Africa Photobook instead of trip report

Old Apr 22nd, 2008, 11:16 PM
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Africa Photobook instead of trip report

Have any of you made a Photobook of your Africa trips?
We have tried a few companies and are Happiest with mypublisher.com. They let you share the books online too. Here is a link to our book Kenya Rwanda and Tanzania 2007. Fun shots at Sheldrick and later Gorillas.
http://www.mypublisher.com/bookshelf...60je%3E3282679
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Old Apr 23rd, 2008, 12:50 AM
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Hi Cheweyhead

Wonderful photos - and what an action packed holiday!

I did make a book after my last trip through my local photoplace. Hard to tell if the quality is as good as yours. I also could only do 20 double pages, which isn't many photos. You did a great job!

Kind regards

Kaye
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Old Apr 23rd, 2008, 08:04 AM
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Chewey,

Very nice photos but I think the book doesn't do all your wonderful pics justice. I missed the old fashioned way that you can see the complete pic and have room for captions under the photo. Seemed to take a long time to turn the page. But a nice fresh idea! How long were you gone, where all did you go & stay? Must do a trip report for us!

SD
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Old Apr 23rd, 2008, 08:32 AM
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I love mypublisher.com and think sharing photo books is a great idea. For some reason, I couldn't get the link to work, so I couldn't view your pictures.

I think I may follow your lead when I get back from my trip. For me, sharing a photobook would be less intimidating than sharing a slideshow of individual pictures. There are so many truly outstanding photographers on this board that I would feel silly sharing snapshots. The photobook form gives an overall impression of the trip without focusing attention on individual shots.

It would be fun to see other ways that people record their impressions of their trips. For example, has anyone kept a sketchbook of their Africa travels? If you have, you should post pictures of a few pages -- I'd love to see them!
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Old Apr 23rd, 2008, 08:53 AM
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I love this photobook and have just downloaded the software thru Costco.com.

Question: Can you get pictures from an online spot such as Snapfish or Costco without them being stored on your hard drive? I can't figure this out,
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Old Apr 23rd, 2008, 09:56 AM
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I made one of these books with my publisher with my South Africa and Vic Falls pics in December. The quality is great and it really is a special keepsake!!!
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Old Apr 23rd, 2008, 09:56 AM
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Forgot to say - your pictures are fantastic!!!
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Old Apr 23rd, 2008, 10:03 AM
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Very nice! I enjoyed the photobook format and didn't find turning the page to take a long time. What other photobook sites have you tried and why you do prefer mypublisher?
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Old Apr 23rd, 2008, 10:16 AM
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I just suggested this program on another thread, although I have not used it. Thanks Cheweyhead for posting this.

I'm off to look at the book!
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Old Apr 23rd, 2008, 10:44 AM
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Fantastic photos, and what a wonderful way to display them. I almost thought I was on vacation with you.
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Old Apr 23rd, 2008, 10:51 AM
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Great photos. Did you see the Susa group in Rwanda. How long was the trek. We had a 7-8 hour day that day & it was fantastic!

J
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Old Apr 23rd, 2008, 11:45 AM
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Chewey, I really liked those pictures, especially the gorillas. The one limitation of the Photobook is that I can't see them at a bigger size, and for pictures of this quality I would like to be able to do that.

I'd be curious to know what lens you used for the gorilla pictures -- I saw pictures showing what looked like a 300/4, and I thought I saw a 100-400 and a 70-200/2.8 in there too, but what did you use for the gorillas?

Chris
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Old Apr 23rd, 2008, 12:41 PM
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SD
I have not used online storage for photos. I would bet you could download the photos from storage and then upload them to mypub. Or, use a cd/dvd and upload.
Patty
I like mypublisher.com because of the options/choices.
Iphoto books were not as high of quality, nor as many choices.
Shutterfly printing not as bright. Maybe it has improved. Shutterfly's Calendars are wonderful though. Use them as gifts every year.
AndyBiggs told me about mpix.com. Incredibly wonderful printing. Have not used their books.

