Your photos deserve better than a hard drive
Family photo album Geneva, this is something I talk about with every single one of my clients. Because I believe it deeply: your photos deserve to live somewhere real. Not buried in a cloud. Not forgotten on a hard drive that will one day crash. Not scrolled past on a phone screen between two Instagram posts.
They deserve to sit on your shelf. To be picked up on a rainy Sunday afternoon. To be shown to grandparents, to children, to children’s children.
A commitment to the environment
Choosing a Floricolor album is also a choice for the planet. This is something that matters deeply to me, and it is one of the reasons I chose them as my exclusive partner.
All paper used in Floricolor albums comes from ecologically managed forests and carries the FSC® certification seal, meaning every tree used is part of a sustainably managed forest. Their printing process uses water-based inks, with no chemicals or heavy metals involved. They have also eliminated almost all plastic from their packaging, and they recycle and reuse all boxes that come through their lab.
As Floricolor’s CEO Tiago Yu has said, “We have a duty to future generations to do everything we can to reduce our environmental impact.”
I feel exactly the same way. Preserving memories and preserving the planet are not in conflict with the right partner, they go hand in hand.
The album process – honest and complete
I want to be transparent with you about one thing: a beautiful album takes time. Here is exactly what the process looks like.
Step 1 — Choosing your photos
After your session, once your gallery is delivered, we select together the images that will go into your album. This is already a beautiful moment, revisiting your memories, choosing the ones that matter most.
Step 2 — Design
This is the part that requires me to be in the right headspace and I will be honest, I wait until I have a creative day to design your album. Because I refuse to rush it. The layout, the rhythm of the pages, the way one image leads to the next, it matters. A well-designed album tells a story. A rushed one just shows photos.
Step 3 — Your validation
Once the design is ready, I send it to you for approval. You can request changes, move images, adjust layouts. Only when you are completely happy do we proceed.
Step 4 — Production at Floricolor
Once ordered and paid, Floricolor takes approximately one month to produce your album in Portugal. Good things take time and I would rather wait for perfection than rush a mediocre result.
Step 5 — Quality control
When the album arrives at my door, I check every single page. Every print, every binding, every detail. If something is not right, it goes back. This has happened. I have no regrets about it.
Step 6 — Delivery to your home
And then comes the part where I must be honest with you: delivery to your home is where I sometimes lack speed. My clients have noticed. I know it. I am working on it. 😊
But here is what I also know: when that album finally arrives, and you open it for the first time, the gasp, the tears, the children immediately wanting to flip through it, it is worth every week of waiting. Seeing your family’s story printed on beautiful paper, in your hands, real and tangible, that moment never gets old for me either.
What fits in a photo album
Every session I offer can become an album. Weddings, civil ceremonies, family sessions, maternity, newborn, couple portraits if we have photographed it together, it deserves to live beyond a screen.
Some of my favourite albums are the unexpected ones: a multi-generation family reunion, a beach session with toddlers, a newborn’s first weeks of life. These are the albums that get pulled off the shelf most often. The ones with sticky fingerprints on the pages. The ones that matter.
A note from me
I talk about albums to every client because I mean it. Not as a sales pitch. As a photographer who has seen too many beautiful sessions end up forgotten on a phone.
Your family is growing. Time is passing. The version of your child that exists today, the gap-toothed smile, the tiny hands, the way they tilt their head, will be gone before you know it.
Print it. Put it on your shelf. Pick it up on a rainy Sunday.
That is what I am here for.
Mathilde Ballet is a family and wedding photographer based in Geneva, Switzerland. To enquire about a session or a custom photo album, get in touch here.
