With the end of the year fast approaching, I finally spent a few hours yesterday and today putting together a photobook of our big family trip (my parents, my siblings, and all our kids) to Lake Lure back in July.
I did this after our first trip two years ago and gave a copy to my mom for Christmas. I knew all along that I wanted to repeat that this year, and holiday shipping deadlines (plus the last day of a big coupon code on Mixbook) finally motivated me.
Making photobooks have always been a weirdly angst-ridden task for me. First, the process of culling through photos feels burdensome. Second, the fact that I have some graphic design experience and photo editing skills makes me feel like I should edit all the photos and should do my own custom layout and SHOULD SHOULD SHOULD.
But of course if I wait for time and motivation to do all that, it will never happen.
In the past few years I’ve gotten better at following the “good is better than perfect” philosophy, at least as far as photobooks are concerned. I’ve now successfully make photobooks for our wedding (ahem, 10 years after the event is better than never), our Disney trip in 2019, and the two big family trips to Lake Lure.
Are the perfect? Nope. Some photos are dark, some are overexposed, but most are good. The books themselves are all different sizes and paper qualities, because I’ve used different websites and services.
But the point is — I have books. I have photos that exist outside of my phone, in a physical form that we can pick up and look at and reminisce about our trips.
This week, I finally took the 20 minutes to do some googling on ways to make the photo culling process easier. Years ago I used software called BreezeBrowser that worked really well, but it’s only for Windows. But yesterday I discovered that I can use Adobe Bridge — which I already have access to since I pay for a Creative Suite subscription — and WHOA! It was so easy to quickly scroll through a folder of images and use keyboard shortcuts to either reject the bad photos (for quick deleting later) or flag the good photos (to easily pull online for the photobook). Total game changer!
Next up: a photobook of our Colorado trip back in June!
p.s. I’m doing a 31 day blogging challenge.
Sarah, oh my. I’ve wanted to do a photo book for years! I subscribe to Mixbook too, but have been overwhelmed with all the photos I have, which should I use, etc, etc, etc., my Mom could use a book as she’ll be 92 this month. Maybe she’ll get a New Years book instead. I’m sure you’re family will love your book, it comes from the heart and made up of people they love and cherish.
How did you like how your Mixbook turned out? The last two times I did one, I think the photos turned out pixelated, even though I uploaded the full resolution photos. Actually I’ve had that problem with a few photo prints that I have done recently – I actually started sending my photos to Lauren’s small shop in Cape Cod (seriously) to have them print my photos.
The book I did 2 years ago turned out fine so hopefully these will too! I mean, the photo quality isn’t spectacular for any of these services, but I haven’t noticed pixellation or graininess which would definitely bother me. For regular prints (and my photos are nearly always from my iPhone these days), I usually use Walgreen’s and they come out fine.
I have used Adobe Bridge for years, though I’ve just let my subscription lapse. I find it great for photo processing workflow.
I am literally in the process of making a photobook for my dad’s christmas gift today. I’ve definitely done a few photobooks I put a ton of effort into, but usually I just throw them together, and they still bring lots of happiness.