Family Yearbooks...

I love photos - when I was a child, I wanted to be a National Geographic Photographer. It was my dream to travel to exotic places and shoot warm gatherings and celebrations and be a part of something that brought this enormous world into the hands of anyone who reached for that yellow bound magazine. In 1995, National Geographic published an article about the rough life that their photographers lead - always traveling, no family or broken homes, etc. I remember thinking that I wanted to have a family more than I wanted to take fabulous photos. I've kept that issue as a reminder. 


Then, I did photojournalism for 4 years (through college, bi-weekly and daily newspapers) and loved it! I realized that I couldn't make a career out of it the day I was sent out the door to take a photo of a professor who had suffered a heart attack while teaching. I stood there, frozen, watching as this respected man was at his most vulnerable and I couldn't shoot anything. I felt small and it felt disrespectful. 


It was then, I realized I was the wrong girl for that job. I still get choked up when I think about that day; my dream of being a photographer professionally died right there on the sidewalk of my college. It was only the second time I had been asked to shoot something so painful and lonely for someone and both time, I became so overcome with emotion that it was difficult to do my job (the first one was after the trial of a man that had killed his ex-girlfriend - they went to my school - and we were getting statements from her parents. They looked so exposed.).


Since I got my first camera (a 110mm) when I was 10 (I think), I've always been the one snapping pictures or seeing the world with a camera's eye (if I didn't have one on me, thinking that would be a great shot, ohh...that, too!). My mom would ask me to hold her camera and when she got the film developed, she'd hand me a bunch of images saying, I assume these are yours?!? Whoops...


I love to capture memories and I love to look back at it all - I journal and am allowed to remember that girl I once was and pictures allow me to see the more physical side of that. I base my cell phone purchases on which phone has the best camera because carrying around my camera isn't always an option. It's a part of my life and I love what has come from it.


I found a wonderful company that makes books for you, of whatever you want to fill them with (recipes, stories, photos, blog pages, etc.) called My Publisher. I LOVE THEM!!! I've tried a few different companies and never got past the design process with them. I'm done exploring, I've found my counterpart for my memories. 


For the past three years, I've been making family yearbooks for the kids and they adore them! My mom used to put images into books for my sister and I - I remember pouring over them whenever I could. Then, my sister had kids. Her first born has, I think, two books for his first year of life; the next has part of one book and I don't even think that she began a book for her youngest. It's difficult to find the time to look over all the photos from the year and then place them on a page that you've made pretty. I know some people really enjoy scrapbooking and more power to you...it is NOT for me!


My kids get the same book (and I make one for Bill and I, too) - I make them for Christmas and they are the gift they all wait for. My books begin with November each year and end with October (typically Halloween). They are kind of expensive at full price. Since I get a book for each of them and one for Bill and I, that's 5 books, so I just wait for a wonderful deal (buy 1 get 1 free, 40% off, 50% off) and that makes it more do-able. 


Some things I like about My Publisher:

• You download the software onto your computer so you don't have to be on-line to work with it. 
• You can arrange and re-arrange before placing them onto the pages. 
• When you place an image, it disappears from the list of choices (if you want the image in more than one place, you need to upload it twice). 
• They also keep your books on digital file so you can always re-order or share you books with others and allow them to order.
• You have a ton of choices for the cover (we always go with the linen cover in a different color each year), linen, hard back, dust jacket, etc.
• You can mix and match your book to suite your personal needs - as a year book I like to have text, images, etc. Someday, I'll make the cookbook that my kids are begging for.
• You can also make personal stationary or cards and canvas printed pictures

An additional note (I forgot to add this in before I posted it so I'm making the update now): a lot of times, a year of photos can feel completely overwhelming so I've devised a system that really works for us! I have a general Photos Folder; inside, I have a folder labeled 2012; inside that, are folders for each month. This is a lot of folders and I know it's not recommended to do this but it works for me. Inside each monthly folder I have one folder labeled that month and book (i.e. July - Book) other folders in that month are for birthday's, trips, holiday's, etc. - typically, if an event has more than 10 images that I like, I'll make a folder for that, too. Oh, I also create a folder called random in each month (for all those odds and ends). I do all this at the beginning of the new year. It takes a minute but once it's complete, I can dump my photos in the monthly folder and then worry about labeling and foldering them later!

At the end of each month, I go through each set of folders and choose the images I like for the book. I highlight them and then copy them into the book folder. Once I'm ready to begin the book making for that year (which I begin in the Spring - because I enjoy it - but don't really work on consistently until late fall - because I never make the time before then), I have the images ready to download and play with. It's an extra step but let's face it, if you were to just organize your images into monthly folders, you'd be better off than just dumping them into a random folder so it's all good! This ends the additional note...

It really works well for me and I like that it is so versatile so to fit anyone's needs (common needs, I'd say). I was hoping to link one of my books to the blog so you can see it but I can't seem to figure out how to make that happen so I'll just take a few photos from our books and load them here so you can see some of the fun layout options and themes, etc. that I've chosen to use.

Some of our books - the top has a dust jacket and the bottom two are linen covers with a photo of us, from that year.

Two different collage styles - these are from the same outing (facing pages)
but I was able to give a little more attention to the three images on the right
page - making them stand out as a favorite from that day.

Another collage page - this time, I used a background image with a filter over
it as to not take away from the others - sometimes the cropped images make it
difficult to choose what pictures go there but I like the feel of the pages this way.

This one, from Thanksgiving, I dig because I put a photo of the table - set
with all the goodies - as the background (how else are you going to use a
shot like that) and just highlighted the pictures of the family enjoying themselves.

This one, I like because it shows Christmas morning, with the kids having
opened their yearbooks.

These two pages are from the blizzard we had - fun images of the clean-up (snow removal) with the kids enjoying themselves. I've put in some information at the bottom about how much snow fell, the dates and information on the other heavy snowfalls / blizzards on past record. I think it will help the kids remember how big of a deal this was for our area for a few days. 

This time, the background image was just as important as the others and it
wasn't super distracting, to me, so I allowed it to make a statement.

One day out - the one image was so great that I wanted to highlight it but
the other images weren't strong enough to carry a page alone.

From my first book. Simple black, white and gray backgrounds with information
which will remind me of that time and who the people are (and what they meant
to me). This is my shortest book.

I like to flank the book with images of our home and a quote about family
(beginning) and, in this book, any changes that affected the landscape.

A fun way to recap the holiday process (carving and day-of festivities).

A fun use of photos that aren't so great but that would be lost or sloppy looking on another page, all mixed up. 

Lots of text on this page - This is from Father's Day and the kids made little
cards that each listed reasons they loved Bill. Bill has them in a jar but just
in case, I've got them all listed on the page, too!

A day out hiking and while there are lots of images with people, it's the natural shots that we loved the most. Pages can have just images or text and images.

A page for my memories - I get to ride these woods on a regular basis but it's
not always as beautiful as it was on this particular day. A good reminder of a great day!

I don't know about you, but I like pictures of mundane every-day things. I don't enjoy looking at photos of holidays and vacations and nothing else - that's not what makes up our lives. I use these books as a way to remember both the big things (holidays, etc.) and the little things (that silly magic show the kids put on or how great our garden looked or that walk around town that led us to the park where the kids all went down the slide at the same time). This what is magical for me and these images and books help me hold my memories.


Yes, I talk about My Publisher a lot throughout this post but the bottom line for me is for you to take some action and start putting these memories on paper for you and your loved ones!