Saving Family Memories in a Pinhole Press Photo Book

I have a tradition of making a yearly photo book to remember the highlights of the past year. Every January I’d sit down and go through the prior year’s photos, choosing the best ones to add into a beautiful photobook. Originally I printed photos but as technology evolved I began to create photo books online instead.

In this digital age, I’ve stopped printing photos, so our family memories exist mostly up in a cloud or on a digital frame. But there really and truly is nothing like looking at printed photos. And the kids simply love looking through the yearly photo albums that I’ve made in the past. Every year they grow so much and every year there’s something new to see that happened in our lives.

Things got hectic and I haven’t made a photo book since the summary book of 2014! So when Pinhole Press got in touch and offered me the opportunity to try their website and create a photo book it felt like fate & I jumped on the opportunity!

This is the first photo book I’ve made on Pinhole Press & I found it quite simple and straightforward to use. I’m going to tell you about the process and how my finished photo book turned out. There are so many websites you can use to create photo books these days but I can say with all honesty that this one is the nicest photo books I’ve ever made or seen. The quality is really amazing.

Hardcover Portrait Layflat Photo Book

Pinhole Press has lots of custom items on offer including cards, calendars, wall decor, games & personalized photo books. Within the photo book category, they have personalized books for kids, brag books & both soft and hardcover photo books.

After perusing the options I settled on making a hardcovered photo book. My aim in this project was to fit as many photos as possible, while looking beautiful, into one book to catch up some of the lost years from my photo book gallery. So I decided to make the Pinhole Press Hardcover Portrait Layflat Photo Book. This is an example of what this book cover and binding looks like:

The Hardcover Portrait Layflat Photo Book is 8.75 x 11.25″, has a cloth spine & image wrap. Details about this photo book from the Pinhole Press Website include:

1. Ten cover color choices

2. Premium layflat paper in ultrawhite color

3. Template choices ranging from collages to huge, panoramic pages

4. Template choices with and without text

5. Classic Font: a traditional serif font choice

6. Add or remove pages

7. Quality craftsmanship that you can see and feel

8. Printed and bound in the USA

9. Made with acid-free paper

This photo book is a layflat design which means there’s no seam in the middle, so when you open each page, it lays flat! The photo book looks so professional. Each page is thick, the book has weight to it making it feel really luxurious and well made.

Creating with Pinhole Press

Now that I selected my book it was time to get to business. Pinhole Press has two options for creators. Option 1 is “Let us do the work” where you upload your photos and they will be auto-loaded into the book. Option 2 is “Start from scratch” where you upload your photos then manually place them into the book how you’d like them to be.

I, of course, went with the start from scratch option as I really enjoy placing photos and creating the book just how I like it. But I can really see the benefits of letting them put it together – you’d have it done in no time at all!

In the “start from scratch” mode, you get a choice of layouts for each page where you can add between 1 – 6 photos per each two-page section. There’s also the option to add text.

I found Pinhole Press very easy and instinctive to use. Everything uploaded and created easily and quickly. And the finished product was sent out very quickly too, and nicely packaged for its journey to Ireland.

My Finished Book

I really couldn’t’ be any happier with our finished photo book. It’s such beautiful quality! I really can’t get over it. The hardcover is thick, well made and sturdy. Each page is also really thick and beautifully put together. The lay flat design means that you can see each photo without being disturbed by creases. Here are some photos of my finished photo book from Pinhole Press…

Between my fingers is one page – see how thick and luxurious each page is!!

And how the thick hardcover wraps around the front and back of the book.

Here you can see how the pages lay flat.

It looks like an album that a professional photographer would put together! I can see why people make this album for their wedding photos. You can add additional pages to the book as well so I was able to get highlights from years 2015, 2016  & half of 2017 all into the one book.

I’m hooked on photo book making now, and want to finish off the rest of 2017 and 2018 this month while I’m on a roll. I will continue to use Pinhole Press because of the ease of use but mostly because of the stunning finished product!