Right in the middle of the witching hour last week, between begging Dash to “Please stop erasing!” while he attempted to finish his homework and scraping burnt potatoes I neglected to turn, the doorbell rang.
“Just a package!” Brett hollered as he opened the door and brought the package inside. “Something from Pinhole.”
Which could only mean one thing. The Annual Family Album had arrived. Screw the potatoes. Forget about the homework. Everything can wait. The family Christmas present we give ourselves every year had arrived–a year’s worth of memories and moments preserved in a book to save forever–and we were pausing everything to enjoy it.
Our annual family albums (we do the 8×8 hardcover albums from Pinhole Press) have become one of the most cherished things in our home, left out on the coffee table for us to look back on our memories all throughout the year–and we do…a lot. The kids pick up those albums and look through them at least once a week; remembering vacations and beach days, birthday parties and quiet weekends; noting people they love; laughing at story recollections triggered by photos.
The thought of creating a family album can be daunting for many though, especially if your photos are all stuck on your phone. If creating an album has been on your bucket list but you don’t know where to begin, here are some album creating tips to help you make it happen in 2020.
Set Manageable SUSTAINABLE Expectations
For me, this is it–the number one commandment for all creative projects, and the sole reason ideas either become checked off accomplishments or eternally loom in the Creative Purgatory of talked about dreams. If the expectation is too big and elaborate to fit with my current responsibilities, my creative project will likely either never get started or will start with an impressive bang and then fizzle into the graveyard of Fun Ideas I Once Had. When Lainey and Nella were babies, I fell down the rabbit hole of elaborate digital scrapbooking which sucked up what I’m guessing was a good 700 hours of my life–which is why after two years and four albums of novelesque documentation and artistic design, that hobby crashed hard. With three kids, work and our growing list of responsibilities and interests, I know if I am going to keep the tradition of designing and printing family albums of our memories every year, I’m going to need to keep it simple. I don’t add text or stories (would take too long and make me get behind), and I don’t design the pages myself anymore. I drag and drop our photos into Pinhole Press’s album templates (clean, minimal and classic!), and I follow an easy chronological design layout (album starts in January and ends with December). There’s very little thought or decision involved which has allowed me to stay productive and keep up on our albums for three years now.
Gradually Create Your Album Throughout the Year
Most album websites allow you to start creating a project, save it and edit it for as long as you like. I start our album project on the Pinhole Press website in January and drop photos into layouts, adding pages as the year progresses–birthday parties, vacations, everyday loveliness in our home, etc.–and then save it. By the time December rolls around, the album is practically finished. It’s never a big looming project because I complete it little by little throughout the year.
Set Yourself Up for Success with a Photo Organization System
Creating an album is a lot more challenging if you’re trying to choose pictures from a giant mess of random photos. The end of the year is a great time to set up a system for storing photos for 2020. I have folders saved on my computer in chronological order. Within each year photo (2017, 2018, 2019), there are subfolders titled by their dates first (arranged in chronological order) and a descriptions of the photos in that folder such as “Mother’s Day Isle of Capri”, “Key West,” “Lainey’s Birthday,” “Weekend at Home,” etc. If nothing else, create a folder for 2020 and in it, create subfolders for each month. Then, when you pull photos off your camera or phone, you can drag them to where they belong.
Create a Monthly Routine for Transferring your Photos from Phone/Camera to Saved Folders on your Computer
The more your photos build up, the more likely you are to abandon plans for doing something with them. Try and transfer at least your favorite photos you’ve taken once a month into organized folders. If you edit your photos, try and maintain a simple monthly editing process (I do this every week, but that’s because I take a lot of photos). Set a number goal so it doesn’t become too overwhelming such as aiming to edit 15 favorite photos every month. And BACK THEM UP! I back up all my edited photos to Amazon Photo storage.
Set Monthly Goals for Photos You Want to Take
Want to create an album of family photos but haven’t taken enough photos to fill it? Or don’t know what photos to take? It’s easy to have great intentions for photos we want to capture and even easier to forget. I recently went into my photo folder to pull some photos of my kids with Brett’s mom for a gift idea and was appalled that I hardly took any this year. If you struggle to remember to capture photos, set some goals for this year. Join a photo challenge group online for some inspiration or subscribe to one of my favorite photography inspirations magazines, Click. Take a look at the photos you’ve taken this year and make note of who’s not showing up in the photos (Is it you? GET IN THERE, GIRL!). Write a list of photos you want to capture this year or create a fun monthly challenge. For 2020, I’m setting an alarm to go off on my phone on the first of every month with a reminder to capture a candid family selfie with all of us in it so we have a fun progression at the end of the year. Capture photos of your children doing what they love–playing basketball, video games, reading, whatever!–so you can remember who they are outside of posed smiling-at-the-camera shots. Capture what happens in your kitchen, meals at the table, afternoon walks. These are the moments you want to fill your album with.
Work Backwards
Have thousands of photos from the past ten years that you want to put into albums but don’t know where to start? Work backwards. Start with 2019–ten photos from each month, and work them into an album. Then tackle 2018, 2017, working backwards. Or leave everything the way it is, start fresh with a 2020 challenge, move forward and be happy that you at least started somewhere!
Done is Better than Perfect
Don’t stress over having to have the most beautiful photos, or page layouts being cohesive, or whether or not your photos came from a camera or a phone. Just make an album with what you have–photos that you love–because done is better than perfect.
