Earlier this fall I sat in a room full of guilty moms. Guilty, as we all confessed, of not fulfilling what seemed to be the most daunting task on our mom to-do lists — do something with the millions of photos we’ve accumulated of our kids.
You know it – that baby book (like in my case for my now four-year-old), an album from a family trip (from two summers ago), or just plain prints. Somehow it never gets done.
But it should, says Toronto family and portrait photographer Emily Doukogiannis, owner of Emily D Photography. She gathered a group of moms in TOw to share photography and photobook-making tips from her soon-to-be released e-book, THE 20-MINUTE PHOTOBOOK SOLUTION: A step-by-step strategy to quickly and easily create beautiful photo albums your family with treasure. Not only did she get our creative juices flowing, she set a timer and said get it done.
You can join her for a free drop-in workshop on Tuesday, November 8 at The Drake Hotel during its weekly Highchair Hangouts.
Here are Emily’s five reasons why and how to rapid-fire your way through years of back-logged family photos:
1 – jpegs aren’t permanent. You might think they are – but they are not. Try printing a photo from the first iPhone or using your very first digital camera’s memory card – you’ll be hard up to find a system which will accept it. The reality is that technology advances and if you’re holding on to digital files of your 7-year-old as a baby, the quality may be so poor that you won’t be able to print it larger than a 3×3 photo. So to guarantee they last forever, print your photos in the season you take them!
2 – Don’t be afraid to go cheap and cheerful. Each year, Emily makes books for her family and for her family photography clients. The goal is to have a big stack of them. It can be as simple as a mini photo book (like the one pictured above.) There are beautiful, inexpensive, and easy to handle by little hands. Your kids will thank you as they revisit memories each time they pick them up.
3 – It’s not just prints in frames. There are so many ways to feature your photos from super polished hard-covered albums and cards to more arts and crafty type projects like coasters. This can even be a project you can create with older kids.
4 – They make great and easy gifts. No question, sending grandma a photo her grandchild is the best gift ever. And so many photo projects make for the perfect stocking stuffer – a photo thank you card for your favourite aunt or memory photo card game for your nephew. (Stay tuned for Emily’s ultimate gift guide for every person on your list.)
5 – It takes 20 minutes or less. Really. And you can do it quickly right from your tablet or phone with 60 or so of the photos you’ve been waiting forever to print. Emily’s company of choice is Impressed – they have excellent quality and customer service. And they are Canadian.
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