Album Along - YAAG, P365, D2D, PAD, PL

WHAT the heck does that title mean?

Pixels2Pages Day2Day Facebook Page

YAAG - Year at a Glance
P365 - Project 365
D2D - Day2Day
PAD - Photo A Day
PL - Project Life

cm go digi photo a day

P2P D2D

Those are all names (and I'm sure there are more) for year-long projects that people a taking in all kinds of ways.  Some people are blogging a photo a day or Instagramming a photo a day or tweeting a photo a day.  Some folks have facebook pages dedicated to their daily photo projects.  Here at SherYourScraps, usually these projects have something to do with more than just social media photos. I talk about these projects and I mean actual albums, items you can hold in your lap and they are traditional, digital or hybrid.

Any way you look at it - these annual photo quests have become quite popular and are satisfying in a variety of ways.

This past year (meaning 2012 from January to December) I took on TWO such projects. 

PROJECT#1 I most often called my Day2Day or Photo A Day projects because those are the names most often used in the Creative Memories / Pixels2Pages world and from there I got my main inspiration to give the projects a try. 

My photo a day project went pretty well.  I mean I actually took a photo pretty much every day - and the times I didn't, I managed to fill in my missed photo with something pertinent (I'll explain more of that later).  I am dividing each month of photos into two double page spreads and creating digital pages with Storybook Creator.  I haven't decided whether or not to purchase an actual storybook or to print digital pages and add them to an album.  I'm going to price it out - especially since there is a BIG ALBUM SALE going on right now.

Here is my title page for the D2D album.

I blogged about it HERE.

PROJECT#2 was one of my own making that I call my Photo of Love project.  It's something I blogged about HERE.  This is a hybrid project - digital photos, made into 4X6 and 5X7 custom pages using Storybook Creator and then printed as traditional photos and added to an 8X8 traditional album.  Last year I used Nancy O'Dells LOVE album (which just happens to be on sale RIGHT NOW - CLICK HERE). I pre-decorated the entire album and all I need to do is add my little photos. 

My goal with Project#2 was to take just TWO photos of my husband and myself (together in the same photo) each month.

The two photos a month was actually more difficult for me than the photo a day.  However, I really liked the idea of the Photo of Love project and I plan to do it again for 2013 and maybe even improve on my photo taking.  This year I will use the PS I LOVE YOU Fast to Fab album.

I just got it in my new product shipment.  I love it that I just take the album from the shrink wrap and add photos and journaling - I'm a control freak about album design, but somehow, using this album just takes a lot of pressure off.

TITLE PAGE FOR Project Love (not many photos of us from past several years)

So why was Photo of Love so hard?  Well, for a variety of reasons.  One, I am the main (often ONLY) photographer in the family.  When I really need a photo of myself, I ask my husband to take one.  So with this project we BOTH had to be IN the photo or get someone else to take it.  Second, I'm NEVER happy with how I look - except for the rare occasion when I am dressing up a bit to go out or some such.  SO... I don't particularly like my photo taken.  Also, we really tried not to go out too much because we are in the midst of paying for so much college tuition for our kids that we are trying to seriously scale down the outings (yes, there are free things to do - but we have failed quite badly in doing them).  Therefore, getting TWO photos of JUST US in the same month and getting someone else to take them and getting me to not feel awful about being photographed was a big challenge.

BOTH PROJECTS:  I planned to work on the pages and photos along the way and throughout the year.  I didn't.  I did so through February.  Then I fell off the wagon.  BUT... I can deal with that.  At least I have most of the photos taken and I can put something together.  NEXT... I didn't do a very good job of making sure I have all the photos I need though I'm sure I have most of them and I think I can fudge things where I fall short.  For instance, I WILL crop me and hubby out of a group photo - and I will admit to it in my journaling.  AND... I WILL come up with ways to point out the days where I just plain failed to take a photo that day and fill it in with something that makes sense.

