Taking Photographs for Your Scrapbook

Once you begin scrapbooking, you begin to see photography in a whole new light. When I created my first album I realized that my photos always had way too much space that was not part of the picture, meaning too much sky, or too much grass.

Now, one of the joys of scrapbooking is that you can cut away all of the excess sky, or all of the excess trees, however after you begin your first scrapbook you begin to take pictures a little bit differently. As you look through the camera lens, you begin to see the scrapbook you’ll be making.

You’ll also to begin thinking about a "story" or a theme. I know for me, I take more pictures now, however where I used to take 5 shots of the same thing, I now take 5 shots of a whole story.

I also tend to take my camera to more places now, knowing I want to preserve the memory. It’s fun when folks ask me if I’ll share my photos, since no one else thought to bring a camera to a particular event.

If you are using a digital camera, you can view your picture immediately and determine if this is the picture you want. You then have the opportunity to either retake the picture or if you like the picture but see a lot of "waste" you know you’ll be able to cut it out prior to putting the photo into an album.

After you upload the photos from your camera, you can then print them out on photo paper, which can be purchased at any office supply store.

So, the next time you take out your camera, ask yourself what pictures you envision in your new scrapbook.

Audrey Okaneko has been scrapbooking for several years. She can be reached at audreyoka@cox.net or visited at http://www.scrapping-made-simple.com