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If you have a “pick of the week” you would like us to share on the show, please call and leave a voicemail or fill out the form below. (digi)
Melissa Lewis joins Steph, Katie, and Peppermint to discuss scrapping the hard times. Ideas for deciding when to share or when to leave it alone; how to scrapbook the hard times and what can be learned from documenting the difficult situations we face.
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You can download this episode by right clicking and saving this link.
Joining the Discussion
Melissa Lewis
Steph
Katie Nelson
Peppermint Granberg
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Picks of The Week:
Peppermint: The (sounds dirty but it isn’t) Wet Brush
Melissa: Snapshotsofagoodlife.com
Katie: WeLovePhoneography.com
Steph: Tips for Scanning
Yeah the best time of the week is when the digi show comes out! Hey Steph, FYI the link associated with Melissa’s name is going to your personal blog URL.
Why o why does wordpress get a mind of it’s own with html? It’s fixed. Thanks for letting me know!
Steph,
The link for downloading is not working… Just FYI, I need my weekly digi fix.
It’s working for me :-S Are you right clicking and selecting “save as”?
Not sure what I was doing before. But I got it now. Also downloaded past ones (thanks peppermint). Long flight from ca to pa. But I’m looking forward to it now.
I’m listening to the show right now! While I have been listening I have been adding keywords in Lightroom. I have gotten through a lot so far. I’m loving that I can organize in Lightroom. Also, your Photoshop screen fix is GREAT!!
Thank you so much!!
Hi again!! I was totally stoked to hear Katie read my last comment!!
And my name is pronounced “I-Know”. Yes yes, I have heard all the jokes allready…. LOL!! (My name is Finnish whereas I am Norwegian – so now you know.)
Keep up the good work! Love listening to you ladies!
So glad to know how to pronounce your name – thanks!
Listening to the show and definitely an interesting topic, because I agree that we usually don’t need help to remember hard times or difficult events/situations.
Sometimes I try to twist it and scrap about what I’ve learned or the sweet part of a bittersweet memory.
However, when Melissa was saying how those photos reminded her of the chemo not working… it made me wonder if anyone ever destroys their old pages that may not apply anymore? Does that make sense?
Or maybe, redoing pages because things have changed?
Sometimes it’s nice to have a record of things, what you felt at the time. But other times, it might just bring up resentment or more sadness… maybe another show topic?!
Sorry to be all downer – but lately I’ve been thinking about old layouts and projects… and how they might be outdated and unwanted in some way…
Pick of the day – Camera+ for iphone. An awesome tool for $1.99. You can change to settings to save to camera roll and still apply the instagram filters, too.
I agree with that pick Lauren. It’s my favorite iPhone camera app right now. I combine it with Snapseed editing quite frequently. I also like it’s mechanism for sharing pics for email, sms, facebook, etc.
I’ve been loving that one too!
I don’t think this qualifies as a “pick of the week” yet, because I haven’t tried it myself, but I wanted to remind my fellow audience members that you can purchase the “Student and Teacher Edition” of Lightroom for &69.
Basically if you (or someone in your family) is a student, faculty, or staff at a school or institution (even home-school!), you send in a copy of proof (a report card, Student ID card, pay stub, etc) and they mail you your serial number. You can download and use the 30-day trial while you wait.
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B003Q81EL2/ref=asc_df_B003Q81EL21911913?smid=ATVPDKIKX0DER&tag=hyprod-20&linkCode=asn&creative=395093&creativeASIN=B003Q81EL2
There are specific details on eligibility & proof but I think there are plenty of digi-scrappers out there with kids in school who might be able to take advantage of this incredible deal!
(Clearly it is in Adobe’s best interest to get a loyal customer hooked in their youth!)
That would be $69 not &69.
