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Category: family

November 9, 2025

How to Design a Photo Gallery Memory Wall at Home 

Before framing a collage of family history photos for your walls, there are several important factors to first consider. Here’s what I learned. 

I usually show off family photos at home through my digital screens. (I haven’t bought photo paper in years.) The pictures glow on my little Nixplay digital frames and on my family room screen via my Apple TV interface. For years, I’ve enjoyed the flexibility to rotate countless images through these little memory portals.

What I’ve mostly ignored is the art of analog photo framing where you make a print, place it in a wooden frame and hang it on your wall. That’s so 1925. Plus, you ruin your walls in the process with all those little nail holes.

Well, unless you want to live in a sterile environment with empty walls, you have to accept some damage across the years and include a little patch and paint planning for your home.

So, I recently embarked on a journey to return to this old-school approach and frame more photos to hang.

My goal was to create a memory wall/family history gallery featuring photos from past generations in our hallway.

The Best Archival Photos have Visual Markers
I turned to the collection of pictures from my parents’ old photo albums, many of which I had already digitized. So, I was off to a great start, but I was quickly disappointed with what I found.

Sure, my parents took family photos, but a lot of them simply weren’t that great. Those Kodak moments were turned into soft, mediocre images captured by inferior 20th century consumer tech. (I’m admittedly spoiled by today’s smartphone photography magic.)

More importantly, so many of these images couldn’t stand on their own and reflect a story. The backgrounds were simply too vague.

Visual markers are the key to unlocking the story in any photo. Without them, a photo’s archival value rarely lasts beyond one generation. (Food for thought as you practice your own photography.)

Going back a generation to my grandparents, I had fewer pictures to work with. That said, I could tell my paternal grandmother really enjoyed being photographed. 

I never met her, but her vibrant personality glowed in all the photos she’s featured in.

I have just a couple of pictures of my great grandparents, and that’s it.

Other Factors to Consider
Once you select the best photos to work with, then you’ve got to figure out how they should go together. And that can be much harder than you’d think.

How you position archival family pictures can totally affect the story you want to tell. This is an entirely different skill set than I’m used to. (Remember, I just rotate pictures in digital frames.)

Plus, I was overwhelmed by the challenge to properly position a collage of photo frames on my wall and make it look organized and well designed (as opposed to a mess).

And then finally, the idea of puncturing my wall with lots of little nails almost pushed me over the edge towards inaction.

Display a Story in Groups of Four Photos
To help reduce my stress and solve for these complexities, I decided to make my photo frames do more of the work. I purchased wall-mountable frames that housed four 5″ x 7” photos each. (I picked up a few 25” x 10” frames from Target.) 

This strategy reduced my clutter concerns by 75% right there.

And it also created a structure for how I would organize my photos. Each group of four pictures needed to represent its own story.

Suddenly, my project became much easier.

  • One group showcased portraits of three generations on my father’s side as well as my maternal grandparents.
  • Another group featured my parents over the years.

Easy, right?

The only functional limitation to this design was I needed to group photos by orientation: portrait or landscape.

Still, I was able to make it work.

A Photo Collection Reflects a Larger Family Narrative
I’m happy to report the grand opening of Barrett’s family history gallery
(7am-6pm weekdays and 9am-1pm on weekends). 

But seriously, it feels great to have a few photos on our wall that display my family’s story. Previously, I’ve had some of these individually framed on shelves throughout our house. But they were effectively hidden from daily view. 

Plus, I like that our son can see this new collection. He knew my dad (who passed in 2022), but he never met my mom.

Yes, there’s more work to do… There’s a whole other family history to reflect on our walls. That comes next.

Simple and Effective Design
How ironic. What’s old is new again. So obvious… yet still requiring me to (re)discover these mini ‘aha’ moments.

Until the day comes when I upgrade my hallway to wall-to-wall digital screens, relying on old-school frames with four photos each is my DIY photo gallery solution.

I’m keeping it simple.

