Capture Your Days || Step Four: Choose your End Product

What will you do with your pictures and words? It would be a shame to spend a day taking notes and photos without recording these in some tangible way. Having your end goal in mind is helpful when deciding your timing, camera and notebook. Perhaps this post should have been first in this series. My end goal almost always determines which camera and which day I choose for a session.

Some recording options include:

- Social Media (Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, etc)

- Blog Post

- Photo Album (photobook or scrapbook)

My first session was posted on Instagram live. I have since done a few on Instagram and on this blog. I enjoy the live feedback from Instagram but prefer the quality of photos taken with my DSLR. Each has a very different tone: The iPhone/ Instagram posts are picture heavy with very few words; I tend to focus on a theme like "hands." The DSLR/ blog posts are higher quality pictures curated from a large group of photos with words detailing our activities in a fuller, more journalistic narrative.

Whatever your end product is, be sure that you edit your work. 

Curate your photos to the ones that best tell the story of your day. 

I chose to use a photo highlighting one of August's toys rather than an adorable, smiley picture of August in an oversized chair. The abandoned toy on the floor tells a better story than the posed picture of my son. I had a nice posed photo of Brandon and August when Brandon came home from work. I opted for the picture of the dump truck ride instead. I love the posed pictures and they will be in our photo albums but not as a part of our Capture the Day session.

   

Refine your words to tell a compelling story.

I made Brandon read my recent session post to be sure it was interesting. I want to write our story in a way that honors the details of a life lived well. These mundane, ordinary days are very important to our development as a family. Our story deserves to be told in an engaging manner. When you edit your notes, write your story in a way that highlights its importance to you and your family.  

Thanks for following along with this series. Please let me know if you have ideas to share or any questions. 

To view all of the posts in this series, click here.