I’m researching some extra information to add to my Margaret River trip pages.  On the first day of our visit, we drove down to the Leeuwin Lighthouse, the tallest mainland lighthouse in Australia, and took a tour where we climbed all the way to the top.  The views at the top took what breathe we hadn’t already lost climbing, clean away.

For the album, I wanted to record how tall it was along with other interesting facts. I found a great website about Western Australian lighthouses that had a little table of information that was just what I wanted.  But – could I copy it and include it in my pages?

At the bottom of the web page I found their copyright information and by complying with their conditions, I can copy the table onto my page (large red arrow). As part of the credit, under the table I put the URL of the source (short red arrow).

Then I needed to go to my Credits page at the back of the album and add the information necessary to comply with their Terms of Use.

In this case, I need to have a copy of the copyright statement printed with the document.  The first line (red arrow) repeats the URL and the title of the page where the table is used and the rest of the text is their required statement.

Most websites have Copyright or Terms of Use information deep down the bottom of their pages or on an About page.  If you can’t find any statements then the very least you can do is to add a URL to the bottom of the image you are using and on your credits page list the page by giving the name of the site, the URL and the date you accessed the page.

(For more tips on photo usage, head over to SumScrapper for advice from professional photographer Sonya.)

I like to make albums and photobooks with themes – weddings, trips, life so far for the grandkids – that sort of thing. But I also prefer to make the individual pages myself using scrapbooking techniques as this gives me more creative freedom.   But these take longer than just opening up the photobook software and shoving in pictures and adding a dash of text.  So, when a great special comes along from a favorite photobook company with a short time limit, I’m never ready! One came in just this morning, a buy one get one free, but it is only good for a fortnight.  Can I do 40 pages in 14 days the way I want them?  Nooooooo….  So once again I promise myself I will ‘BE PREPARED‘.

Here’s my plan:

1. Decide on my theme  (first cab off the rank is our trip to Margaret River)
2. Organise photos (get them into time taken order, cull the bad ones, decide which ones deserve a full photopage spread…)
3. Choose my page size, shape, style… (A4, landscape)
4. Plan the look  ( master background page using a picture of some fallen gum leaves – Margaret River has lots of eucalypt forests, and I’m working on some simple embellishments to go in blank spots)
5. Gather extras (scan things like tickets and brochures, hunt down interesting facts about the places visited to add to the story…)
6. Prepare the pages
7. Wait for the next great special to come along and
8. Put the book together and place the order!

I don’t plan to pre-prepare the book because you just never know who is going to offer a special. But if the pages are ready, then it won’t take long to load them and work up a cover.

Now I just have to listen to my own advice and stick to the plan. Right now I am at Step 4.

If you like my Margaret River background, you can download it free here.  It is A4 size but you can trim it to fit your own needs.

Enjoy!

Start off by creating a folder called Originals and inside that create a folder for each of your photographers. Load their images into their own folders. Now create a new folder called Combined and copy each set of photos into it. There is every chance that some of the names will be the same so if your software alerts you to this, make sure you choose the rename file option so you don’t lose any images due to overwriting.

(Windows 7)

From here on, only work on images in the Combined folder.  If you mess things up, you can always go back and get new copies.

Next, sort the combined images by Date Taken (not Date Created – more on that another time).

In Windows you can add this field to your Details view by right clicking in the table titles row (1) and selecting  Take Taken (2) from the pop-up list. When this is coulmn is showing, click on ‘Date Taken’ in the top row to sort the files in ascending order, first taken to last taken.

That’s it for the short way to go about organising the gang’s photos.  The longer ways include adding the name of the photographer to the data properties of their images and renaming the collection for ease of sorting and adding to your final book or album.  I’ll address these in later posts.

(For more tips on photo taking, head over to SumScrapper for advice from professional photographer Sonya.)

