Holiday and travel photo books

Holiday memory book

An international adventure, a tropical honeymoon, a country road trip, a camping weekend or a quick getaway all generate photos worthy of printing in a travel album. Save them in a photo book and you'll be able to travel vicariously with every read. Adding dates and place names will ensure you can enjoy the memories for decades after you return. Get carried away to the Greek Islands as you watch this honeymoon travel album.

Holiday photo cards or holiday stationery

If you want to daydream every day, star your photographs from weekends away or exotic destinations in a wall or desk calendar, or the pages of a custom diary, or in a series of personalised photo cards. They take only a few minutes to create but they’ll provide endless enjoyment, and they’re a great gift for family, friends and travel companions.

Peter Eastway is one of Australia’s most awarded travel photographers, and editor of Better Photography magazine. He’s got thousands of hours of photography under his belt, and has produced over 10 photo books, so we asked him to give us his top tips on how to design a first class travel book.

It’s a good idea to think about creating a photo book before you go on a trip or a holiday because you can create a simple plan of what needs to be included. Of course, if you have already been on your trip or holiday, these suggestions may help as you edit your photos.

For maximum impact, use your strongest image on the cover and make it bleed to the edge, using the Fill Page or Set As Background tools. Adding a title is helpful too but make sure you use a contrasting colour so it can be easily seen against the photo.

What is the essence of your destination? Some countries are renowned for their religion, some for the natural beauty, others for their sport. What appeals to you? Don’t just photograph the people, capture all the elements that tell the story of where you’ve been. 

Think about the people who are going to look at your photo book. What do you want to tell them? Do you want to show them the meals you ate, the eating utensils, the funny place mats? 

Being a Buddhist country, Bhutan is filled with lots of red-robed monks, and they live and work in different types of buildings, like monasteries and dzongs. Don’t just shoot the outside from the front, walk around looking for different angles, then walk inside. Monks are also surrounded by specific objects like prayer flags and scrolls.

Selecting a number of different themes like food, buildings, art, animals and sport, you have a number of different subjects to concentrate on and keep your book interesting. Peter created a custom frame in Photoshop for his Bhutan book.

What are the spectators wearing? What are their expressions like? Photograph their shoes, hair styles, hands and jewellery. Or in the case of  a building - the windows, door knobs and ceilings.