I love it when someone organizes the points perfectly and uses descriptive wording to express EXACTLY what I think! So there is no re-inventing the wheel for me – I will just tag on some of my experience and thoughts.
The blog that caught my eye was titled “Why Digital Photo Albums are a Million Times Better Than Scrapbooking” – by Renee at her blogsite of rhythmsandgraceblog.com. She is a young mom – so we don’t have age in common — but her digital photobook story has great similarity to mine.
She says “I was a long-time scrapbooker before finally taking the plunge and switching to digital photo albums. In fact, I agonized over whether or not to even try digital. I thought I would miss scrapbooking…the planning, cutting, and layouts. The ‘thrill’ of going to the store and seeing all the pictures in print.”
I remember that thrill along with the excitement of seeing the catalog of new scrapbooking tools, papers, stickers, albums and ALL the scrapbooking stuff!! Bought it all! Yes, it filled my basement!!
However, she researched digital photo album companies whereas I did not need to do that – I had a taste of digital photo albums with the scrapbooking company where I started. In later years, they added digital programs for photobooks and I really liked them. So I learned the programs and made many digital albums – all sizes and all kinds of topics. But then the company went bankrupt – ouch!
Eventually, I ended up at my present choice of FOREVER for all my photo needs. The irony is that the 2 guys who developed the previous company’s digital programs I loved actually sold those digital programs to FOREVER where they have improved and updated them amazingly. WooHoo.
So back to Renee’s points – and why digital photo albums are our shared love as the best option. Here are her points with a few comments by me:
- No setup or cleanup – just open your computer – or your phone or ipad. No more pulling out all those scrapbooking supplies and cleaning it all up afterwards. You can even work on your phone (yep, FOREVER has a phone app).
- Can work while you travel. Seriously! I recently did a road trip with 2 other FOREVER ambassadors who, while I drove, had their computers plugged into the outlets and worked away! And yes, we all worked on photos & projects in the motel.
- Less space – your supplies (on your computer) take up less space than all that scrapbooking stuff – paper cutters, punches, stickers, paper, and the albums – they are SO large, pretty and fun. But big. (I once met with a customer in her home where she had a bedroom dedicated to scrapbooking and a shelving unit full of scrapbooks – 12×12 size – she was sadly telling me that none of her kids wanted the scrapbooks – too big.) If you hate clutter – think about tossing all scrapbooking stuff in exchange for a thin, hardcover photo book that has way more pages anyway…keep them on a shelf in the family room at all times. Kids (and grammas) love to look through them – no worries about wear and tear or spills – you can always order another one.
- Trial and error and hitting “undo” – arrange and rearrange your pages and photos as you go. If you finish a year’s album and then discover a photo folder with key photos that go in the middle of the year – easy to insert and rearrange others accordingly. I cannot count the number of times I had a brilliant change of plans / designs / additional stories or photos show up mid-album – with digital, that is easy-peasy.
- Multiple copies – give the same photo album to multiple people. So true! I transferred my mother’s 8 volumes of unsafe glue-page printed photo scrapbooks to digital albums. Along with reducing the size hugely and pounds of weight, I could send each sibling and my grown kids copies. It hit me then – there is no fear of losing everything in a house fire or natural disaster. Others in various geographic locations have a copy. Whew!
- Saves money & time – even with higher end books, creating and ordering a digital album is still cheaper than printing all the photos, buying all the supplies for traditional scrapbooks – and you can wait for discounts or coupons to help with costs of digital. Once you get the hang of it, digital photo albums are definitely faster to make. I do need to add my 2 cents here – I have been seeing a trend in my FOREVER clients who are digital to increase using the drag-and-drop design options along with the ‘autobook’ option and loving how quick and easy it is. Plus, as Renee mentioned, FOREVER has great coupons & discounts that help with the cost – cheaper than physical scrapbooking which adds up piece by piece to cost more than a digital book.
- Organization – it is easier to organize and keep track of digital photos than printed ones. For scrapbooking, you have to print all the photos, then keep track of them until you are actually ready to make a page – no matter how organized you are, it is still hard to keep track of printed photos. Renee says she would always end up losing some of the first ones printed, reprinting them and then stumbling on the first ones later. I remember a customer who would lay out her photos in piles generally in order, then put them into slip-in album pages, then as the last step, transfer them into a 12×12 scrapbook decorating the pages as she went. The time and effort – oh, my.
- Trips to Walgreens – saves you a trip there – or multiple trips. Or going to the wrong Walgreens – had to laugh at Renee’s story of being so ticked at a photo-department employee who was looking at her like she was crazy as she insisted she ordered photos 2 hours ago… sure enough, the employee was right – she accidentally ordered the photos from a different Walgreens – blames it on #mombrain. Yes, Renee, we all have done the same.
- Are there any cons? She said the only con she could think of is that some people prefer the hard printed photo. She can relate – love flipping through a stack of photos hot off the press. Or staring at all the pretty ones in frames on your wall. But thumbing through a digital book is equally as fun. The fun part is the pictures. She adds that a lot of people are starting to scan old photos and album pages and have them printed digitally anyway. Digital albums are better for long-term preservation and a major space saver.
- OK, I have to add my major “message” addition. Yes, the fun part is seeing pictures – at first. But then we need to know ‘who’ is in that photo and what is the story about? What is going on in the photo or around that time period in the person’s life? And I will go a step further – what are the stories that don’t have a picture? Meaningful ones like the faith stories, the major lessons-learned stories, the life-shaping events and relationship stories. THEY ARE CRUCIAL, in my opinion. And they are easily put into a digital photo book.
Renee wraps up her blog by asking if she has convinced you to try digital photo albums. I echo that.
But you may find you have some questions that we didn’t answer, or you may want to see more demo of how a digital photo album looks or is created.
Happy to help – just click HERE to set up a quick zoom call with me. I call it a “clarity session for photo help”.
Let’s go digital, shall we?
