Quite awhile ago I posted a Photo Freedom review in regard to a class my friend and I took from Stacy Julian at the Seattle CKC convention last year. I’ve been meaning to post a review of the book by the same title for quite awhile now, but have never taken the time to do it. I have a BUNCH of things I’d like to share in regard to how I’ve reorganized my photos, but it wouldn’t make sense to post those things without first giving a review of the book so here goes.

My friend Lisa introduced me to this book about two years ago when she brought it over and said I had to read it, witness her pledge to give change a try, and sign my own pledge! I read through the pledge which basically said:

1 – read the book and think about the system before committing any time, effort, or money. Ok. I can do this because I love to read about new things and I can *think* about committing without having to agree to actually doing anything.

2 – remain positive, open minded, and willing to change, if necessary. I can do this as well. I know I always find a nugget of something in every book I read so I’m definitely open minded and the “if necessary” part freed me up to not have to think about completely changing the way I do things.

3 – I will involve one other person. Now that’s a bit of a problem. Since I hadn’t read the book yet, I couldn’t try to convince someone else they should read and think about it. I figured I was still ok with this part of the pledge since I was doing this to help my friend fulfill her pledge (LOL).

My initial thought was that I’d do this for my friend, but I wasn’t going to get suckered into one more new scrapbooking thing to try with required things to buy. I figured I would read the book and do my best to discuss the ideas with my friend so I could be supportive of her efforts to get reorganized. I figured I would continue doing what I was doing the same way I’ve been doing it forever, but I also figured I’d pick up a few new hints and tips that I could implement because I’m always up for learning something new and I wasn’t completely satisfied with how my pictures were organized. I just wasn’t up to completely revamping my entire system. Guess what. Not only have I read and reread the book numerous times, but my friend and I attended Stacy Julian’s Photo Freedom workshop last Novemenber, and then we signed up to take her online class this past winter and spring. And, I have completely revamped my photo organizatonal system (LOL) over the last year or so. I want to share the process I’ve gone through on this road to change. I want to show you some pictures from my scrapbooking room to show what I’m using to implement this change, etc., but as I mentioned above, first I need to review the book so you’ll know where I’m coming from and what I’m talking about.

The first part of the book explains Stacy’s system from what she considers scrapbooking (see my previous blog review where I describe the circular process as compared to a timeline process) and the products she uses (I’ll describe mine in detail in future blog posts) to the philosophy behind her system. I had several lightbulb moments while reading this chapter because 12 years ago when our 3rd child was born I basically quit scrapbooking for the most part. I knew I needed a different way of organizing my pictures and I started trying out a few different ideas I had, but not knowing anyone who organized in any way other than chronological it was hard to even brainstorm with someone the thoughts I was having about changing how I stored my photos. It was fun to go back to the box of photos as I left them 12 years ago and see all of the envelopes I had setup for storing different categories of pictures – everything from pets, to family members, individual kids, etc. The envelope system (similar to Dave Ramsey budget system for those who use his envelopes for that) I had come up with was not very efficient and I didn’t really have much time to develop my thoughts any further and I certainly had no one to discuss it with so I just didn’t do anything. Fast forward 12 years and now Stacy Julian has come out with the book Photo Freedom and FINALLY I can see how the ideas I had 12 years ago for organizing my photos a different way were good ideas, I just didn’t work with it long enough to figure out the right products and methods for such a system. Now, thanks to LOM, I’m back in business and am working to get the last 12 years of photos organized into a system that will allow me to easily retrieve the photos I really want to scrapbook. Again, I’ll share more of what I’m doing indepth in future blog posts.

In part two of the Photo Freedom book, Stacy explains the process each of her photos travels through from camera to layout with practical tips to help you spend your time scrapbooking the memories that are most important to you and your family. Again, this was not a new thought for me. Eight years ago or so I read a book by Creative Memories founder, Rhonda Anderson, regarding Storybooking and so I was already sold on the idea of telling stories through my photo albums as opposed to just recording a chronological timeline of our family history. The older our family gets, the more I realize that I need to focus my time and efforts on telling the stories that will be *most* important to our family should something happen to one of us and we’re no longer here to tell our stories instead of trying to get a chronological timeline of photos caught up. Sure. I’ll still plug away at recording the annual events in a somewhat chronological order, but the stories I already know I want to tell simply can’t be captured in a chronological timeline. I will talk more about my workflow in future blog entries and how they are similar or different from LOM.

Chapter three is a glimpse into how several scrapbookers have adapted the LOM system to fit their own needs. I found this part especially helpful since several of these individuals use some of the supplies I already own! YEA! It was fun to see how they’ve adapted Stacy’s system and suggested tools and applied it to what they already have on hand.

My summary: If you’re frustrated with your current photo organizational system or if it takes you too long to find a certain picture you know you have “somewhere” then this book is for you! I highly recommend it and I hope you enjoy the book as much as I have. It’s one of the few books I keep out in my work area for quick reference time and again.