I mean something you print to give to others. Albums, mugs, shirts, framed prints or whatever else?
My parents live across the country from me, and every year my Mom always asks for photos of myself and my gf. In 2009, I sent her an album filled with 200 4x6's, each with individual hand written captions. Not just photos of us, but stuff I'd been doing. It was popular, and now I have to make one every year. It's also a great exercise in self-editing and design as well as an excuse to spend time reflecting on what I've done photographically over the year.
The albums I use hold 2 pictures in landscape orientation per page (so 4 visible at a time). I aim to have the groups of 4 related in some way and preferably all either shot in landscape orientation or in portrait orientation to minimize turning the album (I often end up with 2 landscape on one page and 2 portrait on the opposite page). Attached is an example, each row of the contact sheet will represent a group of 4 in the album. The first row is stuff I ate, the second is peppers we grew, the third is tomatoes we grew, and the fourth is an avocado and sweet potato at the start of their lives in the spring and their state today.
These all happen to be food related pages and will be scattered throughout the album to avoid too much repetition (but always the groups of 4 stay together). I'll also have various 'insect', 'amphibian', "pets", and 'plant' pages, as well as a few gratuitous self portraits.
Lots of work but it's pretty rewarding. I was able to visit the previous 4 albums I had made this summer (and my parents at the same time
) and they were lots of fun to go through with the family (along with the really old albums of us as kids). I had initially thought to do it all electronically using a service that prints photo books instead of printing 4x6 and hand writing captions. In the end, I'm glad I didn't as this is much more personal and these are definitely one-off productions that make them a little more special (imo). I had in the past sent DVDs with pictures, but those often end up unused in drawers whereas I know the physical albums come out and are enjoyed several times per year.
So, any gifts anyone else is working on? I'd love to hear about them