Where is Chris - Scrapbooking

Today is National Scarpbooking Day.  We started scrapbooking after we made new friends on one of our cruises.   They were avid scapbookers and invited us over to their house before another one of our cruises.  We looked through some of their scrapbooks and we were hooked.

When on trips, we keep souvenirs with scrapbooking in mind.   For example, luggage tags, admission tickets, pamphlets and other small items make a great edition to the pages.  These items were collected on our favorite cruise of all time.  Can you guess Where Chris is?

Scrapbooking isn't limited to vacation memories.   Perhaps you and your family might enjoy doing some scapbooking while self distancing and staying home.   You could include family photos and other memorabilia from this year.   Birthdays and holidays are a great topic to memorialize in a scrapbook.
#KeepTheKidsEngaged

We hope you are enjoying this series of  "Where is Chris" posts.  We'd love your feedback on our social media.

Where is Chris?

Where is Chris    Learn More

Here is today's post: See if you can guess where I am. 

As promised, we've updated yesterday's post, Where is Chris - Historical City, with the answer to the puzzle.  Revisit that post and just scroll over the image to reveal the answer.  You can also click on the link below the picture to read more.    

Make sure to follow us on our social media, so you don't miss any destinations. 

If you can't wait for tomorrow for the answer, you can take my quiz in my Instagram story.

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Fun Photo Journal of Norwegian Epic in Costa Maya

Photo Journaling
Your Cruise Vacation

Norwegian Epic

Costa Maya,

Mexico

Here I am in Costa Maya, Mexico, posing in front of Norwegian Epic.   Without any words being spoken, you can tell that I'm enjoying myself..   You can also see that it is sunny since my glasses have turned dark.

In the picture to the right, passengers are being taken from the ship by tram to the end of the pier where the resort is located.  The resort includes an administration building, several bars, swimming pool, beach, and souvenir shops.

Your Cruise in Pictures

Telling a story through pictures is known as photo journaling.  A cruise vacation provides many opportunities for story telling.  We join this photo journal in the port of Costa Maya, Mexico.   To tell this story, we begin with arrival in the port and continue with activities, the people, and the sights.

To add interest to the story, we have chosen to apply borders and effects to the images.   Thanks to the digital age, modifications to photos can be accomplished in the digital darkroom using Adobe Photoshop or other photo editing software.

The Plugin Site  offers various resources for Photoshop, Lightroom, Photoshop Elements, Paint Shop Pro, Photo-Paint, After Effects, Premiere and other applications.  We utilized effects from Edge & Frame Galaxy, Harry's Edges, and Harry's Actions in these images.

Arriving at the Costa Maya resort, the first building you see is the administration center.  You can obtain information, brochures, and obtain phone cards if you need to phone home.

To add interest to this photo, we have applied "Waterpaint3" effect to the image. The edge covers a portion of the image framing the photo and helping to call attention to the main focal point.

Costa Maya Resort is Colorful

Explore the many shops at your leisure, looking for local souvenirs.   Wear your swimming wear and you can pause for a dip in the pool.   Swim up to the bar if you like and enjoy your favorite beverage, or simply lounge on one of the chairs that line the pool area.

This photo was enhanced by applying the "Torn1" edge using Photoshop 6.0.

Colorful buildings and souvenirs can become more interesting when they are distorted.   Compare the original photos to their modifications.  Would you be able to determine what the original picture looked like?    We applied a Photoshop action which twirled the images to create these new images.

We applied a texture effect in the following two images.  The image on the left is an archway which we have framed with the "door5" effect.   The local liquor store becomes more interesting after the "canvas10" effect was applied.

These digital effects can be easily applied to your favorite cruise vacation photos to assist in developing a fun photo journal to share with family and friends.  You are only limited by your imagination.

Double the Fun

In this final image, we've used a Photoshop action which we found on About.com's Graphic Software pages.   The action was part of Sue's Symmetry Action collection.  The tool actually applied both vertical and horizontal symmetry to the original photo, but we then cropped the picture in half.   At first glance you might think this was an actual panoramic picture, but look closely.

