Inspiration articles

Young girl in front of sunflowers blowing out 5th birthday candle on cupcake
10 important milestones to celebrate

To recreate memories, celebrate our favorite occasions, or to share the best moments of our lives with those we love. Here’s why we preserve our milestones in print.

Canvas hanging in home
Elevate your home style with Canvas Prints

Canvas prints offer the perfect balance of chic sophistication and personal touch. Complement your home with this timeless trend.

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Drone photography 101

Create and capture new memories with the help of a drone. This exciting, fun way of taking photos is more accessible than ever.

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Top 50 MILK moments of 2021

We've rounded up our most-loved photos from our community. Discover the 2021 moments that inspired us.

Open Portrait Premium Photo Book of woman on a boat
8 spectacular 30th birthday gift ideas

Looking for a unique and thoughtful 30th birthday gift? We've got 8 timeless and creative 30th birthday gift ideas.

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How to make a portfolio

Discover our complete guide to creating a stand-out professional portfolio.

Picture frame on white table next to indoor potted plant
Heartfelt bereavement gifts

Bereavement gifts can be a comfort to loved ones experiencing loss. Let us help you create loving bereavement gifts with MILK.

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5 best photo editing apps

Five photo editing apps you need on your iPhone or Android to create a photo book or album of your cherished memories.

White Leather Photo Album inside Presentation Box with black ribbon
7 unforgettable 21st birthday gift ideas

Turning 21 is a huge milestone. Make it memorable with a personalized gift that will endure. Here are some 21st birthday gift ideas that are sure to be loved.

Young girl planting flowers in home garden
6 fun photo projects to try with kids

Looking for new ways to entertain your children? Here are 6 fun photo projects that you can work on together at home.

Open photo book with travel photo
16 inspiring photo book ideas

Get inspired with these 16 unique photo book ideas inspired by members of our MILK Community.

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Why we take photos

To recreate a feeling, to create memories, to share our lives with those we love. We explore why we take photos and why is preserving them so important.

Open photo book with photos of couple on beach
6 reasons to buy custom gifts

Custom gifts are perfect for thoughtful gift-giving. Discover the top 6 reasons why you should buy a tailored gift next time the occasion calls for it.

Portrait family yearbook with pregnancy photos
14 photo book ideas for Christmas

Get inspired with thoughtful gift giving this holiday season. From yearbooks to recipe books, give the gift of shared memories this Christmas.

Open photo album with father and son
Inside the MILK team's projects

Go behind our team's books and discover what moments we're preserving in MILK.

Photo book held in hands
4 ideas for a meaningful gift

For a gift from the heart, try designing and printing shared memories. Create something you know will be treasured forever.

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Tips and tricks to photographing fall

Discover our guide to capturing fall, from the small moments spent snuggled by the fire to the amazing scenes out in nature.

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How to make space for moments of joy

Helpful tips for decluttering your living space and focusing on what's really important to you.

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Why I'm taking a photo a day

Photographer Clair shares why she's taking a photo a day, what it's taught her and get her advice for starting a challenge of your own.

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Caylee Grey: Why I Create

Caylee Grey of Get Messy Art shares her creative inspirations with us and tells us why she's made preserving memories a priority.

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5 unique book ideas from our community

We've all heard of the traditional photo albums that line ones shelves. Let us introduce you to the little known wonders that everyone should be creating.

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Tips and tricks to photographing spring

Spring is the perfect time to get outside with your camera. Here are our tips and tricks to capturing those great spring moments.

black white image of a girl jumping.
Photography tips from our community

Tips from our community of photography lovers to help you get the most out of every moment.

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How to capture everyday life's beauty

Our guide to photographing the beautiful little details of your day-to-day.

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MILK Inspiration Series

The MILK Inspiration Series is here to inspire your next project.

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Book of the Month runners up

We couldn't let these customer projects go unseen, so we've decided to showcase our amazing runners up for Book of the Month.

Colorful yellow and pink art print in a photo book
Creative books by you

Everyone has the ability to make art. All you need is a blank canvas and a drive to create. Let these customer works inspire your next work of art.

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Milestone albums by you

At MILK, we believe in celebrating those big moments, those milestone events. Let these customer-made milestone albums inspire your own.

Woman and small dog read large square photo book with black and white dog photos
How to make the perfect pet album

At first look, you knew your beloved pet was the one. Here are 5 tips to celebrating your furry friends with a pet book or album.

