We recently attended the funeral of a long-time friend. There was a lovely slideshow of many images of our friend with her husband, children, and grandchildren. Lots of happy images of them interacting at birthday parties, vacations, and just life. On our way home, I said to Husband, “We don’t have photos of us together or of us with our kids or grandkids. At our funerals, there won’t be photos of us.” That’s sad. Don’t let that happen to you. I was always behind the camera and never in front of it. Don’t do that! Ask someone in the family to take photos of you with those you love. So what if the images aren’t professional? At least you will exist in images for your family to remember!
“Grandma, I still look at that photo book you sent us years ago.”
I smile. During the years we spent living a long distance from grandchildren, I tried to make connections as best I could. Apparently, photo books were a pretty good way to connect. But even if you live close, why not make a little book at least once a year when they are small? Did you ever stop to think that at the rate technology is advancing, we may not be able to access the format our current photos are made in? Remember the old video tapes? Cassettes? It’s best to print your favorites now to increase your chances of enjoying those images decades from now. Besides, children love holding a real object in their hands and turning pages. Photo books become a treasured keepsake even for little ones. They will look at their book over and over.
Children like to see themselves in images where their parents and grandparents are just looking at them or interacting with them, i.e. hugging, laughing together, playing together. These images make children feel special, loved, and appreciated. They solidify happy memories. It’s tangible evidence that they are loved. Please don’t wait to be photographed until you feel thin enough, young enough, pretty enough, stylish enough. Just be present with your family in photos so they have images to remind them of your love.
Grandma alert. Want your young grandchildren to be able to enjoy photos all by themselves, but photo books are hard for young ones to manage. They don’t want to stay open, they are too big, the pages are too thin, they are too fragile. The best solution I’ve found is spiral bound photo books. Not fancy, but oh, so easy for little fingers to page thru. A spiral, or flip book as they are sometimes called, is just photos bound together with wire spiral binding. They usually are one photo (or a collage- but simple is better for young ones) with a blank back. This is great for kids because they aren’t over overloaded with several images to look at. Each time they turn a page, there is only a blank back of the previous photo on the left page and the new photo on the right side. It’s just a stack of photos bound together with a spiral binding. Kids enjoy them so much because they lay flat, are durable, and small.
For some reason, spiral photo books are hard to find at consumer labs. I have always ordered mine through my professional photo lab, or at a local lab called f32 Lab when we lived in Knoxville, TN. I searched the internet and came up with Vistaprint because they have great prices and good reviews online. It’s the best I could find online for the price. If you’ve been happy with spiral books, please share your source in the comments below.
http://www.vistaprint.com/photo-flip-books.aspx?pfid=A1M&xnav=TsrItem
Spiral binding on left of horizontal format. Could use vertical images with spiral binding on top edge.