Creating A Photo Book - Part One

One of my many goals for this year is to find a way to share my photography in multiple media formats.  I would classify myself as a hobby photographer, with lots to learn about the craft.  It really is an artform, however my method is much more "point and shoot".

I had decided that I wanted to make a photo book, so I did some research and came across LuLu.com.  This site makes it very easy for you to create an eBook, or Photo Book, and more!

I decided to use their service to create a photo book of some of my favorite pictures over the past couple years.

I started by using their tool to create the Photo Book and then it hit me... I hadn't yet organized the photos I wanted to go in the book!  At first this seemed like an easy task, but I want this book to tell a story.  I want each picture to really be worth a thousand words and to strike up emotions of the whole experience when I look back on these in ten years.

What I had realized was that this was going to take some thought and effort.

My first step has been to reach into my collection of photos and go through picking out my favorite shots.  Those pictures that jumped out at me.

My next step will be to fine tune those pictures and make sure that they are print ready.  By print ready, I mean that they are at least set to 300 dpi and have any effects on them that I think make them tell the story better.

I am going to pick fifty of my favorite pictures and then will use LuLu to publish a book of the photos.  I will likely also order a book for my Mom and I'll make the link available for anyone else who would like to check the book out. I may even pick my favorite twelve and make myself a 2011 Calendar, the possibilities are endless!  LOL.

I'll post any other thoughts along the way.

Have you ever done a Photo Book / Scrapbook?  What is your favorite part of the process?