If you're like me, you have a hard drive full of photos, a cell phone full of the same, and a nagging sense in your brain that they're just going to keep piling up over the years — yet you keep on photographing… you can't stop! I decided a few years ago to tackle the mess and start a yearly, well… yearbook. Yes, occasionally I print the odd photo here and there for display, but most of my photos — even the photos from my phone — get printed in our yearbook.
Throughout the year, when I download photos from my camera I put them in their yearly (and then monthly) folders. Sometimes I don't do anything with the photos at all until yearbook time! Then, once a year — usually in January — I compile the past year's photos, edit them down a bit, and throw them all in a book in chronological order.
I've used several print-your-own-book companies in the past, but the past two years have been with blurb, and I've been very satisfied. A few years ago I designed my layouts individually in Photoshop and InDesign, but that took way too long — recently I've taken advantage of blurb's publishing software and used it to compile and design my spreads.
I've been very happy with the result; my family and friends have loved grabbing a yearbook off the shelf and sitting down on the sofa to flip through a year of our lives. It also makes the little shots here and there worthwhile — previously, a shot of decorating the Christmas tree or making a pumpkin pie with the kids would have been tossed in the digital archives and never heard from again. But now, our 2008 Christmas tree — or 2010 pumpkin pie — fill the pages of a yearly chronology, where you can see the seasons change, our kids grow, our adventures unfold, and our life together evolve.
MORE PHOTO ORGANIZATION IDEAS ON APARTMENT THERAPY:
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• Store, Display or Scan: How Do You Keep Your Photographs?
(Images: Sarah Dobbins)
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I've been doing the same thing each year since My husband and I got married. It's just nice to have them around to flip through and remember the year.
Although I do also have my digital collection impeccability organized :D
I just though of doing this about a week ago. I take so many memorable pictures with my phone never to see them again. Not amymore. I too will be doing this. I'm working on what I collected so far in 2011.
Such a fabulous idea!! In fact, since going digital forever ago we haven't had any type of photo album {shame, shame}! I'm getting on this asap, thanks!
This is a great idea. I used to make a calendar once a year with the best pictures from all year. I really like the yearbook idea.
AWESOME idea! This seems like a great way to print photos without all of the bulk and weight that traditional albums usually have.
I am so doing this now. Nice. Thank you!!!!!
We do this as well. I sit down and compile out book every year at Thanksgiving and I order copies for the grandparents for Christmas. I also include scans of the kids' artwork and recipes of foods that we have made a lot that year.
I've been doing this since 2006 and it's one of the best things I've ever decided to do. We would never look back through our old photos if not for these books and our 2 year old daughter loves them. She asks to look through them daily. Of course, my 2011 book is still only half done, but I'll finish it by 2012 I'm sure...
I love it! For some reason I have never thought of just throwing them into a book, no words, no decorations (which paralyzes me with too many decisions). Classic - perfect. thanks for sharing. I am actually excited about going through my photos now!
Thanks so much for the write-up! I love to see people rescuing their photos from digital obscurity. A particularly with Mother's Day coming up.
Cheers,
Kent
My husband "bet" me to take a picture a day for a year - it didn't pan out ( i made it 48 days til a terrible car accident and just fell behind) but I have made if a bit of a habit to take a picture of just about every day and really capture a moment from our lives. The goal was to put together just such a yearbook - maybe this year is the year!
I heard about this idea a few months ago and got all excited... but I haven't actually gotten around to doing it yet, so my photos continue to collect dust on my hard drive.
I do the same thing. At Christmastime I pull together the best photos from the year and have them published and printed using Apple's book options built into iPhoto. Then I order three copies: one for me and my husband, one for our son, and one for grandparents. Apple usually has them delivered back to me within an amazing 5 days. A great way to catalog the year.
I love your books -- so simple and yet such a treasure! I keep a blog, so everything gets posted there, but I'm typically the only one who looks back at it. I like this yearbook idea to set out on the table and let the kiddos and other family and friends flip through it.
I did this last Christmas for the grandparents and it was such a hit I wondered what took me so long. Apple's iphoto makes it super easy, but I've wondered about other places/prices. Anyone compare Apple books to Blurb or others?
This strategy makes photos accessible to my kids, without me needing to be precious about them. I can always order a replacement if I must (although they come to about $100 when all is said and done, so...ouch).
We use Blurb, suck everything out of Flickr (which we keep current with our edited 'keepers' for far-off family) at the end of the year, and then I spend a couple months arranging and captioning it. Yeah, months - it's a bit of a black hole, time wise.
