Around the same time, my dear husband (DH) and I recently bought a new computer and decided it was time to merge all of our digital photographs onto one computer, since we had to move files from the old computer to the new one anyway. Trying to sort out pictures dating back four years from an old laptop I used to use in grad school, plus thousands more from my netbook (the only computer that actually had an SD drive, and thus stored the majority of our pictures), not to mention all the "cloud" sites that we were storing digital pictures on became an organizational nightmare!
Not only was it a daunting task to organize all these pictures (and if I were being honest I'd admit that I actually haven't finished this project yet), but it also made me realize how many hundreds upon thousands of pictures we have stored on computers and do nothing with! I was determined to do something with my New Orleans pictures right away when the exhilaration of the trip was still fresh in my mind, and I would still be excited to show off the pictures and tell our stories.
As luck would have it, an online photo sharing & "creation" website that I have been using for years, snapfish.com, was running a sale for 50% off on all photobooks! I had made a photobook once before after a summer spent studying and traveling in France and across Europe. I loved the quality of that book and everyone had always been very impressed by my "professional" looking "published" book. So I thought I'd take advantage of the great discount and try it again.
The photo book turned out great. The online software used to create the book was as easy to use as I remembered it, and they had added many new backgrounds since I'd last used the service, and even a new "photo as cover" feature. When the book arrived, I was very impressed by the quality of the cover, paper, binding, and image printing. I showed off the book to friends and family and they were once again very impressed. As this was actually a "work trip" (for a conference), I even took the book with me to work to show all my colleagues how much fun the city was in the evenings after the conference was over each night!
The responses I received from the photobook were so positive, that when a Groupon.com, deal became available in my city for $115 towards a photobook from photobookamerica.com (for only $35), I became very interested. I knew other photo storage websites like shutterfly.com and kodak.com also made photobooks in addition to all the other merchandise they create out of people's photos uploaded online, but I didn't realize that there were other companies available to the general public (not just professional photographers), that simply published photobooks online, and that's all they do. I became very excited that I may have finally found something worthy of my wedding photos (which I had the digital rights to, but no professional photo albums). So I read a few reviews of the website, decided it was legit, and ordered the Groupon.
The photobook software was AMAZING! I had to download it to my computer (I was used to doing everything online), and it was fully customizable. I had a great deal of fun learning how to use the software to create different layouts, manipulate my images, and create a treasured keepsake for my husband and I. While googleing ideas for layout designs, I happened to come across a blog and website called photobookgirl.com. Finding this site was like hitting the jackpot! The author reviews all kinds of different photobook publishing companies, lists various groupons, sales, and giveaways to various companies, and writes a blog with advice and ideas related to making photobooks and photography in general. One look at the "deals" page and I was hooked.
The great thing is, there is usually only one groupon on any given day for the city/area you live in. However, photobooks are all based online and are not tied to any one geographic location. So if I wanted to sample photobooks from a variety of different companies in order to find my favorite one, all I have to do to get a good deal is visit photobookgirl's site and see what city has a deal that day on the company I want to try. Then I log in, buy it, and it's mine!
So far I've sampled snapfish, shutterfly, my photobook america, and I'm currently working on a picaboo book. I've got some groupons waiting for me from mixbook too, and I keep watching for one from Mypublisher.
I'm making a series of volumes related to our wedding (2 years later!). So I'll have one for our European Engagement, another for the engagement itself (including wedding planning, showers, the rehearsal dinner, etc), one for the morning of the wedding and formal pictures, another for the ceremony itself, one for the reception, and then two for the honeymoon (we spent two weeks island hopping in Greece and I couldn't fit it all in one book without going over the page limit that keeps the books affordable). Beyond that, I have great ideas for doing a "yearbook" of our activities and events each year, maybe make up some various ones for different groups of friends over the years, perhaps some various vacations, and of course one of our two Shiba Inu dogs, for I am after all, the Queen of Shibas!
So, now that I've told the story of how I came to be so interested in photo book publishing, I have an exciting announcement to share with friends and followers who are interested in this new hobby: myphotobookgirl.com is giving away one free photobook from blurb.com to one lucky contest winner! I'm so excited to enter in all 6 possible ways! Will you take the plunge into the deep end and enter too? I warn you, once you enter, you may never find your way back out :)
Update: I WON the giveaway!!! I'm so excited to make a photobook of our engagement, chronicling the time from when we got engaged, through all the planning, showers, and bachelorette party, right to the night of our rehearsal dinner! I'll be sure to post a review of Blurb.com when I receive the finished product too!
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