Travel Scrapbooking: The Mountains

You've just returned from a vacation in the mountains. You had a great time: the scenery was spectacular, the activities were fun, the food was delicious, and perhaps you even saw some interesting wildlife.  You've come home with loads of great photos. Here are some suggestions of what to do with those photos to create a great scrapbook of your mountain vacation.

The Mountains

There is nothing easier to photograph than beautiful mountains.  After all, they just sit there. If the sky is blue and the sun is positioned right, even the simplest camera can take the perfect mountain photo. Furthermore, with a little digital cropping, that simple mountain photo can be turned into a spectacular panorama.

These mountains' photos cropped into panoramas can be easily used in layouts. 

On any mountain vacation, the high point may be literally the highest point. Whether you are at the top of Mount Washington in New Hampshire or Mont Blanc in France, don't forget to record the highest altitude of the trip.   The journey up may be worth mentioning as well, especially if you got there by a method other than driving. Of course, if you took the cog railway up Mount Washington and it broke and you had to stand on the side of the mountain freezing while it took two hours to bring up another train, maybe you can skip the journaling in the hope of forgetting the whole experience. On the other hand, my parents took me on that cog railway over 30 years ago and every member of our family still remembers it - and my mother didn't scrapbook.

People

Photographing people on mountains is more difficult than the mountain by itself. However, if there is enough natural light and you focus on the people, you can take a great photo of the people with the mountains in the distance. I used this photo of my children hiking down a mountain to create a cover page for our vacation scrapbook.  The simplicity of this layout emphasizes the photo and the mountain scenery.

Activities

A big part of a mountain vacation is the activities. Mountain activities may be much more difficult to photograph, especially if you are participating. A small, durable camera is essential, and sometimes you will need to ask other people to take some photos for you. One of our favorite activities on our Colorado vacation was the Alpine Slide and Fun Park at Breckenridge.  We asked the person who loaded us in the slide to take a photo of us getting ready to go. Also, the family members who went first would quickly pull out the camera to get a photo of the rest of the family speeding down the mountain. This may seem like a lot of trouble, but we enjoy taking pictures, especially the challenge of a tricky one like the alpine slide.

Other fun activities of a mountain vacation are those that relate to the history of the area. Another highlight of our Colorado trip was touring an old gold mine. I used Western-themed paper to make a layout of this fun day.

Of course, not all the activities on a mountain vacation are specific to mountains. Dining, shopping, and admiring the wildflowers are all parts of a mountain vacation which can be photographed, scrapped, and remembered.

Don't forget the weather. The weather in the mountains can be dynamic and exciting, even in the summer. If you hit a snowstorm in July or a spectacular lightning storm, take some photos and include them in your layouts. These are experiences worth remembering.

Mountain layouts can use a variety of products. As I mentioned, I used some Western-themed products for our Colorado trip. Mountains in other parts of the world would lend themselves towards other themes. Winter papers can be used for snowcapped  mountains even if the vacation was in the summer.

Looking for some good titles for your mountain layouts? Here are some suggestions from songs:

• Rocky Mountain High
• Purple Mountains Majesty
• Top of the World

Finally, don't forget to include journaling. Every vacation has some stories, and mountains bring out loads of stories. Combining your journaling with your spectacular photos should lead to a great, fun scrapbook. Don't forget to share your layouts in the gallery here at Scrapjazz.com so we can all be jealous of your fabulous trip!