Hong Kong Family Photo Albums | Preserve Your History in 2025

Some people will tell you that in Hong Kong, the more expensive you are, the better you are, but I don’t agree. I think HK’ers are smarter than that!

Samples of album covers I was doing as surprise ‘thank you’s’ pre-2020. 6”x6”, they were small, cheap and fun. Everyone loved them. But now…

My Approach to Family Photography

Since Day One I went a different way with my photography business. I just started handing out hi-res files to families in Hong Kong at a time when NOBODY did that. I reckon, what do I need them for? Why shouldn’t future generations have the files in the same condition they were in when taken? A photo album or print might get lost or damaged. I took the photos, handed over the files, got paid, and that was it. I realize I left a lot of business on the table, but that was my choice obviously. But I could have left so much printed family history.

“There's something profoundly satisfying about the ritual of pulling a record from its sleeve. And similarly, there's something magical about the weight of a book in your hands, the smell of fresh ink, the deliberate pace of turning actual pages.”

Then, around 2017 I started making little freebie ‘thank you’ albums for all my customers. (Samples above.) I just did it because I wanted to see my photos in print. I got a blast out of designing the albums. Sometimes they came together in a few minutes, some took hours. I didn’t care, finally my shots were ending up in fun little albums. But since I was doing them as surprises I just made super-cheap 6”x6” 20-page books. I would have been embarrassed to charge for something that small. But still, I wanted to provide storytelling family photography Hong Kong, and the classic way to do this is with a photo album. I also loved being able to highlight the incredible range Hong Kong family photography locations.

“Because let's be honest: social media has warped our view of photography. We've trained ourselves to consume images at the speed of light, scrolling through hundreds of photographs in the time it used to take to properly examine one.”

Recently a friend sent me this article, which really resonated with me. It’s true, having a bunch of photos on a hard drive, or in the cloud is great but as the painter Marcel Duchamp <supposedly> once said:

“That Art Isn't Truly Art Until Someone Responds To It”

And you can’t respond to it if you can’t see it. So this year I am going all-in on the printed album. Not little 6”x6” things, but full-sized 14”x10” coffee-table books. That is 28” inches across when open, which is huge! Below is a sample of that size, made using photos from one family over 12 years. (Six sessions only!) This is the kind of thing that dominates a coffee table! They are so fun to make and display, I know they will be a hit.

And in 50 Years it Will Still be Around, Maybe Even Much Longer

Below are some samples of the little albums I was giving away years ago, against the album I am including free with some sessions now. Major upgrade to my packages for professional family portraits in Hong Kong.

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Pricing in Hong Kong Family Photography

Pricing in Family Photography is all over the place. This is the free market, I am totally down with it. Ultimately I look at the per image price, that’s it. I see many family photographers asking for, and presumably getting, up to USD125 per shot, and sometimes more.

When you compare that against the world’s top wedding photographers, that’s like 500% more than they would receive per image. And let’s be honest, the great wedding photographers have a much wider set of skills and experience, and sometimes 10X the investment in gear, than the average family photographer. (Some who work with one camera and one lens.) I am not complaining here, I see it as an opportunity for photographers like myself who charge, at the maximum, USD30 per image, and much lower on my epic Documentary Sessions.

Basically I am applying a wedding photography pricing structure to my family photo sessions in Hong Kong.

During my writing of my book on kids photography for parents in 2021, I got some scans from family albums from my own family. We have albums going back almost 150 years, which just seems incredible to type. My hope is that a few Hong Kong families will have albums I photographed still in one piece in 2175. Kids in Hong Kong today will be the Great Great Grandparents of those kids in 150 years. I take the long view with family photos, I think it’s safe to say. Below are a few samples from Taylor Family Photo Albums from 125+ years ago. (Quebec and the Ottawa Valley.) Also just some old family photos. The secret is, they were printed, it becomes a family heirloom, not a bunch of files.

“This frantic consumption has created a peculiar problem: photographers are producing more images, but they're being seen less. Your carefully composed street photography gets the same fleeting glance as someone's blurry photo of their breakfast. It's the ultimate levelling down, where everything becomes equally disposable.”

Here are some images from 135-year-old Taylor family albums. Why not leave something for your great great grandkids?

Questions About My Hong Kong Sessions? -> FAQ

Someday I want my photos to be as old the images above! Take the opportunity to document your Hong Kong family life, your story, in this vibrant city. Create a tangible reminder for future generations of your family.

And again, I quote:

“In a world where everything is optimized for maximum shareability, photobooks reward depth over virality; considered craft over algorithmic manipulation.”