First of all, I’m excited to share a POTD idea that I just implemented into our Project Life book yesterday. It was kind of an exciting a-ha! moment for me in my little quest to document life.
{ POTD idea }: Take a screenshot of a satellite view or map of your neighborhood.
Totally a worthy POTD, don’t you think? So what that you didn’t actually take the picture? We can thank crazy-expensive technology for that. Just head over to GoogleMaps and plug in your address. Click on Map or Satellite for options. Zoom in & out to see if you want a wider angle or a close-up view. Then get a screenshot (I use SnapNDrag on our Mac) or a snapshot (with an actual camera) … and there you go!
(No, this isn’t our neighborhood. I just picked a random suburb in the middle of the U.S. to illustrate.)
Where you live is very much a part of your story. Including a birds-eye view is just one more angle from which to document our life. Then journal about why you love the area, or what makes it hard to live there, or whatever you want to write about.
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If your approach to Project Life is documenting a little piece of life every day, you may find yourself wanting a little inspiration from time to time. A few ways to get POTD ideas:
1. If you type “POTD” in the search field here on my blog, a list of blog posts will come up that have POTD inspiration in some way. I will continue to share POTD ideas on my blog from time to time.
2. If you click on the Photography category here on my blog, you can scroll and scroll and scroll some more to find more ideas — from me and also from awesome fellow blog readers.
3. The Project Life Community always has the latest & greatest in idea-sharing among fellow Project Lifers.
4. Check out other favorite blogs of those participating in Project Life or any type of 365 project. For example, I’m recently inspired by Susan Weinroth’s approach, which is to use her iPhone for their family’s daily shots. No fancy camera, no editing.
And now … I’m pleased to announce yet another way to get life-documenting-picture-taking inspiration! As most of you know, I use the platforms of facebook & twitter to share ideas, links, tips, and even an occasional POTD idea.
5. Now — moving forward — you can expect even more consistent POTD idea-sharing on facebook & twitter. Yippee! Not necessarily every single day but pretty close.
It’s simple: Just click HERE if you want to “like” my facebook page so you automatically get my feed. Or click HERE if you want to get see how to get my twitter feed. I’ll share the same ideas in both places. No reason to follow me in both places.
{ This is the fun part }
I’ll share plenty of my own POTD ideas, sure. But I also want to share the very best reader ideas too. Variety is the spice of life. Have you got a knack for taking great pictures? Have an inspiring POTD idea that most people can relate to or find inspiration from? Here’s the scoop:
1. Email your POTD idea(s) to submissions@beckyhiggins.com anytime. Subject line: POTD.
2. JPG format. Full or medium size.
3. Be sure your picture is already edited, if needed.
4. No deadline. I’m always interested to see what you’re photographing!
5. Must include your first name … and it’d be great to know which state or country you call home.
6. Please include just one quick sentence that describes the concept or idea behind your POTD. Remember, ideas I’ll be passing along via twitter & facebook have to be very short & sweet.
7. By submitting your picture(s), you automatically grant permission for me share/use your picture. Just because you submit a picture doesn’t mean it will be shared or used. If I do share or use it, I’ll let you know. Did you catch all that? : )
Tags: facebook, inspiration, pictures, potd, Project Life, twitter
Thanks Becky…I LOVE this POTD idea. Just went to Google Maps and used the snipping tool on my PC to “take a picture”. It’s a dreary winter day here in Ontario, so looking out my window isn’t providing me with much inspiration…time to think outside the box! Looking forward to more POTD suggestions!
Yesterday as I was finishing up last week, I decided that my POTD for the last day of every month is going to be a picture of our calendar. All filled up and crazy.
Jolene- another idea for this, so that you aren’t taking up a photo space for you calendar picture is to actually insert the calendar! You could use an 8.5×11 page protector and insert it into there! That would add some variety to your pages as well
Becky- (and everyone else!) – for taking screenshots, if you don’t have the Snapndrag program, no need to try taking a pic of your computer screen! Hit the “Alt” button on your keyboard and while still holding ALT, press the “PRT SCRN” button at the very top. It should be along the same row as all of the F-keys, but to the right. Just make sure the pic is all visible on your screen (and that your mouse isn’t hovering above it
and go at it. Then you just take it into paint, or another program that allows you to Right Click –> Paste or to click Edit and then Paste, crop to 4×6 and DONE!
or if you have a Mac hold down ctrl, apple key and 3. This will print the entire screen. If you want to do an image or selection hold down ctrl, apple key and 4, then use mouse to select area to print!