But again, the only way I know to get the photos out where they can be savored by kids and adults!
Good idea! I could consider that. I already organize my pictures in folders according to event and to years, but might be a good idea to publish them. I also have printed pictures (stil use a 35 mm Nikon), so I'm just wondering if there would be a nice way to mix them together.
I do this, too! It's really nice to have everything in one place
Great! I've been doing individual books for professional photos or little special projects but love an annual book. Wondering how many pages these are generally. Could add up!
I'm taking a picture a day of the Kiddo (it's my parents first grandchild) in her first year (she's 6m old now). I created a 5x5 grid on Blurb so I could get plenty of photos per page. It's really interesting to see her progress when photos are in a row-- even "blah" cell phone pix are interesting in context. And it will be a fantastic gift for grandparents!
I started doing this once we had children and try to use Christmas and Mother's Day as my nonnegotiable times that I force myself to do it. Because otherwise I would never get around to it. I have used many different companies but found that My Publisher has been the best. As a perfectionist artist I would prefer to make layouts in Photoshop/InDesign but just don't have the time with two kids. But the print quality, customer service and options from My Publisher help me to feel less guilty about using templates. Plus, I can crank out a really nice book in an evening after the kids are in bed.
I've been planning to do this for years, and just haven't made it happen. 2012 is definitely going to be the year, though, since we are expecting our first baby soon. What options/customization do you choose on Blurb? Have you found a size that you just love? I know a lot of it's personal preference, but I always like someone else's input. I've used Shutterfly a couple times, but I've heard other sites are higher-quality.
I started make books when my boyfriend and I hit our 1 year, I made us a book on A&I Publisher and then this last year used MyPublisher but I have not received so I cannot comment on how MyPublisher is but A&I was great!
Also, the reason I have hopped around companies is because there are oftentimes Living Social or Groupon deals for these books and that is how I started. I think that I am going to start making the year of everything we did, not just together. It really is a great way to do albums!
I love this idea! It's an incredibly helpful tool in clearing clutter and getting organized! I use Mixbook to create photo books. They have beautiful layouts and you can completely customize your book.
when I had my first son I said was going to do this 6 years and 2 more kids I still have not done it. I am going to def. going to do it this YEAR!!!!
This is great--I am going to tackle this too! Beautiful kids BTW ;)!
Just the motivation I needed, my mum lived in another state for the first 3 years of my sons life and I emailed her a photo of him everyday for those 3 years. I have an insane volume of phone and other photos which is too big to manage in any way. I use keywords in iPhoto a lot but just had to upgrade my harddrive just to house it. I am going to start back cataloging them this way now.
...making a book for her of those photos would be great for mothers day, just not sure I could make that deadline!
Which version of the Blurb software are you using? There seems to be 3 types....
I keep a family blog, including my favorite photos, and I just made a book for 2012 using blurb. I LOVE the book and now need to find the time going back to when I started it. I also like to drop the photos into a DVD slideshow each year with some music for the kids to watch. Also a great gift for the grandparents!
I love the advance of digital photography. I know some people feel sticker shock when they think of printing a $100+ book, but that is actually GREAT when you think of what the cost used to be for photo albums. You had to buy film then you had to print the photos, only to find that heads were cropped off, blurry, random shot of the ground, and only 6-8 useable photos. Then you bought some sort of album to put it all in. So, in the end $100 for a year's worth of photos that you know are ones you will want to look at again and again, is pretty reasonable in my book.
P.S. A printed book also takes up less room on a shelf than a photo album.
Ellsie, that's a really good point about the price. Consider what it would cost to scrapbook a years worth of photos! MUCH, MUCH more than $100! Also, hey, my high school year books were about $80 and it's not like they were full of only pictures that were important to me personally. $100 a year is well worth it. And I'm really cheap.
I've only ever made books at walgreens, I know they're not as great quality as these but I love them anyway. They have deals now and then where you can get a 20 page book for free, can't beat that! I'm inspired now to make one of these giant yearbooks. What size are these and about how many pages does it take to cover a year?
hey this is a great idea! i was wondering what type of paper you selected on blurb, do you need to use something other than the standard paper for photos?
Hey, here's a link to the yearbook choices on Blurb:
http://www.blurb.com/yearbook-photo-books
I have made books on Blurb and my favorite paper is the premium matte. It's gorgeous!