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October 5, 2025

Decoding my Father’s Story through his Vintage Photographs

My dad took this photo of Manhattan on a New York Harbor cruise back in the summer of 1988. I recently snapped a similar shot, which created something of a time loop for me. And that’s prompted me to look more closely at parts of my late father’s life. Here’s why.

I’m trying to understand more about my late father through his photography. He passed in 2022, and he passed on a mostly disorganized collection of photos that he snapped across his life. 

My dad fashioned himself a photography enthusiast.

My Father, The Photographer
While I was growing up, I remember he’d proudly carry around his SLR camera with zoom lens throughout New York City like he was some sort of urban Ansel Adams. Before that, he went through his James Bond subminiature Minox phase. While his tiny Minox camera was indeed cool for its time, the resolution of the resulting photos was mediocre at best.

I believe my father’s self-assigned photography projects were frequently more about expressing his own style and experience than the creativity in his photos’ form. (I was aware how much he enjoyed simply playing ‘photographer.’) But as I’ve been reviewing and archiving his old photos and negatives over these past few years, I’ve come to an additional conclusion.

He was also interested in the art of photography… I’ve uncovered some cool photos.

But my dad was limited by the technology of his time and didn’t have any distribution mechanism to reinforce his efforts. (No social media or blogs yet.) The furthest he went was to blow up a few of his favorite photos to frame for our apartment.

He seemed satisfied with this ceiling for his hobby. 

Photo Echoes Between Generations
I’ve been digitizing these photos as part of my ongoing family archiving project, and I’ve recently come across an unexpected phenomenon. I’ve found echoes of my own photo work showing up in some of my father’s photography.

It shouldn’t really be a surprise. New York City has certain iconic photo opportunities that a million others have also snapped. So, the fact that my father and I captured the same shot decades apart is hardly a revelation.

But it’s still made an impact on me.

Same Shot – Decades Apart
I had the opportunity recently to take a few photos on the water around Manhattan near the Statue of Liberty. After I returned home and reviewed them, I felt a déjà vu like I’d seen these before. Yes, of course… my father’s photos. He’d been on the New York Bay too (multiple times, in fact).

Take a look:

Here’s the southern tip of Manhattan in 1988 and in 2025. (My father’s photo benefited from all the picturesque boats in the harbor. Of course, lots of other differences, including the Twin Towers.)

And here’s the Stature of Liberty, again in 1988 vs 2025.
(I really like that giant American flag in my dad’s shot.)

These are hardly unique photos, But their similarities are striking for me, because they come from two generations of Lesters. And I find that meaningful. 

My Father’s Legacy
I’m still trying to understand my father. I had a complicated relationship with him. 

No, he didn’t really bond with me through his photography and share his hobby as a father would with his son.

But he did buy me a nice Ricoh camera when I was in my early teens. So, it wasn’t as if he entirely missed the connection. (And it’s not lost on me that my own passion for photography still found its roots during this time in my life.)

Decades later, the fact that we gravitated to some of the same photo moments has made me feel a little closer to him. I understand I’ve got a little magical thinking going on. Still, I think there was more to my father that met the eye (or at least I want to think).

And that’s made me consider his legacy a little differently.

What Will I Learn from the Next Photo?
My father’s photos are breadcrumbs that lead to a truth I’ll never completely understand. But they help me soften the rough edges to the story of our lives together.

And that’s part of what drives me to continue archiving his photos.

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September 21, 2025

Consider these Factors When Asking Friends to Take Photos at Your Big Party

When your plan is to ask several people to take photos at your important family festivity, you may be surprised that this multiple camera strategy still may not get you the shots you want. Here’s why.

Over the years, I’ve occasionally been asked by family and friends to take photos during their celebration event. I’m not a professional photographer, but yes, I’ve got a decent camera that can shoot RAW, and I’ve been known to snap a good picture or two.

I’ve also leaned on friends to take photos during similar moments. Who hasn’t done this? (Today’s phones take great photos.)

