I wasn't sure where to post this, so I am trying Asia and Europe, the two forums I frequent.

We just came back from a weekend getaway to find our 2015 calendar of last May's Paris trip has arrived. It's great! We did this last year with Japan, Yosemite, and cats--they also all turned out beautifully. We used Apple's software for make your own calendar (NOTE: I am a psychologist, we do not work for Apple except in the sense we give them lots of $$). We think it's a wonderful way to preserve trip memories and highly recommend it.

imo an even better way to make long lasting travel memories is to create your own Photobook. My friend has made hers usin her Apple software, but we have used Photobook America and shutterfly with great results.

thanks--will look into it

Thanks, cmstraf!

I've used snapfish for similar purposes. I must admit that I can't manage the calendar -- selecting just 12 photos, when I start with about 500 <u>a day</u> (!!!) for each 3 or 4 week trip, would just be TOO painful! ;-) Maybe I should look into options for a page-a-day photo calendars.

Hi kja,
I understand totally. It helps that Apple allows you to fit up to four a page and it makes its own suggestions about how to configure things.
The next efforts will be a cat calendar and a Yosemite one (we did these last year as well, Yosemite being an annual destination.

Problem with a calendar is you don't twnd to keep those forever. Picture books make great table pieces and preserve your best pictures forever. My publisher also makes great books.

"I wasn't sure where to post this"

Fodor's has a "TRAVEL TIPS & TRIP IDEAS FORUM" with a "Travel Photography" board. Either one (the main forum or the board) might be a good place if you want to share more generally.

thanks KJA, I'll check it out.

Another big advantage of photo books is you can "share" (hate that word) your vacation photos with visitors and friends without a long, boring slide show. Just leave the books out and they will always thumb through and ask questions.

I do 3 or 4 photo books a year and they are simply wonderful. I use Shutterfly which is ok (the old Kodak was better) but I haven't taken time to find a better site.

One of my goals for retirement is to put together books for many of our major trips. Cheryl has hundreds of photos for each trip and I have trip reports so I have the raw materials... but planning and carrying out current travel takes precedence so who knows when I'll get to the first one. The Apple books are really lovely.

If it's any encouragement, I'd recommend it as something that the two of you do together. There is something really nice about picking and choosing together, remembering this and that. Our decisions have been based mostly on aesthetics but also a lot on which memories matter to us.

I'd be curious to compare our Paris trips since we were there literally at the same time. Maybe that will encourage us to edit those photos. One of the pages on our calendar is of our evening at the Louvre: Michelangelo's slaves--empty, Venus de Milo--one person, husband in famous Italian hall not body to body, me directly in front of the Mona Lisa for 5 minutes without even hogging.

I would love to see your books, Kathie. You write really well and Cheryl's pictures are great! Doing is important but so is reexperiencing and organizing the memories.

Speaking of doing--I got my seats on Thai Air and ANA coming home yesterday. Great fun.