December Blog... Heritage Book for the Holidays

Heritage Book for the Holidays

As we headed into fall, I created heritage books for several clients for holiday gifts. What is a heritage book? Unlike a traditional photo book documenting your year or vacation, a heritage book documents your family history. I usually try to include multiple generations of family photos, and the content can be grouped in various ways, including by family (mother’s side, father’s side) or by event (weddings, military service, school) across generations.

The wonderful thing about these books is having your entire family appear in front of you. Pictures that usually sit in boxes or tubs are now front and center to enjoy. I love seeing how a current family member’s baby picture looks, so like a relative several generations back! I’ll include old school papers, drawings from art class, even cutouts of dogs or paper dolls carefully preserved over time. I’ve scanned varsity letters and mortar board tassels to supplement those graduation photos. Newspaper announcements, invitations and cards also add details to the collection.

The other aspect of having a heritage book is watching how kids take an interest in them. There is always a “family tree” topic in elementary schools, and I know for my own children they enjoyed simply grabbing the heritage book and flipping through their history (again and again!).

As families gather for the holidays, think about asking everyone to bring their old photos to start building a complete family history. What a gift to give next holiday season...a digital collection of these preserved photos, and a beautiful heritage book to enjoy!

Are you overwhelmed by the photos the family is giving you to store? Not sure where to start? Let’s talk!

September Blog... Wedding Album 2.0

Wedding Album 2.0

Milestone wedding anniversaries always remind me that I started my photo business in 2016, and one of the dreams I had was to revisit all the photos from our wedding. Back when we got married, we didn’t receive a DVD of images from the wedding photographer. Everything was shot and viewed as slides. Recently, I purchased our entire wedding photo archive from our wedding photographer. Joy!!

From there, I partnered with a local company to scan those slides so I could work with them digitally. I also selected an extremely high-quality photo book company used only by photographers and graphic designers. Their attention to detail and customer service while submitting my files was superb!

The result? Our wedding album 2.0. It is a beautiful lay-flat matte page book in a custom-designed box. For every 1-2 photos in our original album, we have 2-3 pages expanding on the same story (rehearsal dinner, getting ready, the ceremony, departing the church, dining, dancing and more!).

To top it off, I think the most fun has been sharing this expanded album with our children. They laugh at the hairstyles and how young everyone looks. They love the attention to detail we had for our wedding, and seeing their parents when they started their journey together.

Are you overwhelmed by photos from that recent wedding or vacation? Not sure where to start? Let’s talk!

June Blog... Ultimate Vacation Book

Ultimate Vacation Book

I love taking vacation photos - being in a different location, different climate, different time zone, and capturing amazing views and memories is such a joy. I always make sure to have back up memory cards and batteries for my actual camera, so we are not scrambling with a dead camera. Couple that with the oodles of photos we are all taking with our phones, and I end up with an amazing collection!

This year, since we are going on a guided vacation (a cruise with some touring), I decided to prep a little differently… I prepped for bringing photos home. This allows me to create a beautiful book right away.

First, I set up a space on my computer for the upcoming avalanche of digital photos. I use a month_event naming structure for the folder and sub-folders (sequence number_day date_event) for each day and tour stop:

06_Disney Cruise

00_Wed 0606_Travel to Europe

01_Thurs_07_Board Ship

Next, I prepped the photo book I was going to create. This vacation was our second cruise on the same cruise line, so I wanted a book whose design mirrored the first one. I copied the same cover (which reminded me to get a similar boarding photo of the kids on cruise 2).

When we returned, I gathered up everyone’s devices and loaded them onto my computer, dumping collections of photos by date into their corresponding folders. The phones provided exact location detail (which I found interesting), especially for days we were at sea.

Once everything was collected, I could edit the photos to the “best of” by having the full day’s photos from all cameras in one place. This then made it easy to load up my photos, by day, into my design software for placement.

It will be nice to show off a printed book of our June vacation at our July 4th family events. I was thrilled that it took even less time to get organized, which made assembling a breeze. The vacation prep was worth it!

Are you overwhelmed by photos from that recent wedding or graduation? Not sure where to start? Let’s talk!

March Blog... Mom's Memory Book

Mom’s Memory Book

As the weather warms, I start thinking of my childhood summers. Those days meant riding horses, swimming (a lot) and loads of time cutting grass. Moving into fall meant sweatshirts, crisp leaves, playing at the park, and still cutting grass. How do I remember this? I have pictures.

Over the past few years, the transition to summer was a bit different. As the temperatures changed, I reflected on fond remembrances, then I pulled down an album or photo book to take to my mom, as she suffered from early-onset Alzheimer's. While older memories were readily available to her, the more recent seasons with family and grandkids were not.

Dropping off a photo book containing pictures from an old family album brought her more joy than any other gift could. She could recall and laugh about events from my childhood. More recent events with my siblings or children she looked at with a smile...she knew the faces even if she couldn’t remember all the details. 

While she enjoyed flipping through those formal wedding albums and other milestone events, she took pleasure in what I call the “everyday” books. These books capture little events in a year, including my kids’ artwork and certificates (which I digitized and included).

We never saw an early Alzheimer's diagnosis coming, but I am thankful that I enjoyed photos and memorabilia, and that I find it rewarding to pull those items together in a book that can be shared. I created a “family library” of her images and mine that she checked out and kept for weeks, to revisit all the times in her life, as well as the lives in the generations after her.

Are you overwhelmed by photos from that recent wedding or graduation? Not sure where to start? Let’s talk!