It’s the strangest thing…since I’ve become a photographer, there are fewer pictures of us than there ever were. We used to be really diligent about carrying our point and shoot everywhere, taking lots of pictures of our adventures together, and then printing them and filling albums with all of the good times we had. We lost our point and shoot camera at some point (haha pun intended) and since a lot of our adventures these days are us actually taking other people’s pictures, we just don’t have the time to take pictures of ourselves as much.  The majority of the snapshots we take together these days are all Instagrams! It’s so much easier to take a picture on your phone, slap a filter on it, and call it a day. Taking “nice” pictures of our life means I not only have to compose, look for great lighting, etc, it means I also have to EDIT the images as well. It’s hard to imagine wanting to sit down and edit pictures for fun this time of year…

I have vowed to start taking more pictures of us. For real this time. But since I can’t go back in time and do anything about the fact that we don’t have “nice” pictures of ourselves in 2012, I decided to make a book of our instagrams! I ordered an 8.5 x 8.5 softcover “Instagram friendly” book from Artifact Uprising.

They have built in design software, so really anyone could make an AU book. You don’t have to have InDesign, Photoshop, or Illustrator to create a book through Artifact Uprising! I honestly love how ours turned out…the paper is really nice and the print quality is excellent. You can tell they really care about what they do! The pricing on Artifact Uprising products is great as well! I spent about $40 on my book, which might seem a little steep to those used to purchasing Shutterfly or Snapfish books for their personal snapshots, but I think it was worth it! The colors are pretty true to the dinky instagram filters we applied (haha), and the image quality is fantastic, especially for phone photos! I’m interested in ordering a book or two of “nicer” images and seeing how it goes.

One thing I did want to say though, is that I wouldn’t really recommend one of these books for a wedding album. The paper is so nice, and white, and pretty…but it IS still paper. I made John wash his hands before he looked through it, and then put it away nicely on the shelf. I honestly don’t know how well the book will hold up to years and years of flipping through it, and of grubby little kid hands touching all over the pages. I think these books are EXCELLENT for preserving your Instagrams in a more tangible and traditional way, but I still think it is wise to invest in a nicer/sturdier book for a wedding album.

If you have more casual images you want to make books of, Artifact Uprising can’t be beat! Since I haven’t done a giveaway in a while, and it’s Halloween, I thought it would be great to give away an Artifact Uprising book to one of you guys! Leave a comment with your favorite Halloween candy and you’ll be entered to win a gift certificate for a 8.25 x 11 softcover book!