Who Takes Your Couple Photos on Date Nights?

It’s our fourth wedding anniversary today, and it’s that time of the year where I give myself an excuse to browse through photographs and memories of the past years with David. I was going to apologize for the throwback photos and the ants and the cheese that have been all over our social media feeds all day, but I thought, hey, I’m not really sorry. :D (Sorry, not sorry!)

The web is our backup

Today as I was taking a trip down memory lane, I realized that, que horror, I lost (or misplaced) a big chunk of image files from years 2010 to 2013. I can’t remember where I backed them up or if ever I did! The lost files include photographs from our engagement, my New York trip in 2010, our Boracay honeymoon, our baby moon at Canyon Woods, and other special occasions in between.

The good news is, most of Dawn & Rain’s photographs are intact, thanks to that 52 Project! (Whew!) And as a consolation, we have uploaded a significant amount of these missing image files here on my blog and on social media. The upload-worthy ones. (Double whew!)

You know those times when people cringe at you for posting too many photographs and status messages on Facebook? Well, this is one of those moments I’m soooo glad I ignored those comments and posted photographs on Facebook anyway. Instant backup memory! I’m still wishing we locate those missing files, but if not, I’m glad we have Facebook (and this blog!) as back up.

On going to great lengths to preserve memories

The other night my husband and I noticed how we have stopped taking photographs of ourselves (and essentially stopped preserving memories) since the twins were born. Back then we would take so many photographs of us together—coffee dates, mall trips, grocery runs, random moments, even as trivial as making each other coffee in the morning or cleaning up the house—regardless if we’re posting them or just keeping them.

The past year, well, not so much.

Back then, I would go to great lengths just to preserve fleeting moments together. And I will never regret the times I did.

That said, would you notice that those photographs above were photoshopped? 

Selfies are ok for memory keeping, as long as they come with descriptive captions. But I like taking photographs in context—the setting, what we wore, what we did—which a selfie can’t justify, and two people on a date can’t possibly do without help from a third person.

But of course, you can’t entrust your camera to someone who’s just passing by. In such a case, we like taking turns capturing each other’s photographs, within the same frame, after which I would merge them digitally.

Here’s how to do it, just so you get something actionable from this post:

• It’s the same concept as cloning yourself in one photograph.
• In our case, merging two photographs together, here’s how (except we normally don’t have a tripod, so we just make sure to take the photo from the exact spot.)

Make memories worth keeping, and preserve them!

Time flies, and there’s merit to preserving memories, whether through a blog post, a photograph, a journal entry, a twitter timestamp. I can’t count the number of times I relearned lessons, revisited milestones, or remembered God’s goodness through an old blog or some social media posts. Stuff I wouldn’t have remembered otherwise on an ordinary day.

I wouldn’t say go all out posting TMI on social media! I say, not too many details, just the essence of the memory, like the telling of a poignant story, in ways that would inspire and connect people (friends and strangers alike), while serving your own nostalgia.

Here are some bloggers who do storytelling and memory-keeping so well, if you want to be inspired—

• A Father’s Journal by Bradley Cowan
• Design for Mankind by Erin Loechner
• The Shoemaker’s Daughter by Rhonda Mason
• The Lisa Show by Lisa Llarena
• Wanders & Wonders by Rica Bonifacio

My husband and I haven’t planned anything yet to celebrate today. He’s in school all day and I’m at home supposedly working, and I’m not yet sure how we would celebrate this day, except of course I know we will, and that there will be lots of photographs. (And maybe a little something special over the weekend too. ;) I can’t wait!)