Tips & Tricks – Mother’s Day Photo Gifts
Mother’s Day Photo Gifts
A day to celebrate our mothers & our motherhood (if you have tiny humans of your own) is approaching, and I don’t know about you, but the more years I’ve been a daughter, the fewer ideas I have for these holidays each year. I feel like I’ve given all of the standard things multiple times, so I’m always trying to think of something fresh that hasn’t been done. I figure some of you might be in the same boat, so today I am helping you out by sharing some thoughtful & unique Mother’s Day photo gifts.
Mr. Karl Lagerfeld, famed head designer and creative director of the fashion houses Chanel and Fendi, said it best –
“What i like about photographs is that they capture a moment that’s gone forever, impossible to reproduce.”
That is exactly what I appreciate & cherish about photographs, and why I love giving them as gifts. Taking the opportunity to give someone a tangible moment in time & help them remember such a special instant in their lives, is so thoughtful & loving. Especially when you take the time to arrange the photo in a way they haven’t seen it before. Hopefully some of the Mother’s Day photo gifts I share with you today will be new to your mother & rekindle a memory in a way that is fresh & fun.
1. The Gift of Time – Family Photo Shoot
I am not a mother (other than to my furbaby!), but I can venture a guess that what your mother really wants from you on Mother’s Day is for you to spend time with her. If you are lucky enough to live near your mother, spending the day with her is always the answer. And a great way to incorporate photography into your Mother’s Day gift is to hire a photographer to capture some family photos. Not only will your mother be happy to spend time with you on Mother’s Day, you’ll get bonus points for bringing your entire family together AND finding a way to commemorate the occasion by hiring a professional photographer to capture those memories for you. I may be biased, but hiring a professional photog is always money well spent 😉
If you are in the DC metro area, give me a shout, but if you’re located elsewhere, simply google ‘[your location] family photographer’. Find a local photographer whose style you appreciate, who is in your price range, & contact them immediately to set up your shoot.
2. Personalized Greeting Card
We all give our mom’s a greeting card for Mother’s Day, right? (We should be if we’re not!) I love the idea of taking an old photo that your mother cherishes & incorporating that onto the front of the greeting card. Imagine this: your mother opening her card, expecting to see some generic Hallmark illustration, when she lays eyes on her own face & her kiddies or grandkiddies staring right back at her. I bet she laughs, she may even tear up! And let’s be honest – those are the types of reactions we are trying to illicit, right?!
There are some great selections on Etsy, found here, here, & here.
3. Framed Print
Prints of photos are wonderful and for so long, that’s all we had. But in today’s digital age, we rarely take the time to actually print out our favorite photos, let alone find an appropriate frame & display them around our home. Holidays like Mother’s Day are the perfect time to break from that habit & remind ourselves how impressive & special a printed photograph can be. And nowhere do photos look more impressive & special than inside of a beautiful frame.
Choose a photo that is meaningful to your family, have a 5 x 7 printed at www.mpix.com, & then hunt down a frame that matches your mother’s style – one that’s slightly larger than . You want that photo to be floating in the center of the frame, surrounded by blank space in a contrasting color or a matte. Seeing that photo behind glass, centered powerfully in the frame will be striking & is sure to bring a tear or two to your mother’s eye.
4. Fancy Photo Book
Another thing that used to be so standard when we only printed our photos were photo albums. I have countless from when I was a kid. Today we are privileged to have access to ways of creating some truly beautiful photo albums in the form of books that we can pop right on our book shelves. It’s a handy way to keep our precious photos preserved for many years to come. There are tons of resources for creating photo books online that you can have printed & delivered straight to your mom’s door. This is especially a good idea if you don’t live nearby. Gather a bunch of older photos, scan ’em into your computer, compile them in an online photo book, have it printed,& delivered to your mom’s door just in time for Mother’s Day. That will be a keepsake she’ll hang on to forever & ever.
Miller’s has some fun, modern designs, as does Bay Photo Lab (& you get 25% off your first order! Just sayin’…)
5. Modern Day Glamour Shots
Remember the glamour shots you used to be able to get at the mall? My step-sis gifted a glamour shots session to me when we were in 5th grade I think it was. Did she know me or what?! Haha We had our hair & makeup done & got dressed up in their fancy clothes, and had our pictures made – and boy did we look goofy! As a Mother’s Day gift this year, do an updated version of this. Hire a hair & makeup person to come by & get your mom all spruced up & looking her best. Hire a photographer to take some head shots for her. Professional photographs, complete w/ hair & makeup, are a great way to boost the ol’ self esteem, or to just treat someone special who deserves to be pampered, like your mom. It’s a great way to preserve just the way she looks in this moment in time.
Again, if you’re in the Washington, D.C. metro area, I would love to photograph some glamorous head shots for your mom! Contact me to schedule your mom’s photo shoot today so you can give it to her as a Mother’s Day photo gift.