I really appreciate this topic. I always find it interesting to hear people talk about how they don’t usually like to include negative memories. I was abused as a child, and now I have a child. I often think that a lot of the reason that I was in danger had to do with the way I was raised and how other people in my family kept their abuse private. My abuse is such a huge part of who I am, that I don’t think that my girl can understand who I am and why I make my decisions with out a knowledge of that abuse. I also feel that there are many good lessons to learn from how I coped with the abuse and managed to become a healthy person despite it. I think that even if I manage to keep anything really horrible from happening to her as she grows up, everybody has tough times and I think that the scrapbooks I keep about myself and my history may help her when she has her own hard times.
Thanks for sharing – I can’t even imagine how difficult that must be and I admire you for being such an example to your own daughter.
Loved that this episode also turned into a Lightroom mini-show. Just yesterday I relistened to your show about Lightroom way back in 2010 /pds024-the-sweet-little-machine/
(sharing the link because I couldn’t find the show on itunes) so this new update was an awesome bonus. I’m one of the many who have purchased Lightroom mainly because of learning about it here (you should be an affiliate!), as well as Scott Kelby’s book that was Katie’s pick on that earlier show. I’ve only had it a week, and I’m a little intimidated about slowing down my workflow to learn a new system, but I know it will be worth it. I loved hearing about it being $300 back in 2010 because it is under $150 right now (in lieu of LR4 coming soon).
Also, just want to second Melissa’s pick of Karen Russell’s blog. Way back before she taught photography professional, I was a fan of her Narratives line for Creative Imaginations, & I learned so much just reading her blog posts about aperture and ISO. She’s gone over to the Nikon side, which still makes me a little sad, but her photos & authentic voice always inspire me.
I’m giggling about the “going over the the Nikon side” comment!
Thanks for the shout out about my study on scrapbookers! Great show!
I thought that was so interesting!
This is not related to digi scrapping, but you all have so much family tech knowledge: What would be the best app for sharing calendars on smart phones? My DH has a Droid and I plan to get an iPhone soon (for the camera!). Is there anyway we could access a shared calendar? I need to be able to access it from a PC as I can get on the web at work, but not on my phone.
I LOOOOOOVE Google Calendar!! You can read about it here:
/organizing-life/
/un-digi-scheduling-my-life/
I am also a Google calendar user so that’s a good route to go if you’re already a heavy Google user, especially because it’s so embedded into the Android OS. But Cozi Family Organizer is a third party app that has a lot of family organizing capabilities. ( http://www.cozi.com/) I don’t personally use it because I’m such a Google calendar addict that I can’t justify switching between two apps. But if you’re currently without any online calendar software then it might be a nice feature-rich solution. For instance it lets you also coordinate shopping lists, to do lists and meal planning. Depending on how involved your husband is in those functions, as well, that could come in handy.
My husband is still rocking the O.G. Motorola Razr and has no interest in a smartphone, so I have no one to use fancy coordinated software with. It’s quite a let-down for me.
Peppermint – I loved that phone!
My Moto-Razr battery only just died… with all the tiny phone pics on it
I went for the iPhone… will you still be my friend?
We can still be friends. Hah! I’m actually not anti-Apple, just not an Apple user. I have far too much time and knowledge invested in Windows and Android.
My Android tablet just upgraded itself to Android’s new Ice Cream Sandwich OS over the weekend and you would have thought I won the lottery. I’m a geek like that.
There is plenty that I covet about Apple products, though! Like the camera on the 4S, and the iPad only apps.
me too on the Google calendar – you can’t beat it and it’s free!
I haven’t tried google calendar, but I can say I LOVE Cozi! Use it for grocery list, to do list, & calendar, plus you can have reminders sent (very handy for keeping everyone in the loop).
Oh P! I’m dying laughing at the Razr! It makes me picture a guy with a mullet for some reason…rofl! Tell him it’s time to update his image if nothing else!
Seriously. One night a few months ago he pulled out his phone at work to answer a text message and one of the (much) older men that he worked with said “Still rocking the old school Razr, eh?”
