This is Part 2 of blog post about different very creative themes to use for your next travel photo book or maybe even any other photo book! Please also see 12 Creative Ways How to Tell a Story with a Photo Book. Part 1.
13. Photo Book theme: Fun Facts
This is a really good topic if you have a chance to meet a lot of locals while traveling. One great way to meet locals is when you use Airbnb. If you don’t have an account yet, sign in with this login and get a great discount for your first stay. Don’t forget to write down your fun facts as soon as you find them out, if you don’t you will forget them before you start creating your photo book.
14. Photo Book theme: Bucket List
Obviously, you must have done some great things while on this trip and you can tell the story of how you got to each of the places and how was your experience. Example title for your photo book could be ‘How I crossed 5 items off my Bucket List in New Zealand’. However, if you, like me, chickened out and only attempted to do something but was not successful the title of your book could be ‘How I almost crossed 5 items off my Bucket List in New Zealand’. Now you probably really want to know where I chickened out, right? OK, I will tell you, but remember it’s a secret! I tried to bungee jump, stood on the jumping platform for like 10 minutes, almost fainted, but couldn’t do it. On the bright side, I did actually cross out more than 5 bucket list items while traveling in New Zealand! And some of them were far crazier and higher than bungee jumping.
15. Photo Book theme: The statistics
If you like numbers this photo book theme is perfect for you. Make your own little statistics on your trip. How many km (or miles) per day and in total, how many burgers you ate, how much money you spent on different categories – gas, accommodation, food, clothing, etc., how much in total. How much different transportation you used, how many states, how many country-style songs you heard, how many energy drinks you drunk, how many hours spent on driving etc. These little (or big) numbers you gather while traveling are entertaining even after many years.
16. Photo Book theme: Gratitude
If you are or want to be positive – enjoying little things and feeling gratitude for them is key. Why not compare what you saw while traveling to what you live daily. Identify what you're grateful for in everyday life. Example title could be – ‘Thank you Canada’. Describe your photos by saying thanks to everything you felt is special.
Thank you Canada, for introducing me with the friendliest people on earth; for the most delicious pancakes; for the magnificent whales; for views that make your heart skip a beat, etc.
17. Photo Book theme: Travel Journal
This is really great if you travel in a larger group or family. Ask each person to write about one day of the trip, best at the time of travel. After the trip, you will have all the stories. All you need to do edit the photos and voilà! You can make a photo book for each of the travelers – it will be their nicest Christmas or Birthday gift ever!
18. Photo Book theme: Top 10
Who doesn’t like top 10 lists, right? They aren’t boring, because they only show the best of the best. In this photo book, you will not arrange the photos chronologically but by different categories. This idea is wonderful for the ones, who don’t really want to write a lot of text, but at the same time an easy way to remember the most important things about your trip.
Some categories might be – top 10 drinks, food, views, beaches, people, animals, buildings, statues, ski lifts, artwork, flowers, cars, etc. It is totally up to you and your interests what categories you include.
19. Photo Book theme: Colors
Arrange your photos by colors. When describing the places, compare them to the color and what it represents. Here is some help for you in case you need some inspiration.
This is how a page of your photo book could look like
20. Photo Book theme: Travel quotes
Do you like to collect travel quotes? Or maybe you don’t think very highly about expressing yourself in writing? Well, there are many other people who are great at doing that and they have written many, many travel quotes and they are wonderful! All you need to do is find the perfect ones to fit your photos.
Traveling – it leaves you speechless, then turns you into a storyteller. / Ibn Battuta
21. Photo Book theme: 5 senses
Describe your trip from all your senses' point of view. Allow your reader to see how you experienced your trip through them. Group your photos according to the senses and write what you saw, what you heard, how it felt, what tastes you had, how did it smell, etc. Make them smell cupcakes in the best bakery in town, touch the sheets in your bungalow and hear a dog panting; it will make your readers empathetic because they can fully relate to these senses.
Here you can also easily include names of the places and important facts.
If you think you don’t have enough words to describe something,
this list of 209 words describing ‘touch’ might help.
And/ or 75 words to describe 'smell'.
22. Photo Book theme: Accent
Collect photos through your trip of one common thing – like rainbows, sky, doors, floors, flowers, birds, yellow color, numbers, etc. Use them as the focal images of your photo book. Imagine if you take a photo (or more than one) of the sky in each city you visit. You then can present the city through this photo by describing the sunset or cloud shape or the overall mood.
23. Photo Book theme: How did you get there?
This idea comes from many good movies and will be a perfect match for a travel photo book if you had something extraordinary happen to you towards the end of your trip and you have captured it in a photo. All you have to do is to have this photo at the very beginning of the book. Describe the extraordinary event that has occurred. Finish the paragraph or sentence with a question – how did I/we get there??? Then continue with describing your photos that are arranged chronologically leading to this event you have opened the book with.
If you are a fan of the show ‘How I met your Mother’ you could combine the previous idea with another one from the show. HIMYM had many brilliant situations described, where someone has manipulated a situation leading to an ending that they wish would happen. You could use a similar approach by how you have conducted every single detail to lead you to a surprising or spectacular ending.
24. Photo Book theme: Murder Mystery
Write a detective story about your trip.
Throughout your photo book when describing photos use a detectives approach. Every detective story includes the following basic elements – a detective, a crime, suspects, an antagonist, a setting. If you are wondering how you could possibly write a detective story about your trip, have another think about it. Imagine if you are the detective going to a certain country to find out one of the following:
- Why this country is worth a visit?
- Why people are so friendly?
- Why there are more sheep than people in that country?
Some more ideas for inspiration – every great detective has an interesting character (show his personality, his strengths, weaknesses, motivations, background any other circumstances).
The close-up photos of your trip could be great as pieces of evidence. Your travel buddy can be the antagonist. The stories of people you have met on the way could be the stories of the witnesses. Towards the end of the photo book you could make a photo collage to put all the puzzle pieces together. And in the end, don’t forget the most important part – to unveil the mystery you went to solve in the first place!
Using the elements of a detective story will make your readers laugh about your creative approach to tell your travel story.
I hope you got inspired and are excited now to create a new photo book?! Please, let me know in a comment which was your favorite theme?
(Remember there is Part 1 to this blog post, in case you missed it!)
I liked the 17.Photo Book theme: Travel Journal - great for group and family trips!