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Shoot the hands

Some of the best family photos have no faces in them at all.

Written by Tom Okafor

Your phone is a better camera than you think. Most disappointing photos come down to light, distance and a dirty lens, not to the hardware. A few habits fix nearly all of them.

Reader tip: one family keeps a paper list on the fridge of moments they want in the next book.

My mum reads the captions more than she looks at the pictures.

Leila, who writes every caption by hand

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Written by Tom Okafor

Tom shoots everything on a five-year-old phone and writes about getting good pictures without new gear.

More posts by Tom Okafor

7 comments

  1. Theo Lambert

    Does this work for older kids too? Mine are 11 and 14 and hide from the camera.

  2. Dev Patel

    This is exactly the nudge I needed. My camera roll has four thousand photos from this year alone.

  3. Marcus Webb

    The bit about writing names on the back hit home. We have a box of strangers in our loft.

  4. Kwame Mensah

    This is exactly the nudge I needed. My camera roll has four thousand photos from this year alone.

  5. Chris Moreno

    I printed our first book after reading this and my daughter has not put it down since.

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