Children love sharing stories. And I need order and closure.
I used to make a photo book per child every two years.
I always made and created albums and photo books. I even tried scrapbooking when my girls were born but ditched that idea quickly. I figured that I am not that type of creative. I am the organized and structured type of a creative person. What is that? Well, although photography is considered as a creative art, I always tend to capture 'what is there', I do not create new things, and I definitely do not use Photoshop.
I love the process of gathering my photos throughout the year (these days they are in the digital form), delete and sort, and keep the ones that are story and book-worthy in a separate folder on my computer. What else goes in there? Photos of my children's artwork and a file with a list of their quotes. That type of sorting and organizing gives me peace of mind and by the time I start our family year book, I am ready to go and it will not take long at all to put the photo book together.
Holding a beautifully printed family photo book in our hands brings us endless joy and conversation starters. Also, it gives me the calming feeling of having another backup of our photos and stories. Just in case... because computers and hard drives do fail.
The kids love sharing their stories. Certain photos trigger a whole set of memories, which is wonderful. They get to see their life journey, understand, and feel deeply connected with their journey and within their family. For myself, I love the process of gathering the photos and putting them into order and in a clean layout and connect them with written short stories.
Yearly family photo books are a wonderful way to share your family stories with the grandparents or friends abroad. You can do it too. You can not travel there at the moment? Shipping is expensive and it takes much longer than it used to. You can find a photo book company in the country where your family lives and create it online.
I did just that. My niece just turned 10. She has never been to New Zealand. We created a photo book for her, where my girls (also both 10) told her stories and showed the country and their life in New Zealand to her in a very beautiful book. Within 4 days of uploading the file to www.fotobuch.de my niece held her birthday present in her hands. In Berlin.
A page showing my niece how her cousins experience their school ski day here in New Zealand.
A double page photo can be very impressive. It gives a deeper feel for the moment.
Start creating now. For your children. I often hear and experience myself that when children go to visit family, they love picking up photo books and are interested in the people and stories in them. Holding your family photo books in your hands can give you peace of mind - your photos are not just in any cloud but sorted and backed up in a beautiful and tangible way. Celebrate your family stories.
What keeps you from doing it? Let me know. I'd love to help and get you started. Download and fill in the list to help you brainstorm and prioritise your first photo book stories.