Me on Monday

Two weeks ago, I started an online photo class for my Mac. I knew that there was so much to learn in iPhoto. I actually already know a lot--creating albums, selecting favorites, editing, sharing, moving, etc., but now I know so much more. I'm just that type--I want to know everything! Or at least as much as I can.

The class is called "Rock Your Scroll" by Stacy Julian. Over the years, I have taken many classes by her. Back in the day, I even took one in person at a scrapbook convention. This class is intense--5 classes with about 10 hours of video. There's homework each day. I'm halfway through my last class--about an hour left to go.

Here’s just one fun thing that I think you might enjoy:

1. Open up your photo app—either on your phone or computer.

2. Select “Library” on your phone or computer.

3. Type any word in the search box. Every picture you have that represents that word will pop up. 

For example, you can select “ball” and all pictures with balls or anything round like tomatoes will come up. In addition, any written materials you took pictures of that contain the word “ball” will also pop up.

I put in "play" and got quite an assortment of images. There were 19 pictures. The technology seems to recognize it all. Here are a few:

The other thing it does is highlights the word. At first I thought it recognized my nieces and nephews "playing" and having fun. Then I noticed the highlighted word "play" on the sign.

Same here--the word "play" was highlighted in the letter.

This smart intelligence even recognizes the act of play.

Or, a player piano--or whatever this is.

And then, of course, the noun "play." On second thought, maybe it picked up "play" on the playbill.

It even recognized "playing" the lottery!

There's even the word "play" on this medical form. Why I still have this on my phone--or ever took a picture to begin with is beyond me!!

I was surprised that it recognized the word "play" in my handwritten journaling on this scrapbook page.

Technology is so incredibly amazing to me. This might seem like a silly exercise, but I plan to use it in my scrapbooking. I'm always looking for connections. Those are my most favorite layouts. I've already have a couple up my sleeve. I'll share when I do the pages.

Give it a try and let me know what you think. 

Besides learning a lot of new things, I learned how to make digital markers. I'm using them specifically for the months of the year. That took me quite a while because I couldn't quite get it. As it turned out, it was just one little thing that I was missing. Now I'm a marker making fool!

Stacy also encourages you to go through and pare down your photos as you go along. Given we all take hundreds of pictures, she suggests that you pare each event down to--say your 5 favorites. For a trip, about 10-15. She suggests just "favoritng" them so you don't have to look at all the rest all the time. She encouraged really deleting a lot too. At first I thought that seemed impossible. But then I realized that since I've already scrapbooked so many things, there's no reason I can't pare down to that. So, that's what I've spent the last 3 days doing. I started with 11,000 pictures and now I have 5,000! That means, I was able to let 6,000 photos go. I'm sure I might have a few regrets, but since I blog so many of my experiences, everyone else has many of the same pictures, our shared albums and my scrapbook layouts, I can probably find any picture I want. 

Butch was giving me a hard time--saying "I fell down the rabbit hole." I told him it wasn't anything like that. Believe me, I know! The "rabbit hole" is a time waster---as I've learned over and over again developing my perfectly organized catalog of over 700 fonts!! This was totally different. Yes, it took hours and hours and hours--I wish I'd kept track. But as I went along, I also set up color albums. It's amazing at how many connections related to color that I've noticed. Now how cool is this:

One thing is for sure--I am obsessed with organization. Actually, it's kind of a curse. I felt completely overwhelmed with 11,000 pictures, but was determined that I was going to finish by the end of the weekend. Butch says I always underestimate how long something will take. He's absolutely right about that. I think it was about 9:30 last night when I finally finished. Whew! I'm tired. I can't imagine what could possibly be left in the last hour of my class. I hope it doesn't send me on another lengthy crusade! But if it does, then I'm up for the challenge. I want to get the most out of the class that I can. That's just how I roll.