You guys, I get it. You love your photos. You really do. But you take so many that you are completely overwhelmed. Like, totally shut down. I was there. As you can see in the image above, I have over 8,000 photos from 2015. Me. A professional photo organizer who is meticulous about going through and deleting unnecessary images. So I can only imagine the volumes of photos those of you who do NOTHING with your photos must have.

To prep for the launch of my new product offering, Year In Hand Family Yearbooks, I felt I should have one of my own to use as a sample. I always feel more comfortable marketing my own products vs. using products with my client's photos in them. In March 2016, I started to design a yearbook for my own family and by August 2016, I hadn't even completed the photo selection process. It took me over FIVE months to go back through the 8,000+ photos to even decide what should be in the yearbook. It was exhausting. I LOVE my photos. I love looking at them; I love the memories and feelings they evoke. I marvel at how my kids are growing and changing and yet, I tired of the process. 8,193 photos, y'all. From ONE year. Ugh.

Going through that process for my own family only solidified that my greatest desire is to solve this problem for you. Yes, you. The family memory keeper. The one who loves taking photos of your family. The one who loves documenting the up's and down's of your life story. And yet, the one who rarely looks at them again, if ever, after you click that shutter. You owe it to your family to share your stories, to reminisce on the good times and maybe even the bad. To laugh at the grumpy face in the photo or the sharpie drawn all over your walls. To re-live special vacations and the daily minutae that you deem important enough to capture.
​
I set out to design a service that would be simple, not overwhelming, and cost-effective, not cost-prohibitive. Signing up for Year In Hand Family Yearbooks monthly subscription service will cost you less than a Starbucks a day and will reward you with a stunning retrospective of your family's prior year to proudly display in your home. A gorgeous book that will allow you to bond with your family, to share your stories and to enjoy your photos again. The process is a breeze! I set you up with a privately shared Dropbox folder and send you a monthly e-mail reminder to send me your favorite photos from the prior month. I design your book as we go and you get to review & make edits quarterly. That's it! That's all you have to do! Send me 30-40 of your favorite pics each month and shortly into the New Year, you'll receive the best gift of all: a full-color retrospective of your family's memories, sitting right in your hands.

If you're one of the 2 out of 3 parents who don't enjoy managing your family's photos or one of the 60% of families who haven't printed a photo book in FIVE years, don't hesitate to contact me today!

Photos courtesy of Yehudis Goldfarb Photography

It seems hard to believe, but graduation season is just around the corner... and what better gift to give your graduate than a customized photo product that tells their story, either of their college years, of all their school years, or of their entire life.

Slideshows are a great way to share all their childhood memories at their graduation party. Maybe even throw in a few embarrassing ones to entertain the crowd! I know I have a few photos of my children in mind, already tucked away for that future opportunity... like the ones of my 1-year-old son wearing his older sister's tutus and tiaras. Enjoy these tips from Fotobridge on how to digitize your photos to get them ready.

Another great gift that shows how much you care is a digital photo book that tells their life story. There are so many great photo book providers, including Artifact Uprising, My Publisher, Shutterfly, Picaboo, and Blurb, to name a few. This gift can ground them as they make their way in the world and can remind them of where they came from and of how many people love them.

And don't forget that, fingers crossed, they'll be moving in to their first home (and not back in to yours!) so they'll need some decorations. Canvas wall art depicting close friends or their travel adventures is another great gift idea. Artsy Couture's Couture Canvases are the BEST in the business and were previously available only to professional photographers. I'm thrilled to share that as a member of APPO, I can now provide these products to YOU using your OWN photos!

These days there are so many products to put photos on; the list is endless: Smartphone covers, iPad cases, jewelry, blankets, mugs, magnets, calendars, tote bags, coasters, etc. Do yourself a favor and end the quest for the perfect graduation gift by taking a retrospective look at your family's photo collection and designing a unique and truly priceless gift for your graduate. And, as always, if you like these ideas but have no clue where to start, I'm here to help!

We all know our population is aging, but here are a few quick facts from the Alzheimer’s Association: 

• More than 5 million Americans are living with Alzheimer's disease. 
• One in eight older Americans has Alzheimer's disease.

In light of these facts, it’s probably safe to say that many of you know at least one person suffering from Alzheimer’s disease. And watching a loved one’s memory slowly fade away can be painful and traumatic. But there is one tool that can be a tremendous help to those suffering from memory loss: a memory photo book. Having a photo book to look at each and every day helps keep their memories alive and helps them remember the various loved ones in their lives. The book can be as simple as dedicating one page to each special person in their lives. Or it can include pictures from their childhood, their middle years or even more recent pictures of their lives. But no matter the content, looking at memory books has been shown to be both therapeutic and comforting to Alzheimer’s patients. If you know someone suffering from Alzheimer’s and would like help making them a memory book, contact me any time!

When a loved one passes, most of us rush to find photos to remember and memorialize them. But with their spirit goes their stories. Wouldn’t it be great to capture those stories before it’s too late? Interviewing my grandmother, pictured beside me, is high on my priority list. She has so many great stories and has such a fabulous memory. I want to capture it all while she's still able to share them with me!

If you have a loved one, be they elderly or terminally ill, there’s no time like the present to dedicate some time to sit with them, look through their photos and document the memories those pictures invoke. A few tools to make the project easier include a handheld digital voice recorder and a Flip Pal mobile scanner. Whether you get through 10, 20 or hundreds of pictures, the legacy they leave behind will be that much richer. And just taking the time to sit and talk to them, especially for the elderly, will instill a sense of pride and importance in them, when many often feel forgotten and unimportant.

If this kind of project sounds right for your family, but seems too daunting, you can hire a personal photo organizer to help. And once their favorite pictures have been selected and their stories have been collected, the photo organizer can put them all together in a professionally bound book to present both to the storyteller and their family members. If you feel you can’t afford to hire someone to help, consider pooling money from several family members to make it more affordable for everyone involved.

I can guarantee you will never regret having spent money documenting your loved one’s legacy to be shared for generations to come!