Besides, it’s expensive to hire a professional photographer. When literally everyone at your party has a camera, why would you need to bring in a pro?

Well, sometimes you don’t. But it’s also important to recognize the flip side of the equation.

If you’re going to stick with a volunteer camera crew solution, here are the critical variables you should not leave to chance.

There Can Be Only One Official Camera
You may not have a hired photographer. But for a variety of reasons, which I’ll get into, someone in your crowd must serve the same ‘alpha’ camera role.

That doesn’t mean your other friends still can’t snap photos for you. In fact, that’s likely going to happen regardless.

Spray and Pray
Here’s the problem. When everyone has a shared responsibility. Nobody has individual responsibility. And that can create major gaps in your photographic coverage. 

As a result, even with hundreds or thousands of photos taken, you may still not get the ones you really want.

Group Portraits and Your Paparazzi
When more than one photographer is there to capture your group portrait shots, nobody in that group will know exactly which camera to look at and when. 

Even if you have an ‘organizer’ trying to direct everyone’s attention, it’s never going to be perfect. There are already too many distractions. 

And that will almost certainly guarantee many of those portraits (or worse) will be useless, because someone is looking off camera.

Remember, one ‘alpha’ camera. That’s all you really need in that moment.

Go let your paparazzi eat more hor d’oeuvres.

Dimly Lit Rooms and Blur
Yes, today’s cameras are amazing. Even the ones crammed into our phones. But they can’t handle every situation, especially in low light when there’s a lot of motion. 

People like to dance and move around at parties. And when the lights are turned down to enhance the party mood, the people in those photos are likely to look blurry. You need some serious ‘glass’ to freeze the action in low light. (I sadly need to remind myself of that limitation every so often.)

So sometimes, you require a flash in the room as the solve. But to avoid annoying everyone, only the ‘alpha’ camera should have the flash.

Conversely, if you want better photos from your volunteer team, turn up the room’s lighting a bit more. (Everyone will thank you.)

Where Does the Buck Stop?
As I’ve mentioned, with multiple volunteer photographers, you still may not catch all the highlights. Moments happen quickly. If you miss them, there’s no second chance. 

You don’t need every moment. Just the few that matter most. And again, one volunteer with the ‘alpha’ camera must own the responsibility to get you those for you. 

Yes, that may inevitably take a little time away from that guest’s ‘partying’ enjoyment. Both of you should have this understanding, and it doesn’t have to be a problem. (I’ve greatly enjoyed owning this responsibility.)

But when absolutely everyone is enjoying cake, nobody is snapping photos.

How to Have Your Cake and Eat It Too
Sure, lots of volunteer photographers will get a variety of interesting shots your ‘alpha’ photographer will inevitably miss. And that’s why there’s nothing wrong with all your other friends taking photos too.

It doesn’t have to be an either/or situation.

But it does need to be both.

Don’t Play the Odds
I learned this lesson the hard way at my own wedding. We didn’t hire a professional photographer and instead asked a few friends to help out. (And I really appreciated their support.)

We received many hundreds of photos. But honestly, a lot of them were unusable for the all the reasons I’ve discussed.  And those few key moments that mattered most?

Well, happily, yes… someone captured them successfully. But if you were to review the totality of all our pictures, you would also conclude the odds only narrowly favored us that day. It could have gone much differently. 

Lessons from Experience
The presence of many cameras in a room will democratize the responsibility of photographing your event. That’s the problem.

Ultimate responsibility needs to fall to one single source of photograph truth. And that person needs to know it.

This doesn’t mean you always have to pay for a professional photographer. (Though it’s a good way to get the job done right.) But yes, there has to be someone in your crowd who effectively is playing the same role. 

And of course, it’s lovely to receive everyone’s else’s photos as well. (There will be some great ones.)

This two-step strategy will go a long way to ensure success.

You’ll maximize the opportunity that comes with having dozens of cameras snapping away, while also preventing the disorganization that can develop without having an appointed ‘alpha’ camera in place.

A little planning can make all the difference.

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