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How to take great photos on your phone

We've put together our top tips for capturing your best travel moments on your phone. A must-read for every traveller and every smartphone user.

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Love stories by you

Few things bring us more joy than seeing the beautiful moments of love our customers preserve. Here are some love of their stories.

Arisaema angustatum from Bloom, 2006.
Ron Van Dongen

Growing plants and flowers has always been part of my life, as long as I can remember. I must have been five or six, sowing my first batch of some simple annual; I remember looking each day at the lit…

Shellfish Walls, Chausey Islands, France, 2007.
Michael Kenna

I was the youngest of six children in a working-class Catholic family. There was no tradition of art among my family. I think I took pictures in my mind from when I was a child, but my first serious e…

Monochrome photo of boys playing baseball on a street in Cuba
Ernesto Bazan

I went to Cuba in 1992 and it was love at first sight, for the island and the people. I realized after a few trips that Cuba reminded me so much of my wonderful childhood in Sicily. Time had stopped i…

Dark photo of many red roses in a large bunch
Guido Mocafico

It is the sum of little influences in my life that made me turn into a photographer. When I was about fifteen or sixteen I was influenced by seeing the movie Blow-Up by...

Curly haired child drumming with straight expression on wooden table
Loretta Lux

I trained as a painter and love paintings, but I found that the physical aspect of the medium did not suit me. I did not like the messiness of handling pigments, oil and turpentine. I still think like…

Federico Fellini on the Set of Satyricon, Rome, Italy, 1969.
Mary Ellen Mark

I’ve done photography my whole working life. It is what I do. I used to like it a lot but it has changed a lot. I like the idea of being able to capture a moment in time, but all that has changed now…

Elephant swimming in clear blue water
Steven Bloom

I’ve been passionate about photography for most of my life, although I originally trained as a printer. I responded to and thought about photography from the age of eight, when I first picked up a Box…

Untitled #49 from Composition as Explanation, 2004.
Victor Schrager

I have been seduced by photography since I made my first prints in sixth grade. I printed negatives my father sent me from his travels around the world—the South American jungle, the Kremlin, Africa.…

Sketch of a t-shirt on cardboard colored paper
Adam Fuss

When I was young I think I looked at science to explain the world around me, and at some point in my early teenage years it failed to do that for me; and then the arts became a medium...

Photo of various layers of red paint up close
Art Wolfe

I started painting as a young man and graduated from the University of Washington with a degree in painting with a watercolor emphasis. I know this background affected the way I approach...

Ocean colored seal amongst seaweed on dark background
David Doubilet

It seems like I have spent my entire life beneath the surface. I first looked underwater when I was eight years old. I took my first successful picture when I was twelve. From my earliest memory there…

Three boys with a man bending over to take a photo in a cement walled room in South Africa
David Goldblatt

I had wanted to become a magazine photographer when I matriculated in 1948. However, at that time there was virtually no magazine photography in South Africa. For a short while I apprenticed...

Misty forest with lush trees photographed from inside dark tunnel
Duane Michals

I didn’t go to photography school. I never wanted to be a reportage photographer or anything like that, and I became a photographer by accident. I borrowed a camera on a trip to Russia...

Monochrome photo of a group of six children looking at camera
Elliot Erwitt

I started out just taking pictures. I was fifteen and a half. They were pictures of the neighbors, friends, and so forth. Eventually I got into it more. It became a career and I’ve been doing it ever…

Flamenco woman stands against beige wall with head merged inside the wood in sunlit home
Erwin Olaf

I started out as a photojournalist when there was a lot of unemployment. To get work I volunteered to shoot for various groups. I also assisted a photographer. I learned how to print a kilo...

Monochrome photo of old Indian woman wearing a light hood wrap
Fazal Sheikh

It is one thing to photograph a group of people, it is another to try to understand them. For that you need time, and patience, and an innate respect for difference – the gulf between your own religio…

Photo of clutch purse made from raspberries with silver clasp
Fulvio Bonavia

I started my career as a hyper-realistic illustrator, working by hand on advertising and film posters. When the computers became faster and more popular, I moved my skills...

Monochrome photo of young girl sitting on diner counter while eating messily
Graham Nash

I have been making images longer than I’ve been making music. I was ten years old when my father showed me the magic that photography represents. I have never, ever forgotten that feeling:...

