Heavy Weeks?

Make a decision and move forward. How have you handled it before?
I say... If you want to include them, do so! I have 12 layouts so far for just 1.5 days of my Portland trip two weeks ago.

I probably would make an even number of pages, and use any extra space (if any) for some fitting quotes or cute filler cards, seeing how you've done your books in the past.

 

I used to get WAY bogged down with inserts in my PL album, and they started to feel like a chore. Now I try to remind myself that not every awesome photo from an event has to be included because I can and probably will make regular layouts with those at another time. I just choose 1-2 photos that best represent whatever the event is, include those, and limit myself to one 2-page spread per week.

If you still find you have tons of photos you want to include, the maybe consider using a template with space for lots of small photos and then include journaling about them all together in one big block. You can still get lots of photos in that way while still keeping it to 2 pages.

 

I'm similar to Melissa. I pick one, or a few, that shows the event, and then leave the rest for a layout. Mostly because I like to flesh out the story, and I can't do that in a weekly layout usually. My week 35, that I just shared, has 5 photos from Comic Con that covered 3 days of the week. 5 out of the probably 100 that I took. There are many more stories for me to tell - how my sister ended up being able to come, waiting for the Mark Hamill panel, my lunch date with Grace and Natalie, dh's time, the new necklace I got, my brother and his friend's costume, munchkin playing at kid con. All those will come in other pages. They might still be pocket pages, but they will go in the year book, not my PL.
I like being able to look at my PL week by week, without the other layouts in the middle.

 

I like when all the photos of some events in my PL and no matter how many pages it takes. I do not want to do this for individual books.

 

It depends for me. I have often put a whole 2 week trip in the 'week' slots even though there may be 20+ 12' nn-PL layouts/pages for the trip. I always do even it out so the next week can start on the left side. I'll often throw a full page photo in to even it out. When it gets over 25 pages, it will most likely be an album with the post bound ones from the craft stores. I can't bear to print a book and then have my dh find my normal spelling mistakes etc. I don't need perfect but his pointing it out bugs the hell out of me.

Last year I went on an almost 2 week trip to the SW by myself, so I just put the photos in on their own - actually using 'real' PL pockets! When I have empty spots because my photos didn't work out right (even though I had tried to edit them to have enough portrait and horizontal ones) I will ...someday...get journaling cards and write filler bits. I've noticed I have enough SW design cards to make it look cohesive. An old Hawaii trip is in the same state of undone. It doesn't bother me very much.

btw, these events that take more time as trips or weddings etc do take, often get done much later than the normal weeks. I just put those projects aside, knowing that for me they will take more thought and decisions on whether I want 1. just photos 2. PL style photos 3. regular layouts and if so in what style. Since my PL years are in D ring binders, I can add whenever I get around to it.

 

I do as many pages as it takes for heavy weeks because since it's the book I print I want it all there. The week my baby was born took 5 spreads to complete, some weeks are 1, 2 or 3 spreads. Some are odd pages. Events and everyday stuff are all mixed in.

 

I'm no help with this issue since that's the same thing that's bogging me down right now. My plan was to pare the event down to a photo or two to include on my 2 page spread for the week and then scrap the rest separately to be included in my book after the corresponding week. I got too caught up in making those pages "pretty" and have avoided them... I need to accept that a quick pocket page for the event is just fine and get them finished up! Anything too large, like a trip, is kept to a minimum in my PL book since I know I'll make a separate trip album later. If it will be scrapped in another book, I just pick the one or two photos for the spread and move on.

 

THIS. This right here is my problem. D-ring binders would solve that issue for me, but I love my photo books too much. Plus, I have a feeling that I wouldn't actually print things if I could print at any time. As weird as that sounds, it's true. I need my harder cutoff times that I have with my books.

 

I like photobooks, but I insist that my PL is in a binder, printed as separate pages. It keeps me motivated during the year, and I love being able to look at it as it's printed out, and not have to wait a whole year!

I do love photobooks for everything else though.

I haven't had this issue since I switched to Digi pages. I did have this issue with all my paper binders.

 

I kissed the frog!

 

I generally stick to a 2-page spread per week. If I have a lot of pictures I want to showcase, I pick a template with lots of small photo spots, e.g. an instagram-related template; printing it at 12x12 makes for big enough photos anyway, I feel. For vacations I sometimes do a double, so 4-page spread, but I really try to narrow down my choice of photos... My criteria are:

- is the photo good (e.g. not fuzzy, someone looking away etc)
- will this photo be interesting 10 years from now (with a person in it almost definitely, building or tourist attraction photos not so much, but this is highly subjective of course )
- is it a story worth telling?

What has also helped me is the realisation / decision not to feel the need to accurately document everything that happens in a week... because sometimes weeks go by that aren't very interesting at all, just work, housekeeping, groceries, blah, and then I've decided it's totally okay if I zoom in on just one day of the week

 

I totally get that!
I was amazing (if I say so myself!) my first year. Documented every week. Then year 2: I think I did 6 months? I had plans to do a photobook that year, and I bombed. Year 3: I did 3 months, and stopped. Again with the photobook. Year 4 (this year): I'm printing individual again, and keeping it simple - 1 template style for the year (I've changed it twice so far). And I'm only missing 6 weeks - 3 of which were moving weeks. I'm happy to be at that point in October. And I don't have plans to do it next year, so I'm feeling in a good place.

 

I have so considered taking a year off, but I just can't do it! I too love my finished books way too much to do it... so I just continue to gripe and complain about it all instead.

I'm the opposite of you, Courtney! It's printing in photo books that keeps me motivated! LOL! Having to have everything done (I print three times a year) before I can send my book to print is sometimes the ONLY thing that forces me to get those pages done.

I'm at that point right now with my second book of the year. It ended at the end of August. I have two weeks to do and a list of 11 events I wanted to include. I just took a hard look at that list and pared it down to four must have events to scrap before printing. Most of the other events will either appear in another book or I never rounded up enough photos to justify the extra pages. I'm really ready to get this one sent to print so I'm buckling down and powering through that I have left.

 

I struggle with this a bit too. I have a few things I do. First, I really do try to just not include all the photos. I can't think of an occasion where I've ever looked through my PL book and thought "gee, I wish I had included more photos of that event."

If I can't pare it down, then for really big vacations, I'll make a separate book. Then in PL for that week, I'll just do a regular 2-page spread with a few photos from the trip (knowing that the rest are in the photo book).

If it's not quite that big a trip or event, I'll make a standard 2 page PL spread with a few of the representative photos with journaling about the event and then add some pages that are very simple templates (like a 4x4 photo grid) with the rest of the photos - not embellished; just photos. That way I have the photos in there but don't spend 100 years making 10 fully embellished PL pages.