photography // insta-book.

I've used Blurb a few times now for publishing my photography portfolios to show to prospective clients and am always happy with the clean, professional, crisp look of these bookstore-quality lovelies.  Brides and grooms have been happy with these books, too -- they are a great option for sophisticated, affordable wedding albums and I love to offer them as my "classic album" option for clients.  Blurb's BookSmart editing tools are easy to use, too.  Just a good experience all around!

Then I found out that Blurb offers tools for creating books from your Instagram and Facebook photos, too!  Um, yes, please.  (You guys MUST notice how addicted I am to Instagram, right?)

And holy cow, is it easy to make!  Blurb's online Bookify tool (no need to download any software) connects to your Instagram account and automatically populates your Instagram images to a book.  Don't worry, it's crazy-simple to rearrange photos, layouts, and pages, as well as duplicate the images you love or delete the ones you don't.

You can view your book two pages at a time, like you're looking through a real book, or you can view all your pages and overall layout all at once:

I was a little nervous about image quality, since most of us know that our Instagram photos look great on our smartphones, but as soon as you enlarge them past the size of a credit card, the quality is questionable.  Luckily, because Blurb connects directly to your Instagram account, you're getting high resolution images printed to the page.  The photos in my book really look great -- better than I expected.

You can also change the number of images per page just by dragging and dropping photos, and you can add text, too (plus change fonts, colors, and sizes of your text).

I guess it's obvious by now, but I'm really happy with the way my book turned out, and the ease of the experience in making one in the first place.

So many of us are photographers via iPhone these days that we don't exactly have 4x6" prints to frame or scrapbook anymore.  Now, our lives are told through Instagram and Facebook.  Blurb's simple interface enables you to tell your story through images, arranged and displayed in the way you want; it's perfect for recording memories in the digital age, without those pesky trips to the one-hour photo at Walgreens.  And (no offense, Walgreens) these books by Blurb offer quality (and flexibility in options for printing and sharing, including the ability to make ebooks for iPad) that is unmatched by other printers and services.

I have a sneaking suspicion I'll be back for more Instagram books by Blurb.  The one I made was called "Spring and Summer 2012," and I'm sure there will be a "Fall and Winter" edition, and so on.

Happy bookmaking, friends!

Full disclosure: I received my Instagram book from Blurb for free, however the opinions expressed here are solely my own.  I mean, I really do love Instagram.  Remember this post?  Seriously.