I’m a picture junkie, I always have been. I have 2 large, flat rubbermaid tubs that live under my bed filled to the brim with prints and negatives from growing up (labeled meticulously and organized by date and event. I used to keep a spreadsheet of photos that I had given to people so that I could make a print from the negative to put back in the box). I would take my little point and shoot film camera everywhere and buy film in bulk. I wasn’t very good or anything, but I just LOVED holding prints in my hands, cutting them up and putting them on a binder, or putting them in little frames. If our house ever caught fire you can bet that’s on the top of the list of things I’m going to try and smuggle out with me.
As a photographer I take several hundred (or even thousand depending on the event) photos a week. Just like everyone else, I take snapshots with my phone of my kids or something fun I cooked. There are probably 5,000 photos from Lyla’s first year (she is almost 4 now) and about the same for Paisley’s. But how many albums do I have of those beautiful photographs? How many prints hang in my home of those invaluable memories? Not nearly as many as I would like. I’m ashamed to say I haven’t even put together a baby book documenting their first year. I read this past week that this generation is the most photographed generation in history, but will also have the fewest heirlooms and tangible photographs.
There are two reasons why I’m talking about this today. The first is this: slow down, enjoy life, make memories and stop documenting everything under the sun that doesn’t really matter. Take fewer photos of the stuff that doesn’t matter and make them more meaningful. (Did the photographer just say to stop taking pictures???)
The second is this: invest in heirlooms and tangible keepsakes. Every time I am able to make it to my parent’s house, I take time to go through our family photo albums and specifically their wedding album. These memories for me are absolutely priceless. My parents have no digital copies of the photos of their wedding day, just a giant leather album of all the photos from the day. We love sitting on the couch and looking through them together, it’s one of their most prized possessions.
Last month I ordered a linen covered lay-flat album of Blaire’s birth story. I wanted to be able to place something in potential client’s hands that they could touch and flip through when I meet with them.
These albums are completely customizable with the choice of linen, leather or photo for the album cover. The pages can be thick or thin card stock. I chose thick for my sample.
I custom design each page of the album to tell the story of the event, with some photos spanning the entire spread.
The album pictured is 8×8 and 15 spreads (30 individual pages). This makes it about an inch thick once it’s closed. Perfect for a coffee table or bookshelf. The pages are archival quality and guaranteed to last 100 years against spotting or fading.
Ordering an album from me with your session is something you won’t regret. You will look back at those photos over and over again and treasure the memories you made together. Your children will pull out the albums as they get older and make new memories sitting next to you on the couch flipping through the day you got married, the day they were born, or an important milestone that we captured. You will be passing down an heirloom to them they will treasure forever.