Even his PARENTS have smartphones. He just not interested. Mainly he’s not interested in the cost of a data plan, that’s what I think it is.
I love Google Calendar too!
I guess my pick of the week is the Calengoo calendar app. It’s a terrible name but a wonderful calendar. I was frustrated with the standard droid calendar app (couldn’t do searches at the time I got the first droid). Now I can search and it does a lot more. It’s rated 4.6 (out of 5) stars on the android market. It works on iphone and ipad too.
http://calengoo.dgunia.de/Start.html
https://market.android.com/details?id=com.calengoo.android&hl=en
My other pick would be Evernote (I have the pro version) and using the little microphone on the phone to dictate text. I use the microphone icon on the Swiftkey X or Swype keyboard on my phone. It’s so easy to dictate scrapbook journaling/ideas on the run. I have a shortcut to my scrapbook folder on one of my droid homepages.
http://evernote.com/
I also love Remember The Milk (RTM) Pro as a task manager and schedule all kinds of things using it. The scrapbook related items would include: deleting extra Lightroom backups, reading scrapbook forums once a week, a note to remember to check comments on The Daily Digi/The Digi Show once a week (I learn so much here), writing down picks of the week I find interesting etc, etc,
http://www.rememberthemilk.com/
There are free versions of Evernote and RTM but I like the extra features in the pro versions. Plus you really need pro with the smartphones. In the past I have saved all my travel confirmations on my phone’s sd card with the pro version of Evernote, thus giving me rapid access to flights and hotel confirmations when traveling abroad without needing expensive global data or wi-fi access on my smartphone.
I use the above 3 productivity apps every day.
Inquiring minds want to know what Lightroom import presets Peppermint uses. I don’t use any, but maybe I should be!
Leslie
I actually just use the “General – Auto Tone” preset that I believe comes standard in Lightroom? I’m away from my office to look for sure, but I know that’s what it’s called in the drop-down. I don’t even think it does White Balance, I think it just corrects exposure. As a general rule I find that Auto White Balance is way too finicky for me to apply in bulk on import, my D50 tends to handle the White Balance fine in-camera and then Lightroom messes it up. I think a lot of that has to do with the colors in our house, though. We have these green walls in our living room and dining room and there’s something about that specific shade of green that tends to confuse Auto White Balance.
I’m with you on Evernote! I use it every day. It has saved me many times when I thought I had lost something or forgotten a password.
I’m with you on Evernote! I use it every day. It has saved me many times when I thought I had lost something or forgotten a password.
Thank you so much Steph for mentioning the window issue with Photoshop and thank you so much Peppermint for finding a fix. I can’t wait to go home and try it because that issue bugs me so much I almost dread opening up Photoshop.
I loved this episode. I was so glad to hear Melissa’s perspective on scrapping and documenting difficult times in life. When she was talking about her “last chemo” pictures, I totally related to that emotional experience. As I’ve battled cancer this year, I’ve had emotional experiences which I’ve recorded privately. I’ve used both evernote and an old fashioned journal to just get those emotions out. I’ve also saved emails to girlfriends where I’ve dumped my emotions out. I’m not sure what I’m going to do with them, because most of the time when I dump my emotions out, I’m all caught up in them. Later when I go to make a scrapbook page or something, I have gained perspective on the situation and I see how I was tied up in the emotion of the moment. It doesn’t mean that the emotion of the moment was not valid or worth remembering, but the perspective gained after the fact is more important to me. I hope somehow to record both sides of the coin. I guess through this I want my kids to know that mom had strong emotions as she faced this hard situation, but on the other side of it she gained perspective on her life and her personality and her faith that she wouldn’t trade for anything.
“I guess through this I want my kids to know that mom had strong emotions as she faced this hard situation, but on the other side of it she gained perspective on her life and her personality and her faith that she wouldn’t trade for anything.”
