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Everyone has a story to tell. Our great moments, favorite events, adventures, lovely memories… In other words, our own personal history as a journey through time. It is a remarkable feeling to see one's evolution from the past to the present, as a magical journey that comes to life in the most enchanting way. That is why, no matter how many years go by, people will keep a warm place in their hearts for photo albums.
Albums allow anyone to visualize a personal story or journey. Despite more modern technology, which enables us to store thousands of photos in small memory disks and devices, within a photo album, our entire story comes to life like watching a movie but also with the textual feedback of mementos and photos.
But it’s not necessary to have directing skills or to be a great writer to tell a personal story! Just following your imagination is enough to make the most of the incredible potential that a great photo album offers! Completing a scrapbook is more than keeping memories alive; it’s the very personal art of preserving memories!
1. A Good Narrative is Everything
Before start, keep in mind that a good narrative is everything. You need to think of the whole process as a story. Just as a filmmaker does by combining the available shots into a storyboard, you have to think that you will present all these memories that you have as a story with a beginning, a middle part, and a happy ending. For this reason, choose which pieces to show at the beginning, where do you want to lead the reader, and how do you want to end. Finally, what message do you want to send? Remember that sometimes a single album cannot include everything. You can create separate albums for each period or specific event of your life!
2. What is the Purpose of Your Photo Album
It is important, first and foremost, to clarify the purpose of your photo album. Is this something that will only concern you or something you want to keep as a legacy to future generations? It can, of course, be both! Above all, creating a photo album is a completely creative, mind-boggling process that offers a wonderful sense of accomplishment once you see the end result. An album may link the past to the future, but it is also a very powerful experience in the present that you should enjoy.
3. The Structure of History
First Step: Find the structure of history! Bring together the pieces of the photo album by clearly identifying the key parts of your story: beginning, middle, end. Think about it simply: when does your story begin, what are its key events, and when does it end? What is the evolution of its characters or heroes? As we said before you don't need to tell the whole story of your life from the beginning until now, but you can create individual photo albums for baby’s first year, pre-school/early childhood, school years to graduation, summer vacations, the wedding. There are many concepts to choose from, depending on the amount of content.
4. Break Down the Timeline
The next step is to break down the timeline. As in films, time is not presented linearly. So you can complete your photo album by reversing the time you consider it necessary for the benefit of the story you want to tell. For example, you can insert mini-stories from the past to explain something important in your current phase. This will give you much more freedom of movement and allow all of your storytelling ideas to develop in an interesting and engaging way.
5. The Power of Text
Writing powerful text or captions is pure and essential for every photo album! In addition to collecting your photos, adding text where you can use it has a very positive effect. There is no need to be big (you will decide this), but even small interventions such as headlines, a small introduction or a story, some comments, captions, etc can greatly complement the flow of your photos and give even more emphasis and life to the story you tell. Of course, the most valuable thing in a photo album is… the photos! That's why you can completely skip this idea and let the photos you choose to do the talking!
6. Don’t Forget the Mementos
After you have completed the previous steps, it's time to add some special mementos. You can indeed add even more to your story by using some lovable mementos from your adventures. For example tickets from a tour or a music event you went to, or a letter, a note, a small piece of a map of a place you visited, or an invitation! Everything can be an active part of the story you want to tell with your memory album! Why stay out of it, since they were actually parts of this story?
7. Find your Inspiration in Epica Photo Albums
These are just a few ideas to help you develop your most creative self and have a great time filling in some unique scrapbook But first of all, you need a photo album that will inspire you and will revitalize your interest to tell the stories you have lived. Discover the astonishing Photo Album Collections of Epica and find high quality artistically handmade photo albums with plenty of personalization options to give the most personal touch to your story. Explore our Italian leather photo albums, the wood cover albums, the vegan-friendly photo albums from environmentally friendly and sustainable materials, or the world’s largest photo albums which have an abundance of space to free your creativity!
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Thank you for the Story suggestion. I would think that dates of events are necessary.
I am 81 and my wife 77, and have been married for 56 years. But the album I am preparing covers 9years from when we first met ( me , Bob,16 and Yvonne 13 ) up to our wedding day.
Regards Bob Forster