Compiling Photos

I want to jump right into this series of five ways of keeping those vacation memories alive, and share with you today what may seem like an obvious DIY... Don't worry it's still good!

With the widespread use of digital photography, printing photos seems to have gotten lost somewhere in the technological shuffle.  I know I'm guilty of it.  You go somewhere, you take loads of pictures and they either sit on your memory card, or in a lonely old file on your computer.  This time around I wanted to nip this in the bud and put together a photo album to be able to look back on.  So here is what I've come up with for our Paris 2012 story....

The first thing we did after we caught up on sleep and got organized and had clean underwear to wear, was head on over to our local photo store to drop off some film and print off our digital photos.  This alone can be an obstacle to getting those photos in your hands since the process of printing off your pictures can seem daunting.  But it only has to be done once and in the end it's worth the sorting through.  I don't know about you, but seeing all the wonderful things you've captured on your camera in an actual tangible photo is one of the best mementos from a trip. 

After we brought our photos home, I rounded up all my materials to start putting together our album.  I had a vintage photo album (untouched) laying around just waiting to be filled, so I was thrilled to get going on this first DIY.

Since this album does not have the sticky back pages, I bought adhesive corners to apply the photos to the album pages. I kept it simple with black corners, since I wanted the pictures to really stand out.  I also wanted to somehow label the photos so I fished out my stamp kit and some white iridescent ink to label some of the pages.

Depending on what kind of story you want to tell in your album (ie chronological, thematic) sort your photos in categories.  So if you've decided to display your photos chronologically lets say by day, sort your photos accordingly.  I decided to have four "chapters" in my album, each having their own intro page.  This is a huge help in compiling your photo album and gives others a better sense of what you saw on your trip.

To kick of my album I wanted a picture that would best represent our story.  I really liked this picture of Clayton and I  taken on top of a very tall ferris wheel and thought it was a good introduction to the rest of our photos. Then I added the title, simply Paris 2012.  I've put albums together in the past that were very personal, with inside jokes, a few journal entries and stuff that other people just wouldn't get. So this time around I wanted a photo album that we were able to share with friends and family, so my aim with this is to keep it simple and clean.

Next is layout. Chose pictures within each category that make sense together and that compliment one another. This will help bring interest to your photography, and may even spark conversation with your "readers". After all you are trying to tell a story with your pictures so help them do the talking.

Finally to add a little 'je ne sais quoi' to your album, include a quote, poem, song lyric or saying that you enjoy and that works with the theme of your book. Stick it on the last page to sum up your adventures. This will add impact to your album and give your reader an even clearer idea of what you've experienced. In the end you want your photo album to be meaningful so that when you pick it up ten years from now, you will look at your pictures with fondness and happiness.

If you are less inclined to craft, you always have the option to create a photo book.  I really like the book choices available at Pinhole Press, and their price points are very reasonable.  This would be a quick way to put your vacation story together in an organized way.

So now's the time! If you have pictures from a vacation you took a year ago, get your supplies out from the cupboard and your photos printed and follow these easy steps to relive those vacation memories with a fun photo album.