To making more new memories in the new year and capturing the love we want to remember!
ST says
Can you add some notes regarding Pinhole vs. Shutterfly which is also something you have used in the past?
Kelle says
Yes! So, the Pinhole album quality is way more upscale. Like a wedding album. The pages are uber thick, there’s no middle binding (it’s lay flat). More like a coffee table luxury album.
Dannitzah gil says
Did you get the lay flat or ultra thick lay flat album ? And more or less how many pages did you have I just want to see if I put too many that it won’t be too too thick.
Kelle says
I order the regular lay flat one. And maximum number of pages–90.
Kirsten says
How many pages are in an album? About how many pictures do you get in a yearly album?
Sherry colar says
I’m doing this! Love Pinhole Press. But I have a question. I created an album on my iPhone titled just “2020.” Is it possible to create sub folders inside it on my phone? Or do I have to do the whole sub folder thing only on my computer?
Kelle says
Hmmm…I’m not sure on this. But if you contact Pinhole, I’m sure they can help you!
Daina says
Do you usually do the regular lay flat pages or the “ultra-thick”? Wondering if the upgrade is needed. Thank you and hope you have a magical time in Chicago!
Kelle says
I don’t get the ultra thick. The regular pages are pretty thick.
Sherry Colarusso says
I am doing this! Have organized all the 2019 photos on my computer into Months. However, as I upload them into Pinhole Press and begin to add them to pages, I keep getting the box that says my photo is too small and the quality may not be good. Is there a specific size/pixel size the photos should be? Do I need to set the camera settings in my phone for this as I plan for 2020? Can I “correct” photos that have already been taken so that Pinhole Press will accept them into their app without getting that message?
I wish you’d do a class on just this – making these books. I’d sign up this afternoon!
Sherry
Annie says
How many photos are you able to include? I have a hard time finding an album that’s big enough for all the pictures I want to include.
Kelle says
I add the maximum number of pages–90 which, depending on the layouts you choose, holds a lot!
Sara says
Since December isn’t over yet, do you forgo pictures from December or add them in the following years album?
Kelle says
I order mine mid December, so there are several pages of Christmas without Christmas day being in there. I could wait until January and include it, but I’ve been keeping up with this system of ordering it to have it in time for Christmas that I just stick with that.
Kimberly Kelly says
So do you start the next year’s album with Christmas photos or do you do an entirely separate album for Christmas photos?
Barb says
Such great advice! I have a pretty good system of editing photos on my phone and uploading my favorites to a photo printing app. Marking favorites helps and can be an easy way to find them for projects. I’ve done a board book, matching game and photo magnets from Pinhole Press and have loved everything. I heard about them from you several years ago so thank you! I also subscribe my Instagram to Chatbooks and make yearly photo books for each of my kids from Snapfish. Splurging on a family album from Pinhole Press might have to be a goal for 2020!
Jennifer Reil says
Thank you for this! I started scrapbooking way back in the pioneer days, in 1994. I did that for 10 years until I got my first digital camera in 2004. I started making photos books in 2005 and only completed them to 2008. That means I’m eleven years behind!! After moving back from India, our sea shipment got moisture in it and everything got contaminated with mold and had to be trashed. I saved my photo books in plastic ziploc bags, so I can remake them, but when? I LOVE that you don’t journal, you let the pictures do the talking. And I LOVE that you work on your books a little each month. This sounds like a way I can get back on board. I’ll be starting in 2020 and working my way backwards. Thanks again for the great inspiration!
AP says
Do you get the 8.75″ square book? And do you get the layflat or the ultrathick layflat pages? I’m excited to start working backwards on these!
Kelle says
Yes, and the lay flat. The regular pages are pretty thick so I stick with those.
pamela says
Love this post, so useful. What is your typical go to for shooting pictures; iPhone or which len/s with a camera? I love all the memories you capture for your children to reference. Goal for this year to get my 14,000 photos off my iPhone an organized. EEK! Thanks for the help!
Kelle says
I use mainly my camera photos, but there are definitely iPhone pics in there too.
Margaux says
how/when do you work in christmas/chicago photos since you already have your yearly album done? do you do a separate album?
Sherry Macy says
Thanks, Kelle! I still make Shutterfly books (from family history story books to first-person photo story books for my grandchildren) using your method of designing each page in inDesign, saving it as a JPG, and uploading it by page for printing. My brother turned 80 last year and I was thrilled to have a place to put those pictures of him (from birth on) to give as a gift. So—again—thanks for sharing the details of your photo projects!
st says
Ive been trying to figure out a system for all my photos! Problem is I must take 100’s of photos… how many photos would you say fit appox?
Kelle says
It fits 90 pages, and depending on what layouts you use for each page, that’s a lot of photos. Several of the layout templates for pages allow lots of photos.
kymmy says
Okay love the idea of keeping track and selecting pictures you want in the album every month. That would help me soooo much. Thank you!
Krista says
Hi Kelle! I’ve been referring back to this post because I’m finally getting on this project of organizing my photos into books.
I have a silly question, but I can’t figure out on Pinhole Press how to make my titles on the cover to look like yours, contained in a black box. The only options I’m given are straight text, no background colour or border. Help please!! I selected the 8.75 x 8.75 hardcover regular layflat as well. I’m stumped!
Kelle says
Hi Krista!
I actually make my own cover pages and download the photo with the title on it.