Celebrate and Share Your Family Photos with Photo Albums!

There is a fun saying I like to tell folks: if Moses was given the ten commandments on a flash drive, they wouldn’t exist because of changing technology. The best backup is still a paper archive that can survive centuries of neglect.

Digital archives require careful management if they are to last more than a few years. When you create physical photo albums or photobooks, you increase the odds that your family story and precious memories will succeed you! Printed photobooks, scrapbooks, and photo albums don’t rely on technology to be enjoyed. You don’t need an internet connection, and you won’t need to migrate them to a new format to view them fifty years from now. When you combine images and words into a documentary-like narrative, you are creating a historical record for future generations with stories that you can celebrate and enjoy today.

The market is filled with an abundance of album choices to suit your needs. Scrapbook albums have the added benefit of providing you with a creative outlet. Pocket-page albums make it easy to assemble an album quickly if time is an issue for you. Digital photobooks make it easy and efficient to use online tools and templates to auto populate a photobook while you focus on the words that tell your story.

TIPS FOR SUCCESS

Quality matters! Choose products that have archive-quality or photo-safe materials to ensure the longevity of your albums. Select album options that suit your lifestyle, budget, and time considerations. Completion is the most important goal. If you don’t enjoy sitting at the computer to create a photobook, it will quickly become a chore. If you are frustrated by the creative process of assembling a scrapbook, it will slow you down. Themes, rather than chronology, will make it easier to curate a story. Favorite topics include vacations, sports, family traditions, or events such as weddings, anniversaries, and birthdays. The themes that are most common in your family and combine them into an album that spans over time. If you prefer a chronological time line, choose ten to fifteen photos per month for an annual Family Yearbook. Or choose ten to twenty photos per year for a Celebration of Life. The greatest reward for your effort will be the joy on the faces of your loved ones enjoying your albums!