I’d like to take you on a journey into the future.
One of my gifts is the ability to sense a moment of significance as it happens. Countless times people have said to me, “My biggest regret is not booking that photo shoot when you suggested it.” It’s not uncommon, in the chaos, for people to miss the significance of a moment… only for it to resonate much later once the dust has settled.
So, step into my time machine, if you will, and I will take you on an adventure where “now” is history. We, our children, and future generations will look back on this time and want to know what it was like. Not what the headlines said, not the statistics listed on the internet, but what it was like on a daily basis. Not the drama, not the major life changes. But the day-to-day. You know, the stuff that’s driving us all crazy right now. One day, someone is going to very, very curious about all of that.
Because I can’t travel right now, I can’t be there to document it for you in person. But I know everyone takes many more photos than ever end up in their Instagram feed. Yes, some of those are better off on the cutting room floor, so to speak, but some of the ones left out for imperfections are exactly the type of thing that express what it has been like to live through the pandemic of 2020-2021.
A pile of boxes, messes on the floor, things in the background you might want to edit out. All those weeks of no haircuts. A mask dangling from your wrist.
Perhaps most interesting of all are the fragments of normalcy scattered throughout the day. When looking at images from the 1918 pandemic, one notices the streets, what storefronts looked like, the clothes they were wearing… oh, and also the masks on their faces. It isn’t just the pandemic-related details that are important, it’s all the other elements from this point in time that give it context.
So, I invite you to create a time capsule. In fact, I invite you to have me create a time capsule for you. Send me hundreds of your iPhone shots from the past year, and I will cull to a special selection and edit them into a storybook for you. Because on our phones, the images pile upon one another, giving significance to the ones on top, just like our memories. Certain ones get shared and cherished, but those special in between moments get buried as time goes on.
One day, a young someone will ask you, “What was it like, during the pandemic?” and I want you to be able to pull out your storybook and show them, just like that. No scrolling through years of old shots, trying to find them.
I’ll spruce them up for you, too, so they really shine like a story book should – using the iPhone shots like a negative that holds potential, and unlocking the best color balance and exposure possible. It will be both a work of art and historical document of your unique experience through this extraordinary time.
When the pandemic began, I kept seeing a slogan that said, “We’re all in this together.” I appreciate the encouragement the sentiment had to offer, but something was missing for me. Because every one of has had to face this situation in our own way, dig deep, find what mattered to us, and sometimes just get through the day in whatever way we could. It has been a time of deeply personal experiences.
I sense that for many of us, we will look back at this time as when some aspect in life shifted, like a turning point in a novel. In the midst of it, we are dealing with real-time challenges. But like anything momentous, it will beckon us to reflect more and more over time, about what happened to us and what it means. A photo storybook can help with that, too.
If you’d like to get started, click here to reserve your spot on my calendar.
