Family albums: the family storyteller

Vicki Hull - 28 Sep 18

If you are a child of the 80’s like me, you may well have family photo albums which pretty much tell the story of your childhood. My Dad recently turned seventy and as part of his present I went through the albums to make him a ‘This is your life’ type book. There was sheer joy in looking at those photographs for all of us, including his grandchildren. I was lucky that my parents had a camera that came away on holiday with us but maybe more importantly Dad took photos of us in the house and out in the garden. My parents divorced when I was 6 and so the family albums got shared out. It’s fair to say Mum’s albums had almost no recollection of Dad as he had been removed (!) but fortunately Dad managed to keep some of us all and created new family albums so our family story continued. Mum was super organised and so her albums are all carefully labelled with the date and location of the photographs, making it even easier for me to recollect stories of our childhood that she no longer can.

You don’t need me to tell you how much value there is in a photograph, they mean so many things to different people. As a parent I make a real effort to document our family story. My love of photography was inspired by my children who have not only been my muses but have given me the opportunity to create a new career path as a photographer. My heart lies in documentary style photography so I endeavour to document our days as a family. This is often with my DSLR but I use my phone too. In fact on our last few family holidays I haven’t taken my ‘big’ camera but have been really pleased with our iPhone images.

In the past parents took photographs to mark an event or a milestone or on holidays, just like those photographs in the family albums. These days we have a camera with us in our pocket and so often take far more photographs than we would have if we had a ‘proper’ camera. But how often do you purposefully take photographs of your everyday? Your everyday is just what makes up your family life. Ever taken a picture of the school run, the kids having breakfast or ‘helping’ with the household chores? It really is worth doing. Life moves pretty fast (as Ferris Bueller once said) if you don’t stop and look round once in while you might miss it.

As a family photographer I am lucky to get a little snapshot of a family at a moment in time but you are the real family storyteller. You know what little quirks your children have and what their favourite tv programme is that month. You are with them when they are creating enormous bubbles in the bath and racing along the pavements on their scooters. You are also the one who sees them grow and change, with all the wonder that that brings. My recent photographs include my son on his Xbox!

Here are a few simple ways to get the best out of your smartphone pictures:

• Bend your knees! Get down to the level of the child you are photographing and think about your camera angle. If you are holding it square on you can take a more flattering image of the scene than if you are holding the phone from above.
• Take a minute to think about your composition of the whole scene not just the subject. For example, if the kids are having breakfast use the table as part of the scene and resting your camera on it helps with the point above.
• Think about the light. If you are taking a close up of a person’s face on a bright sunny day when the sun is overhead it creates shadows across a subjects face. If you can see them then your camera will too. If you can get even light on your subject it will improve your picture, quite often it can mean taking a picture in the shade, which might be the opposite of what you’d think.
• Try a different perspective. Does taking a picture from above or below change the feel of your picture?
• Use the editing tools to help. Phone cameras have in built tools which can really help. For example straightening up lines or brightening it up a bit. Have a play and see what kind of look you like.

So I encourage you to document your days with purpose. Those iPhone snaps can tell your family story for years to come. It is worth having in mind that this doesn’t have to be a perfectly curated collection of photographs. Be honest about your experience too. Life isn’t all smiles and hugs and we know it. This is your story and you can tell it however you want to. I think of my collection of photographs as a story to my children, for them to read when they grow older. Just like the ones that my parents made for me.

In this digital age we may no longer have physical albums to read as story books but there are a million ways to save your photos and create your own story- I try to make a Photobox book in December each year, although last year I was catching up with 2016 too. It really is worth getting some images printed, even if it means getting your prints and sticking them on the fridge, I love the polaroid style prints that are readily available now too. Once you have an actual print at least they are there to be looked at, talked about and remembered in years to come.

Just one thing… make sure you get in the picture too.

Vicki Hull

I love to see a photograph that tells a good story. I began my own photography story with my family a few years ago and now I love to collect our memories on camera. Not just the big events and significant milestones but the everyday imperfect details that make up our family life. In years to come I want to be reminded of the day to day of our lives.

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