I am a geographer/map maker, so maps are an essential part of my everyday. I am always taking pictures of my screen at work to document what part of the world I am working on at the time. Therefore, Project Life is a great reference for when I need to update my resume’. Project Life helps everyone out in SO many ways!
Love this idea!
Wanted to do a cool page of our new house in our new neighborhood and just found that they do an angled, more 3-D rendition if you click on that. But, when I tried it for my new address to be, it would not allow me to do it.
I honestly haven’t used any of the satellite images (where have I been?) yet, just the maps. Anyhow, our new home is in a gated community – I remember hearing a while back about a few families in some community that sued Google to get their house pictures off of the internet – could this perhaps be why I’m not able to get that extra 3-D view? I remember when the Google car drove through my current neighborhood (not gated) way back when – anyone know if this is perhaps why I am not able to get a more street level view of our new house?
I have to laugh though, my husband is loving the idea of our new life being more private, less traffic for the kids, no door to door solicitation, etc. and here I am being stalkeresque trying to do a cute POTD!
Thanks!
Cute idea so I thought I’d check it out went and plugged in my address and when I clicked the close up it’s from Christmas 3 years ago. My daughters car we sold is parked in the driveway along with my van that was totaled in an accident. You can see the wreath hanging on my garage too. LOL
Becky – Just wanted to tell you that I just got my 2010 digital project life in the mail today. I think it is great, but some of my date text was changed. On about 12 pages, half of my date is missing and it is in a different font and size?? I am a little bummed since I thought doing it digital would prevent these types of mistakes. I have contacted Ziblio about it, but was wondering if you had others experiencing the same problem?? I love project life and I would love to continue doing my 2011 book digitally knowing this issue will be taken care of. Thank you for all your inspiration!!!
Contacting Ziblio is the right thing to do. I haven’t heard of the issue on any other printed books and hope they can get that resolved for you ASAP.
I just got my digital book in the mail this week, too. So far, I have not noticed any mistakes. However, I checked and rechecked my entire book for errors b/c I found that sometimes when I closed the program, none of my changes were saved. Sometimes I would have to hit the Save button a few times. Now, I do that on a regular basis just to make sure.
Hi Becky,
I am a project lifer in the Washington DC area….I am anxiously awaiting the new shipment! Here’s a little tidbit for others….today’s Groupon for DC is a $20 amazon gift card for $10….so when I get to order my new Project life kit I will also get a bonus little discount. (insert little happy dance!) Just thought I would share…
Becky,
That SnapNDrag program is awesome! Thank you so much!
I take a picture of mine, my husband’s, and my teenage daughter’s odometers at the beginning and end of each year. This year I just put all three of them on one 4×6 photo (each one was 3 x 2) and filled the last space with patterned paper!
great idea – could also use google maps for images of school locations, sports locations and other places we visit on a regular and/or occasional basis. The Google street view is pretty neat too – could probably catch a screen shot of that for a POTD too.
Love this idea! The only bad part is that we’ve lived in our house over 3 years and it’s STILL a dirt lot on google maps. I guess that’s an interesting photo in itself!
wow…they are usually only around 1-1.5 years old…ours is always about 15 months old…I can tell because the lawn decor changes drastically every few months for us in the backyard. I can’t believe yours is that far behind, amazing!
I make flood maps for a living..and last year I took a shot of the flood panel that includes our neighborhood, and highlighted our house. New floodmaps are now digital and easily accessible at FEMA’s website.
I used that screen shot idea last year, but a little bit differently. We live in a neighborhood right next to a huge lake with a walking/running/biking trail that goes around it. My husband and I started working on trying to get in shape and began running (well, he ran, i walked) around the lake, and i took a google screenshot of the our neighborhood + the lake and used a metallic paint pen to trace our route from our house, around the lake and back. I love the way it turned out! Super easy, and I know there are a lot of people who are participating in project life and exercise outside, so I thought I’d pass that along
Becky,
I think my major hang up is remembering to do it everyday. When inspiration comes i just go with it. Do you ever find yourself in a lull?
I have to admit I am intimidated by the POTD idea for PL but at the same time totally intrigued by the whole concept. Now that PL is available again I just ordered one and have yet to decide whether to do POTD or a monthly version. With your suggestion to share ideas I could be swayed to do the POTD version.
Thanks for sharing!
Julie, Weymouth, Ma