A tip for printing family pics

We’re so bad at getting photos printed, but when Ari came along I vowed it would be something I would get better at. I adored looking through my mum’s photo albums over and over as a kid, and even though I’ve taken thousands of pictures of my nieces and nephews, it’s the ones we’ve had printed that we look at and reminisce over the most. 

Problem was, I now had less time than ever before – to take “proper” pics with my SLR, to sort or process them or to print and get them framed or put them into albums.

I quickly realised that the first thing I was going to have to let go of was my perfectionist steak and propensity for tinkering away at something endlessly – Ari just grew and changed too fast for that. So I started trying to figure out what I could do with just my phone. Here are a few things that helped:

• I edited pics using the Lightroom iOS app instead of filters (which can be a bit heavy handed for print). This also doubled as a storage place for pics I wanted to print.
• If I did take shots on my SLR, sometimes I speedily transferred them to my phone using the Canon Camera Connect app
• Finally, I used the Artifact Uprising app to order batches of prints and even design photobooks. It really helped remove the friction of actually uploading and ordering prints. 

Here are some of the things I’ve made (none of the below sponsored or gifted, by the way, I just like the print quality of Artifact Uprising’s products. I’ve also used Blurb and Photobox in the past, and they’ve worked great too):

Photobooks

I first used the AU app to create a little photobook of Ari’s first trip to Dublin when he was just four months old (the top book in the pic above). They were mainly phone snaps, but I know I wouldn’t have gotten around to actually processing and uploading them and it’s such a treasured little memento now of when he first met some of our very favourite people. Ari loves leafing through it with me as I point out who everyone is. 

Then, when things were a little less hectic and we got our evenings back, I did sit down and properly put together a photobook on last summer and our adventures around Portugal (the yellow book above, from the AU colour series), which again, is even more special now. I think that’s true of every printed photo, right? It almost doubles in sentimental value as soon as your life changes in any meaningful way. 

Photo baby board book

For Christmas, we got Ari this adorable little board book featuring snaps of our extended family (including our cat) – Ari adores looking through them all, naming his cousins as we go.

Unframed DIY gallery wall

And finally, instead of waiting to get around to framing prints, I hung these shots (from Artifact Uprising’s Everyday Prints set) from some twine suspended from a eucalyptus branch to brighten a bare wall in our Lisbon apartment. 

I hope that was useful! I’d love to know if you have any tips or tricks for printing pics out.