Sale-A-Bration and Photo tips

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I recently returned from Hawaii, where I attended my mom's funeral services. Mom used to always say how much she was "so NOT creative". She claimed she could only draw stick figures. Well, I must have taken after her as I can't draw at all. My siblings on the other hand can draw beautifully. I did however get the color coordination skills from my dad, who is a self-taught artist in watercolor, acrylic and oil. I will miss Mom a lot. Because of the distance, I would scrapbook our 'adventures' and send several pages to her that she kept in a scrapbook. I also sent her photos to place in a photo album I had selected just for her. While in Hawaii, I came across the photo album and was pleased to see that she had updated each page with the photos I had sent her. While I didn't find the scrapbook, I'm sure it is somewhere safe. I ended up doing a few scrapbook pages to place on a display board at the funeral. It is then I realized how important scrapbooking really is to me.

Here are a few tips for all of you whether you are scrapbookers or just photo buffs.

1) Find a photo crayon/pencil or an acid-free pen to write dates, people and places/events behind the photo. I found that Mom did not do these things and how I wish she did take the time to do it, as I could not identify a bunch of photos in her possession.

2) Keep your photos safe. Back them up on an external drive or CDs if they are digital photos. If you still have negatives, buy a negative scanner and get those photos into digital format. Many of Mom's photos lacked negatives and I'm afraid they are lost forever. Keep copies of your CDs somewhere besides your home in case of a fire.

3) Hand someone else the camera. Mom did have quite a few photos of her adult life and with her grandchildren. However, I could not find many photos of her and children.

4) Take a family portrait at least every 2 years. You don't need to spend lots of money doing professional photos. Set up your digital camera with the tripod and get everyone together for the shot. We did not have very many photos of the family together, which makes me very sad.

5) If you have old photos that need repair, take care of it immediately. Those photos are very sensitive to heat and light and can deteriorate and fade quickly. With many computer programs like Photoshop, you can edit photos to their original state.

6) When your parents are no longer living, one sibling should become the 'historian', so that your family's legacy and stories can be passed onto the next generation. Ensure you write those stories down so that your posterity can someday read them and have a glimpse into what your family was like.

7) When you take your photos, ensure you take everyday photos as well. Holidays, birthdays and anniversaries are nice, but a glimpse into your everyday life will be intriguing. Take photos of your house, autos and pets.

8) If you are scrapbooking, take care not to crop out important features in a photo. For example, maybe grandma's crocheted doilies are on a tabletop in a photo. You'll want to keep that in the photo and perhaps mention it in the journaling.

Hope these tips help you. Although Mom is not here with us, I will cherish all the photos that she took of us kids, whether they were nice and clear or blurry!

Evelyn Bumanglag
Feb 9, 1944 - Dec 18, 2009

circa 2006