Scrapbooking Walt Disney World Photos

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So, you have returned from your latest wonderful trip to the "World". You get home, look through your photos, and if you are anything like me, you realize that you have taken over 200 of them on your trip. How long does it take to get all of those photos archived? MONTHS! So, how can you remedy this situation while still having enough photos to capture all of your favorite memories?

Let me start by saying I went to Walt Disney World for only the second time in my life in 2000. Previous to that, I went with my family in 1986, when I was 8 years old.  Needless to say, I was beyond excited to be going back, and took pictures of EVERYTHING!  I came home with about 400 pictures!!!  This sounds absolutely insane, but it is quite true.  It then took me one full year to scrapbook all of those photos into 2 gigantic books.  After returning annually, The number of pictures lessened, but maybe only down to about 200 per trip.  It was taking me months upon months to finish these books, and became overwhelming to sit and think about all that I had left to do BESIDES Disney trip photos.  My sister-in-law, Jen (who I scrapbook with and take every single Disney trip with), and I decided enough was enough.  We needed to take control and stop taking so many pictures that we would never have time to archive.  We came up with a couple of very simple, common sense solutions to our problem. 

First and foremost, how many parade pictures does one REALLY need?  I mean, they are fun and have some cool things in them, but you can get caught up in snapping pics of every float or car and you wind up with dozens of pictures from ONE parade! So, rule number one is either avoid the parade pics all together or only take 3-6 photos MAX. There is no need to have more than one layout in your book of a parade.

Secondly, try and avoid too many photos with characters. I know, this in one of the main things to take pictures of in Walt Disney World. If you are someone who will only be going a few times in a lifetime, then by all means, snap away!  But, if you are like many of the people on this site, and return to Disney regularly, there's no need to get so many character photos.  A good rule is to get pictures with absolute favorite characters or any new characters that may be in the parks that trip.  Also, one picture with each character is more than enough.  Gone are the days when I sit down and try to make a layout with 8 Pooh pictures.

Another hazard of picture taking at Walt Disney World are the typical areas where people take photos.  In front of rides, signs, etc.

I have tried to stray away from this with maybe the occasional photo here and there.  What I try to do is focus more on candid photos instead of too many posed ones.  You are having fun on the trip, document it!!  Get that fun in a picture. The laughing, the eating, the "down" time.  Even pictures on a ride possibly.

Each day after a trip to a park, I go through all the pictures on our digital camera and immediately delete anything that either doesn't look good or that I simply have too many of.  This is a great help when you get home and don't have to scour through endless photos. However, before I go and have them printed, I do another check through the photos that made it home and, again, delete any that I don't want.  If you don't have a digital camera, I would definitely invest in one.  It can save you a lot of money on photos that either don't come out well or that you have too many of. I try to have no more than 70-100 pictures per trip. That includes my photos and any of my sister-in-law's photos that I may want. I think as the years go on that number will decrease also.  But that is a big improvement from 400!

What it boils down to is capturing memories not rides, characters or parades.  While you could easily take a picture of everything at Walt Disney World, you have to just sit back, relax, enjoy your vacation and get some great photos along the way. When you feel like you have to get a picture of everything it can really eat into time that you could be spending just enjoying the parks.