Every family has a photo that does more work than it should. It sits on a fridge or a desk and quietly holds a whole year of memories. This story is about one of those pictures and the people around it.
Here are the photos that made it into the book. Tap any of them to see it larger.
The ones that made it
9 photos
Select a photo to see it larger. Use the arrow keys to move between photos.
Start with what you already have
The people in this story asked us not to tidy it up. They wanted it told the way it is told around their table, with the gaps left in.
What struck us most was how ordinary the moment was. Nobody planned it, and nobody would have guessed it would matter.
- Back up before deleting anything
- Include at least one place, not just faces
- Hand the camera to someone else
Keep it simple
Leave a little space. Not every page needs to be full, and an empty corner gives the eye somewhere to rest.
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.
We don’t take more photos than we used to. We just look at them now.
Ana, a reader since the first year
Make it a habit
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.
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.
Reader tip: one family keeps a paper list on the fridge of moments they want in the next book.
Why it works
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.
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.
- Hand the camera to someone else
- Include at least one place, not just faces
- Back up before deleting anything
Try it this month
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.
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.
My mum reads the captions more than she looks at the pictures.
Leila, who writes every caption by hand
A few small rules
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.
Keep the phone charged and the lens clean on days you expect to matter. It sounds small, but a flat battery or a smudged lens has cost more good pictures than any missing piece of equipment.
Good to know: every Paperleaf book has room for thirty photos, so there is no prize for keeping more.
What we got wrong
Do not be afraid of imperfect photos. A little blur or a stray elbow often tells you more about the day than a tidy, posed shot.
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.
- Include at least one place, not just faces
- Write a few words beside the best ones
- Hand the camera to someone else
When to stop
Write the year on the spine. It sounds obvious, but without it a shelf of books quickly becomes a puzzle.
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
This is exactly the nudge I needed. My camera roll has four thousand photos from this year alone.
That is lovely to hear. Say hello to your grandmother from all of us.