Memory Book

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Stephen
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Our border collie died yesterday and without going into too much detail, we are devastated. I'm trying to pass the time by collecting together all the images of her which we have stored on hard drives. We'd like to have a book printed with memories of our eleven years together. Can anyone recommend a high quality printing service that can put a book together for us. I don't want a cheap-jack effort, I'd like to do her proud. Thanks.
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Pets, especially dogs, do become a major part of a family at an emotional as well as physical level ~ I am sorry to hear of your loss :(

As for a book, though I have yet to have one printed I have often seen mention of Blurb.

I hope you can find a source to suit you and create your book of memories of her.
 
Very sorry to hear of your loss, we are still missing our Ethel who died during lockdown 1 at 15yo. Collies are a very special breed, all dogs are great but there's something about a Border Collie.
 
Very sorry to hear of your loss, we are still missing our Ethel who died during lockdown 1 at 15yo. Collies are a very special breed, all dogs are great but there's something about a Border Collie.
They are a VERY special breed. She was fine on Saturday but went downhill over the next couple of days. She came to me for lots of neck massages on Friday evening, way more than normal. I think she knew that her time was up. Just been out for a walk and we feel lost without her. Our lives were built around her, she made sure of that.
 
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Sorry for your loss Stephen.

We had a photobook made when we lost our cat a few years back. I often have a flick through it and remember the time she spent with us. It’s well worth doing.

I had a few photobooks printed, albeit landscape pics, during the first lockdown to pass the time as I was furloughed. The one I’m most pleased with is the one from Whitewall, lots of paper choices and great quality. Not cheap though. Saal was another I used. Good quality and a fair bit cheaper than Whitewall. Both had really easy to use websites to upload and fiddle with the layout. I‘ve also used Bonusprint and Snapfish and wasn’t impressed with either.
 
Sad news indeed Stephen.

I made a Blurb photobook for my father-in-law when he lost his wife, and he loves it. I have made quite a few other photobooks over the years. I've settled with Blurb because whilst they are (comparatively) expensive, the quality is quite high. When they integrated into Lightroom it was a no brainer for me as making books using LR is relatively seamless and saves messing about exporting images and pulling them into other software.

If you go down that road, I'd suggest spending a little extra for their premium paper and a hard cover. My thinking is always that I'm only making one or two copies, so I might as well spend the money and make it look right. Large Landscape is a really nice size and has a good feel to it.

If you've never used it before you can get a 35% reduction for signing up on their homepage and there are often deep discounts to be had with a bit of hunting online.

Of course, actually making a book like this is always going to be difficult, so I'd also suggest taking your time and get it right rather than rush it. My wife helped me do the layout for the book for her dad and we had to do it in 2 or 3 sittings because it was so difficult for her. I'd like to do a book on my parents but it's something I just can't face doing yet and I don't want to just sling any old thing in there.
 
I make one up every year of our travels, so have tried a few different ones
Canon HD photobooks are very nice, but not cheap. I won one in a competition a couple of years ago.
Wasn't impressed with CEWE, but the one from Boots online was surprisingly good, think it was Snapfish.
 
Thanks everyone, really appreciate the effort you made to reply, it means a lot to me. I'll take on board what you've suggested and definitely take my time over the presentation.
 
Vistaprint do a lay flat coffee table book - I have a few off our holidays etc


Les :)
 
Sorry for your loss...

We lost our lovely staff two and a half years ago, I still love looking at photos and videos I took of her. It's good that you have photos of your Collie, looking at her photos will help to remind you of the great times you had.
 
@jonbeeza Still doing our morning walk, people must think I'm daft. After 4,000 early morning excursions with her, it's not easy giving up on the seasons we shared. If fact, I talked more to Willow than I do my wife. We've covered the circumference of the earth together, that's a bl**dy long way and a multitude of words.
 
Sorry about your loss.