I’d say that’s some pretty powerful journaling for a scrapbook page right there. I love it! You could include parts of those emotionally charged journal entries and emails, all while adding that yes, I did feel like this at one point, and now I can look back and this is how I’ve grown, this is where I’m at now. I think that’s a great lesson to share with your kids.
Steph now that you love Lightroom did you end up converting all of your png files or did you just leave them? I just looked on Kyla’s site.
Nope. I’ve only tagged previews. I did tag some of my Becky Higgins Project life papers and products. I don’t have plan to do anything else with the actual products at this time…I have learned to never say never though!
One more thing I just noticed Adobe Photoshop Touch is there now for IPAD
http://www.adobe.com/products/photoshop-touch.html
Peppermint, you got Photoshop Touch for your tablet didn’t you? Would you recommend it? Is it a practical digiscrapping platform do you think?
I watched a video demonstration on the app on the iPad today and I don’t think it will work very well for actually scrapping layouts. It has a maximum 1600×1600 canvas size. They kept saying over and over: Remember this is not meant to do your heavy Photoshop lifting. It’s a starting point, a way to get ideas out, then move over to your computer via the cloud.
The things it could do were pretty amazing. I think it is a great tool for photo editing and maybe for small projects (think clusters, creating an element or two, adding text to a photo).
I think it will be exciting to see what the announcement for iPad 3 brings to the table and how much capability will improve with this app in that device.
Thanks Steph. After reading your comment I’ve looked at a couple of short videos and it really looks like it might be fun to play with. Maybe I can get my son and husband playing with photos too. Oh, wait, then I’d have to fight them for iPad time! Still, worth a closer look – too much digiscrapping can never be enough.
Peppermint thank you for mentioning the improved noise reduction in Lightroom 3. It totally saved some photos I had taken at my brother-in-law’s wedding reception. I’d processed them on my old laptop in LR2 and had turned many of them B&W just so they didn’t look too terrible, but after your comment I went back and redid them on my new desktop in LR3 (just recently got it). Wow what a difference!
As usual, great show! Thanks for the idea that we all have to sort through our tough times in our own ways. After going through a tough divorce, I’ve wondered over and over again what to do with old pages as well as how to handlenew material. I finally gave myself permission to just sort it out as it goes. There is no right and no wrong. Melissa’s description of her journey with cancer is inspiring even if it isn’t my way. Love that your conversations on the Digi Show give ideas on how to address a topic without a solution necessarily suggested.
P.S. I’m going for the Wet Brush — got that kind of hair in my family. Thanks for that tip, too.
P-can you explain on your blog or on a post on the daily digi what you were talking about how you can do pre-edits as you import into lightroom. I think you said it was a preset but I am not that savy in lightroom to understand what to hit to make it happen.
Thanks
Yes ma’am. Here you go: Applying Develop Presets on Import in Lightroom
Okay, I have no idea why that link isn’t going anywhere, so here it is bare: http://frickonastick.com/2012/02/lightroom-tutorial-applying-develop-presets-on-import/
thanks sugar lips (big kiss) to you. :>
Someone mentioned Lightroom 3 being discounted because 4 is coming out…for anyone who happens to catch this post today (Leap Day) 3 is Amazon’s deal of the day today…$90!!!
I just got done listening to this episode and I am wondering if I am doing something wrong. I hardly ever edit my photos, so I don’t know if I just think my photos look good or what.
One other question. I recently got Lightroom 3 but I haven’t started using it yet. I work on a laptop so putting my many photo on the hard drive will not work. I typically keep all of the photos on an external hard drive. My question is…is it possible to use Lightroom while keeping all of the photos on the external hard drive? In other words can I do the sorting through Lightroom from the external hard drive? I hope I explained that right…lol
Thanks,
Becky
Becky,
When I shot in JPG, I only edited my photos when they were too dark or when I wanted a special effect (ie. black & white or muted). Now that I shoot in raw, I’m forced to do some editing just to open the photos. But, now that I’m getting settled in Lightroom and understanding how it works, I’m interested in finding a preset that will just apply on import like the girls have talked about. Nothing major…just a little extra pop or whatever.
