How amazing / smug / satisfying would it feel to have your photos of the year, looking beautiful and to hold in your hands by Christmas time?

This is the step by step guide to getting this done.

(Spoiler alert: There’s an easy way… and a harder way!)

Grab your phone… because let’s face it, this is where your photos reside now. Open up that last year.
One swoop - select ALL the photos from the last year and file them in an album - Label it ‘2021 ALL’. Doesn’t matter if you’ve got screenshots and receipt photos in there (or is that just me?) - the aim of this step is to collect your year - no filtering yet!
Want to collaborate with a partner or friends? Make it a shared album. Otherwise a straightforward one is just fine.
So now, get yourself a cup of tea or a glass of wine and set a timer for (max) 20 minutes. Go through this album, first selecting all the receipts and screenshots. Delete them from this album.
Next, go through and delete all the times your kids have done selfies of their tongues (just mine?). Delete.
Start at the beginning - you’re going to select all the moments that provoke a strong reaction in you. A smile. A ‘Oh! I’d forgotten about that!’. Keep these. Create a second album for them - the aim is to slowly empty this ‘2021 ALL’ album with either the delete or to put them into the ‘2021 Favourites’ album. Work your way through.
When your timer goes off, stop. Or the overwhelm will take over.
Repeat from where you left off, the next day. Until you’re done!
Now the trick is to get this album down to about 20. 20 is the number of images the human brain can take in without feeling overwhelmed.
Give these images a tweak if they need it - often a light crop, a straighten of the horizon or a subtle adjustment of the brightness or the contrast - is all it needs. I find heavy filters are the ones you’ll regret in years to come.
Print! There is no substitute for bringing them into the world. I can go on about printing (a lot - so that’ll be the subject of another article) - but in short, you get what you pay for. I really like Fine Art Paper because the images sing. A matte paper everyday over a gloss.
They’ve arrived! Now, write on the backs of them. Not just for you, but for future generations too. Who is in them, what made you smile about them. A really nice one for when the nights are drawing in and the memories still strong.