Friday, August 14, 2015

My Photobook Collection

I have always preferred looking at pictures in an album than in a laptop or some other electronic gadget. In fact, I have a few photo albums that display pictures from trips I took back in the late 90s to early 2000s. However, in 2007, a colleague of mine showed me a book that contained her family pictures. I thought this was a better alternative to photo albums mainly because a book is less bulky than a photo album. I did some research on these picture book options before finally settling with Photobook Philippines. I made my first photobook in early 2012 and I haven't stopped since.

some of my large landscape photobooks

Since then, I have created a total of 46 photobooks. 27 of those are mine (or my family's) and 19 of those were gifts for friends. That's more than 10 books a year! (I didn't realize until now how much time I have actually devoted to photobooking LOL.) I usually stick to two book sizes. I use large landscape (15" x 11") for trips where I have really good photos. That way, I end up with something like a cofee table book and I can appreciate the pictures even more. If I feel that my photos aren't that great, I will make medium landscape (11" x 8.5").

some of my medium landscape photobooks

I also tend to use just a bare white background for trips where I feel my photos are really beautiful so that the focus is on the pictures and not on the background.

sample spread of my Sagada/Banaue photobook

However, not all my travels have stunning pictures. In these cases, I will often opt to use a readybook template to make the pages slightly more interesting.


sample spread of my Copenhagen photobook

I also have a few books with different sizes, such as large portrait, medium portrait, and large square. I made these when I was just starting but I have since stopped using them. I figured I want most of my books to have the same size so it will be easier to store them. :)

some of my other photobooks of different sizes

Almost all my photobooks contain pictures of my travels (I do have one that is a compilation of the different corporate social responsibility activities I organized and participated in a few years ago). I have to say that I am tremendously fortunate and very grateful to have been able to travel - both locally and internationally - as much as I have. Over the years, I have gotten a lot better in laying out my photobooks and sometimes, when I look at some of my earlier works, I wish I could change how I put some of the pages together. However, a lot of my friends have told me that one of their favorites is the Iceland book, and that was one of the first few ones that I made (I guess it's because of the awesome pictures and the fact that not many people realize until they see these photos how beautiful Iceland is). Getting to look at my books every now and then always makes me smile and brings back a ton of memories so while it does take a lot of effort, I plan to continue making books in the future. My next project? My Russia trip. :)

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