Random Photos with a Masculine Theme: Telling a Story

The Man Behind the Camera: The Story

This month, my father would have celebrated his 90th Birthday. The anniversary of his birth made me think about the impact on my life he made. I owe my love of photography to him. He was always the man behind the camera. He encouraged me and taught me as a 5yr. old to use his Argus C3 camera. I loved that camera and I used it when my own kids were young and I couldn’t afford a new camera. I have followed in his steps and now find myself behind the camera recording the history of my family. Some of the random photos I’ve used here are taken from slides shot on my Dad’s camera.

When you are behind the camera most of the time there are fewer photos of you in front of the camera. He didn’t particularly care for being in the photos, neither do I, but, I urge you to reconsider if you find yourself in this position. Step out on occasion and be a part of your own family’s historical record.

A while back I set aside a few photos for this topic but the layout never got past the idea stage. As I sorted through files of my own photos looking for more than the few I wanted to use, I was really disappointed to see my choices. I’m sure there must be photos somewhere that capture more of this man and tell a part of his story, but I haven’t found them yet, maybe those are just the photos in my own memory.

TIP: Make sure your WHOLE family is represented in the photos you take! Don’t wait until it’s too late!

Telling this story:

In a layout like this where the random photos cover a longer span of time, a variety of different ages, events and places, I want to concentrate on telling a story that tells you (or in this case, my children and generations to come) about this man, my father. Let’s review a bit and see how we can do that. In our last post we included these tips for Random Photos:

Finding a theme or a connection will help the process. Here are a few possibilities:

• By the Season: Winter, Spring, Summer, Fall
• By the person: Spouse, child, pet
• By the place: Campgrounds, amusement parks, museums, gardens
• By events: Family birthdays, sunrises/sunsets, picnics/BBQ’s

Theme: By the person: My Dad is the subject.

Unifying a Page:
• Colors: Butternut Squash a shade of orange, a favorite of dad’s, pair’s well with the stripe in the plaid and…
• Patterns: Plaid…he loved his plaids…and was a flannel shirt guy as well. It’s perfect for a masculine page.
• Elements: camera, slides, Polaroid’s
• Images: Word Images. As I looked over the photos several descriptive words came to mind to describe my Dad. He was a husband, a father, a grandfather; he was an artist, a musician, a world traveler, an historian and a teacher. In fact, he home schooled us long before it was a choice. There are many things I’d like to say about each one of these aspects and it may just warrant a second layout with multiple journal spots for more details. For now, using just those word images that go along with the photos will suffice.

Putting It All Together

For this week’s scrapbook page of Random Photos with a Masculine theme, I needed a pattern that would allow me to display 7 photos and give me room for journaling for each photo. I also wanted to be sure that my patterned paper could be featured and I really wanted to try to include wood tiles too, but they never made the cut.

In our Pattern Gallery you will note that you have the ability to select patterns based on a style under Select Category or by the spots for photos. This was helpful to select what was needed for two vertical and five horizontal photos. You also can choose a pattern by a die set that you want to use. I chose two patterns that I thought would work together well and fill my needs pattern #174 and #151. Pattern #151 is flipped so that the outside column mimics the column in pattern #174. Use Die Sets A, B, and C for this page combination.

A 12×12 Butternut Squash Grid was chosen to go with “Patchwork” from the Teddy Bear’s Picnic Collection, a patterned paper from KaiserCraft. It is a red plaid paper that reminds me of something from my childhood and certainly fits my Dad. I was going for an overall rustic, cozy, outdoorsy feel as that was the kind of man he was. Although as the layout came together I added in elements that would reflect more aspects of his camera.

 

I searched for matching Paper Tiles. Pumpkin, caramel, brick, spice, and black all looked good but in the end I relied on black to balance the added white photo elements that I used.

My title block is a 4×4 white Paper Tile. Black Corner Tiles were placed at the corners for a retro photo album look. The font is Linenstroke.

For the journal blocks I used plastic slide frames and Taylored Expressions “Instant Photo Frames” die. The die gave me both the small Polaroid frame and also the slide frame from the negative space shape used as my little journal spots. The vellum gave me the filmy backdrop of a slide and a perfect spot for my words.

I built the camera to resemble my Dad’s Argus from a 4×3 base of silver cardstock that was cut with a die from Die Set C. Spellbinders dies gave me all the circles needed and everything else was just handmade to match the actual camera. The buttons and dials on top were strips of scored silver mounted on foam mounting tape and “rounded” around the tape to resemble the advance dial on top.

My page complete I find the colors and patterns fit the bill for a masculine page and also reflects my Dad’s style. I was able to add embellishments that represent the story and reveal another side of my Dad. I think a final bonus has been that it’s provided a spring board for yet another layout with more detailed journaling to remember The Man Behind the Camera.

I hope you’ve found some inspiration to do a feature page using some of your random photos and that you’ll share those with us too. You can share them with us on our Facebook Page or on our online sharing site Journella.

Andrea Fisher