Travel Photo Books: Begin at the End

Have you ever found yourself home from a great trip, wanting to make a photo book, but not sure where to start or overwhelmed by the enormity of the photos you took on your trip? You probably take many more photos while traveling than you do in your day-to-day life. You may even have an extra camera with you, not just your phone. Or perhaps you travel with friends and have their photos too. You want to make a book to commemorate and remember your trip, but where do you start?

I suggest you begin at the end.

Before you take your trip consider the following:

1. What are you most excited about? A specific site? Time with family?

2. If you have multiple cameras (either you or people you are traveling with) how will you share the photos on return?

3. Is there a theme to your trip? Beaches? City sites? National parks?

When I knew we would cross the Pacific Crest Trail in Washington, I put it on my must have picture list.

Then think about what your book might look like and the specific photos you want. Make a list. It does not have to be extensive, and I don’t want you to be stressing about getting each photo while on your trip. But the process of making the list helps you determine what the important parts of your vacation are, and will assist in capturing them on film.*

I have a trip coming up to the national parks in Utah. These are the photos I know I will want for my book:

1. Family photos with all four of us. See this post to see how I put myself in the picture and ensure that I get at least a few good full family photos every trip.

2. We’ll be visiting a lot of national and state parks, so I want photos of all of the park signs. Maybe with a kid or two in each one but that may depend on whether they feel like cooperating (teenagers!)

3. We’ll be doing a lot of hiking, so some trail photos for sure. I also always take pictures of the sign at the trailhead - this helps me remember where photos were taken, how long the hike was, and sometimes I use them in the books.

4. We’ll be meeting up with another family, so I know I’ll want a picture of all of the kids, and a picture of all of us together.

5. We are also taking one last college visit (decision time coming very soon😬) so I’ll want a photo of my son on campus.

This list took maybe 5 minutes to make. But the process of putting it together made me think about the photos I want to collect and will make my book-making quite a bit easier. I hate sitting down to put my photo book together and thinking, “I wish I had a photo of ____.”

Obviously I’ll have many many additional photos, including a whole lot of birds (hopefully!). But the photos listed above will form the basis of my book.

In a later post I’ll discuss how to organize these photos on the fly, to set you up for success when you are ready to make your book. For now, here are a few tips you can use to organize while you are on the road.

I absolutely love making photo books, so if you would like some help, let me know!

*I just realized what an outdated term “film” is!