We’re in the middle of installing our new pendant lights and will be back tomorrow with photos of that project. In the meantime, I wanted to share something readers ask about all the time: how we store and preserve our family photos. Ever since we saw Katie Bower’s family photo book a few summers ago, we’ve been hooked on creating annual photo books. Our first “Family Yearbook” came together last summer, and now that a full year has passed we finally have the latest volume in hand.
The result is one large glossy photo book filled with our pictures from 2011. The best part is that although the book contains around 600 images, it’s only about half an inch thick, which makes storage simple and tidy. It’s much less bulky than several thick, overstuffed traditional albums that each hold only 100–200 photos. We ordered through MyPublisher and were fortunate to catch a promotion that gave us free extra pages, allowing us to reach the 100-page maximum without an added charge. That promotion saved us a significant amount off the usual price, and even without discounts, creating a single, well-designed photo book often costs less than buying multiple physical albums and the supplies to fill them. To be clear: this isn’t sponsored—just a format we genuinely enjoy using.
For the first yearbook we created, we pulled photos from various places and compiled them after the fact, which required a fair amount of digging and organizing. For our 2011 volume, though, we planned ahead. We kept all the year’s photos in a single iPhoto album, which automatically maintained chronological order. That made the design and layout process much faster, and we were able to complete the book within just a couple of weeks after the year ended.
When designing the book we aimed to highlight the year’s major events—birthdays, holidays, trips, and milestones—while keeping the flow natural and chronological. The opening page includes a short summary to set the tone for the year, a quick snapshot of highlights that will be fun to reread years from now. Grouping events and milestones together helped the narrative feel cohesive; for example, several spreads are dedicated to Clara’s first birthday party so that the sequence of moments from that day reads like a mini-album within the larger yearbook.
We also used preset layout templates to give certain images the presentation they deserved. Some photographs, like the ones Katie B. took when we visited the Bowers in June, looked especially striking in the larger, more dramatic layouts. Those curated spreads give the book a more polished, intentional look, rather than just a stack of random snapshots.
Because these albums can quickly become all-about-Clara, we consciously included plenty of shots of Burger as well. He earned a few dedicated pages—every family book needs a pet montage or three. We also included the photos we took for our Blogiversary “Day In The Life” post, arranged in order so that years from now we can flip back through and remember what a typical day looked like at that point in time.
We came close to the 100-page limit by the time we reached Christmas, but with careful editing and a few collages we managed to include our favorite holiday moments and even a collage of Christmas card outtakes. Editing down to the essentials is always the hardest part, but it helped keep the book focused and meaningful.
Now that our family collection includes two yearbooks, we’re already excited to put together the 2012 volume. We’re also considering tackling older digital archives: compiling one or two books that cover our photos from 2005, when we met, through 2008 so they sit neatly alongside the albums we’ve already created. That project will likely happen once a certain manuscript is finalized, but it’s on the list.
And because every photo project needs a little humor, here’s our favorite photo-bomber doing his usual thing and jumping into the frame whenever he can.
Are you making photo books or albums to document a recent year, a special event, or a span of time? We’d love to hear about the systems you use to organize and display family photos—whether you prefer printed books, digital archives, cloud storage, or a combination of methods. Sharing tips and tricks makes the process easier and more fun for everyone.