Relive your holiday time and again!

Your holiday forms a story.  Go back over it.  Share it.  Enjoy it for many years. Whether it is a three weeks adventure on a cruise, trek or a visit to an exotic location or a three day break on a budget airline , you have plenty  of material to make a very interesting book, a book to which you go to, or share round your friends and family immediately – or in years to come.  We recommend OPUSalbums.com (we would, wouldn’t we?). 

There is no need to cower over a VDU, pass round a laptop, look through 100’s of unnecessary pictures.  And there is no need to worry about technological obsolescence or hardware failure either.  

A quick album is ideally made using Fotoslate4.  Indeed we do not recommend our flagship dg Foto Art for normal holiday albums.  Unless you are showing of your photographic or artistic skills then the best album is one with photo gloss paper.  For that we have          

-        OPUSalbums Print&Bind   - the easy-to-use economical album standard      

- OPUSalbums PhotoArt - the superior album with card museum board covers and double sided archival acid free art or textured paper 

-        OPUSalbums Pics Book – with Olmec double sided photo gloss paper If you are showing off photos then we recommend either the Photo Art album or the Pics book - in both cases with Innova's double sided smooth cotton hgiht white archival paper. The Pics Book option presupposes that you have a Pics Book binding machine – the Unibind XU138 – a worthwhile investment if you are making a lot of books. 

(For more go to "Choose the right album for your Holiday Pictures") 

Whilst talking about vacations don’t forget another couple of ideas 

1. 1.  The Photo accordion – print a few highlights of your vacation for your friends and family.

 

2.The Postcard or Greeting Card – print your own cards – a good way to communicate especially if you have a big network.

  

  

  

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For more holiday album ideas - not just from OPUSalbums. check out the "Holiday Album Blog" - on Wordpress

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 Ten Tips to make a turn a Vacation to a life time Memory

OPUS Album Tip 1

Do it NOW whilst your memory is fresh.

OPUS Albums Tip 2

 Feature people.  People make a vacation – and you will want to remember them.  Note down their names, home town, e-mail address etc and add it to the file record (and when you print the album put it in the titile).  Add them to your Christmas card list – which you will probably print yourself anyway with OPUS!

OPUS Albums Tip 3

Have your own viewpoints. 

Get the views that the guide books don’t have

-                     That particular sunset that only you saw

-                     The local fête that you stumbled upon

-                     The sea/beach as it was

-                     The lines and reflections in the sand

-                     The meals you enjoyed

-                     Nature in action

-                     The unusual viewpoint/perspective

-                     You/your partner (or both) in the picture

-                     The wide view (use wide-angle)

-                     The detail (use telephoto or macro) – but remember that you can always crop later.

-                     The particular surroundings

-                     Pictures before you left

-                     Pictures when you were back home

Take plenty of pictures so don’t be short of memory capacity  - a portable viewer with 20 or more GB is a worthwhile addition.  If you take a lot of high-res/RAW pictures even an 8GB card won’t be enough!

OPUS Albums Tip 4

Think before taking  Don’t make picture taking a burden – but ensure that:-

                     the flash settings are right,

-                     there isn’t anything to distract (unwanted people, vehicles)

-                     you have something for the foreground (take a red bag or jersey with you)

-                     that you have something to rest on (especially if light is poor, or you are taking long distance.

Of course a lot can be changed later.  Thank God for Photoshop!  Cropping – deleting unwanted detail, changing the light etc – but a little thought will save a lot of work.  

 OPUS Albums Tip 5

Be in the picture.  If somebody offers to take a picture of both of you – accept – but think “Does this person know how to take a photo”.  If in doubt get close together otherwise the picture will be focussed on the background between the two of you. 

OPUS Albums Tip 6

Jot down the notes for a story –  You should have a story behind the album so whilst you are going along jot down the happenings – and the places (as well as the people – see above”.  Otherwise you will be saying “Was that Mt Forbes or Mt Lyall?” afterwards. 

 

OPUS Albums Tip 7

Add other textural or graphic material   - The airline tickets, menus, guide book and website pictures, historical or interesting facts (from the web), postcards etc.  Some of the pictures will be those that you could not get (the landscape on a perfect day, when for you it was raining, inside a castle where photography was prohibited etc).Don’t forget to add a map or two – or the area using Google Earth.

 

OPUS Albums Tip 8

Edit the photos carefully when you get home.  The more adept with Photoshop etc the better of course, but you don’t need to be an expert.  Many editors (including the one with FotoSlate 4).

 

OPUS Albums Tip 9

Layout the album by subject – Make it flow – keep the material together – whilst chronology is important, the subject mater is more so, especially if you spent several days in the same place.    Make sure that it is balanced – not too much on one aspect – but not too little either.  Cover the whole vacation – from before you left till you were back home.

Use a good album layout program – We recommend Fotoslate 4 – it helps with layout.  However if you are into scrapbooking a program like Nova Scrapbook Factory may be better.  However don’t make the result messy.  Embellish your album but don’t overdo it.  

 

OPUS Albums Tip 10  Write a good story.  Have a balance of textual and photographic material – and make the story interesting.  Add facts, anecdotes etc.  Not too much or you will never read the story. It might be a good idea to use the reverse side of the album page for the story and low quality pictures (e.g. from the web).  Warning – not all reverse sides of photo paper are suitable. Finally - Enjoy yourself – don’t make heavy weather of the album.   After all you are doing it for your own pleasure too!

 

 PS – And don’t forget to tell the other guests about OPUS Albums – and have them register with us quoting your e-mail address!

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 And if you want more than albums 

Take the best 8 or 10 pictures, make up a Photo Accordion – and send round to your friends and family.

 

Take your best photo and make up a greeting card – a post card or – if the subject matter fits – a Christmas card - or (as in this picture) an invitation card.