First off – I love taking pictures! I am always that person at any given time with a point and shoot (not my cellphone – that is a whole different blog post I need to write!) taking pictures of every occasion! I came from humble beginnings where a camera was not something we could afford so pictures of my childhood and particularly my mom are very scarce. It was after I lost my mom at 18 did I realise how little pictures I had of her and particularly of her and I. After I lost her and was given a camera on my 19th birthday I haven’t stopped taking pictures since and capturing life as it happens! I guess it is because of my mom and not having pictures to look back on.

That being said – my daughter has been the most amazing subject to photograph! We invested in a really small but practical camera (my husband is really into his gadgets so he made sure he did his research and found that this particular one was perfect for kids…) anyway – on another side note – what goes hand in hand with my love of photography is my absolute love for scrapbooking! I am on my 12th album and adore preserving memories.

Truth is with the thousands of pictures I take of our daughter – I, A) cannot possibly print them all and, B) don’t have the time do complete all the pages fast enough to show our family and friends when they come visit. The albums are big and bulky and sit on a shelf away for people’s reach on a coffee table for example.

When I was approached by LivePRINT an online print shop based in Salt Rock, Durban to test drive their newly launched photo books I was hesitant. I must admit I have had terrible experiences with photo books in the past. Putting it into context – I would rather go to a photo print shop and print my photos, find beautiful paper and embellishments for that ONE page than attempt to design an ENTIRE photo book. I find scrapbooking one hundred times easier and relaxing than the stress and frustration designing a photo book is. Hard to use software, being creative on a PC, programs crashing and losing your work… it’s just down right annoying!

I thought having had Maddie just a couple of months ago that designing a book displaying a couple of pictures from her first month or two of her life would make an awesome, almost ‘brag book’ for our coffee table at home to show our guests (since no one asks to pull out the scrapbooks and there hasn’t been a lot of ‘me time’ to catch up on putting together her birth scrapbook) – so I jumped at the opportunity.

First of all I have to say WOW! LivePRINT has changed my opinion on photo books! First off – you don’t need to download software (YAY!) – it is all designed in your web browser! So no waiting for software downloads or the fear of the program crashing mid book. Another stand out for me is their software integrates with Facebook and Instagram allowing you to add photos to your book straight from your pages and there isn’t the worry of the resolution being low as the system will give you a warning message if the resolution is too low.

There is an amazing selection of photo books theme layouts that allow you to customise the background and layouts, add clip art and text, apply filters and edit the photos. It is amazing. You can literally drag and drop your pictures into an already beautifully designed book!

Since I decided to do a book fro Maddie I chose an incredibly sweet ‘pink butterfly’ hardcover photo book. The base of the book comes at a standard 24 pages which can fit between 60 to 400 photos depending on your layout. I chose to add in a couple of pages to make a 30 page book and I have to compliment on the price of this book. It is a rather large book measuring 300mm X 300mm which is the largest size option available on the site comes at a price tag of just R619 with the charge of R12, 50 per page when adding pages to the album.

Designing the album took me literally 20 minutes and the turnaround delivery time (yes they courier to you so you don’t have to live in Durban or have to travel to Durban to order your own – it is all done online!) is amazing!

The quality of the album from the cover to the binding to the pages is excellent! Our new ‘brag book’ proudly sits on our coffee table and I cannot wait to add a monthly/bimonthly book to create a collection for Maddie one day.

LivePRINT’s photo books come highly recommended for the busy working mom who wants to show off all her pics with minimal effort. Our little babes memories don’t need to sit on a computer or cellphone – they need to be printed, displayed and shown off!

Purchase info: 
liveprint.co.za
info@liveprint.co.za
0325254078

Until next time! Xx

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