Published June 23, 2008 by

Making a photo book

I have made a few interesting observations about design the past few days, and wonder at times if I am walking into a obsolete career.

The other day I pulled out out wedding photos in order to finally do something with them and wound up facing the reality that the cheapest means of an album was a coffee table photo book, like those that Iphoto produce. I found Iphoto somewhat limiting – probably because I haven’t upgraded my mac to Leopard yet, but got put something similar called Blurb. Thus far I am fairly impressed, we shall have to see what a completed book looks like, but the cost and the design software is clean and fairly impressive.

But there you have it, designed photo albums for anyone with half a bolt of computer know-how’s finger tips. There are templates for layouts and lots of them, and lots of them are quite nice. Yes it is still limited. (There are ways to get your own layouts into the software, I intend to explore that avenue).

The simple fact is, anyone can make a photo book.

In the few photography classes I’ve taken, photographers either bemoan the coming of the digital age because it takes generic photography further from their hands or they celebrate it and the capacity it opens up for ease/scope and the need for photographers to display a greater level of skill.

Photographers still make money and for the most part they still take better photographs.

It is the same for designers. You can go and make your photo book and perhaps you will be happy with it and perhaps you have some skill or eye for it, but for the most part the sample books out there – the ones people have created and paid to have printed look like absolute crap. What surprised me most was that many professional photographers books look just as ridiculous.

If you don’t know what you’re doing, at the very least read up on design, or for or goodness sakes pay someone to do it, or even get your arty-eyed grandson to help you.

And ladies, it might be fun to make a wedding album and you might not care if it’s not super professional but please, please, please do not use pink text over a photo… or pretty much anywhere, however much you like pink. It’s difficult to read and screams tacky.

Create Design Wedding

Design photobook Photography Wedding

Published February 28, 2008 by

Wedding Music Answers

originalpianosolosartonly.jpgWhat song did you walk down the aisle to?

Remember this?

It took us a very long time to decide (or maybe it was my fault) but this was our ‘yes we’ll use it unless we find something else that’s ‘perfect’. Ha. It was just right and no we didn’t find anything else – I was not disappointed, I think I kind of wanted it to be this underneath everything.

What song did you walk out to?

It was imperative that U2 featured somewhere in the day and you might as well watch it with the amusing video clip. It was just a fun song to walk out with and did hold some meaning for things we believe and agree with.

What song did you sing during the service, and why?

We went fairly traditional here, with a hymn (shock horror). We were originally going to have two songs, one hymn – because Geoff loves it, and one probably more modern familiar. The second didn’t happen because we couldn’t find one we wanted and came to the conclusion that we’d keep things shorter but just going with the one. We had friends help out with the music and Robyn lead a beautifully upbeat – How Great Thou Art, skipping the woods glades verse. If I could’ve had one more hymn (and really one is enough) I would’ve liked Be Thou My Vision… but then my parents used that, so I’m not sure.

What about the music through the signing of the registry?

My little sister Hannah and her boy Dan and another mate, Steve sang an adapted version of a My Friend the Chocolate Cake song. Geoff and I actually didn’t know the song very well at all. More Heart Than Me is actually on their Myspace page at the moment. Hannah sang a ‘more cheerful’ version and they interchanged a few shes with he’s to fit us. It was fantastic – I heard more of it during their practice than on the day.

What an odd post…

image from here

Music Wedding

hymn mftcc Music shubert U2 Wedding

Published January 19, 2008 by

In him we live and move and have our being

Geoff and I took communion during our wedding service. Through all the preparations on the day, the ‘supplies’ somehow got forgotten. We made use of the church’s port and sent an Uncle down to get some bread rolls. He grabbed the first bag of rolls and raced back through the checkout asking the girl to hurry up because he was in the middle of a wedding, she told him to just take them and run! Thank you Mr. Safeway (or Coles or whatever) for the free bread… that’s supposedly how it goes.

I’ve written about communion before. I find it’s a interesting thing. I’m aware somewhat of the attitude you should be in when having communion but is there a place in forcing it? Is it that important? I cannot afterall ever be completely in mindset-perfection when coming to communion – as selfish as it sounds, I just think that it is realistic.

My head was all over the place during the wedding, mostly full of excitement/adrenalin. I was, and am, incredibly grateful to God for who he is and what he has done, and I pushed to acknowledge that in my thoughts when we were taking it, but it was honestly a little bit of a stretch. Concentration low. This does however play into my still highly shaky understanding of what actually takes place at communion. What more goes on?

I am glad that God sees and celebrates with and most of all understands us.

There is too much emphasis on just look and feel and constraining to comfort levels of individuals at weddings. We did choose not to do communion as a group/invitees etc. as there were enough people there to whom it wouldn’t be relevant or true (and the logistics would’ve been horrendous) and our actions were explained to onlookers.

I’m perfectly content and okay with how we approached doing communion – to elevate the importance of God above our relationship and to demonstrate in some small way that it’s a three way thing not just the two of us in this marriage.

“The God who made the world and everything in it is the Lord of heaven and earth and does not live in temples built by hands. And he is not served by human hands, as if he needed anything, because he himself gives all men life and breath and everything else. From one man he made every nation of men, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he determined the times set for them and the exact places where they should live. God did this so that men would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from each one of us. ‘For in him we live and move and have our being.’ As some of your own poets have said, ‘We are his offspring.’ ” – Acts 17:24-28

Christianity Church Wedding

communion communion at a wedding eucharist God Wedding