Here's the Problem...

Photos.

This is my problem.  One little word...photos.  They are both my joy and my enemy.  Mostly joy...but today I'd like to focus on the thornier side of photos.  Can you tell I'm feeling a bit.....prickly....today???

Here is my deal.  I have an iPhone, I have a point & shoot, I have a nice new "good" camera.  I have so many photos running out of each device that I don't know whether to digitally organize them (goodbye hours and hours and HOURS of life), edit them (adios MORE hours), print them (hasta la vista money in my wallet) or keep them trapped (as they are now) on their little devices, take a nap and call it a day.

Let's go ahead and add company to misery and remind you that John also has an iPhone, as do my sister and mother.  And my mother is an AMAZING photographer, so we also have all the pics she takes.

Am I grateful for the memories?  ABSOLUTELY, yes.

Am I complaining?  ABSOLUTLEY, yes.

You see...here's the problem that sounds nothing like a problem.  I LOVE THEM ALL!  All three million and five of them.  Each picture is important.  Are they all frameworthy?  No.  I snapped this one just this morning :

Are they all great quality?  No, again.  Specimen #2, also taken this morning:

What's that?  You didn't see any pictures after I clearly was referring to a picture to follow? Duh!  Do you think I actually have a cord to download them when I need to?  Ha!  Just imagine:

Picture #1 - A picture of Carson's breakfast sandwich this morning.  Nutella on wheat with heart cutouts and colored sprinkles.  It was fabulous!  She didn't eat it... (Also...who puts a picture of a sandwich in a frame?)

Picture #2 - A picture of Carson's v-day cards.  Straight from Pinterest!  I'll post on Facebook later...so refer to my Facebook page to see the copied cuteness.  (Picture it being pretty fuzzy.)

Are they all important enough to find their way into a relevant and nicely chronological computer file?  Why, of course!  Just today, I'll have to add a new folder entitled "Valentine's Day 2012".  In it will be the two pics above (thank you, iPhone) and probably a blurry one of Carson with her V-Day goodies, too excited and hyped up on v-day candy to sit still.  I'll add it to the folder called "Valentine's Day", which is in another folder called "Holidays", which finds its little organized self in yet another folder called "Kennon Family"....sigh.  I find I have to double-click about a thousand times just to even FIND a picture because of all the folders.

Then there are great pics of great memories.  I'm sure I have about a thousand of them, but of course I won't be able to decide which picture deserves to represent this category and if I do, it will need to be pulled off one of our cameras, cropped, edited, etc.  It'll take hours! (Or at least 20 minutes.)

Then there is an entire category of pictures I take on a daily basis with my phone for one reason or another.  This accounts for roughly 80% of all iPhone pictures.  Here is a sampling of the last ten pics I took with my iPhone:

1.  A grad app.  I thought it was funny because it's for Sam Houston and I bound them with a purple paperclip as kind of a "last word".  I don't even care about college rivalries.  I didn't post it on Facebook because I thought it unprofessional and I have co-workers as friends.  Didn't send it to anyone via text because the purple paperclip looks pretty much black.  And really...was it even that funny to begin with?  Yet, did not delete it.

2.  A quote I snapped from my iPhone screen (via Facebook) : "When you come to the edge of all the light you know and are about to step into the darkness of the unknown, faith is knowing one of two things will happen.  There will be something solid to stand on, or you will be taught how to fly."  ~ Barbara J. Winter
Now, I love this quote but it's a PICTURE of a quote.  So I'll have to tap it out and put it in my iPhone notes in the note labeled (go ahead and laugh at the OCDness of it all) "Quotes".  Have I done it yet?  No.

3.  A picture of a cookie bouquet for teachers.  Why I didn't just pin it is beyond me.

4.  Another quote.  I'm too quote-y for my own good.  "If you went running when you first started thinking about it, you'd be back by now."  (Nike Ad)  Ask me when was the last time I ran and I'll probably call you something mean in my head and visualize stuffing my face with a Snickers bar.

5.  Black Screen.  Probably taken by our newest family photographer, Carson.  :)  Why can I not delete it??  BeCAUSE...how cute is is that I can be flipping through my camera photos and see a black screen that makes me giggle because Carson is an iPhone whiz and knows how to open my camera app.  Deleting it would take away a mid-day random giggle.

6.  A picture of a text I sent.  No clue why.  Mostly likely an accidental snap.

7.  A picture of an Amazon screen showing that I successfully loaned my first Kindle book.  Sent to my friend Abbey so she'd see the directions.  EASY one to delete.  Why would I ever need that pic again?  I won't.  Did I delete?  Sigh...

8.  Picture of me in those ridiculous oversized clown glasses from Carson's carnival party.  I was home sick yesterday and Carson found her entertainment by making me wear them.  However, my hair is nasty, I've no make up on and I look about as sick as I felt...so most definitely not blog or Facebook worthy.  Sent it to my mom, who I'm sure thought, "Ew.  She needs to wash her hair!"

9. Another pic of me in the glasses, closer up.  Because what's better than a sick, make-up-less and greasy haired  woman in clown glasses?  A CLOSE UP of said woman.  I shudder.

10.  This one's a two-fer.  A picture of the Valentine's day breakfast sandwich and Carson's V-day cards from above.

Clearly, this is the stuff of life and all of these pictures are folder-worthy.  Are you starting to see my problem?
And that's just that last ten eleven.  There are 342 pics currently on my phone and that's only because the other 999 were moved to a folder on my computer called "Sort Through These Later...iPhone".  Go ahead and ask if I've sorted.  Where does one put three black screens of a photo?  A folder called "Accidentally Taken by Carson...Age 3".  I have a problem.  Obviously.

So why the rant about photos this morning?  I have a blank wall in my living room, ready to be made beautiful by an amazing canvas of Carson I got for Christmas.  Can I decide which photos to canvas-ize along side of it to make a nice gallery wall?  You know the answer, don't you?

I also have about ten (okay, twenty thirty) beautiful frames at home with lovely smiling people in them...that I've never met because they are the paper pictures that come in the frames when you buy them.  I CANNOT DECIDE WHAT TO PUT IN THEM!  Add to that the five or six in my office with the same problem.

I really am about to get to my point...

I don't blog regularly because of photos.  Although I have never read the official mom-blog rule book, I'm pretty sure somewhere in it says, "Commandment #8...Thou shalt not simply WRITE a post.  All blog entries must include at least one picture of your children and at least one of some amazing mom thing you did so you can wow other moms."  So for fear of breaking a mom-blog commandment...I take the easy way out and don't post at all.

The downside?  I've missed out on recording some GREAT family memories all because I'm worried that my writing them down isn't enough.  Who will want to just READ about it (other than my mom and dad...HI mom and dad!) without photos?  Insecurities of a mom...  And really, what does it matter?  I'm writing this for my family and for our future generations to see.  Perspective, Lindsey...get some perspective.

So I declare today PHOTO FREEDOM day.  :)  No need to always have a cute matching picture to go along with my blog.  Tomorrow...family post with NO PICTURES.

After all ... Memories are made of more than this.