When I take a trip—especially a BIG trip, where I snap hundreds of photos. I have a 2-fold documentation process.

First, I make ONE two-page layout for my Places We Go album—see below for a brief explanation of my library approach to ongoing albums—of course a two-page layout can only feature 5 to 10 photos, which is barely a dent into the photo-taking of most travelers. THIS is why I also love to celebrate the experience of traveling to a new place in a smaller album designed to showcase a larger variety of photos and therefore a more colorful and robust representation of the destination.

Let’s take a look at this process for the 2017 spring break trip I took with my younger sons, Trey and Taft to New York City:

1. When we returned home and friends would say, “So, how was New York? What did you do, what was your favorite?” I found myself recounting the evening that we took the train to Brooklyn, ate at Juliana’s (appropriate) Pizza. When we walked out the sun was setting over Manhattan with the most vibrant colors. We stood and watched the whole thing and then walked back—I had a boy on each arm—over the Brooklyn Bridge. Photos representing the most memorable moments are the photos I include on a layout.

2. After I’ve been home I while, I like to begin scrolling through the hundreds of photos I took and mark my MOST favorite images with a little white heart 🤍 (I have an iPhone) I then pull from this pared down selection up to 50 images to print. These are the pictures I use to together in a smaller album. My approach is to work very FAST, trimming these photos and using them to almost cover each little page—my goal (again) is to focus on the visual experience—I then fill in gaps with bits of pattern paper and small embellishments. I assemble little pages lickety-split and then put them in order for my book. At the end of the book I write a one-page summary of the experience—see my video for a peek into my NYC mini book.

My Short Story kit is designed for exactly this process.

I fear there are far too many of us who take fantastic trips to fascinating places and return with plans to make or do something stunning with the photos, but unhealthy expectations and a lack of time get in the way—these projects never come to fruition. I learned a long time ago that I’d rather have a happy little book that my peeps can actually look at rather than dreams of something bigger that I can’t tackle. Are there more photos and more story? Sure. But, in the meantime, I’ve got a book on our shelf. Something that we can sit together with on the sofa and use to relive and reminisce “that time we were in New York City and …”

This little video shows you just how FUN these little books really are …

As we wrap up yet another year and look back on so many memories, consider how you can adjust expectations and move past obstacles to a place of creative productivity. IF you need help. Come take my 20in20 class and I’ll coach you through this and other approaches that will have you finishing and celebrating instead of fretting and procrastinating.

YOU can do this. I will help!

If you want to read more about WHY this approach works as a solution for catching up and creating a book about a WHOLE YEAR. Read this post.

When I create scrapbook pages I do not put them in yearly albums. In other words there are no albums labeled 1999, 2007 or 2018 — rather I am building what I call a Library of Memories made up of four types of albums. There are All About Us albums (pictured here) for stories about my immediate family, People We Love albums for pages about grandparents, extended family and friends, Places We Go albums for pages like the one above and Things We Do albums that highlight everyday life and other activities in our home. The beauty of this system is that I don’t have to be burdened by the need to “catch up” instead I can focus on creating pages for whatever photos and stories feel most exciting in the moment. This approach works for me and for thousands of others who have taken my ideas and adapted them. This approach means I can let go of unhealthy expectations that often get in the way of being creative and documenting life. You can LEARN MORE about my system in my eBook, Photo Freedom.

NOTE: Music for my video is from https://filmmusic.io
"Cheery Monday" by Kevin MacLeod (https://incompetech.com)
License: CC BY (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)