Did you ever groan and cringe when you were younger when your parents told you to stand somewhere so they could take a photo? Did you reluctantly walk over and vaguely smile to make them happy? Or did you just refuse?

I used to cringe and say no and make a fuss. Today, I still cringe inside but I oblige (most of the time). I still wonder why my parents don't understand the value of candid shots though.

Many years ago, when I was still in primary school, a family friend gave my sister and I each a photo album. At the time I didn't want it - I didn't know what to do with it and I didn't want it taking up shelf space in my room. When I was young, my parents took lots of photos and put them into albums - they're all somewhere in the house, numbered from 1 to something like 10. But as I got older, my parents became busier with work and driving my sister and I around to go to school, to dance classes, to swimming classes etc. they just didn't have the time or energy to do so and as a result there's a gap in physically printed photos placed (that alliteration) in albums for a few years... until now.

The beginning of the 2015 print out and photo album compiling. This is the photo album that I was given and I filled it up pretty quickly actually.

In my high school years, especially the last few with our last everything and graduation and formal, I tried to take more photos because I felt a need to capture moments so I could look back and remember, even if it's to remember my 12vie self and how immature I looked (but hey, we all go through puberty and make it to the other side). It's not really making up for all those lost years where you refused to let your parents take photos of you and they gave up, but it's a start.

The final week of high school. Yes there were a lot of photos taken.

More end of Year 12 stuff featuring my flute and my friend's faces on the side.

For anyone wondering, I used a mixture of phone photos and DSLR photos that my friends took and put them all onto a USB before taking them to printing. I used to go to Kmart, who do instant 4x6 prints for 20c, 1hr wait ones for 15c and 24hr ones for 10c. Now I go to Officeworks since they do 10c prints but if you're unlucky and the printer jams then you might be waiting a while like I was.

Pro-tip: Officeworks does cheap prints, but put them into folders of 200 because that's the max you can do in a single transaction. Trust me, I learnt the hard way after tapping to deselect 60 photos.

My Law Revue KK gave me a photo album of all the photos we sent in our WhatsApp group and a whole lot more. I just filled up the rest with my photos from law revue.

Spread of shots from The Blunder Games - Catching Liars Dress Run. I actually think it's really pretty and it makes me happy to look at it.

The photos I printed used to go through a selection process - all of them happy, smiling, almost perfect. The last batch that I printed (all 314 of them) didn't have as heavy a filter - a lot of them are random selfies, friends goofing around, laughing and generally being silly while also looking gorgeous. I'm grateful that I can one day flick through the album and remember all the wonderful moments, because memory is never reliable - it only holds your truth.

I organise them in chronological order - but it jumps a bit since Law Revue is its own album which fits right in the middle of my newest photo album (chronologically speaking). But that's okay - I love being able to write little notes in the Memo section.

The birthday dinner with Law Revue fam spread + Rhonda's birthday karaoke in the bottom right corner.

Putting all the photos away makes me happy, and it's nice to be able to look through them. I'd love to make a scrapbook one day, but unfortunately that is too time consuming at the moment. Although when I become a mother I think I'll be putting a lot of time into making photo albums and/or scrapbooking. That's if I actually have any free time, and my track record for free time isn't that great.

The new photo album I bought on Friday from Target for $15! I found another one at Big W for $8 but I liked this one better. About time I got around to putting away the other hundred-and-something photos. ^_^

Yeah formal (with some of my faves) didn't quite fit into the first one.

Artsy Project count (as mentioned in this post): one down, quite a few more to go.

The final beautiful spread in my newest photo album... for now. Features shenanigans at BSOC Ball with the Law Revue crew.

How do you capture moments - is it through photos, vlogs, snapchats or something else? Let me know in the comments below. (Also if you have other questions just ask away!)

With love, Sarah x