I have been waiting and waiting and waiting and waiting to debut these...and they are finally here!
Click here to see an online tour of the book and view each page spread
The thing about photographers' kids is that they tend to be a little neglected in the photograph department. Sure, their mommies and daddies take pictures of them, but when it comes to actually printing them out or doing something with them...well, the photographer is too busy ordering and printing and framing other people's babies.
Around Halloween, I was feeling really overwhelmed by the idea that 2007 was going to go largely un-scrapbooked and then I came up with an idea--why not create a year in review coffee table book that housed all of the great and hilarious photos of 2007 and then I could scrapbook them at my leisure, because their need to be printed, recorded, and shared would be met.
I was planning to offer this service to other photographers equally overwhelmed by their own photos until I decided that there are plenty of busy non-photographer moms that would also like to partake in a "send your photos to Traci, get back a finished book" service.
I ordered the albums on New Years morning after finishing off the December page and writing the note at the back--the perfect way to start a new year. And today, a box of the albums arrived (the grandparents' late Christmas presents will be arriving soon)!
The albums
Photographers have all sorts of secret spectacular album vendors, and these albums come from one of them. These are not printed by blurb or Shutterfly or Snapfish--they are printed by a high quality professional album vendor. They are hard cover books and the pages are protected with a varnish coating. They come in an opaque slipcover. There is a vellum page right before the title page that adds a little extra somethin', too:
How it works
You'll send your photos on a disc to me. If you have never done anything but download them, check a few and see if the EXIF data shows the date. If it does, you're golden--just pull out the pictures you'd like in the birthday spread (and stick them in a folder labeled "birthday"), repeat the process for Christmas, and send me your disc.
If you would like to be more hands on (or your pictures don't have the date in the EXIF data) send a disc with 17 folders--one for each month of the year, one for the cover picture, one for the title page, one for the birthday spread, one for Christmas, and one for the closing page.
You'll also need to send (either on the disc or by email) the text you'd like for the closing page of the album.
Number of photos
The spreads in the book average around 15 pictures. Some have more, some have less, so I'll arrange the design order to work best for the number of photos you have in each month. It's okay if one month only has 3 pictures and one has 20. I don't recommend sending more than 20 in any given month, or some will likely be left out.
Journaling
For the purpose of my own book, which I wanted to be as quick and painless as possible, I limited the journaling to the final page--a brief recap of our year and my thoughts about Will. You are welcome to submit journaling for each spread, or just one or two in particular. If you include journaling, don't include more than 15 photos for that month.
Other Album Topic Ideas
These albums would also make great gifts for graduating high school students. Instead of devoting each page to a month, each spread could be a grade. Vacation pictures also make great coffee table albums.
Pricing
Hard cover 7x7 books are $250. Hard cover 10x10 books are $350.
Duplicates
The albums make fantastic gifts for grandparents and godparents. Duplicate 7x7 soft cover albums are $65, 7x7 hard cover albums are $95, and hard cover 10x10 albums are $175.
Shipping
Shipping for the albums is included in the price. Albums will be shipped via USPS media mail.
Deadlines
My album vendor takes approximate five weeks to deliver the albums to me. Your album will arrive about two months after I receive your pictures. Please keep this in mind if you are ordering a gift. If your timeline is tight, I can provide an online version of the album to show the recipient if the actual album can't make it in time.
Ordering
To order, please send an email to me: traci@realphotography.com
Great post and a great way to keep photos forever. My I suggest also adding a CD of those photos so that they can be emailed to others? You could easily copy the book cover art and print it onto a CD with a quality disc label printer. I have used the Dymo DiscPainter for similar tasks and it is fast and easy to do.
Posted by: Randi | January 29, 2008 at 07:12 AM