Editor's Note: For today's post I've asked photographer extraordinaire, Melia Sorenson to suggest her top picks for travel photobooks. Melia is a shutterbug legend shooting everything from landscapes to wedding bells. See her bio below.
An Obvious Solution In the age of digital photography, there is little need for the traditional 4x6” ‘proofs’ passed around in the days of film. We have Facebook and Flickr; but, for a particularly important collection of images, like those from our overseas adventures, which deserve to outlive a random hard drive failure or account deletion, web-based self-publishing companies are the obvious solution.
Quality for Price DIY photobook quality can be remarkable for the price point—often indistinguishable from ‘coffee table’ picture books from a book store. The online publisher will provide you with free, easy to use software for you to custom design your book. Most will allow for text or captions to compliment your photos in a variety of fonts and formats.
Ease I for one do not relish the adoption of new software, but this is simplicity even by my standards. Once your book is finished it will go into a virtual bookstore with its own identifying link so that you may share the electronic form with family and friends who may also wish to order a copy directly from the site.
Photobooks The companies with which I have the most experience are MyPublisher and Photobook Canada, but Blurb is also extremely popular. Here is a detailed review of these books, as well as others.
Bio
Melia holds a bachelor of fine arts from Emily Carr University. She is a Vancouver wedding photographer by summer and world traveler by winter. Recent work, including travel images, may be viewed on her blog.
[photos by melia]