I am a firm believer that it is not enough just to document your own life and leave it at that. We need to be sharing our stories with others. This could be by means of scrapbooks, videos, family albums, and other heirloom items that get passed on from generation to generation. Sharing can also mean educating, posting to social media, and so much more.
1- YouTube
Youtube is a great space to share your memories through video. It’s honestly one of the primary spaces to share videos through. It’s “kind of” considered a social media platform, but it’s also different than your standard Facebook, Instagram, etc.
Youtube is a nice platform for sharing your memories with others because it can be both public and private. For example, we share vlogs on our personal YouTube channel publicly for others to view, but what you don’t know is that we have a handful of unlisted videos that don’t show publicly on our channel, but can be viewed by anyone who has the direct link.
Also, don’t be intimated by the masters of editing and the wild YouTube influencers. Using YouTube as your platform for simply sharing videos doesn’t have to be all about the production like others make it.
2- Chatbooks
I’m obsessed with Chatbooks. A little disclaimer, yes, I am an ambassador for them, and yes, I can get a slight commission if you use my code when purchasing, but I truly wouldn’t push Chatbooks so much if I didn’t love them.
The reason that I am so in love with Chatbooks is because of how easy it is to get printed photos straight to your door. We personally use them for their albums and their month books. The month books are a really cool option because they are a way to get your iPhone photos in your hands every month. We simply pick out our top 30 pictures of Greysen from the month, add them to the Chatbooks app, then print!
Our strategy for Chatbooks is to use them for quick events, or iPhone style photos. While we love that we can have albums and prints so easily, we know that these are best for our informal and lower quality photos. For our yearly family photos or anything taken professional, we like heirloom albums (see below).
3- Heirloom Albums & Prints
Getting your photos printed in any way you can is the best option for sharing your memories. We love that printed photos allows not only you to see them and relive them, but also any guests who enter your home. Because we are professional photographers, we have access to professional labs. This is where heirloom albums and prints come into play.
You can work with most professional photographers to get a high quality albums and prints printed showcasing your images. This can include canvases, material albums, metal frames, etc. Heirloom Albums and Prints are a great way to share your memories with others because you can trust that their high quality will stand the test of time.
4- Video Books
Much like heirloom albums, there are now video books that look like photo albums but instead play videos when you open them. Thank Harry Potter and their moving pictures. It’s a newer offering, and somewhat hard to find, but we offer it at LVP Studios!!
Video books are a great option for sharing your memories with others, especially those videos you’ve filmed over the years, because instead of being stuck on your phone, on the internet, or on a hard drive in a drawer, these video books allow your movies to be played all of the time simply from your coffee table or wherever you have them stored.
5- social media
My last option for sharing your memories with others is social media. I love social media and it’s ability to quickly reach many friends and family, but I put this option last because I need to make it apparent that social media is not a form of SAVING your memories. Yes, you can quickly share them, but they should also be saved, stored, printed, etc. elsewhere.
Social media apps like Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, and more give users false hope that their memories are archived and will be saved on the internet forever. While this is true in most cases, there are certain things to be aware of with all apps including social media. Firstly, you’ll want to read your terms and conditions. On most social media applications you do not own all rights to your images/videos/etc. By sharing your photos on these apps you give these platforms certain rights to use and redistribute your photos. Also, you can get your accounts hacked (it’s happened to me)! Normally there are ways to recover your accounts, but sometimes you’re not so lucky. That would mean that any photos/videos/etc. that you have on these social media accounts are gone. And lastly, social media can go away…who knows MySpace? what about Vine?
We talk more about this in our Memories Podcast all about our favorite memory keeping apps. Listen here.
Hopefully now you’re a believer too that it is not enough just to document your own life and leave it at that. Sharing your memories with others can be fun and rewarding. This could be by means of scrapbooks, videos, family albums, and other heirloom items that get passed on from generation to generation. There are many more ways than I even mentioned. Sharing can also mean educating, posting to social media, and so much more.
