scrapbooking explained

Some people don't really understand scrapbooking - they think it is still about putting cute stickers around some birthday party pictures. Scrapbooking is so not that. Scrapbookers are Life Artists, combining words and photos into a meaningful story of who we are at that moment in time. Thank you to Ali Edwards and Stacy Julian for making this concept so clear.

Journalling on the page reads
"Scrapbooking is a way of blessing myself and the people I love. It is meditative. I concentrate on the person in the photograph and really think about him or her. I recall the moment and give my loving attention to that person, that memory. I believe now that this is a way of blessing each one, and is also freeing for me, for the memories and feelings that emerge as I work. Once I have placed the photos on the page, I try and make it beautiful - to honour the person, the moment, with something lovely around it, something that I have made that came from my creative soul. Creating something that is lovely nurtures my creativity, nurtures my relationship with the person in the photo. And lately I have been working on photos of me - it seems I have also been nurturing my relationship with myself."

Dutch bicycle

Pretty much my all-time favourite photo.

Why?

I took it while walking across a little stone bridge in Amsterdam, so it was totally unplanned.
I like how the viewer catches glimpses of elements that so clearly state "Amsterdam": the rooflines in the background, the style of the bicycle itself, the canal, the canalboat, the tiny cars, the cobblestones below the wheels.
Finally I actually like that there are no people in it to distract from the portrait of the place