie Hodge | Supplies: Candid by One Little Bird; Little Miss Sunshine Alpha by Zoe Pearn; Stapled Sequins by Kim Jenson; Chin Up by Allison Pennington; Amelie, Bohemian Typewriter fonts
