Making moments last from family trips has transformed from the glossy sheen of a photo album filled with memories to a culture of “if it wasn’t shared on social media, then it didn’t happen.” The meaningful joy of putting together visuals of our lives as keepsakes has turned into creating digital displays that can often be more stressful to assemble. When photos and videos just go up on the cloud and aren’t chronicled, that can make it hard to look back even on core pieces of our experiences.
My favorite albums growing up were of yearly theme park and museum adventures. Trying to recreate that with my own kid has been quite challenging; the stressors of finding the right filter and vertical shots killing horizontal shots becomes glaringly obvious when you try to put them into photo books. It really has you looking sideways. And don’t get me started on the panic I get from having deteriorating home videos as my drives fill up with videos of my child’s first theme park visits.
Before our daughter was born, I had many theme-park adventures with my husband. I love taking pictures where it looks like you’re inside a Disney fairytale, Universal Studios movie set, or Meow Wolf sci-fi portal. Getting the right shot (with the fewest tourists in the background) is an art. It’s taken me so many Disneyland trips with my Magic Key to Galaxy’s Edge to find the perfect-picture spots—but it’s worth it, since the theme park’s photo pass program doesn’t always get the best shots and is quite pricey. When I got around to putting together albums of specifically themed stories I wanted to tell, I landed on Star Wars very quickly and wondered if I could piece together my own adventures with datapad scans (phone pictures).
Between attending the opening of Galaxy’s Edge at Disneyland, to visits to Batuu with friends in lightly in-universe inspired outfits, and finally taking a trip aboard Disney World’s now-defunct Galactic Starcruiser, I tried out a book from an unnamed service and the print job left much to be desired. As my family expanded, I became intent on finding the best options to chronicle a whole new journey.
In order to create my own physical library of photos the first steps I’ve taken to curate amusement park and themed travel is to commit to printing pictures every quarter of my child’s life as she grows. At six months, I’m ordering many more photos for albums, utilizing various models of printers, and snapping instant Polaroids to see which will have the best lasting quality, while trying out online photo book albums.
To be real, most of the pictures I take are on my iPhone, because taking time to learn the ins and outs of a more professional camera is too much right now. But nothing beats a classic and one that I know can stand the test of time, Kodak’s Polaroid camera, is compact and perfect for on-the-go instant pictures that have that summer vacation scrapbook feel. I definitely favor the 600 and use one I nabbed from retro-tech hub Retrospekt. There are of course newer Polaroid models with the capability to connect to an app for uploading images, if that’s more your style.
I recently tried to get into the 35mm trend after seeing teens and bachelorette parties use them around Walt Disney World. I didn’t expect the market for 35mm cameras to be so intense, since the youths have decided its in style to grab one and not know how the photos will turn out until they’re printed. What a concept, right? The re-seller market of those Canon and Sony battery-operated ones is insanely overpriced and will make you want to dig up the family one in the attic. For my baby shower I used a number of Hello Kitty collaboration 35mm cameras (again from Retrospekt) which guests loved. Good luck with getting the film rolls processed though; with Costco shutting down photography stations it’s been a lot harder to do.
Thankfully there are services like Shutterfly which make getting those photo album prints a whole lot less complicated. Out of the various companies out there, it’s produced the best results for me. The app syncs really easily to my phone’s camera roll to grab selections after I’ve pored over them for hours. It also helps you realize how often you’re taking vertical pictures, and serves as a reminder to get more artistic when you snap—for instance—a shot of droids wandering around Galaxy’s Edge or fantastic shots of the Sleeping Beauty Castle. When I did my baby name reveal at Disneyland using both my own photos and Disneyland’s Photo Pass (because I wanted to cover all the bases), I ordered a book from Shutterfly to display and really took to the matte feel of the pages and quality of the cover. It felt like a childhood picture book to have in my library.
Single image printing is a whole other adventure. I’ve tested some smaller picture tech in order to print wallet-sized images—which, by the way, where have the wallet picture inserts gone? The one I found to have really solid print quality is the Canon SELPHY series, which operates off its own app that syncs seamlessly with your phone images. It is however a little complicated to use as you have to buy ink rolls and photo paper specific to the model, and they tend to run out at different times: the paper might run out when there’s still ink or vice-versa ,which is tedious. And taking it on the go isn’t as easy, but I did love using it at home during the holidays to print pictures of Universal Studios Grinchmas. Kodak has more simple model options, like the Barbie Step Slim Wireless Photo printer, which doesn’t require ink and is lightweight for travel, but the smartphone image quality varies.
Albums are becoming harder to find in person. You’ll more often than not find the scrapbook type, which requires sticky corner edges, at craft stores like Michaels. Online you can find albums to fit your collections of photos from special trips. The Ceremony Club recently released a wedding series that’s a vibe for Disney destination wedding parties, giving each chapter of your fairytale a modern book bound aesthetic. For other trip prints I’ve found that Topdrawer’s photo albums come in various sizes including Polaroid-friendly options, and with designs that can fit in gorgeously on a coffee table or showcased in your library.
From rediscovering analog photography tech thanks to cute pop culture collaborations, to getting to experiment with online scrapbooking, making theme park trip memories can be still be interesting—as well as certainly a bit more tedious than expected. Thankfully the market is seeing a shift as younger generations crave more tangibility to document their lives outside of uploads on social media and brands appear to be listening. There’s various instant cameras on the market that provide immediate prints and also have the capability point, shoot, print, and save onto a device to share online. Kodak’s Printomatic is one I’ve tried that’s a little too sensitive—and my model doesn’t have a preview window before printing, so the results have been chaotic to say the least, and maybe not worth the price of buying more printer sheets till I get the right shot. I’m only six months in on the mission to capture my little one’s childhood as cinematically as possible and I’m willing to try what’s out there—except AI.
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