assembling memories

I am rarely bored but today I am.

It is too hot to roam the streets, and besides, if I don’t roam, I can’t buy.  So I decide to do a project I’ve been putting off.  Making a 2013 photo album.

It’s probably good that digital cameras did not exist when Alexander was young.  Had they, I’d probably not have a home big enough to house all my iphoto albums.

Before digital photography, I was probably one of the few people who did not throw photos into a big shoe box.  No, not me.  I would meticulously sort through the photos, discarding the really really bad ones, and labeling the new ones.  Then, I would put them in photo albums; I preferred the ones with the individual plastic sleeves to the early ones that were self-sticking, but never stuck.  Organizing photos was a laborious process that took hours for each role of film. 

And still, the finished product was never that good.

My early photos, with bad cameras, are the worst.  

I'll open an album and pictures start falling out.

There are tons of photos that are out of focus.  Seeing a head cut off is not unusual.

And all labels are handwritten.  

It is so much easier today.  And the result is infinitesimally better. 

But it still takes me all day.  First, I sort through 865 photos from 2013, choose the best ones, edit them, then create the book.  This year, I have so many photos I like I make two, 100-page books.

But the end result is impressive.  And to think there was a time I actually believed digital photography would never catch on.