Document Your Covid-19 Life

Document Your Covid-19 Life

What are you doing to Document your Covid-19 Life right now? This time is like nothing we have seen in our lifetime and is important to record from your perspective and unique experience.  Each one of us, will go through this period of history differently and will be affected differently. 

I would challenge you that it is important to document your Covid-19 life, no matter what that looks like.  Don’t make it difficult, even just a few photos and a few lines is great. Bonus points if you can convince a family member or child or friend to create one for themselves also. Each one of us will go through this pandemic differently with a unique and personal perspective. Here is a picture of me working from home, my brother’s family on their front porch while we were on the street, and the empty grocery store shelves.

There are many options to record this moment in time.  Combining photos and words is such a powerful way to do this.  It really is as simple as two steps: take pictures and journal. Don’t get overwhelmed with the samples below. Just pick one and do it!

Step 1: Take Pictures

Take Pictures of your daily life and how you are personally affected by the Covid-19 Pandemic.  Perhaps a picture of the lineup at the store, or your business that has had to close, or something you are learning online, or a nature walk, or FaceTiming a loved one, or how your job has changed, or your kids learning online.  Take pictures!! Challenge yourself to look for ways your everyday life has changed and take a picture.

Step 2: Journal

This can be a one or two line sentence to go with some photos, or a long letter written to your future self, or a letter written to a family member, or news articles and graphs, or facebook memes, or a journal you keep, or anything that records what this means to you and how it is affecting you.

Journaling is therapeutic. Write down your feelings. Focus on the positive aspects and how this slow down and pause in life has impacted you. But also keep it real and journal the not so positives or maybe facts and a timeline of how this has affected the world. I personally, have experienced a slow down of my routine and more family time. This is a very different experience from a health care worker on the front line. A very different experience from a family where both spouses have lost their jobs due to Covid-19. A very different experience from someone who has become sick. All of these perspectives and experiences are important and are what shape our life and the world around us.

Here is one of the digital pages I created that will be part of my yearly family yearbook. This one happens to be just journaling. See page 2 below under digital pages. (We have had requests to share the journaling here so you can make your own pages. Here is a PDF of the Covid-19 timeline info to April 18th. (updated April 30th, here is the March/April page updated to April 30th) If you would like the actual pages in jpeg format or if you would like to order printed pages of these layouts to slip in your album, contact us at info@photoexpressions.ca)

Combine These 2 Steps

There are many different options to combine your photos and words into something you and future generations will treasure and look back on. Here are a few options for both printed photos or digital photos. (In no particular order.) Best practice would have you using acid free supplies if possible, however it is better to get it created than worry too much about that.

Journal

You probably have a nice notebook or journal you bought with good intentions to use.  Use it. Write down your thoughts and feelings and intersperse the writing with printed pictures of your daily life, maybe add a sticker or two. Leave your pictures full size, or cut them down. You can order photos directly from your phone or computer and we will ship them to you (for free with a $20 order) or you can use our curbside pickup option, or come in and pick them up at safe social distancing.

Photo Album

You probably have some pocket photo albums lying around the house, if not we have some at the store. Order pictures directly from your phone or computer and pick them up (curbside available) or we can ship them to you. Slide your photos into the pockets. Journal on paper or cards and slip that into a pocket. So easy.

Scrapbook

Remember the Scrapbooking hey days! Bet you have lots of supplies lying around your house. Use them! You may find it very relaxing and therapeutic to scrapbook this time in your life. Order photos online from your phone or computer and then create pages. Make them simple or detailed, just make sure they have your photos and words.

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Digital Pages

Combine your digital photos and words on a page and then print out that page (order online here, we print all sizes). There are many different ways to do this such as through Photoshop or an app like Project Life (free app). Journal right on the pages. Once you get our pages back, slip them into an album. This is an easy option to create extras for your family.

Here is the second page of journaling that goes with the other journaling only page shown under Journaling. (April hasn’t finished as of this post, I will update it when it is done.) This page has lots of writing but that is okay, because I wanted to show the timeline of how fast Covid-19 has spread and the rest of my family yearbook will have mostly photos. Remember there are no rules! To find the dates and information, I googled government websites, the Disease Control websites and WHO. Feel free to use this to make your own pages! (We have had requests to share the journaling here so you can make your own pages. Here is a PDF of the Covid-19 timeline info to April 18th. (updated April 30th, here is the March/April page updated to April 30th.) If you would like the actual pages in jpeg format or if you would like to order printed pages of these layouts to slip in your album, contact us at info@photoexpressions.ca)

Photo Book

Create a photo book dedicated to just this time in history, or create pages as part of a yearly photo book. Create pages online using our photo book creator. Add in your photos and journaling and then we can print up your book (hard or soft cover). You can also create pages in programs like Photoshop or the Project Life app, and then add these pages into the photo book creator to make a photo book. You can also gather photos and journaling and we can create a photo book for you with our concierge photo book service.

Below are two pages I created using the Project Life App (on my phone) that will become part of my yearly Family Yearbook Photo Book for 2020.

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Just do it

Whatever way you choose to document your Covid-19 life during this historic time, just do it. Keep it simple, choose a way that works for you and that you will actually do. If you need help, reach out to us! We are here for you and have years of expertise at this.

Email us at info@photoexpressions.ca or call us during store hours at 604-463-3654. You can do this. It is important!