Photo books are cool!
The old saw is that nothing that is worthwhile in life is easy… everything requires an effort. Sadly, this is also true of what we leave behind. In the area of family legacies (this word sounds so much better than “stuff we leave behind”), we can all agree that a tidy book of photos with appropriate notes is much nicer to inherit that a bursting box of disintegrating albums and stacks of sticky photos (for example, that first box I posted in this blog).
There is a fascinating story in every family, even a book, especially with the emigration of our parents and grandparents from Lithuania. But not everyone has the time or inclination to write that story. However, we are all probably capable of tidying up a collection of family pictures with as many notes as we can muster, as Peg did with the self-produced binder. This requires some knowledge of computers and desktop publishing.
Through conversations at a coffee club, I found a new friend from Hamilton who has also already done what we are all merely talking about…
This is Audre Sakalas, with the beautiful volume she prepared through Shutterfly. Audre spent countless hours scanning many many photos of her Mom and (separately) of her Dad, and will be working on a third photobook about their family life together. The result is really very impressive.
Making a book like this is possible through many online photo companies as well (look for “photo books”), and also through COSTCO. Groupon also has occasional specials on them. It will, of course, cost more than a self-published photobook on your own computer. Do you have time for this? Well…that depends. Are you working? Do you have a hobby? Can you set aside a bit of time each day or each week? As in anything else, it requires prioritizing and organizing. You can jump into it with both feet and proceed willy-nilly, or start by listing your tasks and setting up a timeline. You could possibly farm out or share the scanning work with another interested family member (or pay your teenager). If there is no one to leave the book for, the Lithuanian Museum-Archives is the perfect place for your story, because that is its purpose.
Am I doing it? I have actually begun. I labelled a collection of file folders by family member. Admittedly, that was last year, and I am… snoozing on my laurels. Audre has given those laurels a shake! Thanks for showing us the book!
This post is also available in: LT