Florida VACAY 2018

If I were just independently wealthy I'm fairly certain that I'd choose to spend my money helping orphans, traveling around the world and perhaps funding my affinity for coffee and dark chocolate...and maybe a few remodeling projects to funnel my inner "Joanna Gaines"...but I digress...

The point is, I'm a regular SAHM mom with 3 daughters, slowly approaching college and someday perhaps weddings *gasp* and by golly, I want my hubby to retire early so we can have FUN for our last years...

And so...

we budget like the rest of you...we save and save...and we choose where we will spend some of it...

In the more recent years, our girls have opted to use our vacation fund for camp.  It's a phenomenal camp and one in which we have seen such value that we are fine with channeling our moneys towards that end, than perhaps other really cool adventures across the country.

Again, that independently wealthy option looks SOOOO good right about now...

but really, life isn't about things, or even traveling and experiences...Don't get me wrong, they'd be AWEsome...but, I'm pretty sure that when I'm on my death bed (which I'm really hoping that's the way it is..a nice comfy bed and not some type of nightmarish thing because seriously my brain goes there sometimes and it's not a pretty sight...good grief, I can't stay on topic...ANYWAY...) I won't be thinking back on landscapes or flights or even beautiful pictures...but, rather I'll be remembering conversations, checking off that I said all.the.things. and I listened all.the.times. and that I gave lots.of.hugs. 

In other words, I will be remembering our story...the line of relationship that travels through the settings and the details and the numerous plots that take place over a lifetime...however, the most important part of the story will be my characters...

So to that end...is how I tend to capture our "vacations" with my camera.

Every other year, my husband's entire family get themselves down to Florida for an extended Family vacation...it's the whole crew...aunts, uncles, grandparents, cousins...and we soak up a week together...

I say all this to give you an idea of how I approach my vacation time...because let's be honest, my camera is HEAVY...I don't want to be lugging it all over me ALL the time. Simultaneously, I have a hard time remembering things as I am climbing my way to yonder, older years...I WANT to capture the moments...and, well, my girls are cute...so there's that too!

I go into MUCH MORE detail about this "philosophy" during my SNAPSHOP classes (WHICH BTW I'm having a class on July 18th in the evening and I have room for at least one more!!!)

But, let me give you the "cliff note" version...

First of all, I tend to think in terms of "story elements"...sooo, if we are walking to the beach, I'm thinking about what story element I want to highlight in order to "remember" the event...

Characters
Plot
Details
Setting

Sometimes I snap a picture of just one, or maybe 5 pictures of "setting"...or maybe I focus in on details, character and plot...

The point is, I think it through, I compose my image, snap it and then I put the camera away until some other story elements forcefully hits my creative senses again...

By doing this, I know that I'm being purposeful, I'm capturing the "story"...when all the pictures are put together, all the elements will be there to make an entire "chapter" of that particular story...AND I can also relax and be IN the moment as well...

Because remember what I said earlier?  It's about RELATIONSHIP...and that requires a CHARACTER to be ACTIVE in the STORY...and considering that I am the main character of my own story, I need to be ALL THERE too!

Here is just a snippet of the images that I'll use to fill a few pages of our Family Yearbook for 2018...I make sure I include the Story Elements...I use Details that will trigger a memory...I snap pictures of the Settings so we can almost "smell" the coconut scent and "feel" the steaming hot ground on our bare feet...I get a few action shots that show the Plot of certain activities (like rock climbing or lazy rivers or water slides)...and I definitely get the Characters...

Each of them composed in different ways...I have a couple handfuls of "tips" on composing images so that it mixes things up, keeps it interesting, but still gets the point across (again more things covered in my Snapshops)

They aren't perfect...I've never claimed to be...but, I do aim for Meaningful...for the Happy and for the Memories to be shared...

















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