November 20, 2008

More photobooks

Few months ago, I completed my first photobook of my trip to Siem Reap last year. Over the last few months, I’ve been burning the midnight oil, as well as taking time off from work, to complete another five books:


a) Our wedding ceremony and dinners – this is a classic case of procrastination. My initial plan was to choose photos I like, and pass them to my photographer to create a wedding book (there was no DIY photobooking service back then). But somehow, something always got in the way, and the book never got done. Now that there’s DIY photobooking, I figured I might as well do it myself.


b) My trip to Europe in September last year


c) Our trip to Taiwan in January this year


d) Our trip to New Zealand in March/April this year


e) Our recent trip to Medan in August



This time around, the people at Photobook only gave me a 15% discount, a far cry from the 30% discount when I purchased my first book. Accordingly to them, that was the first and last time they offered such a big discount. Apparently they have not increased their price since their launch, even with the multiple increases in petrol price which affected their production cost as their papers are all imported from Europe. Furthermore, they claimed that they had also improved on the quality of their paper and cover material. Anyhow, since I’ve already completed all these books, I went ahead and purchased them, since they swear that 15% is the maximum they can give from now on. And I certainly don’t fancy the idea of re-doing these books using Pixart, as their software is not as user friendly.

I completed a small book using Pixart, as I don’t have enough photos for the 40-pages minimum with Photobook. Maybe when I have some time, I’ll write a post on the pros and cons of both softwares. Anyway, I sent that book for printing two weeks ago, and though they promised that the order will be processed within five working days, I've yet to receive any news from them to collect my book. Doesn't speak too well for their customer service, if you ask me.

My next project is to complete another three photobooks, for each year of Yiu Yiu's age. I had wanted to complete the 1st and 2nd year in time for her birthday early this month but there's just not enough time. Must strive to complete them before year end.

14 comments:

Anonymous said...

Wah, you did all that in one shot? My eye will pop out man! I have one more book that is nearing expiring. Yikes!

agnes said...

wow.. so hardworking... those photobooks look GREAT!!! am alwayz wanted to do one but just couldnt spare the time out.. ;) sigh...

and u travel a lot huh.. nice!!! my traveling mood dropped after having the lil gal.. :S

LittleLamb said...

heheh can i peep at yr designs? i m stuck on ideas..

A Mom's Diary said...

Hijackqueen - did them over few months, but was waiting for them to do promotion before I send for printing.

Agnes - making photobooks really takes up loads of time. Had to sacrifice a lot of sleep to do them. Yeah, I love to travel, still hoping to do more travelling despite having YY with us now.

LittleLamb - hehe...I'm not good with designs too. That's why all my books like alike in terms of photo arrangements.

jazzmint said...

OMG....keng lah u, so many books!!! Reminds me i got 1 voucher i gotta use soon. love all the travelling book vy nice :).

when u receive pixart, i tell u, u will sure prefer the photobook quality ;)

Anonymous said...

i've been thinking of working on a photobook myself. but i'll wait for your side-by-side comparison (photobook vs pixart) first.

Anonymous said...

Wow--these photobooks look so great! Wish I were so organized.

Chinneeq said...

this is what i m dreaming about to do. until today :( hubby complain too expensive, so i m like kinda waiting for the price to drop (or more competitors coming up), hehe...

A Mom's Diary said...

Jazz - I just collected my Pixart book, and you are absolutely right. Photobook is miles better, Pixart has such inferior quality

Mimi - I can tell you now to forget about Pixart, their final product is a huge disappointment.

Asianmommy - hehe, it took me a loooong time to get them done too. Imagine doing my wedding book 4 years down the road :-)

Chinnee - the guys in Photobook were telling me there's no chance they'll drop their price. But I think it's worth it if you have lots of photos, then the cost would not differ much compared to developing them into 4R photos.

LittleLamb said...

I got 1 question..
your NZ picture..there is the picture of the mountains..and the picture is like covering the entire page. how did u do that? cos i tried pulling a picture to cover an entire page n it does not allow me...

A Mom's Diary said...

LittleLamb - there's an option of dragging the photo onto the page and drop it either as single page or double page.

Anonymous said...

Love your photobooks too! Sigh, that's one more thing I need to do now that I have more free time...

You're very hardworking. All my travel photos are just sitting on my hard disk drive :P

A Mom's Diary said...

Kittycat - it takes a lot of effort to get started, especially choosing the photos, which I absolutely dread since there are tonnes of them. But once I get over this part, I find it quite enjoyable arranging them.

BoeyJoey said...

Those photobooks are lovely! Me too has been procrastinating :-(