Creating an heirloom from your images

Things to contemplate . . .

Why should we get a wedding album? There’s lots of reasons NOT to get one.

“They cost a lot.”

“I can just store all the images on my computer and look at them whenever I want.”

“It’s on paper! That is too old-fashioned!

“I just want to put the pictures on my phone.”

Memories of a beautiful day

“I’ll remember those days forever.”

And lots of other reasons.

The problem is we’re forgetting what time does.

Time is the enemy of memories. We easily say “time heals all wounds.” But it’s not just the passage of time that heals the wounds, it’s that we forget.

When we’re very young, everything is about now. Many of our brides and grooms are, fact of the matter, young. Nothing wrong with that. Heck, I seem to recall being that a short time ago.

We tend to think that we will always remember our wedding day, we will always remember that flower toss that went astray. We will always remember that special look the bride had for the groom as he slipped on the wedding band. We will always remember our parents dancing the night away.

But that’s not what happens. We forget. Other things come up. Life happens.

Images bring back those special, cool, beautiful memories.

I hate to say it, but when I think of my mom who died several years ago, some of the first thoughts are of her final days. But when I look back at pictures, I can remember those many, many other special times we shared. The walks in the Rose Garden in Sioux City, her pride at my graduation at Iowa State, her laughter when opening presents at Christmas time.

The reason someone gets a wedding album, a family album or an album of their high school seniors’ images is really pretty simple. So we can look back at the images and feel a connection with the past. When is the last time you looked at the photos you first placed on Facebook?  Ever?

Just mere days old, Evey was captured in an album that went to much of her family

I had someone tell me they have 30,000 images on their computer they can look at whenever they want. 30,000. Wow. The words didn’t fully impact until many hours later.

Even if you played each image in a slide show lasting 2 seconds per image it would take you nearly 17 hours to watch. And that is assuming you never step watching during that entire time, no bathroom breaks, no food breaks. Nothing else but watching.

And, would watching an image for 2 seconds bring back any kind of memories?

When we pick up an album — or even a print — its different. We take the time to look and enjoy.

When choosing the photos for an album, we’re forced to narrow things down. Pick out the most important moments we really want to remember . . . Or that we want to share with others including our children and grandchildren. Sometimes not the easiest task — but well worth it.

Fact is, every image can evoke those memories. And that is what makes it hard. I’ve designed wedding albums with people in them who are no longer with us. I so strongly recall one bride who lost her father shortly after her wedding. She could not bear to look at the photos with her father taking her down the aisle. Are they a part of the album? Yep. He told her it was one of his proudest days. That’s a memory worth preserving.

Your children will love learning about you.  What you were like. What your friends and family were like. Nope, not the boring folks we somehow often become. The wild and crazy people. The dreamers. The believers.

Albums store memories that can actually be seen.

Capturing those moments of joy with people closest to them.

I use an iPhone and my wife has her Android. The images are tiny. The details of the wedding dress. . . nope. The smiles of the little kids . . . . only by zooming in. Those reasons don’t sound like much now but they will down the road.

We have Facebook these days to “store” our photos and memories for us. I’ve been watching a gal who keeps posting images of her child. Will the child ever see those images? Will she even remember those same images that gave her such pride when her child walks down the wedding aisle? Probably not. They’re stored in a nebulous cloud. Ever notice how clouds tend to go away are forgotten a few days later?

Honestly, we need more than that. We deserve more than that. It is entirely dependent on what we value.

Values change.

We never want to hear from one of our brides many years from now that she wishes she had her album. And I’ve heard that from so many people who are not our wedding clients.

We want to create a thing of beauty.

We even carefully chose our main album company with this in mind. Our albums take a long trip here from Italy where they’re created by a company with a huge world-wide presence. And it is so neat when our brides or their parents get the copies. Tears of joy! When flipping through the pages you can see them moving back in time — even if it was just a few months previous.

From bridal party to being silly (and a bit sexy!)

We strive to get our brides and grooms to quickly select their images for their albums.

Waiting too long means the emotions start to get lost. Yep, those memories that we think are forever start fading quickly. Or they get lost in the whole hubbub of the world, where remodeling the kitchen suddenly takes priority. And then a few years go by and the wishes begin from the bride to have her album. And its too late.

People don’t believe us when we tell them that. It seems impossible that it could be so! The albums are made for emotions and memories. And the photos that someone first chooses are the perfect images — since they already created the feeling of wow! We want to create something that will last and preserve those memories. We want to create an heirloom that can be passed on.

We realize albums, especially wedding albums, are expensive. So we even work out payment plans to make sure it can happen. Not normal in terms of most photographers, I’ve found. But — life has stories  deserving documentation.

I always shoot a wedding with the thought of an album in mind for a couple. Why? Well, a friend once told me something that still sticks in my mind as a TRUTH (you can hear the peel of church bells in the distance.) This TRUTH is a simple one.

Their first dance along with a kiss for this album cover

An album is the first heirloom piece a couple will create together.

Wow. As a photographer who shoots the images that go into such an album, it is mind-blowing to think that the images I capture now will still be able to recreate memories long after I am gone. And bring laughter, tears, joy, sadness and all those emotions felt long ago by a couple on their wedding day.

Special moments with mom and her friends on a background of their etched glass created for them.