I’m sorry, but the ugly truth is that I don’t know anyone who wants to sit through a two-hour photo slideshow of their last vacation. They may be interested in hearing and seeing some photos, but not a continuous narrative of every detail with photos for each one. Of course, if you serve food and liquor, they might stay longer, but they’ll still get bored before the show is over.

That doesn’t mean you can’t take as many photos as you like on your trip, but you do need to pick a few of the best ones and simply display or display those key photos. I discovered a great way to take my best photos, photos that gave an idea of ​​the trip and the location in general. And don’t overwhelm anyone with too much information.

The way I do this is to go through the photos when I get home and pick about 7 or 8 of the best ones from the trip. Then I create a montage (think of a quilt with irregularly shaped squares or rectangles) that fits nicely on an 8 X 10 print. Then I create a short 3 or 4 sentence paragraph about the time and place, maybe even the content. one or two of the photos.

I then frame this 8 X 10 in a 10 X 12 frame and place the descriptive paragraph just below the photo in the frame. I usually put these mounts on the wall in our living room or family room. People can look at the photos, read the paragraph, and if they are more interested, they can ask to see more. I also make prints to send to family and friends to give a brief overview of our vacation.

This montage style and short description works great for any event, celebration, or photo adventure. It also lends itself to scrapbooking and other ways of storing and displaying information about what’s going on in your family and life. I have several that have to do with fishing trips, school reunions, and many other memorable places and experiences.

You can also put them in photo albums as the first page of your travel photo selection. If you or others want to see more, keep turning the pages of all the original photos in the size you want to print them in the album.

My wife often makes a copy to take to the office and put on her desk. She has several that are of children of different ages and holidays on the wall in her office. She changes them from time to time for a little change or adds a new one if it’s the last adventure.

Most photo editing programs will allow you to crop and size your photos and place them in the montage. Many of the camera manufacturers include this type of software with their camera or you can even find some free programs that will do the job, like Gimp or Picasa. Just do a Google search to find the latest versions.

You can even save the files as jpegs and take them to your local Walgreens or photo printer for a very high quality print if your inkjet printer isn’t up to the task. If you’re looking for special deals or have a coupon, you can get an 8 X 10 print for about $2.

You can also turn these 8 X 10 montages into screen savers or desktop backgrounds for your computer. Use them in any way you would use a single photo. I guarantee that if you start doing these little montages you will be hooked. It’s fun and makes for great quick views of any event.