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Creating a travel photobook with Printique allowed me to relive my memories of a fantastic family vacation.
I still remember opening the box that held my first digital camera: a Kodak point-and-shoot that was technologically antiquated within a year. I’ve brought a camera on every trip my family has ever taken, from our journeys up the East Coast to our vacations halfway around the world, capturing as much as the memory card could hold every time.
Although the camera and locations have changed countless times throughout the years, I still look forward to saving my memories whenever I travel.
On this particular vacation, I toted my Canon DSLR across the country to San Francisco, California. My family and I were surprised by the warm, December weather, as we’ve become so accustomed to the unforgiving brutality of our winters in the Northeast.
With just six days before heading home, we were prepared to make the most of our time in Northern California — and I was ready to capture all of it.
Now, months later, I’ve compiled the very best pictures from our San Francisco vacation in a beautiful, custom album I created on Printique’s website. I can’t wait to present the photo book to my parents as a huge “thank you” for the wonderful time we all had out west.
The first thing to do when making a photobook is picking the book format and style. Luckily, Printique has wide range of options for both. I chose a 10 x 10 hardcover book, which would allow me to use a picture for the cover, and then opted for the default “luster finish,” not even realizing at the time just how beautiful the glossy pages would turn out to be.
Just as our days in San Francisco fittingly began at the Embarcadero, I dove straight into making my photobook with Printique. The website’s interface was intuitive and easy to navigate, allowing me to get lost in my own nostalgia instead of troubleshooting-related frustrations.
I decided to design my own template — I’m always up for a challenge — and started adding pages, one by one. I was surprised when I saw just how many pages I had to create in order to fit all the memories I had made at places like the Children’s Creativity Museum, the Exploratorium, and Alcatraz Island.
Uploading all of my pictures to Printique took a few minutes, since there were so many of them. Then came the really hard part: deciding which photos I would use to tell the story of my family’s vacation.
Too many artsy, scenic shots would be boring, but too many close-ups of my family’s silly faces wouldn’t tell the true story of our trip. I had to sort through over 500 photos several times before I was finally able to organize them in a way that wouldn’t just tell the story, but would allow my family to relive the experience every time we opened the book.
I remembered walking with my family through the streets of Chinatown, browsing in the many boutiques, and enjoying one of the best meals I’d ever had at an authentic Chinese restaurant.
We’d also taken the MUNI to Golden Gate Park, where we enjoyed a day of exploration in the Japanese tea garden, a Keith Haring exhibition, and a visit to the historic and colorful Haight-Ashbury intersection.
Thanks to Printique, choosing the best way to organize all these memories was a breeze. I was also able to apply backgrounds and text as needed, which allowed me to emphasize key moments and sentiments from the trip.
In the last few days of our trip, we rented a car to go on two more, big adventures: a drive down the gorgeous Pacific Coastal Highway to Monterey and Big Sur, and a trip across the iconic Golden Gate Bridge to see the enormous redwoods in Muir Woods National Park.
The contrast between California’s natural and man-made beauty was simply stunning, and I ended up using photos from these two trips as the front and back covers of my album.
As the final pieces fell into place, Printique let me preview how my photo book would look when it was published and in my hands. This allowed me to see any potential formatting issues and make the necessary, last-minute adjustments, ensuring that everything would come out just right. Then I turned to the front cover to name my album, “We Left Our Hearts in San Francisco.”
Only three days after ordering my album, it arrived, (a day early, in fact!) I eagerly tore open the packaging and was thrilled to discover it had turned out even better than I’d expected. As I flipped through the pages and took in all the beautiful memories, my mind slowly began to drift off back towards the Pacific.
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