Photos only last if somebody looks after them. A phone can be lost, a cloud account forgotten and a hard drive dropped. Keeping pictures safe is mostly about simple, boring habits that run without you thinking about them.
Here are the photos that made it into the book. Tap any of them to see it larger.
6 photos
Select a photo to see it larger. Use the arrow keys to move between photos.
What we got wrong
The best system is the one you will still be using next year. Keep it simple enough that it survives a busy month.
Sharing is part of keeping. A photo that three people have is safer than one that only lives on your phone.
- Pick a fixed day each month
- Star photos as you take them
- Keep one photo per day at most
Why it works
Ask someone else to look at your shortlist. They will spot the photo you were about to drop and the one you only kept out of habit.
Look back at last year’s book before you start this month’s. It reminds you what you enjoyed seeing again and what you skipped past, which makes this month’s choices quicker and kinder.
My mum reads the captions more than she looks at the pictures.
Leila, who writes every caption by hand
When to stop
Do not forget the in-between moments: the car park before the party, the coats piled on a chair, the walk home in the dark. They are the parts of a day that nobody photographs on purpose and everybody recognises straight away.
Write the year on the spine. It sounds obvious, but without it a shelf of books quickly becomes a puzzle.
Before you start: make sure your phone is backed up. Deleting is easier when nothing can be lost.
A few small rules
If you have too many photos of one day, that day probably mattered. Give it a spread of its own rather than cutting it down to one.
When a month has a big event in it, such as a wedding or a first day at school, let it take over. There is no rule that says every week needs equal space. The book should feel like the month felt.
- Write a few words beside the best ones
- Leave the cover for last
- Keep one photo per day at most
Keep it simple
A good caption answers the question someone will ask in twenty years. Who is that? Where were we? Why is everyone wet? Write the answer while you still know it, even if it feels too obvious to bother with today.
Take one photo before the moment and one after. The before and after often say more than the moment itself.
Picking is a skill. Like any skill, it gets faster.
Priya Nair, Paperleaf print room
Try it this month
If a month feels thin, look again at the photos you took without thinking. The best ones are often hiding there.
Quiet months are worth printing too. A month with no trips and no birthdays often turns into the book people return to, because it shows what ordinary life looked like before it changed.
Quick tip: star photos on your phone as you take them. Picking takes half the time at the end of the month.
One more thing
Set aside a fixed time for it. The last Sunday of the month works for a lot of readers because the week is quiet and the month is complete.
Hand the phone to someone else at least once a month. It is the only way the photographer gets into the book.
- Write a few words beside the best ones
- Star photos as you take them
- Hand the camera to someone else
Start with what you already have
Leave a little space. Not every page needs to be full, and an empty corner gives the eye somewhere to rest.
Print sizes matter less than you think. A small photo surrounded by white space can feel more special than one stretched to fill the page.
The book comes, and for one evening nobody looks at their phone.
Marcus, father of three
What to look for
On the second pass, look for variety. A month of the same room and the same faces feels flat, even if each photo is lovely on its own.
Back up before you delete anything. It takes a minute and removes the fear that stops people from clearing out at all.
Before you start: make sure your phone is backed up. Deleting is easier when nothing can be lost.
Make it a habit
Share the book when it arrives. Leaving it on the kitchen table for a day is often enough for everyone to have a look.
Make a cup of tea, sit somewhere comfortable and put the phone on do-not-disturb. The job goes faster when it does not compete with messages.
- Star photos as you take them
- Include at least one place, not just faces
- Hand the camera to someone else
What we got wrong
Faces matter, but so do places. Include at least one picture of the room, the street or the view where the month happened.
Keep a note of what happened that month as you go. A few words beside a photo are worth far more than you expect a year later.
My mum reads the captions more than she looks at the pictures.
Leila, who writes every caption by hand
Why it works
If you miss a month, do not try to catch up all at once. Start again with this month and fill the gap later if you feel like it.
Keep the rejected photos somewhere safe for a while. Tastes change, and a picture you passed over may be the one you want next year.
Before you start: make sure your phone is backed up. Deleting is easier when nothing can be lost.
When to stop
Most people find the first month the hardest. You are learning what you like, and every photo feels important. By the third month you will notice yourself moving faster, trusting your first reaction and spending your time on the handful of close calls instead of on every single picture.
Do not wait for a special occasion. The ordinary weeks are the ones people forget, and the ones they most want to see again.
- Keep one photo per day at most
- Leave the cover for last
- Pick a fixed day each month
A few small rules
It helps to know what the book is for before you start. A book for grandparents wants faces and clear captions. A book for yourself can hold the odd corner of the garden, the shadow on the wall and the plate of food that only makes sense to you.
Try not to edit every photo. A little brightening is fine, but heavy filters date quickly and make a year of books look uneven when they sit together on a shelf. Let the light of the day show.
We don’t take more photos than we used to. We just look at them now.
Ana, a reader since the first year
My grandmother cried when she got the book. That is all I wanted to say.
The bit about writing names on the back hit home. We have a box of strangers in our loft.
Great question. Start with one photo per child per day and swap them on the second pass.
I printed our first book after reading this and my daughter has not put it down since.
Thank you for not telling me to buy a new camera.
I printed our first book after reading this and my daughter has not put it down since.