Hopefully this gives you some ideas on how to take your digital images, which to some might be pretty boring, and breathe new life into them creating an intriguing photo journal.   Have fun creating your documentary of your next cruise vacation.

Making Memories

"Taking pictures is making memories. Capture little pieces of time, making them yours making them mine." (words taken from a Disney song sung by Minnie Mouse).

In this column I'll explore several ways of making memories which can last well beyond your return home from the cruise vacation.

Photos - video clips

Photography is probably the most popular way to capture little pieces of time. In the age of digital photography, it is very easy for you to become a photo journalist using your cruise vacation as the subject matter.

My husband has always had a fascination with how the mind works. How is it that if just the right "trigger" is present, you will remember all about some past event? Photos make excellent "triggers" that unlock memories about past cruises and experiences.

Those of you that have been reading my column for awhile know that my husband and I take lots of pictures on our cruises (He takes more than I do). I don't always get time to write about our cruise just after we return. The photos we take help us to remember the various excursions we took. Video clips with sound are even better, but we don't take as many videos as we do photos.

Taking photos in the digital age is much easier than in the days of film. It's a lot easier to travel with several memory cards than it was to travel with several rolls of film. It's not uncommon for us to have thousands of digital images from a cruise vacation. We had to be more selective when you'd only get 36 pictures on a roll of film. Not to mention the fact you needed different film depending on the weather conditions. Perhaps that's a topic for another column.

There are many ways to store the photographs that you have taken. In our mind, we don't want to keep the memories to ourselves, so we share them. One of the easiest methods is to put photos in albums. Another is to share them online with one of the many services. Again, I could devote an entire column to this topic alone, so that's about all I'll say for now.

Scrapbooking

Taking photo albums a step futher, scrapbooking is a method for preserving personal and family history in the form of photographs, printed media, and memorabilia contained in decorated albums, or scrapbooks. This has become a very popular hobby recently and even the cruise lines are finally starting to capitalize on this new market.

When we were on Celebrity Solstice for the pre-inaugural, we purchased a scrapbook album and the accompanying scrapbook page kit which consisted of pages, stickers, and other complimentary decorations. These materials could only be purchased onboard.

Royal Caribbean was the first cruise line to recognize that passengers had an interest in scrapbooking, and they added scrapbook workshops to their daily activities. You supplied the photos (ideally purchased onboard) and they supplied paper and all the equipment to make your first scrapbook page for your trip. Other cruise lines have also started offering similar programs.

Scrapbooking takes some pre-planning. Since I knew that I'd create a scrapbook for our Galapagos trip, I collected some items to be incorporated in the pages.

Items that are good for this purpose include boarding passes, room keys, admission tickets, and stickers.

You'll want to keep the daily planners that are delivered to your cabin each night. They will help you remember various activities that you did as well as provide destination information which will help you when doing the journaling part of the scrapbook page.

Warning: Scrapbooking is addicting and can be expensive!

When we were in Alaska, many of the souvenir shops had scrapbooking supplies such as pages and stickers which were specific to the port of call. Your local hobby or arts and crafts store typically has materials to help you get started. They may even offer classes if you don't know where to begin. There is a wealth of information on the web as well as several scrapbook suppliers.

If you think you'll want to create a scrapbook for your cruise, take some pictures, purchase some onboard and at the excurisons that offer professional photos, and collect some memorabelia to embelish your album. We can talk more about scrapbooking in another column if there is interest.

Collecting Post Cards

Not everyone likes to take photographs while on vacation. That doesn't mean you can't make memories to take home with you. Souvenir shops and the ship have a selection of post cards which capture the highlights of the destination.

Post cards can be used to supplement your own pictures and memorabilia. You can put them in albums or use them in your scrapbook pages. They can be mailed home to add a postmark or packed in your luggage.

Another advantage to post cards is that they capture a moment in time that perhaps you weren't able to see personally. For example, if your ship sails before nightfall, consider adding a post card that depicts the city at night. While you might have experienced a sunset, it might not have been as intense as one of the ones captured on a post card.

"Our moments of inspiration are not lost though we have no particular poem to show for them; for those experiences have left an indelible impression, and we are ever and anon reminded of them. "

Henry David Thoreau (1817-1862) American naturalist, poet and philosopher.