The Book I Should Have Made By Now - winners.

We had so many amazing entries in our The Book I Should Have Made By Now competition. It meant so much to us that you shared your wonderful stories with us. We feel so special that we get to help you turn those stories into Photo Books!

But we had to pick only 5 winners. So our team got together and voted for their favourites. I can assure you it was very hard - so many deserving winners!

Without further ado though...


The winners of the 5 x $250 albumworks Photo Book vouchers are:

1. DION DETTERER

I honestly never thought I’d meet a special someone, but not only did I meet her but we got married! We’ve got a ton of photos but still have no wedding album and we’re very tight on funds. We’d love an album to remember our special day by.




2. JEANETTE JENNINGS

It was my husband’s 70th birthday this year and having lost a house in the 2009 bushfires we needed to celebrate our rebuild and the good times we shared with our family, the memories the bush fire took away and the new ones we are now making together. I should have made it by now!!!!

I should have made it by now

The photos and memories of just how

Life can be changed and taken away

And yet we live to enjoy another day

Our family still together and ready to share the memories at their best

No more to do but sit back and let Albumworks do the rest

3. PETER SHEPHERD-SMITH

In 1970 four young men (I was one of them) set off in an old Land Rover to explore Northern Mozambique in Africa. At that time it was a war torn and, to the outside world, a largely unknown place. It was a journey that forever changed and inspired us. We took colour slides of our trip. Sharing our experience with others was always difficult (projectors, screens etc).

A few years ago I had most of the colour slides converted to high resolution jpeg images. Showing them as a slideshow on a computer screen or TV, while enjoyable, does not hold peoples attention or allow them to absorb the content of the picture in the same wonderful way as a book you can browse through and study.

Ever since we returned from our life changing journey, we promised ourselves that we would make some albums or books of our journey.

44 years later it is now time to do this. I owe it to my fellow travelers, family and friends who have all (I think) willingly heard all about our trip, but have not been able to individually absorb the wonders we saw. Only a book can do this.

This is therefore the book I should and must now do.

The picture attached is one of some mountains we saw on our trip. Even avid mountain climbers I shown it to cannot believe that they are, even now, largely unknown.




4. ROB SMITH

Photography is my passion. I'll soon retire and live a photographic life. In my book I'd like to share: the joy that photography gives me; some of my images and insights on the subject of photographing with long exposures; favourite quotations from painters, writers and photographers that have inspired and informed my photography. I will call my book "Time Passages".




5. KAREN ROBINSON

My story has been 20 years in the making, with a love affair of Melbourne, it’s places , people and street culture.

The first camera I was given was a Box Brownie by my Grandmother, it never saw film but I spent hours playing with it, looking through the glass prism, pointing it at everything and anything.

The next camera came from Santa, at the tender age of eight, when I was given a Kodak Instamatic.

Loaded with it’s 120 film cartridge, I took that little camera everywhere, snapping and documenting all the family holidays and events.

I moved from New Zealand to live in Melbourne 20 years ago.

Since my arrival, I instantly felt an affinity with Melbourne, the music and the arts scene, the street and coffee culture, and have spent the past few years snapping away with my Rangefinders, recording life in this wonderful City.

I use B&W film, all hand developed and scanned.

There are so many images that are crying out to be seen, my dream to see these published so I can share these moments with family, friends and anyone else that appreciates the energy and vibrancy of Melbourne.

As a child I felt compelled to record life around me, this had been a lifelong love affair with photography and I would very much like the opportunity to see those images realised in print.





HONORABLE MENTIONS (and winners of $50 Photo Book vouchers) go to:

RHONDA DIXON

I was fortunate to have a holiday in Mozambique last month. I asked to be taken to a school where I brought pencils, books hats and clothing for the children. When I arrived I was amazed at how grateful these children were for the gifts I brought. Their school is made up of 2 thatched roof huts, dirt floor and benches to sit on. I want to continue to help out these wonderful children, so with the photos I have taken I would like to put together a book to help with my fund raising.

ANN DYKSTRA

My Grandson Jaydan (5 years old), his journey over the last 5 years with a terminal illness and his happy, loving and outgoing nature as he deals with all the medical interventions.

MARGARET LEHNER

Hilda has just turned 90, I am in the process of making a recipe book comprising the recipes she had compiled in an old exercise book and has used over her lifetime. A lovely woman who had an extremely difficult life. I am planning to present this to her at Christmas together with copies for her family.



All the winners will be notified by email. But if you didn't win, still keep an eye on your inbox because we'll be sending a special something your way too!

Thanks again for entering and sharing your wonderful stories with us. Competitions like this make our job feel pretty darn special!