We’re busy installing new pendant lights and will share photos tomorrow, but in the meantime we wanted to talk about a question we get all the time: how to store photos. After seeing Katie Bower’s family photo book a few summers ago, we became big fans of photo books. We started with our first Family “Yearbook” last summer and have kept the habit going. Now that another year has wrapped up, our latest book arrived last week.
Our newest book contains roughly 600 photos but is only about half an inch thick, which makes it far easier to store than multiple bulky albums. We ordered it through MyPublisher and caught a promotion that included free extra pages, letting us reach the 100-page limit at no additional cost. That discount saved us almost $80, making the book an excellent value compared with printing loose photos and buying multiple traditional albums. For us it’s not just about cost — a single slim volume is so much more convenient for browsing and storing.
Last year’s book was assembled after the fact, which required some backtracking to gather photos. This year we planned ahead and kept all our pictures in one iPhoto album, which automatically kept them in chronological order and made layout much faster. Because everything was already organized, it only took a few weeks into the new year to finish the 2011 volume.
We opened the book with a summary page that includes a short text recap of the year’s highlights. Having a single page that captures the big moments is something we think we’ll really appreciate when we look back years from now.
We grouped larger events, holidays, and milestones into dedicated spreads. For example, we included several pages from Clara’s first birthday party, which made for an engaging, story-like flow through the event. It’s also surprising to notice small details — like how dark our kitchen looked in some shots back then.
To make certain photos stand out we used preset page designs that gave them room to breathe. Some shots from a visit to the Bowers deserved larger, more dramatic layouts, and the templates made that easy to achieve without a lot of manual tweaking.
Because our albums can easily become Clara-heavy, we made an effort to include plenty of photos of Burger, our family pet. He earned a few dedicated pages — every album benefits from a good pet montage.
We also included the photos from our “Day In The Life” Blogiversary feature in chronological order. It’s a fun time capsule idea: in 15 years we’ll be able to flip to these pages and get a clear sense of what a typical day looked like back then.
By the time we reached the holiday section we almost hit the 100-page limit, but we managed to make everything fit. We even created a collage of holiday card outtakes. Yes, we’re a little obsessed with our kids, and that’s reflected in the book.
With two yearbooks on the shelf now, we’re excited to make the 2012 volume. If we wanted to include everything from earlier years, we’d need more pages, so we’re considering creating one or two archival books to cover our earliest digital photos from 2005 through 2008. That project might wait until other priorities — like finishing a manuscript — are complete.
Do you make photo books or albums to document a year, an event, or a particular chapter of life? We’d love to hear how others organize and display their family photos — systems, tips, and favorite vendors are all welcome.