A trip produces hundreds of photos and, often, very little story. Back home, the camera roll is full of landmarks and empty of the moments that made the trip feel like yours.
The clip below is what we put on while sorting. It runs long enough to get through a month of photos.
A few small rules
Think of each day as a short chapter. A beginning, something in the middle, and an ending.
The people you travelled with matter more than the places. Make sure they are in the pictures.
- Leave the cover for last
- Keep one photo per day at most
- Back up before deleting anything
One more thing
Do not wait for a special occasion. The ordinary weeks are the ones people forget, and the ones they most want to see again.
Watch the light at different times of day in your own home. Most houses have one window that is lovely for an hour every afternoon.
We don’t take more photos than we used to. We just look at them now.
Ana, a reader since the first year
What to look for
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.
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.
Good to know: every Paperleaf book has room for thirty photos, so there is no prize for keeping more.
Why it works
If two photos are nearly the same, keep the one where someone is doing something. A raised hand, a turned head or a half-finished sentence gives a picture life that a perfectly still pose rarely has, even when the still one is technically better.
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.
- Star photos as you take them
- Hand the camera to someone else
- Keep one photo per day at most
Make it a habit
If a month feels thin, look again at the photos you took without thinking. The best ones are often hiding there.
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.
My mum reads the captions more than she looks at the pictures.
Leila, who writes every caption by hand
Keep it simple
Try to include everyone. It is easy to end up with a book full of the children and none of the person holding the camera.
Some readers keep a short list of rules on a sticky note beside the computer. Ours says: faces first, then places, then anything that made us laugh. It is not scientific, but it stops the session turning into an evening of second-guessing.
Reader tip: one family keeps a paper list on the fridge of moments they want in the next book.
Try it this month
If you share a camera roll with someone, agree on who picks which month. Taking turns means each book has a slightly different point of view, and nobody ends up doing all of the work every time.
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.
- Keep one photo per day at most
- Pick a fixed day each month
- Include at least one place, not just faces
What we got wrong
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.
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.
Picking is a skill. Like any skill, it gets faster.
Priya Nair, Paperleaf print room
Start with what you already have
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.
Delete duplicates as you go rather than saving them for later. Later rarely comes, and a cleaner camera roll makes picking much easier.
Reader tip: one family keeps a paper list on the fridge of moments they want in the next book.
When to stop
Think about how the photos sit next to each other. Two busy pictures side by side can fight; a busy one beside a quiet one usually works.
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.
- Write a few words beside the best ones
- Keep one photo per day at most
- Pick a fixed day each month
A few small rules
Write the year on the spine. It sounds obvious, but without it a shelf of books quickly becomes a puzzle.
Leave a little space. Not every page needs to be full, and an empty corner gives the eye somewhere to rest.
Picking is a skill. Like any skill, it gets faster.
Priya Nair, Paperleaf print room
Thank you for not telling me to buy a new camera.
Thanks for asking this, I was wondering the same.
That is lovely to hear. Say hello to your grandmother from all of us.
Older kids are tricky. Asking them to take some of the photos works better than chasing them.
Ha, the box in our loft is full of strangers as well.
Saving this for the end of the month. Last Sunday it is.
This is exactly the nudge I needed. My camera roll has four thousand photos from this year alone.
My grandmother cried when she got the book. That is all I wanted to say.
That is lovely to hear. Say hello to your grandmother from all of us.
Saving this for the end of the month. Last Sunday it is.