As for working off your EHD, yes you can!
Awesome! Thanks Wendy.
I think my question in last show’s comments got lost under my needlessly wordy comment about PSE 9 Organizer, so I am going to re-ask it, but with much less words
I was wondering if I make a layout using a kit from the current month’s Digi Files, and I want to post it on my blog (and of course link back to the kit/designer), would you prefer for me to wait until after that kit/designer has been revealed on the Daily Digi, as not to spoil the surprise?
Thanks!
Sue
(and thanks for consistently putting out both amazing content within the show, website and subscription. I am anxiously awaiting the new month’s downloads tomorrow!)
and I forgot to come answer you (sorry)!
We ask our team members and the designers’ team members to wait to post until after the kit is revealed on TDD. I wouldn’t even ask a paying customer to wait though
so you can post when you want.
Steph – Thanks for the reply! And no worries about missing the last comment. I was a bit long winded so I expect it got lost somewhere amidst my ramblings.
I will try and wait to post layouts until after its been revealed on site even though you don’t require it, just to keep that “air of mystery” around the Files.
Looking forward to this weeks show!
I’m a little late to the game for this episode but I just wanted to add my 2 cents in on the dual monitor snippet of the conversation. I am 150% with Peppermint on this! I have had dual monitors at work for a long time and finally just added a second monitor to my laptop at home. Once I got it hooked up, before I even sat down to do anything, I instantly felt more productive!
It had made such a difference with my current project of organizing digi supplies while going through Kayla’s Photo Flow class. I’d also like to mention a utility called Display Fusion (free and pro versions available, PC for sure, not sure about Mac) which enables you to quickly “snap” a window over to the other monitor. I use the pro version at work but the free version was just fine for at home. I’ll be interested to hear if Steph tries out the dual monitor setup! Thanks ladies for a great show.
I’m checking out Display Fusion and trying to figure out how some of those options are different than what Windows 7 does? Like I can drag windows between the monitors easily and they snap into place – is that an obstacle in other set-ups? And my programs always open up on the monitor they were last on, so that’s never been an issue for me. Maybe different versions of Windows handle it differently? Or maybe it’s just that both of my monitors run through my Graphics card (as opposed to one through the monitor port and the other through my graphics card?)
I was intrigued by the feature that allows you to span an image across both monitors, because that seems handy, but then I tried that on my computer and I can do that already. LOL So … what the heck?
Something I HAVE been looking for, though, is the ability to quickly swap everything between the two monitors. For instance I always work in Illustrator on my left monitor and in Photoshop on my right monitor, but after a lengthy amount of time working on that right monitor my neck will start to hurt. Rather than dragging each program to exchange monitors manually I’d like to just be able to hit a taskbar button or a keyboard shortcut and have the monitors swap. It’s something I’ve been meaning to look into because I remember reading about a little free app once that does JUST that, but I’d have to go digging for it and it always gets pushed down on my To Do list.
I guess I never even bothered checking to see if I needed Display Fusion – just used to the program since I use it at work. I did see a Hotkey in the menu that will “Move all windows to current monitor”; that sounds like what you are looking for??
Thank you so much Peppermint for figuring out how to change the window in Photoshop CS5. Like Steph, I hated this about CS5 and could never figure out how to change it.
Peppermint, I ordered a wet brush for me and one for my daughter. They arrived yesterday. These are AMAZING! You weren’t kidding when you said they brushed through long, wet hair like butter! Those of us in this household thank you over and over for your un-digi pick.
