After every family vacation, I like to come up with something to recap or remember the trip with. This could be a photo, something we picked up along the way, usually something edible (I snack). Whatever! We don’t travel often, so it’s kind of a big deal when we do. Especially now that we’re parents and I really want something to remember the special moments from our travels. This past summer, we headed to Maui with my entire family to celebrate my grandparents’ anniversary. I took a BAJILLION pictures while we were there and have just sort of been hanging onto them and looking at them when I’m deeply depressed and needing to pretend I’m on a beach somewhere. I have a point! I’m going somewhere with this. I absolutely love to give gifts, but sometimes, ya just don’t have the time to make it fantastic and beautiful and oh-so-special-and-unique. Or maybe you do, but lately, I can’t seem to find the time to eat an actual meal (protein shakes for you and you and you!), let alone pick out the right gift for my husband. So to simplify things, we partnered with Blurb to create a simple & stunning book filled with all of our favorite images from the trip!

I’ve really just been hoarding these images in Dropbox for the right time. And I knew I wanted to give Logan something involving these photos. I had planned to give him a blown up print of this image:

But just never got around to it. You know how things just take a backseat sometimes, and the to-do list just grows and grows? These last two months have just been more insane and busy and stressful than I ever planned for and the time for gifting just sort of crept up on me. And Logan and I never really exchange big gifts, but we do the ol’ exchange twice a month because his birthday is just a few weeks before Christmas.

Are they cute or what? Look at that pucker. 

In between all of the raising-of-the-Vita duties and our extra blogging-diy-and-styling gigs going on this season, I uploaded our trip photos to Blurb’s easy editing software, Bookify, and made a book for the husb filled with all the good images. And it took less than an hour to do, so that was a definite bonus! You simply choose the desired layout (lots of templates to pick from!) and then click and drag your images where you want them to be. Pick the style and size of book you like – I chose a 12″ x 12″ because I’m vain and believe everything should be big and awesome, and who doesn’t want a big picture of the ocean?! I say!

It arrived all perfectly packaged and safe, and I snuck a peek before wrapping up with a little trim to give to Logan!

Those beautiful matte pages are basically just photos of me and Vita so that Logan can just be reminded of how much we love him all the time. And also, how good we look on a beach and that he should take us to one more often. This is more a gift for me in disguise. Wink wink. 

There are one million and one uses that I can think up for these books. I’m thinking the next one might be to compile a book of all of the recipes on our blog to give to someone, or you could put all of your kids’ art in one place! Heaven knows I have 100+ “sketches” of Vita’s that I can’t bare to throw away…
It looks fantastic under our mini tree! This tree is a stand-in until we can pick up our real LIVING one this weekend! Woo!!!

To wrap things up (see what I did there?), I cut out some tropical paper leaves and wrote Logan’s name on it and tied itall up with a bow. I know that most guys don’t really appreciate the packaging, and Logan is one of those guys, but it’s more for me. Only pretty things under the tree, amirite? I really love how the book turned out. I think it’s the image-wrapped cover. It’s basically art just begging to be on major display year-round! A friend told me recently that california was amazing all year around as well. She recommended whale watching california to check out if you’re in the california area because the whales are beautiful there! Onward and upward to the next adventure!

This post is in partnership with Blurb, a company that believes in printing quality books filled with your ideas & images. Design your own book in a few simple steps and give to a loved one this holiday season! Thank you for supporting the brands that help Proper keep creating! 

*styling & photography \\ Lexy Ward

The post Under The Tree \\ Easy Holiday Gifting with Blurb appeared first on PROPER.

