Choosing Eye-Catching Book Images
When I decided to create the Words Without Stories book, I initially thought “how hard can it be”. It’s for people living with advanced dementia, there are no characters to develop and no narrative to write.
Just:
- think of some themes
- find appropriate images
- come up with captions
It’s nothing if not straightforward, right? After all, I’m married to a photographer and have access to stock photo sites.
What I hadn’t factored in was, ideas are easy to come up with, the images that match them (at an affordable price), not so much. And being married to a photographer is not necessarily going to help if your idea is “I want the perfect photo of about 20 Minis, all different colours, maybe racing”.
(Note - there are no Mini photos in the book).
Then, when there is plenty of choice of images, how do you know which one is right? How do you find, for example, the perfect photo of a squirrel, when there are so very many to choose from?
Four potential squirrels
I honestly started casting a critical eye over squirrels - “ that one’s cute but it has a mean glint in its eye”. “I don’t like how that one is holding the nut”.
It’s fair to say I got carried away with either too much choice, or absolutely none.
I wanted, for example, to include some sports in the book. And if I had wanted editorial photos, there was endless choice. But the images weren’t licensed for my kind of usage, and I couldn’t afford them. Maybe I can get a bit of football in there next time!
The absolute easiest route would have been a book entirely of wildlife, in terms of image choice. There again, given the obsessing over squirrels, I’d never have finished it.
Having a broad variety in the book was key. Although the idea was to create something suitable for my mum, it’s not a tribute to her and I wanted broad appeal so that, hopefully, there’s something in there to suit anyone.
I took care not to choose anything too abstract, which was easy enough, until I came to…poppy fields. It was so important that everything was easily recognisable, and I must have looked at about 60 poppy fields before I found ‘the one’, where you could definitely see the poppies as more than a sea of red.
Sun shining over a field of poppies
Along the way, I abandoned many ideas because I couldn’t find the photo. There’s no castle, no Stonehenge, no black cabs.
Instead of Minis, there’s a steam train.
(My castle became a thatched cottage).
It was a great learning curve in understanding what I will and won’t be able to do in future books. And also in understanding what’s going to be truly eye-catching, and what isn’t.
For the next book, I would love to invite ideas from others who have loved ones who are living with dementia. What might appeal to them? But, first, I have to find those people, to ask. (If you’d like to be one of them, please follow the Facebook page, as that’s where I am most likely to reach out).
For now, though, I am still pondering squirrels.
Much love,
Anna
xx