I just want to say that I loved this show! Last year, my relationship of 7 years with my childrens’ father ended. It was a horrible time of my life. I stopped scrapping for a while and getting back into it was like starting again. Eventually I did, of course and scrapping became therapeutic for me. Since I mostly share my layouts, I sent the layout to my ex and asked how he would feel if I posted it. Because, like Peppermint, I didn’t want to “throw him under the bus” and have him get a bunch of backlash.
I only did a couple layouts just to get my feelings out, I don’t want to dwell on it. I have also done a couple layouts of the new beginning. I much prefer to revisit those layouts.
Hi Steph and Co.,
I’m re-listening to this episode and just had an idea about dual monitors. I work off a laptop and often use my 42″ TV as a second monitor when I feel like I need some extra work space. I even watch my shows online while working on my laptop. I connect my laptop using an HDMI connection, but I’m guessing there are other ways to do this wirelessly that I haven’t figured out yet. Maybe someday! Thanks for another inspirational episode and keep up the great work!
I’m a bit behind and just got around to listening to this episode.
My family is going through a rough time with my dad’s declining health and I haven’t been able to scrapbook for the last six months or so. I’ve been blaming long work hours and too many commitments by the kids, but after listening to this episode, I wonder if I’m unconsciously hung up on how to manage my pages now that my dad is committed to a long term care facility and no longer participating in everyday family activities.
While I take my camera every time I visit, I have not yet taken any pictures of him with the kids since he was admitted. He’s been battling cancer since four years before my oldest was born and I’ve always made a point of taking a lot of photos so that there would be photos and memories of him and the kids when his health was better.
After listening to Melissa’s (and everyone’s) experiences, I think it is more important than ever that I continue to photograph my family together and I shouldn’t consciously or unconsciously avoid the good memories that we continue to make. I don’t want to shut my dad out of my photos just because he’s bedridden and it seems that is what has been happening.
Thanks for a timely (for me) discussion. It is not too late for me to resume taking pictures of everybody together, no matter where we are, now that I realize what I have (or have not) been doing.
I also wanted to post my appreciation for the recommendations and experiences that you all share — I have so many things that I have downloaded, purchased, or subscribed to that I wouldn’t have ever considered without your encouragement.
Before I started listening to The Digi Show, I thought that Lightroom was only good for professional photographers who shoot RAW and do a lot of batch editing. Since I do neither, I always assumed that Lightroom was not a program for me.
However, after listening to episodes that discussed Lightroom in greater detail, I reconsidered and bought it and the Scott Kelby book that Katie recommended. I haven’t started using it yet but I’m looking forward to trying it out. I don’t normally do any photo editing, but since purchasing it I have been using the JPEG + RAW setting on my camera to prepare for when I do.
I follow Peppermint on Twitter and I saw her post about the Wet Brush. While my daughter does not have hair as unmanageable as Peppermint’s, her hair was more often a tangled mess than not. Brushing was a slow and painful process.
I don’t think I participated in Peppermint’s blog giveaway, but I did buy a brush based on her glowing review. We call it “The Magic Hairbrush” and I have bought three more — one for her swim class bag, one for her dance bag, and one to leave at my mom’s house. It isn’t worth being without it when we’re at places that I know her hair will need it. Great pick!
Other things I’ve picked up from listening are Feedly (rss reader app), Wait Wait Don’t Tell Me! (NPR podcast), and, of course, The Daily Digi and The Digi Game. Although I didn’t first hear about Pinterest and Project Life here, it was discussion on The Digi Show that convinced me they were worth looking into.
I’m sure there is more that I can’t recall off the top of my head. Still, while I’m praising a pick of the week, I wanted to express my appreciation and thanks for all the past recommendations that I’ve adopted too!
So glad this episode was helpful to you. Melissa is a real inspiration to me also and I think it’s amazing she has been able to keep scrapping even while fighting cancer. Everyone has different ways of coping with these type of situations so don’t be too hard on yourself. Sometimes it’s just not the right time and other times a little boost like this might just be what you need.
Fun to know that you’ve been enjoying the picks!