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| A sample photo book (image courtesy Shutterfly) |
Photo books are the equivalent of family albums. The only difference is you don't have to go through and assemble them yourself and it's easy to make a second or third copy.
Obviously, I've heard of photo books before, but I had never really used them for myself until recently. I'd ordered one for my father-in-law a couple of years ago, as well as one for my own parents. I realized they'd be great for myself earlier this year when we were visiting my inlaws and saw the book I'd ordered on their shelf. When I looked through it, I realized it had encapsulated the highlights of our year in photos. I knew then that I wanted one for myself, too. And luckily, because the company I ordered it from keeps them on file, I was able to order myself a duplicate copy.
The best thing about photo books is that you can simply upload the photos (and since we only take digital photos, they're already on the computer) and arrange them however you want them.
The other nice thing is that you can do all the hard work, like uploading your photos, but wait to arrange and order them until you can find a good coupon. I uploaded some family photos I wanted because I knew I wanted to capture 2010 in one photo book. I didn't order a book, however until I found a half-price coupon on Groupon. I've also seen half-price deals on Living Social for photo books. So, if you've not done one for yourself, definitely consider it. Also, open an account with sites that do photo books. Sometimes they send current members special offers. For Father's Day, I received a special offer from Shutterfly for a FREE photo book! Yeah, that was a great offer. Now, shipping and handling on it was $8.95, but overall it was still cheaper than paying $29.95 for the book, which was their regular price.
The only thing that would make photo books perfect, however is footnoting. While it's pretty obvious through captioning who the main people are in the photos, if you create a page with 9 photos, it tends to be collage style, with no room to caption and label people. It would be nice if you could put a number in the lower corner, then label people in the index. For example, for my son's birthday party, I had nine photos from the party. Some included classmates. His best friend, he'll probably remember 20 years from now, when we look at the book. But, a classmate he wasn't that close to, or doesn't stay close to, he'll never remember that name. So, it would be night to footnote that photo so I get all the names of the kids (and I know them now), but not necessarily on the page with the photo.
So, who out there loves photo books? Who has never used them but wants to try?
That's all for today.
-Hyattsville Mom
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