I’m not really great about printing photos and making photo albums. There’s a saying in Spanish that goes “Casa de herrero, cuchillo de palo,” which roughly translates into “In the blacksmith’s house the knives are wooden.” Basically, where something should be abundant (like printed photos in a photographer’s house), they aren’t.

But a few weeks ago, I decided I was going to stop saying “one day I’ll make the album,” and I actually did it. It seems like such a daunting task, right? And while it definitely took me a few hours to organize everything, it wasn’t nearly as bad as I anticipated. 

For me, digital organization is something I’ve struggled with for a while. I used to have pictures all over the place, but in the last few years I’ve started to organize myself much better. Cell phone photos still live on my phone and in the cloud, but they are pretty easy to organize there! Photos that come off my camera are generally a more tedious process, but I finally have a system in place and I have been making sure to organize all my photos for the last year. So last week, when I saw that Artifact Uprising was having a sale, I went ahead and took advantage. The quality of products from there is excellent, and I love how sleek and timeless their products look. The other thing I like is that layouts are simple. You don’t have to include words, but you can if you want to. I didn’t include writing in most of the pages, but I definitely felt like 2020 needed some explanation for the future!

I went ahead and made the hardcover photo book, and it came in this week. I’m really really glad I ended up doing it, and I’m going to try to work backwards in years so I can fill in some of those missing years. I’m also thinking of doing big vacations in separate albums (like our trip to Europe in 2019/2020). 

​So how did I get organized? Here’s how!

1. Choose which photos you’d like to feature. On my computer, photos are organized by year and within the year, I have dated events. I tried to pick at least one photo from each event, but I also made sure to include everyday moments in there. Once I decided which photos I wanted, I added a copy of them to a separate folder. On my iPhone, I went to my photos and looked at them by year. I went through the entire year and selected all my absolute favorites and put them into their own album (I labeled it 2020 highlights). 
2. Get all the photos in one place. I transferred all the photos from my phone to my computer (AirDrop is the fastest way for me) and then organized them by date taken. 
3. Upload your photos to whatever service you are using to make your album. Make sure you create a photo gallery for that specific year. 
4. Choose your book. 
5. Design away! I tried to keep things in date order as much as possible, and I did play around with layouts to fit the most photos possible, but there were also some photos I really wanted displayed larger. So I went ahead and customized everything. Most services will give you an option to hide an image if you’ve already used it. Take advantage of that so you don’t repeat photos. Include writing if you feel like it, or don’t. One of the things I like about the Artifact Uprising books is that there is plenty of white space so you can always add that in later! 
6. Order your book! Actually, look for any coupon codes first. Once your book is designed, it can stay in your account forever – leave it there until you get a coupon for a photo book. I know Shutterfly often does this and it can really help with the cost.
7. Wait for your book to come in, and then enjoy your printed memories. 🙂

I’m not going to say this was a quick or even really easy process, but it definitely wasn’t the arduous thing I had built up in my head. My biggest tip is to enjoy the steps! And if you have any questions, definitely don’t hesitate to ask! 

xoxo,