This is a guest contribution by Personal Photo Organizer Nancy Keegan
There is FOMO – Fear of Missing Out – and FOBO – Fear of Better Offers – and lots of other phobias that don’t have such clever acronyms. Sometimes I have FOGS – Fear of Getting Started – and perhaps you do as well. I know that as I am making progress in getting my photos and images safe and organized (is it ever really complete?) I also want to get them into my life and that of my family. One way to do that is to make photo albums.
You don’t have to use the same approach for a lifetime of photos and stories. While some people might have a series of albums that cover a year or few years of their family story, that prospect is daunting if you haven’t kept up. Sometimes the best thing is just to jump in and do one album.
Photo Albums
A few of my favorite albums were prompted by special occasions:
An ABC Album
Each letter of the alphabet had a double-page spread in an album I made for my elementary-school-teacher husband’s 50th birthday. Every person, place, interest and event in our family experience up to that time is depicted under its appropriate letter. An ABC book, especially one for a child, might have just one or two things shown per letter. I’ve seen books where a character trait of the recipient serves as the title of each page.
Vacations
Some special vacations warrant a book of their own. Even a special weekend could be remembered with its own small softcover photobook. I’ve also done a big album of all family vacations, each trip covered on two or more pages.
The Kids
We probably take more photos of our children – their sweet faces and their events and milestones – than just about anything else. I confess to having dropped the ball on keeping up with albums through the years when my kids were young. Several years ago, I heard of an idea from a former memory-keeping colleague, Missy Tidwell, and I am actually still working on the “Toddler to Teen” album for each of my now-grown kids. Each holiday or event gets a double-page spread. So you have one spread with photos of the first day of school through the years, another for all birthdays, all Halloweens, little league, big snow storms, and so on. Include whatever events and traditions are significant in your family.
A Heritage Photobook
My husband had collected photos of ancestors and he asked me to help him pull the story together in a photobook. Gathering the information was kind of like doing a jigsaw puzzle with no borders, but it is so much fun to have it all in one place. He took delight in presenting the finished product to his siblings, and now they each have their own copy of the book.
Hobby or Collection
One of my favorite books is called “The Stories in the Squares.” I was given a delightful friendship quilt as a wedding gift, but I recently realized that I was the only one who knew the significance of each block. I photographed each square individually and wrote something that told about the creator, their relationship to me and the explanation of what was depicted in their square. The final product actually became the story of my life and friendships up through the time of my wedding. Maybe you don’t have a quilt, but perhaps you have a special collection or a hobby that you would like to document for posterity!
A Love Letter
I had missed the occasion of our 25th wedding anniversary, but I wanted to do something special, so I made an album for the next Valentine’s Day. Some ideas would be to use photos from every year; or a special song or poem as a theme. I simply used pairs of photos on pages entitled things like “love and marriage” “hearts and flowers” “friends and family” “cake and ice cream” (for birthday celebrations!) It was a very, very simple book. He loved it.
What kind of album?
One big decision is whether to make traditional albums using print photos, or just go directly to a photobook with your digital images. Again, you don’t have to take the same approach with every album. I confess to being partial to photobooks for several reasons. They take up less space; additional (or replacement) copies can be ordered; I love varying the sizes of the images and the number of images on a page; and I simply prefer working in that medium.
Whichever type you choose, be sure to include writing to document the who, what, where, when and even how everyone was feeling about the events you cover.
The poignant last line of the hit musical Hamilton is “who tells your story?” Will you use photo albums to help tell your story and the stories of those close to you?
Nancy Keegan is a member of APPO, the Association of Personal Photo Organizers. Her favorite way to help people is creating custom photobooks. She has made albums for milestone birthday celebrations including folks turning 90 and 98; and she particularly enjoys designing wedding photobooks.
This photo shows Nancy with her daughter during their trip to NYC last winter. Yes, they did see Hamilton!
You can reach Nancy at her APPO website here.
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