A beautifully designed photo album from photo shoot is the perfect gift for your children. A family heirloom that the whole family will appreciate in value as time moves on.

I think it’s amazing that technology allows me to deliver the images from your family or newborn photography session in a digital format, they’re easy to share with friends and family and even on social media. 

But having your images locked away on a screen doesn’t offer you the same value as printing them and displaying them in your home.

Whether that is through beautiful wall art that your children can see throughout your home or in an heirloom album where we can tell their story and preserve childhood memories that will be forgotten with time.

Why is telling your children’s story through an heirloom album so important?

As humans we are wired for connection and storytelling. Since the beginning of time we have gathered together to share our experiences. 

Creating an heirloom album for your baby or older child offers ways of telling their story, to capture the energy and emotions of your first few days together as a family. 

It forges a connection between all of you and preserves that moment in time. Allowing your little ones to look back and understand where they lived, what their nursery looked like and how they came to be.

I think we all hold treasured memories of sitting with our folks and looking back through old albums, laughing at their 80s hairstyles and feeling as if we understand and remember part of our shared history.

As a new parent, this season of your life is filled with transformation and there are countless stories to be told and found in the in-between moments. An heirloom album is the perfect medium to capture and relive these moments of growth and connection with your little ones.

Gathering to look at an heirloom album creates a tactile, sensory experience

It’s wonderful to have access to our photographs on our phones and laptops but it doesn’t give us the same sensory experience of looking through a physical photo album. 

I can clearly remember the sound of paging through old photo albums, the yellowing sticky pages from really old albums, images falling out and my grandmother’s handwriting documenting moments from her own childhood.

By purchasing an heirloom album, you have the opportunity to create the same experience for your family.

It’s one thing to look at images on a screen, but your senses become dull, you get distracted and it’s easy to move on to the next thing.

Whereas sitting down together around the coffee table, pulling out a beautifully bound linen or leather book feels like something to be treasured especially if the cover is personalised with your little one’s name. 

Paging through the images, your fingers feeling the weight and texture of the paper provides you and your little ones with a sensory experience.

The moment spent together is just as special as the actual memories stored inside your heirloom album.

The Importance of an artful heirloom album design

Part of the service I offer my clients is curating and designing their albums intentionally to enhance the storytelling experience and their emotional reaction when paging through a thoughtfully designed album.

From sourcing the right materials, and choosing the best personalisation technique for the front cover to actually designing the layout and flow of the images.

It goes deeper than simply adding images to the page, I want to tell a particular narrative, I want your album to be a visual journal of your baby’s first few days.

This is done through artistically grouping certain images together, choosing very specific layouts and compositions to convey a particular energy or emotion from your session. 

Careful attention is placed on choosing the right image to portray the message and overall feeling that was documented during your newborn photo session, so that when you look back at these albums in 10, 15 years you are transported right back to the heart of that moment.

Your and your little one’s special memories are forever frozen in time.

Preserve your family history for many generations to come

As our children grow older they will want to understand themselves. They start to seek out stories and knowledge from their childhood to get a better understanding of themselves and their family history.

Digital images (in the cloud, on a physical back-up that can get damaged or obsolete over time – who remembers a floppy disk?), are not a safe way to store your memories! 

Yes they are easily accessible, but that makes them easily replaceable and less likely to be something your children or the generations that follow will hold onto.

An album is a keepsake that is designed to be passed on and handed down as a way of preserving your family history. An heirloom album is only yours to keep for a period of time, before it is lovingly handed onto the next generation and the next. 

This is also an opportunity for future generations to bond over you and your baby’s story, which cultivates a feeling of belonging and togetherness.

Which is why I always encourage my clients to purchase more than just the digital files

Documenting your baby’s story through an heirloom album is a wonderful way to celebrate and preserve this special time in both your lives. 

You give your baby the gift of knowing themselves and where they came from, to have the story of their first few days on this earth unfold and forever be documented through the pages of their album. 

It goes beyond just having something tangible to look back on in years to come, but also creates  an opportunity for future generations to have moments of connection as you all sit down together and relive these memories.

If you have had a shoot with me before, or are planning on booking a shoot you can find out more about heirloom albums here.

If you would like to book a newborn session or order an album, please get in touch.