A slideshow video is a video consisting of still images that each show for a brief period of time (i.e., not actual video footage). You have probably seen one of these playing at a funeral or celebration of life, but they are wonderful for many other occasions too, including graduations, retirement parties, weddings and anniversaries.  These videos can be simply images set to some music, or they can include a voiceover as well to make it more of a storytelling experience. 

Books can take 1-2 weeks or more than a year.

A simple book that is mostly images, with few words, can be created fairly quickly if it's needed for a special occasion. How quickly will depend on whether you preselect the images you want included or want me to go through a collection and choose the photos, and whether you want physical print copies or just need a digital book. (Having the book printed takes about a week, give or take, depending on where you live.)

A complete life story book can take several months to a year or more, depending on how comprehensive the content is, whether I interview you and do the writing or edit stories that you've written, how well organized your photo collection is, and other variables.

I like to have at least a week to create a simple slideshow video if you've preselected the photos (longer if I need to choose photos). However, these types of videos can be created faster when needed urgently for a funeral or celebration of life. If your slideshow video will include a voiceover, it will take to to a month to create, to allow time for writing/editing the script and recording the audio.

Organizing and digitizing a physical photo collection generally takes at least a month, and often much longer, depending on how large the collection is.

Note: All of the above times do not include any potential wait time before I get started. Sometimes my calendar is quite full and it may take a while before I am available to get started on your project.

Absolutely! While I do love combining words with photos because words often provide important context and help bring the stories behind the photos to life, I recognize that there are times when the images themselves are enough. YOU decide how many (or few) words you want to include in your book.

I specialize in creating books that combine photos and the stories that go with them. So, if you are looking to write a full-length memoir book with no (or very few) photos (printed like a paperback or hardcover "novel"), I am likely not the best person to help you with that. If you're open to making photos more of a feature in your book, reach out to me by email (stephanie@stephieandco.com) and we can discuss your vision further.

If you work with me to create a book about yourself and your stories, you can pay to have additional copies printed to give to others. You'll also receive a digital copy that you can share with anyone you like.

Another option is for you to work with me to create a gift book for someone else, where you share your memories, stories and photos of that person (i.e., the book is about them rather than you, but "authored" by you). You might even coordinate with other family members or friends to include their memories, stories and photos of that person as well. This makes a fabulous gift for birthdays, anniversaries, graduations, etc.

Yet another option is for you to pay for me to work with a family member or friend to compile their life story, i.e., gifting the experience of creating a book to someone else. For example, sometimes a child or grandchild wants a book created and the parent or grandparent does not have the budget to do it, but the child or grandchild does.

There are so many ways I can help you tell your stories and share your memories. How much it will cost depends on various factors such as whether you want a book or a video, how long the book or video is, how extensive the text portion is, whether you write the text or I do, whether you provide preselected photos or not, how many photos you want to include, whether your images need editing, whether you want a voiceover in your video, etc.

Or perhaps you want your photos organized and digitized—pricing for that depends on the number of photos you have; the format they're in (prints, slides, negatives); whether you want me to edit the photos, add metadata to make searches easier; and how you want the images stored and backed up.

That's why we always begin with a free discovery call. After that, I'll give you a price estimate based on the scope of work involved. To give you a ballpark idea of price, in general a simple, short photo book starts at CA$1,000 and slideshows start at CA$500 (but both can be significantly more and are, occasionally, less). For photo organizing and digitization, I charge per item for parts of the process and hourly for other parts. In general, photo organization projects tend to run in the thousands of dollars, not hundreds, although we can always start with a small segment of your collection first to give you the experience of what it's like to work with me before committing to the full project. I'm also open to working with you a bit at a time, to spread the cost of a big project out if your budget is limited.