carly robertson | documenting by themes

Hi there! It’s Carly here today to share the idea of documenting themes in your Project Life binder. I use theme based documenting all the time. For me, theme based documenting can really help when I’m feeling in a photo rut, or if I just don’t think there is that much happening in my life at the present moment needed to be document.

Theme based documenting is also a great place to start for anyone that is new to Project Life. One of the questions I get asked a lot from people that are new to this everyday documenting style is “what exactly should I photograph and journal about?” To say “just document your everyday” can be a little intimidating at first and often keep you from starting because you just might have no idea where to begin.

So what exactly is theme based documenting? Today I’m going to share some examples with you.

Document your home is a great theme example. This past 2 years our family has moved 4 times which is a lot of houses to remember. For each home I wanted to ensure I documented them and captured what made each place special. I have pages and pages in my Project Life binders just dedicated to each house and showcasing what I loved about each of them.

For me, one of my most favourite things about going through old photographs from when I was growing up is seeing pictures of what our home looked like, what my room looked like. Those photos always have an amazing way of taking me back to that time. Capturing what your home looks like right now is a theme based approach to documenting I encourage everyone to try and I guarantee you will love looking back at how your house looked a particular time.

Documenting a special outing or event is of course a more obvious approach to theme based storytelling and a really easy way to fill your pages. This 2-page spread documents an end of summer outing our family took to one of our favourite parks and rather than just capturing a few photos of this day I opted to document the entire day over 4 pages. I know some people prefer to document special events in a separate binder, but for me I prefer keeping everything together so that when I flip through my binder I see that entire time period in chronological order, but you have to decide what works best for you.

Another type of theme based documenting I do a lot is capturing a particular time of my day. I love to capture my typical morning, afternoon and evening, and do it over and over again so that one day I can look back and see how different that part of my day changed over the years. For example this 2-page spread captures my typical morning during the month of September. Each morning consisted of a short walk to my grandma’s which I took a bridge over that river everyday. It also showcases the amazing morning light we were lucky enough to get almost everyday this past month and I captured it in the “here” picture below. And lastly, waking up to my cat sleeping in a ball in the same spot every day had to be documented too. These September mornings were good days and I want to remember them.

There are tons of other ideas for theme based documenting that you can use if you ever need to get out of a documenting rut or just don’t know where to start. Some of my other favourite themes include documenting what your typical commute to work looks like, or documenting your child’s school and classroom, or capturing your family’s bedtime routine. Documenting your hobbies, sports or other activities you enjoy doing are other great topics to cover. The theme ideas are endless!

A great way to think of theme based documenting is capturing those little bits and pieces of your life that make you, you. We all get up in the morning, eat breakfast, get our kids off to school, maybe you go off to work, then return home to have dinner, maybe spend the evening out at music or swimming lessons, etc. There are lots of things we all do every day that might seem a little mundane, but the great thing about “your everyday” is that it doesn’t look like anyone else’s and it’s worth documenting.