It’s no secret that we love to travel. If I could spend several weeks (months, really!) out of the year traveling to all the places on my bucket list, I’d do it! I know some people who really want to submerge themselves in one particular culture. One way that people have done this is to become an au pair, if this is something that you are interested in then you can take a look at Cultural Care Au Pair to give you a better idea of what is offer and how you can apply. This might not be for everyone though, as I know that I would certainly just prefer being able to travel where ever, for how ever long I want. Some of our most popular posts here on PROPER have been the ones where we’ve shared our recs and fave places to travel. And if I’m being honest, I truly love travel photography. It’s fun and easy to capture if you have the right setting, and we’ve been fortunate enough to travel to places that fit our colorful aesthetic (check out the hashtag #ProperOnTheRoad and see for yourself!). I wanted to create something to share some of my and your favorite shots from our adventures and partnered with Blurb to make sure these images are showcased in the best way possible – a photo book! And today I’m sharing all about the book and a few simple tips for travel photography!

I spent a few days in Miami with some of my favorite girls last fall and snapped some colorful pics that I think will provide some extra happiness for years to come. These images are also great reminders of the fun we’ve had through the years. 

Some of the images I’ve taken have been featured by the hotels we’ve visited and by travel brands online. Whenever I’m traveling, I like to take a few hours or whole day if possible, and walk around the area wearing my camera. If I’m not searching for it, and don’t feel rushed, that’s usually when I’m able to find something great to capture. 

Prior to creating the book, I flipped through Blurb’s swatch kit ($7.95 that goes toward book order) filled with samples of the different types of paper offered. There were so many options to choose from including a beautiful magazine-style option. I almost went with that one! Each paper type offered something different, and I settled on the standard matte as the printed colors were very rich and intense, and that’s just what I wanted to use for these travel photos.  

You can use several different platforms to create your photo book such as Blurb’s very own BookWright software, or upload your own PDF created with Blurb’s Adobe InDesign plugin or Lightroom integration. If you’re design-savvy and even if you aren’t, the options are endless when creating your book. You can start out with a 20-pager, but it’s easy to add additional pages as necessary. 

I used BookWright to create a template for each page of my book. You can resize the images and lay them out on your own, or follow a template pre-created for you. All you have to do is populate it with photos! You can drag to the edge so the image fills the entire page, or you can center your images on each page individually. 

Be sure that the images you are working with are high-res to avoid any grain or blur after they’ve been printed. This pineapple shot from a farmer’s market in Kauai is still one of my favorite #ProperOnTheRoad images to this day! 

Lookin’ fly in print! 

Just looking at these images makes me want to go back. It’s fun to flip through these pages and remember all of the fun adventures we had in 2016. When choosing the cover, I went for the image-wrapped hardcover. It makes for an excellent coffee table book! 

I’ve included a few of my favorite tips for travel photography and ways to capture quality photos while traveling below! 

• Don’t rush! Walk around with your camera and explore!
• Use a good lens! I never travel without my Canon EF 24-70 f/4L lens. It’s a fantastic walk-around lens.
• Shoot in raw or a very high-resolution mode.
• If photographing your lodging area, quickly photograph the room before you unpack (read: trash) it!
• Do what the locals do. Hit the beach or the flea market for an abundance of inspiration!
• When editing, stick to a few main steps to create a signature “look” that people will come to recognize as your style.
• Take a ton of pics! I shoot the same thing at different times of day and in many different angles to give myself options! 
• Get in the photos! I have to remind myself of this one each time, as I’m a bit camera shy.

I’ve been really itching for a babymoon before Baby Girl #2 arrives at the end of the summer, but I’m currently dealing with ol’ pregnancy travel ban. Since I can’t go anywhere, these pages will be something I look at on the regular. I’m also teaching Vita the importance of color with this book! I’ve been a fan of Blurb for years and their books always showcase photos so well. This book of travel photography is a bit of an oasis that I can transport myself to when I’m knee-deep in new motherhood again, and I LOVE how it turned out! If you’re running out of storage on your computer and/or phone, it might be time to weed through to find your fave images and create a stunning book of your own! These books are excellent ways to showcase your work and creative projects! 

To check out some of our recaps from past travels, click here!

** This post is in partnership with Blurb, a brand that believes in creating beautiful books filled with beautiful images. Thank you for supporting the brands that help PROPER keep creating!

styling & photography \\ Lexy Ward

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The post #ProperOnTheRoad \\ Tips For Travel Photography & Documenting My Favorite Images appeared first on PROPER.