For the D2D project, if a day is missed, I will look at my calendar and possibly include things I did that day in a list, rather than a photo.  Or, I will look up in the online newspaper what was happening that day in the news, locally or in the world and insert a photo of that.

OR I will look up what the weather was that day and indicate it with a weather photo.... regardless, it's fudgeable and I don't feel bad about the fudging at all.  The album will still reflect what was going on in my life pretty much every day for a full year.

HOW DO I FEEL ABOUT THE PROJECTS?

Project#1 - mixed feelings.  I liked it but it was missing something for me.  HAVING to take a photo every day meant that I often didn't take passionate or inspired photos and although a record of the mundane is somewhat interesting in itself, it also left me feel lacking.  I want to take photos that I LOVE more.  I want to take photos that are beautiful. 

I adore looking at the photos in a blog I follow called Posie Gets Cozy.  Honestly, I know nothing about the woman who writes it - sometimes I don't even know the purpose of her blog or much about her even tho I peek into her life via photos almost every day.  BUT... what I do love is her photos.  I can basically look at anything she takes in awe.  Most striking is her lighting and her composition.  Astounding.  There is such calm and peace in her photos.  I am a serious peeping Tom with her blog - just gazing through the windows of someones life who I dont' even know.  I wish my photos made me feel that way about my own life.  SO, I guess I wish my photo taking was a bit more purposeful and beautiful and the DAY2DAY project doesn't really make that happen for me.

That said, I don't think I'm going to do another Day2Day album.  I am either going to do a W2W (Week to Week album) or a TotM (Themes of the Month) album where I do take a year's worth of photos but they have a weekly or monthly purpose or focus and in which I can really concentrate on the photos themselves, not just ticking off the days.  I may do a Day2Day album in the future, I didn't dislike it.  BUT... I wanna try something else.

For YEARS!  I did what I called Year At A Glance albums.  I didn't plan how many photos or what photos I took, but at the end of the year I put together an album that showed the highilghts of the year either in a Monthly order or in a Seasonal order from Jan to Dec.  I always LOVED my YAAG albums.  I did one every year from 2000 to 2009.  Then I stopped (I got caught up with too many graduations of kids and trying to get other albums complete and my 2010-2011 YAAG albums fell by the wayside).  Yes, I can still go back and do them - after all, with Memory Manager, it would be VEYR EASY to pull together.  But, I'll have to seriously do more scrapbooking than crocheting to get that done and as it is - I spend A LOT  way too much time in front of the computer.

FINALLY  - A PARTNER:  I asked a lot of my customers to join me in my DAY2DAY project and although several sounded interested, only ONE actually followed it through (Thanks, Laura!)  Laura and I both have iphones and we set daily alerts on our photos to help remind us to take photos before the end of the day - this was a HUGE help to both of us.

We both made our pages through about February and then fell off the wagon.  We are both motivated to complete the 2012 pages REALLY SOON in 2013 (my goal is this week), Laura's is first few months of 2013.  We both just bought this digital software package to assist with our projects. 

We are both subscribers or P2P - tho. I don't think Laura stays on top of her P2P.  I read p2p EVERY DAY!  I also am on the cm go digital fb group and all the p2p and d2d fb groups.  The inspiration from those places has helped.

THIS YEAR I would LOVE to have more of my customers and maybe even some of you blog readers to join me in one of my projects.  Do you like the idea of a D2D a W2W a YAAG or a TotM album?  What sounds interesting to you?  What worries you?  What makes you think you might fail or succeed?  I'd love to have a little posse on board with me to share more about our projects.  AND, I'd like to blog a bit more about my projects, stay on top of them better throughout the year rather than leaving it to the end, etc..

And THAT is what I have to SAY about THAT!  Serious mouthful I just spouted at you - LOVE to hear your feedback.  Feel free to add your comment to the comment section of this post and I'll do my best to respond to each of you.

CLICK CLICK CLICK and JUST SAY CHEESE! - Sher