Jules
We trekked to Umubano and Susa. The Umubano hike
was an amazingly long, challenging and wonderful experience. Monkeying up and down the ravines.
The four of us were paired w/ a few people that needed a lot of help. This let the Gorillas move from where we "should" have found them. So onward and upward for 3.5 hours. One of the men, in fact, was escorted down early by one of the guards. After that trek and brilliant time with the Umubano Gorillas, then rain, rain, rain on the way down, we were ready for the Susa hike, which while long, was a breeze in comparison. But fun nonetheless!


Chris,
The photos of the gorillas are taken with two lenses
Canon 5d w/70-200 f2.8 IS and Canon 40d w/28-300 IS. We had the 400 f.4 with us. But did not bring it out. Our friends had the 100-400 and a sigma 250?-500 on 30ds. So I kept with the lens that allowed the most light. And I think that is what I would recommend. You(s) helped me with that on fodors forums. When the light was good the 70-300 DO was actually an awesome lens.






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Old Apr 23rd, 2008, 12:44 PM
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www.blurb.com
The landscape large size is fantastic.
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Old Apr 23rd, 2008, 01:09 PM
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Thanks for the reply, Chewey. I have consistently believed that the 70-200/2.8 is the best overall lens for gorillas because the light can be so challenging up there due to forest, cloud cover, or whatever. I am a little surprised that you carried a 28-300 up there -- that lens is a little bigger than I would have thought desirable for a gorilla trek, but of course it has great flexibility because of the zoom range. In fact I suspect it is bigger and heaver than the 400/4DO, but given the very different distances at which you can encounter gorillas, I don't think a 400 prime is a very good choice for that application, even though it can produce very good results and is light enough to carry and handhold.

Also interesting to hear your comment about the 70-300DO, that is a lens that doesn't get talked about very often.

Congratulations again on some excellent pictures.

Chris
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Old Apr 23rd, 2008, 01:53 PM
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I was finally able to make the link work. Your pictures are gorgeous! I love the one of the storks (??) in the river, and especially the one of the gorilla cuddling her baby.

I really, really like this format for sharing pictures. I liked seeing the people shots in context.
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Old Apr 24th, 2008, 06:29 AM
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Chewey:

We are working on our mypublisher book from our 2007 safari so yours was some further inspiration to get it done. Thanks. P.S. loved the charging or running rhino photo.

For others, the mypublisher.com book is a top quality, professional looking book. If you follow their guidelines closely, the printing is great and the paper is nice. They have improved their covers over what they used to offer.

The advantage of mypublisher.com over blurb and others is that mypublisher has the largest format book available that I have seen, which is what I want for travel, weddings, etc. The advantage of blurb is that the book can contain more pages, my publisher has a 100 side limit (50 actual pages). But for Africa, the coffee table size of the mypublisher, for me, is the only way to go, so we are actually working on a 2 volume Africa album.
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Old Apr 24th, 2008, 10:22 AM
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Wonderful book, Chewey, well done! Question - can you get 'wordy' on my publisher, ie can you tell a brief story along with the pictures?
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Old Apr 24th, 2008, 03:09 PM
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mypublisher.com has page layouts to chose from that have a caption box for each photo. You can fill in some boxes and leave others blank if you chose. Other layouts have no such boxes, just phohtos. You can also chose a layout where the entire page is text, no photos. You can also create you own combination of photo/text by creating your own "page" in a program like photoshop, and saving it as a jpg. There is also a style of book that has much bigger caption boxes (for even more text with a photo), but I believe you are stuck with that same type of format (the large caption box) throughout the book. I think they call this "storyteller". You can download the software for free on the website and from there you can look at the layout options if you are interested. I thought I would jump in, since if you can't tell, I really like this program and the books you can make.
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Old Apr 24th, 2008, 03:26 PM
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Well said. As you make the book you can go to the preview tab to check out the pages and see the narration boxes disappear. Sometimes the page layouts designated for captions are better for the composition you may be trying for on that specific page.
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