Multiple photo grid of chimpanzees in different shades
James Mollison

I developed intuitively. Through accidents, luck, and love of photography I’ve come to this point. I have always been more interested by how the world works than by fiction or the supernatural. My wor…

Chimpanzee on white background
Jill Greenberg

What’s driving me in how my images look? It reflects what I am feeling at a particular time, and the reality of the world I live in, even the day-to-day light. When I moved to California...

Scrappy neighborhood street blocked by old fencing next to vintage car
Joel Meyerowitz

I connect to things in a visceral way. There are things that surprisingly move me and often I am shocked at the unpredictable character of these things. The camera is a reflex for me, it rises...

Pale woman in beige wrapped outfit clasping hands standing against dark background
Joyce Tenneson

I started with an interest in all the arts—literature, painting, sculpture, design—but photography was the one that allowed me to use my creativity in the best way. I love people and I love being able…

Dark haired woman crosses arms standing in lush green park field with surrounding trees
Lauren Greenfield

I did not start with just photography and I am not ending up with it, as I make films as well, but it has been the dominant expression for me. I went to Harvard, not art school, and studied social stu…

Greek Holocaust Survivors' Arms, Queens, New York, 2005.
Mark Seliger

I always start from the place of an idea. I don’t walk into a photoshoot without an idea at hand, a possibility of where I want to go – perhaps just the format and the energy, or perhaps something rea…

Wide shot of pale blue beach with thousands of swimmers and beach loungers
Massimo Vitali

I had two 4x5 cameras that I used for jobs and they were stolen from a car in Milan when I went for lunch. All they left was the big bag with the 8x10. I hadn’t used it then, but it was like a sign of…

Burned Jeffrey Pine Forest and Tephra Flow Looking Southeast, Highway 120 at Right, Mono Basin, California.
Michael Light

I am a photographer because I’ve been one for so long now that it’s all I know. It’s thus by default what I’m best at. The more time passes the greater my admiration for other professions, more concre…

Iowa 80 Truckstop, Walcott, Iowa, 2008.
Mitch Epstein

I made my first pictures as a seventeen-year-old student at a traditional New England boarding school. I volunteered to edit the yearbook, and the job led me to my medium by...

Man and woman kissing - For Benetton campaign, 1991.
Oliviero Toscani

I am more of an “imaginator” than an old-school photographer. To be a photographer today you must think of your image and then produce it. I am not a reporter. I imagine the image that...

Man covering mouth with wrap wearing dark outfit points to his head
Peggy Sirota

I was working at a clothing store, living in Los Angeles – no training or involvement with photography at the time. I was complaining about the money I was making to a friend of mine...

Masked man holding small axe in street - Escort Kama, Enugu, Nigeria, 2008.
Pieter Hugo

Sometimes I look at my work and how people read it, and it has no relationship to what I might have experienced in taking the picture or what I might get from it. There’s no absolute truth in what a p…

Ozzy Osbourne crying facing camera
Platon

Coming from a graphics background was the best thing for my photography: it taught me to appreciate design and to understand where art directors are coming from. In many ways, I....

Woman lying by lamp - Untitled, 2007.
Ralph Gibson

I had a vocation. I knew my destiny by the time I was eighteen. I was in the navy, standing on a ship crossing the Atlantic, standing guard at three in the morning in a storm, and I was miserable and…

Grid of four monochrome photos of a boy as he ages into adulthood
Steve Pyke

I have always been uncomfortable with the phrase “taking pictures.” I think it’s all wrong. Mostly I think there is an understanding that takes place during a portrait session between the photographer…

Bat with light from above highlighting details within its thin wings
Tim Flach

Taking a picture was initially an almost voyeuristic thing. At the beginning I was not given the opportunity to do big projects, but I would be commissioned to go and photograph somebody...

Lily and Spiral Staircase, Whadwhan, Gujarat, India, 2005.
Tim Walker

As a child I loved picture books and at school I looked at fashion magazines a lot – they were comics of photography for me. Fashion photography seemed the only photography...

Ficus religiosa on off-white background
Adam Broomberg Oliver Chanarin

We are photographers with doubts. When we first started, we were working in a more traditional mode – we thought of ourselves as documentarians, producing socially concerned...

Child holding small portrait photo book while seated
Photo books and albums made by you

Every day, hundreds of precious memories are preserved in beautiful MILK Photo Books. Here are some of our favorites to inspire your next project.

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