Past Tense - A new archival storytelling project by the New York Times

We love stories of all kinds and can’t stop taking about them. The need to tell, share and keep stories is why we created Timebox and why we are so passionate about it today.

If you think you have too many photos read this New York Times story about their effort to scan and save the 6 million photos in their archive. They’re using those images to “bring vivid narratives and compelling characters of the past to life” via a new archival storytelling project: Past Tense.

I was thinking about this “characters of the past” and my family’s Thanksgiving 2018 photo of 36 people who range in age from 3 to 87. This photo will be printed and shared and for many years someone will know everyone’s name. Eventually though it will be on a shelf and someone will ask “Who’s that?” Then what? In this case, they’ll just have to turn it over to see the names. It will be up to someone else to tell the stories from that day.

I’ll also have this photo and the stories from that day in my Timebox and will share it that way too. We’ve built Timebox with the future in mind. If you keep your data safe, Timebox will be safe. All of the data that's in the Timebox app is either on your own device (iPhone or iPad) or in your own personal iCloud account.

We love to look at photos but what makes them really fun is to look back and see what we or someone else wrote on or about them. Take a minute and write something, you or someone else will appreciate it later.

Mary Ellen

#shotoniphone

We always enjoy seeing the variety of amazing #shotoniphone photos selected and shared by Apple via their @Apple Instagram account. As it turns out, all you have to do to be included is tag your photos #shotoniphone and see what happens next.

Maybe the articles below will provide some inspiration!

• Apple Highlights Photos Shot on iPhone XR - "Shot on iPhone" photos captured with its latest smartphone, the iPhone XR and also includes some camera information.

• Apple Highlights Best 'Shot on iPhone XS' Photos - highlights several of the best "Shot on iPhone" photos seen on Instagram and Twitter from customers who have purchased one of the new iPhone XS or iPhone XS Max devices.

• How to Shoot on iPhone - Apple’s own tips and techniques for taking better photos with their devices.

After all, everyone has a story to tell.

iPhone XR portrait photo by Austin Mann @austinmann, Iceland photo by Oleg F. @foxvell both via @Apple

Make a Mini-movie in 3 taps with Timebox

Mini-movie made from 15 Live Photos.

We read this article in the New York Times and thought the 6 steps describing how to make a video in less than an hour sounded pretty complicated. The Make a Movie feature in Timebox is designed to be a super simple way to create mini-movies that combine photos, videos, Live Photos and text on an iPhone or iPad. In just 3 taps or maybe a few more, depending on what you want to add, your movie is ready to watch! The result might not be the fanciest but it is pretty good for fast, simple, sharing fun.

Timebox also offers shared journals. Invite the friends you were with to your shared journal so they can add their full-fidelity pics and videos. Then you’ll have all the collaborative fun in one place.

Here are a few details:

• No importing required - Timebox makes the movie directly from your photos, videos and Live Photos in your Photo Library or iCloud Shared Albums..

• You can include: all photos in a day, all photos in multiple days, or select specific photos from a day.

• You can temporarily hide photos, videos or Live Photos from the movie.

• For Live Photos: each 3 second video and audio is automatically stitched in, or if you prefer, just the still images.

• You can add text to your movie: a title to the movie or to each day, captions to each photo/video or Live Photo and you can even add big blocks of descriptive text that will appear in the movie (if text is too big to fit on the screen, it will automatically scroll like movie credits).

• Location names and dates are automatically added to your movie.

• You can drag and drop to re-order the photos, videos, Live Photos and blocks of text.

• You can share your video via the usual methods: iMessage / text, email, social networks like Instagram, Facebook, Vimeo, etc., or save it to your device, iCloud Storage or Photo Library.

• Plus, once you’ve done all the work to customize your movie, it’s only another couple of taps to make: a hardcover book, or PDF ebook.

If you’ve got a minute you can make a Timebox movie and share it.

Enjoy!