Picking is the part nobody warns you about. Taking photos is easy; deciding which ones deserve paper is where most monthly books stall. The trick is to make several quick passes rather than one slow one, and to decide before you start how many photos the month actually needs.
This is how the two pictures sit together on one spread.
What to look for
Start with the photos you would rescue from a fire. There are usually five or six, and they make every other choice easier because the month already has its anchors.
Do not compare every photo with every other photo. Compare each one only with its neighbours, keep the best of a small group and move on.
- Leave the cover for last
- Include at least one place, not just faces
- Star photos as you take them
What we got wrong
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.
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.
Picking is a skill. Like any skill, it gets faster.
Priya Nair, Paperleaf print room
One more thing
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.
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.
Before you start: make sure your phone is backed up. Deleting is easier when nothing can be lost.
Try it this month
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.
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.
- Star photos as you take them
- Hand the camera to someone else
- Keep one photo per day at most
Start with what you already have
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.
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.
Picking is a skill. Like any skill, it gets faster.
Priya Nair, Paperleaf print room
A few small rules
Write the year on the spine. It sounds obvious, but without it a shelf of books quickly becomes a puzzle.
Take one photo before the moment and one after. The before and after often say more than the moment itself.
Quick tip: star photos on your phone as you take them. Picking takes half the time at the end of the month.
Make it a habit
Faces matter, but so do places. Include at least one picture of the room, the street or the view where the month happened.
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.
- Pick a fixed day each month
- Write a few words beside the best ones
- Star photos as you take them
Why it works
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.
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
Linked from Archival inks and how long prints last
Such a simple idea and I had never tried it. Doing it tonight.
Does this work for older kids too? Mine are 11 and 14 and hide from the camera.
My grandmother cried when she got the book. That is all I wanted to say.
Lovely post. The bit about keeping the blurry photos made me go back and rescue a few.
Same here! It got easier after the second month.
My grandmother cried when she got the book. That is all I wanted to say.
My grandmother cried when she got the book. That is all I wanted to say.
Such a simple idea and I had never tried it. Doing it tonight.
Thank you for not telling me to buy a new camera.
My grandmother cried when she got the book. That is all I wanted to say.
Thank you for not telling me to buy a new camera.