When the kids were very small, we took them to a professional portrait studio for some photos. They were wearing the sort of "good clothes" that grandparents buy with joy but your kids wear twice because, really, how the fuck do you iron something with sleeves that are only three inches long? We plopped DC#2 down on the photo backdrop and tried all sorts of tricks to get him to sit still while the photographer started taking film (yes, film). Then he rolled over and started crawling straight toward the camera with a huge grin on her face. She kept shooting.
That was the best one of the bunch, and the one that's still in the 8x11 frame we'll haul out to embarrass him when he brings his girlfriend home to meet the parents next month. "Perfect photos" aren't perfect poses; they're the ones that capture the best small moments of joy in your life. Everyone should have a wall of those, if only in our minds.
I just hung up one of these (2 years into owning our house), and I learned a great trick: you know how the back of wrapping paper sometimes has a grid on it? Well, if you tape up that wrapping paper, leveled, you then have a grid on your walls to hang your photos in straight lines!
I know you are an architect so it probably isn't a problem for you, but for us other laypeople here in the comments: wrapping paper!!
Heh, this struck a chord. We were about 3 years or so into the new house when I finally got a bunch of the family photos framed and on the wall. The plan was to do just as you did, we sit down together, rehash memories, repress others, and come up with a cornucopia of reminders of who we are or have recently been. After a year plus of it being put off, I just dropped everything, went through the stuff myself, and made it a gift to my wife. One less chore on the list, and uh, yeah, the dog is more photogenic, sorry kids.
I want to say we still have fambly photos with a very pregnant wifey. Our youngest will be 7 in December. Looks like I'm gonna have to drop everything again.
Great newsletter. I studied the gallery wall intensely looking for Holly, fearing that you had ghosted her, until I noticed the caption under the photo.
We did it for the accent wall behind the couch thanks to two extended family photo sessions, and the fortunate symmetry that both Jennifer and I are one of three kids and it worked out great.
But they're posed photos because, again, selective editing.
When the kids were very small, we took them to a professional portrait studio for some photos. They were wearing the sort of "good clothes" that grandparents buy with joy but your kids wear twice because, really, how the fuck do you iron something with sleeves that are only three inches long? We plopped DC#2 down on the photo backdrop and tried all sorts of tricks to get him to sit still while the photographer started taking film (yes, film). Then he rolled over and started crawling straight toward the camera with a huge grin on her face. She kept shooting.
That was the best one of the bunch, and the one that's still in the 8x11 frame we'll haul out to embarrass him when he brings his girlfriend home to meet the parents next month. "Perfect photos" aren't perfect poses; they're the ones that capture the best small moments of joy in your life. Everyone should have a wall of those, if only in our minds.
squidward-ass-looking photo wall picture
I just hung up one of these (2 years into owning our house), and I learned a great trick: you know how the back of wrapping paper sometimes has a grid on it? Well, if you tape up that wrapping paper, leveled, you then have a grid on your walls to hang your photos in straight lines!
I know you are an architect so it probably isn't a problem for you, but for us other laypeople here in the comments: wrapping paper!!
Heh, this struck a chord. We were about 3 years or so into the new house when I finally got a bunch of the family photos framed and on the wall. The plan was to do just as you did, we sit down together, rehash memories, repress others, and come up with a cornucopia of reminders of who we are or have recently been. After a year plus of it being put off, I just dropped everything, went through the stuff myself, and made it a gift to my wife. One less chore on the list, and uh, yeah, the dog is more photogenic, sorry kids.
I want to say we still have fambly photos with a very pregnant wifey. Our youngest will be 7 in December. Looks like I'm gonna have to drop everything again.
Great newsletter. I studied the gallery wall intensely looking for Holly, fearing that you had ghosted her, until I noticed the caption under the photo.
An excellent post.
If you are considering a Gallery Wall and want to go quick and relatively painless, after you do your selective editing:
https://www.mixtiles.com/
We did it for the accent wall behind the couch thanks to two extended family photo sessions, and the fortunate symmetry that both Jennifer and I are one of three kids and it worked out great.
But they're posed photos because, again, selective editing.