Photo Books

Nick

Nick

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Joined
Aug 9, 2007
Messages
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Anyone here do photo books? Any favorite places to get them done? I've decided I want to start doing a book for each year with a summary of all of my trips and moments mixed in. I read an article earlier this year that posed the thought that we are kind of screwing ourselves by leaving all of our photos in digital only format. What happens if the power goes out for years? Or if somehow in 30 years our current JPEG files become unreadable. Maybe not likely, but it did make me think it would be worth shelling out for a nice book for each year to have a hard copy. Recommendations would be much appreciated!
 
I have used Apple books, as it is integrated into Aperture. I haven't used it in a while, but I did use it extensively for a bit, and liked it for my marketing efforts. I liked the variety in the templates.
 
My wife makes hard cover books of our family vacations using Shutterfly. I think they come out looking pretty awesome. I can snap some photos of the books and pm them to you if you want.
 
checkout the Groovebook app. costs $2.99 per month and you upload 100 photos and they send you a book of them. They were on Shark Tank and it's pretty cool!
 
There is nothing like handmade photo journals of your adventures and explorations. I have done that for decades and have over 15 hundred pages now. I print on Canon High Resolution Paper, makes striking prints but keeps them thin almost like regular paper. They are pasted in Moleskine journals with their archival paper. You can get those in several sizes (I like the 5x8" the best) and lined or unlined. For notating I use Pigma Micron pens, waterproof and archival ink.

Moleskines640.jpg


Over time one can tend to forget all the things that they have done, they add up so much. These journals are memory incarnate. And the notes can contain compass coordinates to favorite spots or finds, anything you want to remember. You can even print portions of maps and include them. They journals will become very fat as you enter images on all the pages. It is kind of cool but if you use the heavy glossy or matt papers they will never fit, the journal just becomes way too fat so the High Resolution Paper is the best thing I have found. This journals have soul, something the "pay for the workup and print" books don't come close to imo...
 
Wyatt Carson said:
There is nothing like handmade photo journals of your adventures and explorations. I have done that for decades and have over 15 hundred pages now. I print on Canon High Resolution Paper, makes striking prints but keeps them thin almost like regular paper. They are pasted in Moleskine journals with their archival paper. You can get those in several sizes (I like the 5x8" the best) and lined or unlined. For notating I use Pigma Micron pens, waterproof and archival ink.

Moleskines640.jpg


Over time one can tend to forget all the things that they have done, they add up so much. These journals are memory incarnate. And the notes can contain compass coordinates to favorite spots or finds, anything you want to remember. You can even print portions of maps and include them. They journals will become very fat as you enter images on all the pages. It is kind of cool but if you use the heavy glossy or matt papers they will never fit, the journal just becomes way too fat so the High Resolution Paper is the best thing I have found. This journals have soul, something the "pay for the workup and print" books don't come close to imo...
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As a writer in Moleskin style books, I LOVE this. Hopefully something I will have the motivation to adopt. Thanks.
 
slc_dan said:
As a writer in Moleskin style books, I LOVE this. Hopefully something I will have the motivation to adopt. Thanks.
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Thanks! Glad to be of some help. I'm really liking the 5x8" size in hardbound the best at this time for the photo-journals. But for a very good field notebook, that small Volant Moleskine in the image above is very lightweight and it goes with me at all times out there. I even had to make my own backcountry permit with one of the perforated pages in the back in Joshua Tree when the little kiosk bin was empty at the trailhead and it worked! Most of the time it is for observations, quick sketches of the terrain for navigational purposes and taking down coordinates. It is super valuable. Here are a few more and I even made some postcards to send to a few friends with some of my outdoor imagery but that is a whole other thing.

Moleskines800.jpg


There are many ways to do these journals other than what I do. Your imagination is the limit...
 
scatman said:
@Wyatt Carson - what kind of paste do you use for the pictures? Does it hold up over time?
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Scholastic Glue Sticks. They are acid free and photo safe and have lasted for me...well, many years so far. Some use rubber cement but I find that stuff better for professional layout artists. You can easily move the photo if you want with that. The glue sticks are a permanent fix. You cannot move it after you use those. Neither of those will wrinkle my images but some of the liquid glue will cause wrinkles.

I have used several brands of glue sticks and the Scholastic Glue sticks work smoother imo. I take an old magazine or catalogue, flip the photo upside down, apply the glue in strokes, wipe the excess off my fingers with a paper towel and quickly fix it down in the Moleskine. I smooth is down with a paper towel over the image so I don't smear the ink or get my body oils on the printing. In a closed journal the graphics will last indefinitely if you use long term ink. I think the life for the Canon ink I use is something like 100 years (it is labeled Chromalife 100+). It does not seem to fade if covered by glass which my wall hanging are, or closed in a book. My wall hangers have been up, some for decades, and still bright and colorful...
 
Like @gnwatts my wife and I have used Apple books generated from iPhoto. I have to help her get the photos from the Aperture library and now from Lightroom to the iPhoto library. We use the iPhoto book generator because I believe it is more feature rich and reliable than the one baked into Aperture. In fact we are building calendars right now since they are xmas presents for our mothers. Plus my wife likes to have a paper one on the wall where we track when the birds came in the spring and left in the fall and other natural occurrences.
The product is very very high quality and inexpensive. Recommended. Delivery is quick and professional and tracked as well.
 
Guess that depends on what you base your price on. I use to hand scrapbook, I have literally spent hundreds of dollars on one album. With the cost of printing photos, paper, pens, page protectors, classes, etc.... I was a bit obsessed with scrapbooking my first born son. This album cost me a lot of time, and only $135.00 to print. If I would have printed every photo in that album I am sure I would have paid more. I love DIGITAL!!!! Best thing ever.
 
blueeyes said:
Guess that depends on what you base your price on. I use to hand scrapbook, I have literally spent hundreds of dollars on one album...
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I agree, it is an expensive and time consuming pursuit, no doubt about it. But in the end you really have something amazing. I like the other methods too. There are many ways to do a thing like this.
 
Umm not into scrapbooking and whatknot... but coming around to some photo books. For outdoor writing, there is nothing better than rite in the rain notebooks. They're already on waterproof paper. Maybe not the most stylish but they work.
 
that is a great idea for the book.

For printed books, I have done a few of the Apple Books. They turned out pretty good!
 
My wife has done several on shutterfly. They turn out nice. It's a bit pricey no matter where you get it done though. There are also photo books you can buy that let you detach the pages and print on the pages yourself. Good for the control nut.
 
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