The Storybook Wedding Album
Anyone who is an advocate for reading knows that every good story must have a beginning, middle and end. Depending on the type of story you read most will have a plot with some kind of twist to keep the reader interested in the story. Movies follow the same basic pattern with the visual impact to captivate the audience. I myself am not much of a reader, but one author who is able to capture my attention long enough to finish a novel, is Wilbur Smith. He writes with descriptive words that create a visual perception of the story as it unfolds. I am a visual person and I create stories through a visual medium, namely photography. The true measure of a photographer is not their ability to capture the shot; it is their ability to tell a story with each shot that they take. The content captured within a photo must be able to tell a story and a series of photos should become a completed novel.
The presentation of the photos is just as important as the wedding day itself. With the digital age photo presentations have become a lot more creative than the traditional photo presentations. With the traditional method photographs are mounted into albums that can accommodate either two horizontal or two vertical photo layouts with an option of using a greater number of smaller photographs to complete the album. This sort of layout would follow a chronological order from the beginning of the wedding to the end. One can create beautiful layouts accompanied by a beautiful album design to create a memorable presentation of your wedding day.
Breaking away from the traditional approach opens up new avenues that are far more creative. Take your favourite magazine and have a page through it, make sure it is a quality magazine. Take a look at the layout of the pictures and note how there are a lot more design elements that lead your eye. The storybook wedding album breaks away from the treatment of pictures as individual entities and groups them together with similar images bound by a theme rather than a chronological order.
The photographer is doing a lot more than just recording an event, he is creating a story. The storybook wedding album compliments the images of a wedding photojournalist perfectly. The page design is endless and there is no limit to the number of images that can be put on a single page. In some cases text is used sparingly to enhance the overall feel. The storybook allows the photographer to tailor each album to meet the specific requirements of each wedding. Albums will vary in style and design as they can be tailored to fit the individual needs of the bride.
Let’s go back to your favourite magazine. This time picture it as your very own wedding album. To create a scenario I am going to use someone who is getting married on the beach. In the traditional method all the photos would focus solely on your wedding as it unfolds on the day. In the story book or wedding photojournalist style a lot more is recorded than just the wedding day. Think about the beach. Sea shells, waves crashing against the rocks, dolphins swimming in the wake, soft sand between your toes and the picturesque sunset with a glass of wine. These featured pictures can be incorporated into the wedding album design making your wedding something a little more special.
The traditional layout is more like an essay that narrates the story and the storybook layout is more like a novel that illuminates the story with a plot.
Photo Credit: www.bridebox.com