So, before you head off, get the gang together and synchronize the time on all the cameras.  At least try to get to the minute, a few seconds shouldn’t matter too much.  Then when you are all home again, get them to hand over the originals of the images they want to share and not the ones they’ve played with as this can sometimes kill off the date taken field.

Now you can get the gang’s photos of that glorious sunset, that trip through the gorges or that dare devil ride into the right order and pick the best ones to make up the final sequence for the album.

(For more tips on photo taking, head over to SumScrapper for advice from professional photographer Sonya.)

Bantex binders available at Officeworks

I look for the ones with 4 rings that have an insert on the front cover and a full length insert along the spine.  The 4 rings hold the pages straight and prevent the droop and folding you get with 2 ring binders.  (Officeworks Australia has a brand I like – see it here.)

Now buy yourself good quality plastic insert sleeves that match the size of the binder, in my case that is either A4 or A5.  Don’t get the cheap ones, go for the better quality ones.  They’ll last longer and often they are clearer as well.  You might even find some that are acid free.

Put the sleeves into the file.  Create a suitable first page and put it in the front sleeve along with a strong piece of white, good quality cardstock to give it strength and structure.  Put another piece of good quality white cardstock in the end sleeve.

Create inserts for the spine and front cover and you have an album all ready to add your pages as you go.

My first big project was to make a Christmas present for my daughter. I wanted to make her a photo book about the first 5 years of her son’s life. I wasn’t looking forward to doing battle with album software, most I had tried in the past were not all that user friendly. But the fates were looking after me and I had an email about Album Works so I gave them a try. Bliss! The album software was intuitive and allowed for lots of customisation. They delivered with blistering speed and the quality was superb.

They are Australian based but they also deliver internationally. Give them a look at: www.albumworks.com.au/

The cat on his chair gave me an idea and once he was made Director, I just had to come up with lines for the dogs and turn their images into strips of film by adding holes along the edges. Now the page has a humourous tone and is much more interesting.

I only use this technique occasionally but it is always fun to do. Give it a try!

And which one is our dog? The cutest one of course.

Credits:
Fonts – Tekton Pro; Franklin Gothic Medium; Arial
Overlay on background – thanks to Laitha – Mariella Carugati products, available at PickleBerry Pop

As so often happens, perfect photo opportunities occur when the good camera is too far away and you know the moment will pass all too quickly. That’s when I tend to whip out the mobile phone and snap away with fingers crossed. I know the picture will be low res and if I’m lucky, in focus as well so it can still be used.

This page shows one of those moments. DH had just bought a new iPhone and downloaded an interactive story book for DGS to play with. The looks on the faces show how successful the whole idea was.

I still have to add some story to this page but as you can see, I have lots of room left. Maybe up the top there perhaps?

I used DigiScrap Princess‘ new kit Annie’s Rain for the page. It’s available at Sum Scrapper now. The font is PalaceScript MT.

Here is one of our travel pics taken just out of Kalgoorlie at the old bush two-up ring, now abandoned and falling into ruin. There is corrugated iron everywhere and that inspired me to create a corrugated iron background for my page.

The title, Come in Spinner, comes from the call made at the two-up as the person in the middle tossed the two pennies in the air. Bets were laid on how the coins would fall and fortunes were made and lost at the ring. Conditions there were never luxurious. The little picture at the bottom left is of a semi-circle of corrogated iron painted white with the sign ‘LADIES’ painted on it.

If you like the background, <sorry, link has expired>

Credits:
Fonts – Adler, Arial.
Grunge overlay – Pineapple Plantation Designs

If you do download, a little ‘love’ in the form of a note or comment would be appreciated.

This is a companion page to one that appeared earlier on… oh my gosh, the 6th of April. I really need to do more work on that book or it won’t get finished!

Credits:
Font: Pristina
Elements: ribbon and gum nuts are my own

Sorry, link has expired but you can access it from the Dusty Digitals website.

If you do download, a little ‘love’ in the form of a note or comment would be appreciated.