Memorial photos….yep I’m going down that sad, but inevitable road of pictures after you or a family member dies. I can not express how much it saddens me when I see on the news or some other public notice of a person who has died and they use some blurry, poorly lit, random picture to share with the world. Like why are you honoring this person with some crappy photo and didn’t take the time to find a nice one. Well…maybe there wasn’t a good one to pic from, I get that too. Now I mostly see this with older generations since the younger crowd isn’t lacking “selfies”, but even the best selfie doesn’t encapsulate the true personality of a person. Now having a decent photo of yourself might not top the list of “must-do’s” before you die like having life insurance or keeping your will up to date, but it should be. So what can YOU do right now or encourage other to do with out being super morbid or creepy?

1. Straight up ASK YOUR PHOTOGRAPHER – Do this at your next family session…and you if you dont have a shoot booked yet, this is your sign to do that now. CLICK HERE to book me. So you dont have to say, “hey can you take my funeral picture” but something like, I’d like to get a new profile picture for my dating page, fb profile, LinkedIn, etc. it’s really just a head shot so no one will think twice about it. Ask for a head shot and a full body shot, this doesn’t have to be super posed, but you in a relaxed position showing a nice smile or whatever your personality is. THIS IS WHAT PEOPLE WANT TO REMEMBER.
2. Your phone is a powerful tool, use it. Remember what self-timer is? Use it! Set your phone up so its directly in front of you or slightly higher, angled down if you can, flip the camera around so you can see yourself, hit the timer, stand back, take a deep breath and just smile….or make yourself fake laugh. You’ll feel so stupid you might actually laugh at yourself getting a natural shot. HERE IS A GOOD VIDEO TUTORIAL.
3. Ask a friend, spouse/partner, or even your kid to take a picture. Simple.
4. Make it normal to talk about these things, get everyone in your family to participate in an updated individual shot, kids too! You can just suggest it for the family album or you’re testing out some new settings on your camera or phone.
5. Update it every year and every 6 months for children.
6. AND THE MOST IMPORTANT TIP…..Make sure your family/friends know where to find this picture(s) when the time comes to use it! This goes for your annual (well at least I hope you’re doing them annually) family photo files. Make a clear easy to find file …for example…use this “Pictures to use when i die” its straightforward and goes right to the point. If you’ve ever planned a funeral or dealt with this type of situation you understand how time consuming and exhausting it is to find pictures for a person or family. This way people will do what you want even when you’re gone and be thanking you for making it easy. Also find a device to store these on… my suggestion is to get an external hard drive and back them up to that and keep it in a safe along with other important documents. Now these can fail over time, burn in a fire, get lost, you name it so it’s also good to have the images stored in a couple other places like the cloud or a usb stick. All have very minimal costs This is my go to brand and size for an external hard drive.

Let me know your thoughts on this…do you think it’s a good idea, you’d rather not think about it, you don’t think having a good photo is that important, I’m superstitious so doing this is bad vibes….please share and comment below I’d like to feature them.

Stay alive and keep taking great photos!

❤️

Michelle