Tell Your Story With A Photo Book: Cookbook, Vacation and Family Photos

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August has arrived and while we continue to make fun summer vacation memories, the start of school is right around the corner. It’s time to think about how you are going to capture all the memories in one place and a photo book is a perfect solution. Since I’m a professional photographer I’m constantly taking photos on my iPhone and my professional gear. But you don’t need to be a professional photographer to create a meaningful keepsake of family recipes, vacation and/or family photos. Blurb has a special 36% off for 26 hours at Blurb with code EVERYDAY36

Cookbooks can be daunting, but by tackling small steps along the way, you will create the most incredible and thoughtful family heirloom that will be referenced for generations. I’m so happy I made my first family cookbook back in 2010 called Continuing Traditions. Guest contributor Leigh has been featured over 20 times on Make & Taste and took the time to gather all the photos, recipes and family stories to create her very own 140 page cookbook. Many of her recipes featured on Make & Taste have been loved by many and her ebook copy is open for purchase via this link.

Vacation can be made up of many mini-vacations such as a local park, play dates and theme parks. Perhaps the family packed up the car and hit the road to explore a different state, a family reunion, a new country. Revisiting all the fun had over the summer helps reflect on what life was like during that time. How small the children were, what car your were driving, what people looked like, funny event that happened. create a travel photobook

Family is a very broad topic but that allows you to be creative in telling your story. You might be expecting a new baby and want to tell the story of life preparing for the baby and the first few weeks once the baby arrives. Your family might be moving to a new house and you want to capture the fun years in the old house. A collection of professional family photos over the years is another fun photo book too. I have created a photo book of my son’s first year and love looking back at how small he was and what fun things we did together. So many possibilities.

Helpful Tips to Beginning the Process:

1- Narrow Your Focus – No matter what type of book you are making; cookbook, summer vacation, family photos, you want to narrow what topic to cover. What does this mean? For a cookbook: Family Desserts, Party Foods, Grandma Recipes. For summer vacation: One specific place visited, experience or family reunion. For family photos: New baby arrival, baby shower, birthdays, gender reveal party, family reunion party, visiting grandma and grandpa, daily life photo shoot.

2- Gather Information – The more information gathered the easier the rest of the process will be. Once you narrow your focus, it’s time to dig through the iPhone, old printed photos, emails etc to find the needed information to tell the story. When I created my family cookbook I actually took pictures of my mom’s kitchen equipment and family heirlooms used during the holidays. I’m so glad I did because I love seeing the vintage items and brings me back to my childhood. You many need to contact other family members to gather photos, stories and/or recipes too. As you can see this portion is the most time consuming, but once complete the next step will be fun instead of frustrating.

3- Organize Your Book Layout – Now that you have gathered all the content for your book, it’s time to organized it to tell a great story. If a cookbook, you may need to set up sections like, desserts, dinner etc.

4- Build Your Book – It’s time to turn your story into a book! Head over to: Start creating your Blurb book today >>

Link to Leigh’s eBook Cookbook