Documenting The Documenting

I am a fan of photobooths.

Anytime I see one I grab whoever is with me and we jump inside. We drop coins in the slot or gently coax in dollar bills (making sure they are crisp and right-side-up) or swipe a card. We make a few poses, laugh a lot, and in just three-or-so-minutes this glorious little strip of images is released into the world. There's one at our local movie theater and there was a fantastic one at the Ace Hotel in Portland where we stayed with my sister a few weekends back. The images above were captured at the hotel.

I found a site that can help you locate photobooths in your area. Check out this link to Photobooth.net.

When I was going back through my photos from our weekend one of the things I noticed was that we had a couple photos that
documented the documenting. These photos, captured by my Mom, show us in action. They show us together, doing our thing, living a little bit of our story inside a photobooth.

Do you have any photos that show you or your family participating in the process of gathering images?

Maybe it's a photo of you taking pictures of your kids, or your favorite flowers, or your pet, or your coffee cup - whatever it is that you love to take photos of in your life.

If not, it may just take you asking a parent, friend, partner or even a child to snap a couple shots. Maybe it's with a camera phone or a point and shoot - anything that can capture an image you can then use on a layout in conjunction with the photos that you took (or were taken by something like a photobooth).

Having both captured tells an even richer story.

Here's the layout that combines the inside and outside photos (click the image below to view larger):

JOURNALING : The Ace Hotel : Portland, Oregon. One of the reasons I was excited to stay at the Ace was because I knew about the famous photobooth that sits in the lobby. I love photobooths. It's impossible for me to pass one by without inserting some money and getting photos taken with whoever happens to be with me at the moment. Over the course of the our stay we the booth three times. Once with me, Anna & Simon. Once with me & Simon (and one where Chris popped his head in the booth). And once with Chris, Simon and me. I love these shots. They are dark. They are imperfect. They are silly. I also love that we have a shot of us from the outside (taken by my Mom). It's a bit of documenting the documenting. It's always cool to see ourselves from the outside. A peek at us in action, together, hanging out. Family getaways like this are also really important to me. Getting out of our daily routine is refreshing and fun and always an adventure...just like popping in a photobooth.

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LITTLE WHITE EPOXY HEART : Making Memories