What if I don’t take photos every month? Can I still design a book or have you design a book for me?
Of course! Not everyone takes photos every day, every week or every month. But if you document big events and a couple of small events throughout the year, you should put your photos into a photo book. It is a fantastic and actually quite economical way to have actual prints of your favorite moments.
Organizing your year, or several years, into events is a simple way to select photos and design your pages. What exactly do I mean by events? These are family activities you do throughout the year. Usually, for these activities you have your camera with you…so photo books are an ideal way to document these moments.
Obvious events are birthdays, vacations, and holidays. But here are some additional events or ways to capture your family life:
- Trips to the zoo, pool, park, museum, etc.
- Family picnics either at home or some other location
- School events, plays, performances, graduations, etc.
- Visits with grandparents, aunts/uncles, cousins, family friends
- Playgroups with friends
- Art projects – coloring, painting, building
- Afternoon play – inside or outside
- Sporting events
Right now, we are finishing up the first round of the photo book design workshop and one of the students is designing a book of photos from 2011 and 2012, separated by events.
Below are sample layouts for a book organized by events. The table of contents are divided into two sections, one for each year. Color blocks at the bottom highlight the page numbers. There are different colors for each of the two years. This is a way-finding device. You know what year you are looking at by the color box at the page numbers. Simple pages with a full spread photo separate the sections.
[hr] Table of Contents:
Sample Page for 2011:
Sample Page for 2012:
Page Sample Layouts for an event:
[divider] I want to hear from you. What are the 3-5 events that define your year (besides birthdays, holidays or vacations)? What do you do throughout the year that you document? Tell me in the comments below!
