Keeping up with all your tech and gear can feel like drinking from a firehose. If you don’t pay attention to the constant changes, upgrades and advances, you can wake up feeling like a Luddite.
I just reviewed a bit of what I’ve discovered over the past year and then shared on my blog.
And here are ten ways I’ve learned how to skill up. (Each title below is linked to my original blog post.)
These sunset and sunrise photos I snapped remind me of some great vacation moments my family and I have spent together. That’s why they are strong contenders to frame and hang at home. (Disclaimer: This living room is AI generated via Google Whisk. But the photos in the AI frames are all mine.) Here’s why the stories behind your pictures are often more important than the photos themselves.
I studied the framed European vacation photo hanging on the living room wall as I listened to the story behind it. It was a wonderful picture, but the narrative was even better.
My wife and I were visiting friends recently, and they were sharing their vacation experiences through the framed pictures in their home. I was hooked.
These photos displayed simple moments from their trips. Some featured public activity, but none showed the members of this family. The images were entirely anonymous, but still extremely personal. The key factor was the collection of rich personal stories that accompanied these photos. That’s what brought them to life.
From Snapshots to Stories: Rethinking Your Wall Art The next day, my wife suggested that we might consider putting up a few more of our own travel photos in our home. She said that I had taken so many great pictures from our trips over the years. Why not pick several more to frame and hang? I agreed.
I said I would review our vacation photos and create a collection for us to choose from. And I did. But I was shocked by what I discovered.
You’re Actually Framing Stories I found that most of our vacation photos I’ve been taking over the years weren’t going to work. That’s because they fell into two categories.
These pictures either featured me and my family.
Or they were my attempts at iconic shots from these cities (like you might find on a postcard).
Mostly missing was any location imagery that carried a story behind the moment.
As I looked at my pictures, the stories simply weren’t flowing.
Family Vacation Photos Can Quickly Get Dated Sure, it’s easy to frame vacation photos with family in the shot. Of course, that tethers you to the point in time and location. And yes, I’ve already positioned some of those shots on our walls. But there’s a problem with this strategy.
Your kids grow up quick. So, if your photo is more than a couple years old, it’s going to feel dated. Maybe two or three older pictures on your walls are okay. But I don’t want my house to be a museum focused on a different era. Plus, I don’t think my teenage son appreciates seeing lots of photos showing him half his size. (That’s such an uncool dad thing to do!)
It’s the Memory that Matters Most So, if you want to hang up photos from your trips, you’d better take some shots that can stand on their own and contain a story that you’ll remember. (Otherwise, it’s little more than a postcard that simply says you were there.)
This is how the right photo can reflect real meaning for you in future years and help project the story of your life.
This may all seem obvious, but it’s often hard to accomplish.
Conversely, sometimes, these photo opportunities just appear, and you quickly snap the picture without much thought. And then you may not realize that you’ve captured a memorable moment until you get back from your trip and reflect on that photo.
However it happens, these are the special photos to curate. They don’t have to be your ‘best’ photos. But they’re the ones that will carry the most meaning for you across time.
And I think these are the ones to consider showcasing… for yourself and others.
Focus on Snapping Good Photos that Tell a Better Story As for our own photo-framing project, happily, I did find enough photos to choose from that will work.
But this exercise was a critical reminder for me that most anyone today can take a good photo with their phone.
But being a better photographer is always about capturing a memorable story.
When the carnival comes to town, are you giddy, or do you roll your eyes? I’ve just changed my perspective on this communal experience. Here’s why I’m no longer rocking my grumpy pants.
I have a complicated relationship with carnivals. When I was in college, I worked on a short video called “Carnival Closed.” It was about the cruel irony behind the facade of fun. We shot our faux-documentary at the sight of a packed-up carnival. The rides weren’t exactly abandoned, but they could have been. Our narrative for this little piece admittedly was over the top and intentionally absurd. But our little doc had its point. And it’s stayed with me all these years.
Fast forward to the early days of my career in Massachusetts. I again found myself attached to a video production surrounding the life of a traveling carnival. It wasn’t my project, but I went on a couple of video shoots for this documentary. It was more grounded in reality. Or it tried to be.
How real is any carnival? Projecting the pretense of fun, it’s designed to deceive, shake you till you throw up, sell you food that should kill anyone in sufficient quantities and take as much of your money as possible. And in the rare instance, you could have the misfortune of getting injured or worse.
What a deal.
But in today’s 21st century world of slick tech and shrinking social, in-person interaction, the creaky, in-person world of carnivals, is seemingly going strong.
The siren song of the carnival still pulls in its crowds. Why is that?
Norwalk Oyster Festival I think a big piece is the social aspect. It’s still a fun, analog way to spend an afternoon with family and friends in your own town.
After a number of years away, I recently attended the Norwalk Oyster Festival with my wife and teenage son. And against the long odds I’ve attached to this experience, I surprisingly had a fabulous time.
So, what happened? Well, I think the question is what happened to me.
How Much Does It Really Cost? After we walked through the gates and paid the $15 per person admission fee, I was confronted with arithmetic confusion. We tried to figure out how many tickets we needed to buy for the rides we wanted to go on. It was a baffling process, as none of the rides posted how many tickets were required. Our son helpfully suggested that we could probably use any unused tickets at next year’s festival.
I shot back that I highly doubted that. He asked why.
I said, “It doesn’t fit the Pirate Code.”
Pirate for a Day So yes, I have bias here. And while my thoughts are not especially supportive of the carnival business model, I also feel they’re a back-handed compliment.
Because deep down, don’t we all want to be a pirate, if only for a few hours?
That sense of freedom without following any rules. The hope that with a little luck, you can win your big treasure… and beat the system. Yes, that’s part of what any carnival sells.
And its arguably more attractive today than ever.
Who cares if you have few extra tickets left over? What’s more important is the fun.
The Weather Clears I used to scoff at the required spend for a few hours at a carnival. But now, with more perspective, I see that it’s actually not such a bad deal compared with the cost of spectator events like baseball or a concert.
And as always, this is mostly about mindset. That’s what really frames anyone’s experience.
We decided to attend the last few hours on the final day of the Norwalk Oyster Festival. It had been raining for the past 24 hours, and the skies were finally clearing. That’s when we headed out.As we arrived, the sun started to break through as if to welcome us.
Later, we watched a brilliant sunset as the storm front continued to depart. The colors of the clouds were spectacular, and the cool edge of a September evening felt wonderful.
Communal Joy We went on a few rides, and my wife and I rode the Ferris wheel, which was surprisingly romantic.
Yes, we ended up with a couple extra tickets, and we happily handed them over to a mother and daughter who were short a few. Then, we walked over to the line of food vendors and had a yummy dinner. We enjoyed the fresh air, and we listened to a bit of music from the live band under a tent.
Not bad for a late Sunday afternoon.Microsoft Copilot tells me that “the carnival remains an enduring symbol of communal joy, creative expression, and the age-old human desire to celebrate life’s abundance before the solemnity of fasting and reflection.”
Yep.
We’re All Children at Heart So, I no longer view the carnival with the same lens of caution as my younger self used.
Sure, my original concerns are relevant. But my fresh Norwalk Oyster Festival experience reminds me how much fun it is to join a pirate crowd on a late Sunday afternoon.
Said another way, visiting a carnival can always be a good way to feed your inner kid, no matter your age.
As I consider my own evolution and change of heart, I’m happy to report that I would title my next documentary on this topic, “Carnival Open.”
