The Holidays are coming. Bah. Humbug. If not for my daughter Miranda’s love of the holidays I would just spend the time celebrating everyday joys and skip the tough parts.

Tiffany is mother to baby Brayden, a graphic designer, and an avid photographer and photo book maker. She’s also a member of our Shutterfly Gallery Guru team, dedicated to supporting your photo book and storytelling creativity. In this interview, Tiffany shares some valuable tips on how to photograph little people, particulary those two and under, and how to turn those images into favorite photo books.

Joanna hails from Fargo, North Dakota, and has been dubbed her family’s official photographer. She’s also member of our Shutterfly Gallery Guru team, dedicated to supporting your photo book and storytelling creativity. In this article, Joanna tells us how she successfully photographs her family, even when they’re not in the mood for the paparazzi.

Sometimes it’s hard to get into what our kids are into. My son is into cell phones. He’s three but he is really into cell phones and he wants to talk about them all the time and look at them and draw pictures of them. I try to be supportive but it’s not really my thing. My brothers were, and still are, really into surfing and for my parents, who are native New Yorkers but raised sunny Californians, I’m sure it was a little hard to get into. You know, “Surf’s up, dude”, and all that. That’s why I just loved the photo book that one mom made for her skateboarding son.

Claire H., originally from South Africa, is an avid photographer and traveller. She’s also a member of our Shutterfly Gallery Guru team, dedicated to supporting your photo book and storytelling creativity. In this article, Claire talks about how she and her husband caught the travel bug, how they learned to travel well with their two small boys, and how they effectively capture those memories through stunning photography. It’s all about developing your unique style, catching the details, and being open to those special moments that only children make.

Pictures alone can tell a wonderful story. But one of the best features of photo books is the ability to pair words with pictures and add another dimension to the story—the voice and emotion of the storyteller.

Shutterfly Gallery is bursting with photo books that use words to enhance the story. Here are five original and evocative ways to tell the story behind the pictures.