Are Your Photographs Boring?

We’ve all been there. You’ve just come back from their amazing vacation abroad, but instead of bringing back souvenirs or a bottle of something, you’ve brought back around a hundred vacation photos. 

You gather some friends or family together to take a look. You take them through your hike up the luscious African mountains or that time you bathed in the glorious, blue Mediterranean sea. They’re beautiful places, beautiful photos, and they seem genuinely happy that you had such a great time. 

So why do they look so bored? Seriously, what is it about sitting with someone and going through vacation photographs that makes it such a chore? It shouldn’t be. We all love a good vacation and we all love the gorgeous, scenic pictures that capture it.

We would quite happily spend a substantial amount of time on social media looking at them. But, seemingly, if you’re sitting there staring at someone else’s phone, you can’t help but look like you would rather be anywhere else.

It’s Not The Photographs, It’s How You’re Presenting Them

Now despite what you might think, the reason they look bored isn’t because they’re jealous. We’ve all been on at least one holiday and hopefully we’ll all go on many more. It isn’t even because your photographs are boring (although we do have a few photography tips on how to spruce them up).

No, in actual fact, the reason vacation presentations generally don’t go down well is because there is never a reason to remain engaged. If you’re showing a large collection of photographs to someone, then it’s always important to organise those photographs to form some kind of a story. If you don’t, then what should be a fun occasion simply turns into a lecture at school, where every observer is simply waiting for the last slide.

Human beings like stories. They like photos to latch onto, especially if they have a few hundred of them (depending on how good your phone’s storage is). Going through a portfolio of photographs with no story is like sitting through a movie with no plot. Just pretty pictures, taking the viewer from one scene to the other with no sense of rhythm or meaning.

A Photo Book Is A Simple But Effective Answer

With a photo book, this can all be averted. Photo books are used not only to immortalise your photographs, but also tell stories which can stop big albums from growing tedious. Think about baby photos, for instance. During the first few months of parenthood, you can end up taking hundreds of pictures that are all pretty much the same, and your friends will certainly know about it. With a baby boy or baby girl photo book, however, these pictures are organised and presented in a way that makes them far more entertaining to flick through. Suddenly every picture has its own page, its own weight, and they feel so much more special as a result. The same rule applies for your vacation photographs.

But how else can they make a difference? Well, first off, the book itself is far easier and more comfortable to look at. You won’t have anyone peering over your shoulder, squinting at a tiny screen. Your pictures will be laid out beautifully, and you can choose to put a higher emphasis on the ones that you really like, allowing them to fill up the page and take centre stage in the grand scheme of your vacation story. 

Secondly, organising a photo book allows you to put the jigsaw pieces of your vacation into something that flows. You can organise the vacation chronologically, from the very first flight to the very last goodbye, or you could organise it non sequentially, with characters, events, landmarks, or just about any way you choose. 

There’s No Room For The Mediocre

Lastly, choosing photographs to take from social media and put into a photo book forces you to cut out all the weak ones. Once again, think about how many times you’ve sat through someone's holiday pictures, and they linger for about thirty seconds on a pointless shot. A picture of food, perhaps, whilst they tell you exactly how it tasted and what they had for dessert.

Having the ability to put together a photo book urges you to drop all of those pictures and choose the absolute best ones that contribute to the story as a whole. No food pics, no random shots of luggage in an airport.  Only the best bits of your vacation, all put together in one neat, beautiful book. 

Keep The Wonders Of Your Vacation Alive

The next time you come back from vacation and feel the desire to showcase your time to friends or family, just think about how the experience might be for them. You’ve likely been through it yourself, after all, and you know it doesn’t have to be this way. Your photos are not boring, and everyone should get a kick out of the scenes you have captured. 

In this way, it is in your best interests to make sure your photographs are appreciated the way they should be. Get to making your photo book, find the story, bound it up, and let your vacation come to life in the way it deserves.