I love that saying. And I do say it in my best Pee Wee Herman voice every chance I get, just to be a smartypants. But the saying itself actually has another meaning beyond just the rough translation of "Stop staring at me, you goob!".
As you know, my son packed up and moved away on June 6 just after he graduated high school, which was a pretty sad day for me. Now I see stuff all over the house that reminds me of him, including his stinky old basketball shoes. That's when I go to grab them and put them somewhere out of sight, but I just can't bring myself to do it yet so I opt to just move them to the other side of the shoe closet by our backdoor for another day.
One day, though, I will have to put those shoes away. Or throw them away. Like many other things that come and go... once they're gone they're gone. And many times the only way to remember them is if they cross to the front of our memory banks for a little while.
I have advice to give you, and I want you to really consider this. It's something I've started doing and I LOVE the results. Take photos of things you would *never* think to take a photo of. For instance, your son's size 12 basketball shoes as he stands out on the court during a high school basketball game. One day, the feet that are in those shoes will have walked out your door, but at least you'll be able to sit on the couch in the fetal position clutching the photo. ;) Er... I mean at least you'll be able to create a standard photo print and slip it into a milestones album, or include the photo in a digital page in a Storybook that you can flip through to help you remember all that good stuff.
I actually included that shot in a page that went into a 12 x 12 Storybook that I created for him and prominently displayed at his grad party. Everyone loved it and thought it was super cool. (To create the page to the right, I used StoryBook Creator Plus Software, Primary Basketball Additions, Digital Embellishments - Frames & Borders and Fonts 1942 Report and You Are Loved).
Another thing to keep in the back of your mind is that you can use the photos you take as backgrounds on your pages too. Just plunk 'em down on your page and turn them into full bleeds (make them cover the whole surface of your project), then adjust the opacity to make them a bit more faint.
So having dished out my advice and given you a good example of something to think about shooting, here are a few more samples for you to consider:
- Team name painted on a football field or basketball court
- Grouping of bats leaning up against a fence at a baseball game
- Grass in your yard
- Tree bark up close
- Shoes by the door (example above)
- The clothes hanging in your closet (say, if you decide to go on a massive diet and get a whole new wardrobe, etc.)
- Your car in the garage
- The tv remote
- The front door of your work place
- Your freshly painted toenails
- Your child's favorite stuffed animal
- A pile of homework on the kitchen counter
- A quick snapshot of your child's horribly messy room
Etc. etc... you can see how this list could be enormously long. We'd love to hear what you've shot, and we'd love it even more if you created a project using your unusual photo. Come on over to our Facebook Fan Page and share it! Happy shooting!