Blurb is relatively easy and has a lightroom plug in to make things easier if you use LR. I've had a few Blurb books done and have been impressed with the results.

Saal Digital often have offers for new customers and I did a Saal book for someone and that was nice.
 
@jonbeeza Still doing our morning walk, people must think I'm daft. After 4,000 early morning excursions with her, it's not easy giving up on the seasons we shared. If fact, I talked more to Willow than I do my wife. We've covered the circumference of the earth together, that's a bl**dy long way and a multitude of words.

I used to go for lovely long walks with our staff, we could go for three good walks a day. Through the woods and along the canal we would go, just not the same anymore. I still absent mindedly look over my shoulder, to look for her.
 
Searched through all my folders for any forgotten images of Willow and just about ready to organise them on paper.
Two questions:

With so many fonts to choose from, any suggestions as to which one would look "okay" to go side by side with the photos?

I'd like to do a section with holiday snaps and have a white border round to make them look like postcards. But if the paper is white, then the border will disappear. Cream coloured border?
 
Went for a walk, had a think and wondered if it would be possible to have a map of the area visited as a bottom layer. Nice one @andrewc , great minds think alike.
 
Searched through all my folders for any forgotten images of Willow and just about ready to organise them on paper.
Two questions:

With so many fonts to choose from, any suggestions as to which one would look "okay" to go side by side with the photos?

I'd like to do a section with holiday snaps and have a white border round to make them look like postcards. But if the paper is white, then the border will disappear. Cream coloured border?
Depending on the software you're using your could do something like this:
Screenshot 2021-06-24 at 18-07-44 pikeography - pikeography pdf.png
 
Nearly finished. Bit nervous about sending it off. Unsure whether images on white background should have a fine black border or not.
 
Just read a few reviews about Blurb and there seems to be a massive issue with shipping fees and VAT. I seem to be STUCK with Blurb.com instead of Blurb.uk.
 
So sorry to hear about your loss, OP. Our beloved cat passed away at the age of 10 due to incurable disease and that was a huge loss as he was like a family member to us. A memory book is a sweet gesture and you must be a strong person to complete it. It took me probably a month to collect all our cat's pics for a smartshow 3d video about him and we haven't rewatched it since. Rays of love to you and good job !
 
I clicked get started, then had a pop up to download BookWright.exe which I did. If you like, I can put it on Dropbox and PM you a download link. Fully understand if you'd prefer not to.

I suspect the exe when run will go off to the Blurb site to do a full install.

Assuming you're on a Windows PC of course...
 
I clicked get started, then had a pop up to download BookWright.exe which I did. If you like, I can put it on Dropbox and PM you a download link. Fully understand if you'd prefer not to.

I suspect the exe when run will go off to the Blurb site to do a full install.

Assuming you're on a Windows PC of course...
Managed it by going to the UK site on a different computer, loading my work onto an SD card and then loading that up on the UK site. Had to use a different email address etc. Finished all the images a moment ago, now I need to include the bits of writing, which I'm finding hard to do. One is from Willow's point of view when I went to choose a dog at the rescue centre. I've asked my wife to think of all the things that cropped up in conversation with Willow and I'm going to include all those ... " Drinky, get a drinky!" "Where's the ball? What have you done with the BALL?" "Not be out long, we'll fetch you a doggy bag."
 
So sorry to hear about your loss, OP. Our beloved cat passed away at the age of 10 due to incurable disease and that was a huge loss as he was like a family member to us. A memory book is a sweet gesture and you must be a strong person to complete it. It took me probably a month to collect all our cat's pics for a smartshow 3d video about him and we haven't rewatched it since. Rays of love to you and good job !
Just about finished the image selection, AGAIN, and feeling emotionally drained. Thanks for your thoughts.
 
Penultimate pages of my memory book. Soppy but true. It was the last photo I took of her. I'd been outside with an old manual lens. Didn't have time to focus pin sharp because I knew that she'd move ... and she did.

willow.jpg
 
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