Better than a Yearbook: Custom Senior Signature Albums
Raise your hand if your high school yearbook is sitting somewhere (who knows where) collecting dust? Keep your hand up if you inherited your parent’s old high school albums and have no clue what to do with them?
Same here. I answer yes with both those questions, and honestly only looked at mine a few years ago because we moved and I had to unpack its box. Then I saw it again when we finished our basement and I put it on a new shelf where it is now collecting new dust.
At some point I had to ask myself what were the most memorable books, mementos, photos, and trinkets I have saved from my high school years. My answers were as follows:
Photos of me and my friends
A book of band quotes and jokes
Programs from special events
Notice the yearbook didn’t make my list, but at the time it was so incredibly important that I was in it (multiple times) and purchased it to “pass down to my kids”.
Now don’t quote me as saying that yearbooks aren’t important or have their place in my closet or memories. I truly enjoy flipping through mine whenever I stumble across it, and I eagerly look forward to sharing it with my kids as they get older. With five kids, the odds are at least one of them wants to walk down memory lane with me.
But as I started to photograph more high school seniors and think about adding value for them and their parents, I realized I had an opportunity to do more than just provide another album.
I asked myself, how do I combine my list of prized memories with gorgeous senior photos? And out of that questioning a new type of senior album was born.
Meet Custom Senior Signature Albums! Albums that truly feature each individual senior and showcase their memories alongside their gallery of senior pictures.
These albums offer seniors the chance to get involved in the creation of their priceless memory book to help create a memory scrapbook of sorts. It contains all images from their senior session plus space for family and friends to hand write messages and well wishes. Plus seniors can send me a list of special quotes and memories they want to include. I then combine all those elements into a book with their senior photos. Examples can include:
Quotes
Music lyrics
Poem lines
Field trip locations
Numerical stats
Number of football games attended
Amount of volleyball games played
Personal record of free throws made
Favorite memories
List of best friends
The possibilities are endless and the best part is each album is unique to the senior. The books showcase each student’s personality, hobbies, interests, and how they spend their high school years.
I love creating these alongside seniors, as I feel like I’m truly creating something that captures them in an authentic way. It makes me want to time travel back to my last year in high school and get my friends and family to write messages to me in my book of band nerd quotes, as that’s the closest thing I have to an album like this.
If you are considering a session for your upcoming senior, I’d love to chat and share more details on these priceless memory books as well as the actual senior sessions. I always strive to help each kid feel their best and leave them excited about viewing their gallery. Feel free to check out my senior portfolio to see if I’m a good fit for you and your child, and check out my additional resources and articles to help as you navigate the waters of those all-important senior photos.
Want to book a session for your graduating senior? Summer is the perfect time is a great time to get on my calendar to make sure you have your portraits before yearbook photos are due and scenery is green. Check it off your list and be ready before school even starts this fall!
