Revisiting a very special engagement session ...

I never got around to posting my sister-in-law's engagement photos. They were taken on our trip to the Dominican Republic in 2010. These images below were actual pages in their custom GuestBook.

Yaindry's Baptism

My niece's baptism was held earlier this year and I put together a quick keepsake of the photos taken that day. Unlike a wedding album that takes me weeks just to fine tune, I put this one together using a "bought" scrapbook template - pink leather cover, of course! No, it's not an original piece, but it works! Here are a few pages from the album ...

Chelsee's Senior Album

Another wonderful White Castle senior ...

I bet your Senior album doesn't look like this one!

A few custom albums ...

Since I'm still in studio limbo, here are a few albums that I've created over the last few months ...

Brooks and Trinette

What a wonderful couple ... the photos say it all ...

While fighting with the kids tonight, I designed a custom save the date card for the couple:

Down time ... not exactly

Albums, albums, albums ... I received a 'rush' of album orders right before and after the Christmas holidays. The albums are finally starting to come back from the vendors.

A lot of time and energy goes into album design. I normally ask the bride and groom to submit about 75 images for inclusion in their album ... that's the easy part. Putting those choices into a collection that flows, that's creative and unique, and one that faithfully illustrates their wedding day is the hard part. The better I've gotten, the slower I've gotten - it takes me anywhere from 15-20 hours to layout and finish an album. That equates to 2-3 weeks of scratching my head -- starting, stopping, re-doing, scrapping ideas, etc. Since this is such a large investment on my end, I have to make sure that I get it right the first time. Several of the demo albums that I have in the studio are ones with typos, flow issues ... things that I would not dare pass to my customers. Total design, print, and bind time varies. Depending on the type of album, vendor, and the season, expect up to 6 months. Also, if you order your album after your allotted time, you have to get in the 'album queue' ... your 6 months starts then.

For those of you who are interested in custom albums, here are my suggestions for a successful album:

• spread your images across the day - don't clump them all from one part of the day
• let those images be mostly about you and the your spouse - don't forget that it is your day
• keep the images as dynamic as possible - there's nothing wrong with the formal portraits in the album, but you want to keep things moving
• no yearbooks, scrapbooks, or memory books ... keep the number of images down - plan for 1-3 images per page average (30-page book = 90 images max)
• let your ideas for the album be known upfront, but at the same time let your photographer/designer be creative ... after all, it is his/her interpretation of the day
• the sooner your order your album after then wedding, the fresher it is on my mind ... that's a plus for me

A lot of photographers don't allow the couple to choose the images -- the photographer chooses. That would really make my life a lot easier, but allowing the couple to choose the images adds insurance that I won't choose the wrong images or miss the most important ones. What I like and what the couples likes can be two different things and I can respect that.

I will publish a link to a few of my demos shortly ...