Recently, I finished one of the best surprises I’d made in a while. I made a very basic story book with many edited pictures for a friend’s son. While the premise of the story was religious in nature, really I just wanted to try to make something that might be remembered fondly.

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After getting all the ideas compiled, I was pleasantly surprised to find out that Snapfish was offering something similar to what I wanted for a steal. I would have paid $100 per book, as I spent many, many hours editing the photos and trying to get the project to fit inside the confines of the finished book. I bought two copies, as I needed to ‘see’ it with my hands.

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It was a labor of love and it was something that I had a great deal of fun and moments of introspection doing it. I made dozens of pictures I discarded. Toward the end, I realized that I was letting myself get too far astray from the purpose of the story book – and from that realization, it was easy.

Here are pictures of the book once finished…

The book was a success with the child’s mom. I had so hoped it would be both a surprise and a treasure. So much of what I do is far from expectations. I sent the extra to her mother, the child’s grandmother, hoping it might be as well-received with her.

From there, I made a video version of the book and made it available to the mom digitally. It too was a success. I used a surprising song to provide the background music: Disturbed: The Sound of Silence.