Digital photos are both a boon and a bane. It's great that you get to take unlimited shots but I now have tons of lovely photos that are simply just sitting our computers. It's such a shame.
I plan to rectify the situation, and am seriously considering starting on Project Life. The idea appeals to me - just print photos, journal, and file into an album. I'm no scrapbooker so I'm thinking of using it in it's simplest form, which I think should still be pretty. Of course, some planning will have to go into the layout but I think that should be something I can manage.
I'm still thinking about it, but in the meantime, another friend suggested that I should create photo books. Another great idea, except that I tend to get overwhelmed when sorting photos, especially when I'm doing it digitally. Plus putting together a book - choosing, editing photos and laying out pages - takes me so long I usually run out of steam to complete the book.
Anyway, as it happened, when this brilliant suggestion was made to me, I discovered (quite by chance) that there was a sale on Tiny Prints' Shutterfly photobooks. So I decided to create one for fun to test them out.
To save myself the pain of organising and and sifting through my photographs, I decided that for this first project, I was just going to create the album from the photos of our first family photoshoot.
This is the result.
Click here to view this photo book larger
It was pretty simple and relatively painless. The photos were easy to upload, and automatically sized into layouts. It was easy to adjust them - just drag and drop - and there were lots of sample template pages that you could use. It took me a while to finish - me being me - but it was definitely easier than I thought it would be. I'm inspired now to create another book out of our other family photoshoot, and also of my holiday to Siem Reap that I never finished blogging about!
By the way, I just realised while writing this post that the sale has been extended till Wed 9 Jan 2013! So maybe I should snap to it and complete my other projects pronto.
Also as a heads up, Shutterfly is offering a $10 coupon to be used on your next purchase if you share your album on your website. Which is why you are seeing this here right now!
I'm eagerly awaiting the arrival of my photo book. In the meantime, if you have any good suggestions on how to organise and get your photos out of your computer and into your hands, do drop me a note!
I know what you mean! My photos are in a complete disaster mess. I recently did a photobook too but with ArtsCow. Like you, I had to decide what the book was for, and I decided to keep it to a holiday that we took. I think it is more manageable this way. One of my plans this year is to find time to do a photobook for each birthday celebration! Perhaps you could consider that too? :)
ReplyDeleteOh yes, I've heard of ArtsCow. Shall check it out. Thanks! How will you be approaching your photobook for birthdays project? I've always wanted to compile a year book for the kids for their birthday, but the sheer number of pictures and moments intimidates me! Doing a photobook of their birthday party might be a good idea, but one of my biggest regrets every year is that I have very few good photos of their birthdays because D is too busy to snap, and no one else in my family takes good pics! I think I might cave and hire a photog for Naomi's birthday, which is coming up.
DeleteWhat a lovely album! Love the photos and i love the last few photos taken with the animals. I love shutterfly! I have made three in the past and recently made another one from our recent holiday photos. I try to split up my photos into different folders (sorted by event) before I go online. So then I upload and work on each page one at a time. It took me 2 days to finish the book cos I did take quite a lot of photos but I was really glad that I got it down so soon after the holiday.
ReplyDeleteOne tip, their photobooks are normally 40-50% off during thanksgiving so I try to wait for the sales.
Oh and here is a recent post that I wrote about their storytelling themes.
http://gift-wrapsody.blogspot.sg/2012/12/meaningful-gift-guide-photo-books.html
Thanks for the tips Jasmine! That tip about splitting the photos into different folders is very useful. I can see how that would make the entire project more manageable! I'm definitely going to look out for their promotions!
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