Do you wish you had albums of your family on your bookshelf like you did growing up? Now is the time to make it happen.
Letting Go
The first step and most essential part of this whole process is to ‘let go.’ Let go of the perfect picture, let go that this will be the perfectly curated album. If you’re sifting through 10K+ photos, it’s the only way to do it.
The goal is not a professional album or one with every activity labeled and cute phrases and borders accompanying each spread. The goal is to have a tangible product you and your family can flip through, like those things we grew up with called photo albums.
Determine Book Theme/Year
Next Step—break up your photos into categories or years. Can be “Baby Sarah’s 1st Year” or “The Covid-Era”… When in doubt “Fried Family: 2022”– works just fine.
Select Photos
Next – add all the photos you want to print to an album on your phone (or into Google Photos).
I found the easiest way to do this was to work off my phone and then scroll year by year and simply mark preferred photos as favorites. It was simpler than adding to a new album because I could see the full photo and just mark it. You could also make a new album called “prints” and add them there—but note when scrolling through photo albums to select multiple photos, you won’t be able to see them full size and may need to quickly scroll through the final photos in the album for review.
Set Goals
Now the previous step sounds simple—but obviously if you’re dealing with 10K+ photos, easier said than done. Break this up into manageable goals. Set a goal each day to spend 20-30 min going through photos (or if you’re feeling ambitious—an hour in the evening). Once you get into it, it’s actually addictive and a lovely stroll down memory lane—but don’t let that distract you! You don’t need to share every forgotten memory… they’ll see it when it’s printed!
Depending on how many photos you have, 20-30 min could be 3 months or a full year of photos you get through… If you commit, it should take 5-8 days of selecting.
Selecting Photo Tips:
Not every adorable photo you have needs to go in. My recommendation is to include only the VERY VERY cute or special ones, i.e. the ones that lived on your homescreen. The rest are better off to include only special events/trips/parties/activities etc. They’re more exciting to look at and bring back the real memories… instead of 16 adorable photos in the same highchair.
Don’t get nitpicky—quickly choose your fave pic of your kids next to the giraffe and move on… Don’t dwell on finding the perfect photo, no one will notice Chaim’s hand covering his face in one of 500 photos… they’ll remember the fun day they had at the zoo. If you get stuck here, refer to step one and remember the greater goal.
Select a Book & Upload
Next download and open the Chatbooks App, select your preferred book size/color (I went with 8×8 and white) and upload your favorites or newly made album.
Select Your Layout–
I preferred the look of full bleed for all photos- I found it looked most clean and professional instead of having white around it. Adjust 2 photos to full bleed and it will ask you if you would like to apply to all.
Exception #1: Once in a while, I included the date/location, if it was a special date or birthday. There’s a simple feature that will automatically apply it for you.
Exception #2: If I really couldn’t decide on a pic or had a mix of smiling and sillys or a few from the same day—I did a collage page. The app lets you easily select a few pics and add them to a collage.
Once your photos are in, quickly skim through and rearrange, adjust cropping, or delete any photos you no longer care for. This part of the process should take no longer than 1-2 days.
Extra step
Go through your husband’s photo albums and repeat the process…
PS –This is not a paid ad for Chatbooks. I tried a few platforms, and this was just the one that was personally easiest for me. I liked that it was all on my phone, so I could do the “scrolling & selecting phase” throughout the day if I was waiting at the doctor’s office or as the passenger in long car rides. They also always have discounts on your first order, so I waited until I had a few books ready to print and ordered them all at once. I also liked that it doesn’t encourage borders, text etc. Some platforms have too many features to get caught up in. And with 10K+ photos, simplicity is key.
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