They say a picture says a thousand words and the best is to enliven it through photograph itself. In this digital age, many of us considers to save those memories on our hard drives or on our laptops but for someone like me who went crazy thinking how to retrieve thousands of photos and files from a broken hard drive, I thought of having those photos printed. Then again, another problem struck me in, how would I manage these photos if I print them all?
One day, I went to a mall and came across a small booth of Picturebooks Philippines (http://www.picturebooks.com.ph/new/) offering Photo Albums printed in a hard cover or soft covers, matte or glossy paper of your choice. I am not paid nor been ask by Picturebooks Philippines to advertise for them, there are a lot of photo book companies online and this is a matter of personal choice.
And as for me, I kinda like the quality of these photo books. My exact preference for a printed photos much like of a magazine. I downloaded a free application so I can arrange the photos for myself the way I like it, the way I want it to be printed and from then on, I am on my 5th printed album altogether. What is more exciting for me is to do the cover photos, it leaves me so much room to be creative and unique on every photo album I created. It allows me to go crazy, think of something unique whenever I travel because I am certain enough that I need a good photograph on my photo book covers! This is where the post travel excitement goes.
True, I have not been around the world but I am certainly getting there! Armed with my backpack and camera in tow, what is best to relieve your greatest travel moments is through printed photographs.
Photo book No. 1: Japan (this is definitely not the last)
On cover photo and album: Sakura or Cherry Blossoms. Japan is the first foreign country I ever visited and actually lived for 2 years, so typically I have so many things to think and described about the land I called my second home. But for me, the Sakura is the best Photo I can think of when I was arranging the photos for this album. And for creative reasons, I tried to plot an entire photo for a cover album where at 1 page a single branch of a Sakura is poking from the side but when one actually opens the album an entire bundle of Sakura can be seen. Again, I am a sucker for details and uniqueness.
Photo book No. 2: India
On cover photo and album: Taj Mahal. What more to describe India is through the iconic Taj Mahal? And to add uniqueness to this album, I have again spread an entire photo to a cover, laid the Taj Mahal on the center as if you only see half of the image in one page.
Photo book No. 3: Hong Kong
On photo cover and album: Nan Liang Garden. Hong Kong is the first foreign country I visited solo this 2014 and since much of the country is modern city and much of photos I have seen is its cityscape, and friend and I went to Nan Liang Garden for a little piece and quite from the city buzz and a little taste of its culture and tradition. The cover is the center pagoda from Nan Liang Garden, photo taken around 2 in the afternoon with sun striking down the golden pavillion with its red bridge with many bonsai trees of thousand years old surrounding the garden.
Photo book No. 4: Malaysia
On photo cover and album: Melacca. On my quick get away to Malaysia, I made sure I will visit the Historic State, a UNESCO World Heritage Site. And I thought of having the site as the main cover of this album. When I spotted a family walking along the banks of the river, while I was on the opposite side (across) the river, I waited patiently for them to walk on the specific area and framed them on my camera to give view of a family walking, talking and enjoying the sites, the March heat and Melacca River scent.
Photo book No. 5: South Korea
On photo cover and album: Gyeongbok Palace. What made this trip so special is I’ve got to meet a friend after more than 5 years and I was in love with so much color and details of the Gyeongbok Palace. Though much of the area are only reconstructed but the effort they have put into these details is never to be missed. I have choose many photos to be printed in one page because I framed some unique scenes that I knew I would never be able to framed it even I go back a hundred times. For the cover photo, I opted to plot an entire details of the roof of the main gate of Gyeonbok Palace in such a way that on 1 page a soft details can be seen.
