The Psychology of Old Photos

"Those were the good ole days!"

"They don't make things like they used ta!"

"Back when I was a kid, I walked a mile uphill in waist-high snow both ways to school!"

Did you ever wonder what that looked like?  

Well, the third one about walking was always an exaggeration; it's to tell kids that they really have it easy these days with school-buses and car-lines for drop-off and pick-up.

We are really lucky to be living in today... because most families have at least 100+ years of photographs of their loved ones, when they celebrated life, got a photo in the corner of the yard against the flowering bush, and the hunting photos!  It seems that even with how bulky and heavy cameras were back then, people knew the value of photographs.  It was a record to them of good times, brought joy, and helped them to remember that exact moment in time.

When you go home for the holidays in December, do you lug out the old photo albums?  I mean the ones with the black pages where the black and white and sepia photos were encrusted with corners that had been licked and placed to keep the photo in place.  I mean the ones with the sticky backs, that had so much acid in them, your photos turn yellow.  I mean the ones with the static pages that when you ripped open the film covering on the page, your hair would fly up!  

Do you sit on the sofa or on the floor with your mom and grandmom and peruse the albums? Do you ask questions about who is in the photos, and what's going on?  Do you try to insert yourself in the moment to discover what that day might have been like: the warm sunshine, the cool breezes, the smell of the flowers, what the colors actually were, what their voices sounded like?

I encourage you to dig out an album or the shoe box of photos, and get on Zoom with your grandma, and ask her about the photographs.  I bet you'll hear stories that you never heard before, and gain an appreciation of exactly how easy we do have it these days!

I mean, anti-perspirant and washing machines/dryers! 

Bee in love with the heart-work of your life.

The 5 Photographs You Don't Want to Miss Taking This Year During the Holidays!

The 5 Photographs You Don’t Want to Miss Taking This Holiday Season

Ever look at other people’s photos and think, why didn’t I think of getting that one?  Here’s a checklist of the 5 most important photographs you can take this holiday season.

___ Baking with Grandma.  These are some photographs that will be treasured for years to come by your children as they grow older, and have kids of their own some day.  Baking is a huge tradition for many families, and Grandmas have the best cookie recipes!  Perhaps creating a Grandma’s Cookie Recipe book for when your kids are older, complete with these photographs, would be a treasured keepsake.

___ All the cousins playing together.  It’s not often that cousins get together, and so to have fun photographs of these kids together, climbing at the playground, sitting on a retaining wall, cuddled up on Grandma’s couch, building legos together, eating ice cream… These are the sweet photos that they will enjoy so much when they are older.

___ Photos of you with your parents.  It’s great for you to get a photo of you with all of your siblings and your parents, but how about something sweet of you, and your mom and dad?  That’s often overlooked, and to have that kind of snapshot is priceless as you raise your own family.

___ A photograph of your mom and dad under the mistletoe, kissing.  That can never get old.

___ Photographs of you and your kids.  So many moms are the ones taking the photos… and they get cute ones of dad and the kids.  Encourage your partner to take photographs of you with the kids…  or else, 20 years from now, your kids will wonder why there are no photos of them with you in it!  Show your partner some ideas on what you’d like, and then take those photos.  And don’t worry about having those extra 20 pounds, or the roots in your hair, or the wrinkles in your face.  The photos are the important thing.  And, if taking care of those extra 20 lbs, roots, or wrinkles is super-important to you, I know some people who can help you with that.  But that’s another conversation!

Hopefully, this has helped you figure out some photographs you want from this holiday, and inspire you to take even more!  Share your holiday photos on our Facebook page, and show us what you did!  We can't wait to see!