I received an email from a fellow church parishioner requesting advice in creating a "picture book" for her only grandson who was graduating from high school, in just two short weeks.  I was a bit apprehensive to get involved due to the fact that I hadn't created a book in about three years; the time-line was very short; and she described herself as "I just don't move as fast as I used to (I'm 76) and time is scarce".  I thought this email could lead to one of those "feel good" experiences or more than likely be the "book from hell".  The good news is I decided to help and she turned out to be a very nice and capable person that was an energetic ball of energy which made this project a lot of fun.  My decision turned out to be a rare "I FEEL GREAT" experience, which prompted me to create my own book and share my thoughts.

I've been publishing my photography online for a few years and didn't consider creating a book until I found Mixbook.com through online reviews.  My new friend needed a fast and easy way to create a book and during my research it took me only about ten minutes to create a free account, a project, upload some images, start making a book, and get a very good understanding of the workflow.  The process was straight forward and understandable.  I was able to teach my senior friend so effectively that she was able to make the book for her grandson herself.  I only made minor modifications and provided some simple advice when she had questions.

After helping her make the book I decided to use my images and create a custom book of my own, "Through My Eyes".  The total time from creation to order was about six hours, with the majority of time spent on finding and uploading images (high resolution), and researching captions for the pages.  Here are the functions I liked about the online application:

• It was free to register and begin creating the book
• I did not have to download any programs to my computer, everything was through the website
• I could have others collaborate online with the creation
• Links were provided to share the book or embed the book in a website, without a cost
• Many customizable predefined themes
• Many customizable page templates
• Picture upload was easy and fast with image thumbnails cataloged showing which were used in the book.  (There was also integration to popular photo sharing sites)
• Drag and drop ability to place pictures on the page
• Easy ability to move, resize, rotate, zoom, and make minor image adjustments
• Multiple layers of “undo” to test the placement and editing of images and text
• Easily create and edit customized text with multiple fonts
• Easy to reorder pages
• Easy to order and publish the final book.

There were some things that would help the program, but did not have any effect on my book or my positive experience:

• I was unable to edit my book or view the published book from my Apple iPad, the program works with “Adobe Flash” which is not supported
• I would like integration to my Zenfolio account where I host my photography.  To ensure I used images from my site, I downloaded from Zenfolio and then uploaded to Mixbook.

Mixbook.com is a very good book making website.  I received my book one day earlier than I expected and am very pleased with the quality of the binding, images, and paper.  The book arrived via US Mail and was professionally packaged to avoid damage.  Also to my surprise, the book was shrink-wrapped for additional protection in the package.  If you're interested in seeing the book I'm providing the link below.  Mixbook.com does have an Affiliate Program which I'm attaching to the link to see how the program works.

Click here to view the book.

Have you created a photography book, I'd like to hear about it.

Enjoy and remember,

"Moments in time are lived once. Images of those moments live forever."

Ed H.