Artist: Stephanie McNeal
Album: My European Vacation 2013
At first glance this might just seem like another college student’s collection of pictures from a summer trip to Europe but if you look a little closer and really take this album in, I think you might just become certain that this is exactly what it is.
Being the sophomore release to her wildly popular 2011 debut photo album, Calgary Stampede / My 20th Birthday, McNeal was met with a lot of expectations from friends and family when she announced the release of My European Vacation. However, any doubts that McNeal would have too much fun to sufficiently capture her trip visually were shot dead by this highly comprehensive, beautiful and original photo album.
Although the production of the album remains low-key, using the same $300 DSLR she used to make her first album, My European Vacation represents somewhat of a coming-out party for McNeal as a more adventurous and yet more mature photographer. Gone are the gimmicky sepia filters and fake fisheye-lense-effects that plagued her debut, which are replaced by more subtly composed and photoshopped pics.
At the same time though, McNeal still isn’t afraid to take chances which is evidence particularly by photos 36 and 37, which were both taken inside the Vatican with a flash, breaking several rules of proper etiquette, tour-regulations and Catholicism.
While most people who have viewed the album (which was released on July 24 after months of promotional leaks on Instagram) would agree the album is probably about 5-6 pictures too long, they’d probably be hard pressed to come to a consensus on which ones to remove (probably that holding up the Leaning Tower of Pisa one).
Although plans for a physical release have not been announced, the album can be downloaded and viewed by the public on McNeal’s Facebook page with a special edition featuring about 25 unreleased pictures from a bar night in Bratislava available if you’re a confirmed friend of McNeal’s.
Overall, the album really takes the you on a journey, from Madrid to Barcelona, to Paris, then Brussels and Amsterdam with some layover at the Dallas, Texas airport food court.
Artist: Happy Wedding Photography Ltd.
Album: Brian and Natasha’s Wedding
Releasing a new album more than once a month for the past eight years, Happy Weddings Photography Ltd. might just go down as of the most prolific photo-album producers of all-time.
While Brian and Natasha’s Wedding may not live up to the standards set by the 2009 masterpiece Tim and Stephen’s Wedding or the groundbreaking Allen and Gina’s Wedding from last year, it’s still a solid release from lead photographer Jerry Turnbull and his associates.
Although the company’s lineup of photographers has changed radically since they first released Martin and Harriet’s Wedding almost a decade ago, the group has always had Turnbull front and center to orchestrate some of the greatest mixes of genuine-loving and “hey we’re just being silly” bride and groom shots ever recorded.
Like so many of their albums, B & N’s W is a hit-and-miss, with some pictures finding the couple in a perfect moment of love while others reveal that they actually kind of hate each other for a great deal of the time they’re together.
However, when it’s good, it’s very good, and the black-and-white picture from the middle of the album of the two in each other’s arms in front of an all white background deservingly became a breakout-hit after appearing on their wedding cake, gracing the cover of their thank-you letters and serving as the pairs facebook profile pictures for a combine eight months.
While the album is best viewed in its hardcover format which features a gorgeous floral design, its availability is scarce and the album has been most successful on its DVD version (personally, I just got the torrent). The DVD also contains a lot of original music which is a side-hobby of Turnbull’s but I won’t really get into that because you can’t really review that kind of thing.
Anyway, B & N’s W is a solid but not great effort from the illustrious Happy Weddings Photography Ltd. and while it may be pleasant viewing for some, such as those who know Brian Alkermiher and his new wife Natasha, if you’re in the mood for a really powerful photo album, I recommend looking elsewhere.
(Throwback Review)
Artist: The Johnson Family
Album: Disneyland (1997)
Despite this being the only photo album released before their tumultuous break-up, the Johnson family’s collection of stills from their trip to Disneyland in 1997 remains an enjoyable, nostalgic trip down memory lane.
Even without the digital technologies of today’s camera equipment, Disneyland is still a marvel to look at today with over a hundred high-quality, timeless photos. Even it’s worst photos are classics by today’s standards, with pics like “kid standing with Goofy” and “on-ride Space Mountain photo” highlighting a stellar album.
While some of the clothing worn in the pictures might be a tad dated, the foursome of lead photographer and father, Michael, wife Marissa and kids Andy and Susie, capturing of the essence of wholesome family fun at an amusement park is as strong as any contemporary family photo album or their trip to an amusement park.
Disneyland is a really fun photo album and is relentless in its quest to fulfill Michael’s goal to “have something to remember our trip to Disneyland by,” a goal that at the time seemed like just the beginning of an great photo album career.
Unfortunately, as is the case with so many great family photo album-makers, the family’s private life was not as solid as it seemed in still photographs and a nasty divorce would send them in different directions in which they would never reclaim their former glory.
Michael attempted several solo-photo albums during the early 2000s, but never got around to getting them developed. His ex-wife Marissa and her new husband Ron did end up producing a couple of photo albums with the family’s kids since then but titles like Knott’s Berry Farm (1999) and Disneyworld (2002) just feel like sad attempts to recreate their former magic.
While almost the entire family is no longer making albums, instead choosing to just put their pictures on SD cards, Michael has worked on updating some of his old photo albums including one he made with Happy Weddings Photography Ltd., Michael and Marissa’s Wedding which now features several pics with a headless bride.
The only member of the family who is still actively making albums is Susie, now 17, who just put the capper on her latest series of self-reflective photos of herself using her bathroom mirror, Mobile Uploads, which has received considerable attention from her classmates and creeps on the internet.
Despite being somewhat of a “one-hit wonder,” Disneyland is still a brilliant photo album filled with mixtures of highs and lows, beauty and despair, tragedy and triumph, and out of focus pictures of palm trees.
