New Sample Album!
Wednesday, February 15, 2012 at 9:29AM 
Words cannot explain my excitement when I opened this package on Monday afternoon. I had heard of Leather Craftsmen from the beginning, and even got to see a sample from my wedding photography instructor in school, Joey Pulone, and I knew that many other photographers that I loved like Jasmine Star and Katelyn James used them for their albums as well. I was a fool and just wrote it off, thinking they would be WAY to expensive for me. I LOVE my albums from Cypress, and I think they are stunning, but a client approached me about wanting a leather album. I didn't want to write them off and say, "Sorry, I only offer THIS" so I decided to explore the option. I am SO glad I did! I was pleasantly surprised to find that the pricing was in my range and totally managable for me and for my clients. Now I am so thankful to have TWO wonderful album vendors to work with and two beautiful products to offer my clients, both gorgeous in their own way, but completely different in style, so hopefully they will suit the needs of everyone!
My first sample album is made from the first wedding I ever shot! I was so eager to order a sample that I made one from Becky and Jeromy's wedding. Although I loved that wedding, I have grown so much as a photographer since then and my style has really evolved. I am thankful to have had the opportunity to create a new sample from a more recent wedding, so I chose Lauren and Matt's wedding from this past August! I wanted a wedding that had lots of variety in beautiful portraits and also lots of fun detail shots. I really enjoyed putting this album together, and I learned a lot from reading other photographer's blogs about creating spreads. A few months ago I blogged about my spreads for this album, and now you get to see them IN the album! Creating albums is so much fun because of the process... not just designing the album and having it created, but the process from the BEGINNING of meeting with the couple, taking their pictures and editing them. Having a tangible album is the final product and it's so fun for me to see my pictures printed and displayed in such a beautiful product.
I went with the 3500 Flush series - it suits my style for album-making and suits the taste that most of my clients have as well. The leather is SO soft and really nice quality. The pages are thick and sturdy.
When I saw Abby Grace's sample album, I LOVED how she had a title page with the name and date. I thought it was a great idea, so I decided to try it out as well.
And some of my favorite spreads!
I LOVE this shot captured by my second shooter, Rachael. That is one reason I love having a second shooter... I can be capturing the close-up of the bride walking down the aisle, while Rachael captures this beautiful pano. Love her!
I loved their details!
And lastly, the final page and my studio die in the back. It's SO cool to see my logo (or at least a simplified version of it) imprinted in the book... it makes me feel so official!
I loved working on this book, but I am quickly realizing that designing is not one of my strongest suits... at all. I'd love to take a workshop or a class on album design - I feel like it would help me out so much!
Matt laughed at me because now I have two sample wedding albums, and engagement guestbook, and a few sample prints and other print products I lug around to every client meeting. It's a bit much, but it's worth it for people to be able to see everything I can offer!
Thanks for taking a look today!
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