I love photo books. I love designing them and I love looking through them, taking the time to enjoy the photos I’ve taken over the years. I firmly believe that looking at photos in printed form is one of the best ways to enjoy your precious memories.
Since photo books were a thing, I’ve used various companies to print my books and one of the best is Sydney based Momento Photo Books. It was therefore a privilege to be given a tour of their premises late last month, accompanied by other NSW based photo organisers.
Momento Photo Books was founded nineteen years ago, and I had the pleasure of meeting two of their directors, Geoff Hunt and Libby Jeffery, at a photo book workshop in November last year which was held at O’Reilly’s Rainforest Resort, behind the Gold Coast. Libby and Geoff had been invited by the workshop facilitator, World Photo Adventures, to run several of the sessions. As a Momento Pro consumer, it was beneficial to meet them and to also have an array of photo books on hand that I, and other workshop participants, could look through. I learnt about binding styles, paper types, cover types and general information on designing photo books using the Momento software. All of this has helped in developing my photo book design skills. Not to mention, I came away with a beautiful book showcasing photos I’ve taken in South Australia over the past few years.
Last month’s tour at Momento really helped to consolidate what I learnt last November at the workshop. Geoff showed us the printing process from start to finish and it was amazing to see how big and impressive the main printer was, as well as the ink cartridges that fed it. What sets Momento apart from the rest is their attention to detail. Every project is quality checked and what was impressive to see was that several components of the bookmaking process were completed by hand. This included the setting of the book covers which was fascinating to watch. Most of the staff at Momento have worked there for many years and are very skilled at what they do.
Momento itself has won numerous awards over the years including a prestigious worldwide award for photo book printing.
Both Libby and Geoff are passionate about what they do, and they, along with me, always encourage clients to get their photos off devices and into a photo book. They support professional photographers as well as the general public and have many different photo book options available to suit your taste and budget.
Since visiting Momento last month, I’ve been inspired to work on a personal project which I’ve almost finished. It’s a photo book of my first 21 years and is a combination of photos and memorabilia. These types of books take time to do, as there is scanning involved, and many decisions to make with regards to book size, layout, captions and fonts. I will be using Momento to get it printed and look forward to sharing it with you once finished!
If you’re wanting to find out more about the process of creating photo books, I offer a Photo Book Advisory Session which is held at my Prospect studio (or by Zoom), giving you the opportunity to see the many options of book styles available and to take you through the process of designing a book from start to finish.
And if you would love a photo book to celebrate an important event, but don’t have the time or inclination to do it yourself, I offer a complete photo book design service.
Please contact me to find out more.
