Do you have beautiful professional pictures? Family portraits in the beautiful fall colors or spring flower, the ones of the big events- wedding, newborn baby, kids’ birthday, an anniversary that hangs on the wall and has a prized position in your home. BUT- what do you do with the thousands of photos documenting the in-between moments of your story? Did you know that over 1.2 trillion photos were taken last year? How many photos do you have on your phone? My clients vary but even if it’s a smallish amount, a few thousand, that is still a lot of memories sitting on your phone or computer. What do you do?
Photo albums are my favorite…
As a kid I loved looking through my parents’ photo albums, seeing them and my relatives helped build a family connection. As much as digital technology has changed how we live life in so many ways, there is something so simplistic about turning pages and flipping through a photo book. Albums are quick and no fuss, if you want to look at the pictures you grab that book and open it up.
Building these photo albums doesn’t have to be difficult. I have a 5-step process that can help guide you to getting a photo book in your hands and sharing your story with friends and family.
1. Decide on a photo book theme
You need to decide on a theme for your photo book. It can be very specific such as your family vacation or more general such as documenting your year in a family yearbook. If you’re saying that sounds great but my photos are a mess and it’s so overwhelming, I don’t even want to try. I hear you at and it’s ok. There is no judgment and we start where you are. For another post, I can help with the organizing but today we’re going to get you past this.
Think about your photo collection for a moment. Do you have some photos that are together in a folder? Maybe a family vacation a few years ago, or you were good about organizing your photos for a few years and have them accessible, or this past year is all on your phone and you can start there. It’s a place to start and build momentum.
Some photo book theme suggestions
- Family yearbook
- Adoption
- Babies first year
- Wedding
- Anniversary
- Graduation
- Vacation
- Special birthday
- Family reunion
2. Pick the photos
Now you need to be thinking about your photos. Find them and start choosing your favorites. Depending on where your photos are, many programs have a favorite or star button to identify your favorite photos. I would suggest NOT to overthink this step, if you like it tag it if not don’t. You may need to go through a few times, but as you look through your photos you will start to see the story build. One thing to remember, don’t worry about photo quality. If one child is not looking at the camera, has their eyes closed or the photo is slightly blurry but you like the photo put it in. It’s your photo book telling your story, imperfection is allowed.
3. Find a printer
I have used several companies over the years when making photo books. Blurb, Mixbook, and Printique are some companies I have used in the past, but there are others as well. This step may take some work to figure out the specific process for building a book at whatever site you choose, but you can do it. My suggestion is to pass up all the colored pages and embellishments, it just becomes more decisions to make, complicating the whole process.
4. Build your book
Decide on a size then upload your photos and start building your book. Start with a few pictures to get familiar with the book building software and then go from there.
5. Print and ENJOY
Print your book and wait to get that package in the mail!
But that’s still too much for me…
Let it go and tell yourself it is OK. We all have the things that we just rock, maybe you are great at cooking or gardening or you share your time volunteering, but spending time putting your photos together is not high on your list. Or maybe your just so busy at work and home you can’t even think of another project. You are in luck because I love making photo books for people! Check out my services which include photo book design with the addition of picking out the best photos if that’s what you need. I also help people organize their photo collections. When your photos are organized, creating with our photos becomes easier.
