Old photos are fragile in more ways than one. The paper fades, the colours shift and the people who knew who was in them grow fewer every year. Getting them scanned and labelled is a job worth doing now.
Here are the photos that made it into the book. Tap any of them to see it larger.
9 photos
Select a photo to see it larger. Use the arrow keys to move between photos.
A few small rules
Do not aim for perfection. A good-enough scan with the right caption beats a perfect scan of a stranger.
Start with the photos that only one person can still name. Everything else can wait.
- Leave the cover for last
- Keep one photo per day at most
- Star photos as you take them
One more thing
Leave a little space. Not every page needs to be full, and an empty corner gives the eye somewhere to rest.
Back up before you delete anything. It takes a minute and removes the fear that stops people from clearing out at all.
The book comes, and for one evening nobody looks at their phone.
Marcus, father of three
Keep it simple
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.
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.
Reader tip: one family keeps a paper list on the fridge of moments they want in the next book.
I never thought about the light from the window. Moved the high chair and the difference is huge.
Great question. Start with one photo per child per day and swap them on the second pass.
Try giving them the phone for a day. Worked with my teenager.
Such a simple idea and I had never tried it. Doing it tonight.
Lovely post. The bit about keeping the blurry photos made me go back and rescue a few.
That is lovely to hear. Say hello to your grandmother from all of us.
My grandmother cried when she got the book. That is all I wanted to say.
Try giving them the phone for a day. Worked with my teenager.
I never thought about the light from the window. Moved the high chair and the difference is huge.
Older kids are tricky. Asking them to take some of the photos works better than chasing them.
I printed our first book after reading this and my daughter has not put it down since.