Digital Photoalbums? Lifetime Keepsake or Trendy- Easy Way Out?

Hmm, I have to say, I would find it offensive if someone told me my photos were 'trendy - easy way out' just because they were digital! Frankly, all that matters is preserving memories for your family and in this day and age, preserving them digitally allows you to share them with friends and family all over the world.

I don't need an album with a bunch of expensive paper cutouts or goofy sayings to remember good times.I could not afford to 'scrapbook' even if I wanted to!
We have lots of framed pictures in our home- all chosen and printed from digital albums! I share my digital albums with everyone- and in case of fire or any other disaster- I will still have those photos stored in more than one computer!

Basically if other people want to scrapbook, fine. I don't judge them for it- I just don't want to do it myself! But I think it is inane to think someone is taking the easy way out for keeping their photos organized on computers!

I love taking pictures! I used to scrapbook, but I got way behind. Then I moved to printing photos and sticking them into the albums with sleeves. I dont love those because I take a lot of horizontal shots, and then they are sideways in the album. So last year I decided to make a digital photo book on Shuuterfly, using my favorite photos from each month/important event. It ended up being 50 pages long, but even with a hard cover is thin and doesn't take up much space at all. I waited for a sale and got a pretty good deal on it. It was fun and easy to do, and I LOVE how it turned out! I like that you can choose different layouts from each page, and have some pictures larger and some smaller. I plan to do this every year now. My photo book from Shutterfly is so much nicer to look through than my older albums of just prints. I think that if you don't have time to scrapbook, digital photo books (that you order so you actually have it to look through) are the way to go!

I think the important thing is to have an actual album, which you do, whether or not you put it together digitally or by hand doesn't make a difference. You said it yourself, digital albums are faster and easier to create. You are creating keepsakes for your family this way, it doesn't have to be the old way! Keep at it!

yes, you will miss having printed photos. There's something soul-enrichening when you can hold a life's story in your hands.

I do both. I digital scrapbook (I'm two years behind on that), I print my pictures and store them in photo boxes and I do a paper scrapbook. Right now my kids love looking at the paper scrapbooks. But, when they are adults will they want to have that giant book in their home or boxes and boxes of pictures? No. They will love the digital scrapbook that fits on any book case, they can open it at any time and just stick it back on the shelf. No pulling out box after box to find that right picture. So, I say do it all :)

I have no time or the crative thumb to be able to full on scrapbook. So for me it's a way for me to do it in a timely manner. I will however add embellishments later if I feel like it needs it. You could always do that. I don't think it's the easy way out. I feel it's a great option for people like me who want memories preserved but can't make it a huge priority due to money and time.

I am a picture person too. I make the online photo books (every time I download pics from my camera I update my daughter's books, they each have one) then when I have the maximum number of pages I have them print it. I use Apple's IPhoto. (it takes me about 1 year to fill an album)
I do think you will regret not having an actual physical album.

Presuming you're using some major photo website to create these books...that said, if you create a digital book now and you want actual photos later, why can't you just print them later? Your photos stay on those web sites forever (I have mine 10 years back on Kodak's site), so if you have regrets, just print them out. Pretty much a no-brainer on this one.

I also think you'll miss the printed out versions too. Plus I don't think you can rely on digital software to be the same 20 years from now, heck even 10. I just use digital storage as a backup. Although, I will be the first to admit I am also behind on printing pictures.

I use Shutterfly to make photo albums for our important occasions (engagement photos, ultrasounds and belly shots of my first pregnancy, daughter's first birthday) and will continue to do so since I end up with a wonderful album full of beautiful pictures that I can keep forever without having to spend a ton of time it money on them. I see no difference between a printed photo book and a photo album filled with photos, in terms of a keepsake, other than the books are less temperature and weather sensitive and may last longer than prints. My MIL scrapbooks, and while her scrapbooks are pretty, they just don't have enough pictures for my taste and they take her FOREVER. She is just finishing my daughter's first year book as her 2nd birthday approaches. Meanwhile, I presented each grandma with a Shutterfly book from my daughter's first year of life less than a month after her birthday.