Photo Books

For several years I've been meaning to try making photo books using one of the online services.

When Apple came out with books in Aperture and then iPhoto I thought about trying them, but I have my photos in Lightroom.

Finally, Lightroom 4 came with a Book module and I didn't have any more excuses.

As Christmas approached and I was suffering my usual conflict of wanting to give gifts, but not wanting to support the commercialization of Christmas or our general obsession with "stuff".

I got the bright idea of doing a photo book of our McKinlay family trip to Baja in the fall.

It didn't take long to figure out the basics of making a book in Lightroom. It was definitely a plus that I could do it within Lightroom and have easy access to all my photos and be able to tweak them without having to switch programs.

The Lightroom book module works with Blurb. I finished my book and sent it off to them. I was a little nervous about how it would come out. I would have liked to order just one and see what it was like but I didn't think I had time so I ordered three (my two sisters plus Shelley).

As it turned out, they came very quickly. I was really pleased with the results. The premium lustre paper is very nice and the reproduction of the photos was good.

I was so happy with the results and the speed that I decided to do a second book of my Saskatoon nature photos to give as a Christmas present to some of the people who have been supportive of my photography and that I thought would appreciate it.  I made the first book hard cover and fairly large so it turned out quite expensive (about $50). This one I made smaller and paperback, reducing the cost to about $20. (Still with the premium paper.)

I was afraid it wouldn't arrive before Christmas but again it was very quick. And again I was really pleased with the results. (click on the full screen button for a larger view)

the nature of saskatoon