Self Publishing - Or what to do with all those pictures

[dpeppar]

This Christmas one of my neighbours gave me a book of pictures of Mission. He had created the book from pictures he took while living in the area. I was very impressed with the quality of his work and the book itself.
It got me thinking about what I could do with all the pictures I have taken. I knew my family would be interested in those pics of the family but what about the birds or the trips Dots and I have taken. They would find their way into a real or virtual wastebasket after my demise.

A couple of months ago I did a search of possible "one off" publishers and found a company called blurg. They have a publishing package called BookSmart which is free. The costs looked reasonable at around $50 for a 100 page hardcover book.

My first subject was a trip I took to Europe in 1967. I had digitized the photographs I took about 15 years ago with the idea I would put them in a book but never did anything with them. After a week of working with BookSmart and reworking the photos in Elements I uploaded the book to blurg.

Here is the cover.

Europe 1967 Front Cover

[/url] by Peppar Photos, on Flickr[/p][/p]

For a look go to www.blurb.ca/b/5202686-europe-1967

I was happy with the result so I started one on Dots and my trip to South America in 2011. Quite a bit of the material was posted on this site. This was a bigger task because of all the material I had and how to weave both the bird watching and sightseeing into one doc. The qualities of the bird picture were not that good but a few would stand up and the final result was what I wanted.

Here is the cover.

South America 2011 Front Cover

[/url] by Peppar Photos, on Flickr[/p][/p]

For a look  www.blurb.ca/b/5224062-south-america-2011

During the making of the South America book I also started a book on the BC Birds I have taken since spring 2011. I was able to find 70 picture I felt were good enough to put in and have now published them.

Here is that cover.

BC Birds Front Cover

[/url] by Peppar Photos, on Flickr[/p]

The bird book can be seen at www.blurb.ca/b/5242278-birds-of-british-columbia

Now I can put all those pics from the first 3 years of bird photography on a disc and move onto Vol 2!

DaveP

[merlinator]

Flickr has a deal on now with a book of 20 pictures for only $10 until Apr. 27th. I would take advantage but I'm in Az with no access to my pictures. I think these books from whatever source are a great way to showcase your pictures. You can do a Blurb book directly from Lightroom.

[Chris]

Dave that is really cool. Enjoyed looking at them. Thanks for posting.

[Gord]

Dave, wow that was incredible! What a great idea. Thanks so much for sharing!

[dpeppar]

Thanks guys......I just arrived in Hawaii for a few weeks (Maui & Kauai) expect a report in a few day.

Dave