New York, NY (October 13, 2011) – Award-winning online video creation service Animoto (www.animoto.com) announces today a new free webinar on October 20, 2011 for photographers interested in learning more about how to successfully add “Fusion” into their photography business.

“Fusion has become a rapidly growing force in the business and profit plans of professional photographers,” said Erik Bjornard, Animoto’s Vice President of Marketing. “This forward-thinking Fusion webinar will help professional photographers get the most out of their HDSLR cameras by teaching them how to incorporate not only still images but the high-quality video clips these powerful new cameras are capable of creating.”

Dive Into Fusion: a webinar with Vanessa Joy & Rob Adams, focuses on “Fusion” – the blending of short video clips with still photography. Fusion will inevitably change the landscape of the photography industry and New Jersey-based award-winning wedding photographer, Vanessa Joy, and her husband, award-winning wedding cinematographer, Rob Adams, are at the forefront of the Fusion movement. Together, they travel the country teaching fusion. During this one-hour webinar they will share insightful tips on the practical side of how to shoot compelling video, how to easily incorporate Fusion into a photographer’s workflow, how to price and how to market Fusion into a photography business.

To register for this webinar visit: https://www3.gotomeeting.com/register/985614654

OUCH! read on at PDN and discuss it on the DWF forums with our members.

Design Taxi via Allana Taranto.

Using album sets, like the boxed sets from Finao, you can create a constant revenue stream. The basic concept is to set up three sessions with three albums over a year. And then charge the clients a monthly payment plan, for example $150 a month. If you have a 30% cost of goods, that’s about $110 a month per client. Get a 100 clients on board then you have a constant revenue stream of over $10,000 a month. And you only need to shoot each client once every 4 months.

Check out this video by Fundy

Click here to view the embedded video.

Fundy is the creator of the award winning Album Builder as well as a suite of other workflow enhancing products. Click here for free trials.

Album agreements can help you stave off such a situation. In this blog post, I thought I’d go over the different parts of an album agreement so you can make your own. Additionally, if you would like to, we have a sample version in our free Albums 101 eBook.

Part 1 – Client and Date

Part 2 – Album Information

In this section you’ll want to lay out the size of the album, number of pages and anything that will define what they would get with the album.

Part 3 – Album Costs

Here, you’ll need to lay out all album costs.

Part 4 – The agreement

In the agreement you should state what the client has ordered in general, how much they have paid as a deposit and how much they will pay when picking up the album. Additionally, you’ll want to state any guarantees. Also, you’ll want to state that your studio is not responsible for printing, binding, etc.

Part 5 – Signatures

You’ll want to have a space for both yourself and the client to sign off on the Album Agreement.

If you would like your own sample album agreement, you can download one here.

Fundy

Fundy is the creator of Professional Photographer’s pick as best album design software 2011. You can take Album Builder (or any of his other programs) for a free spin at Fundy Software.

Marco Fine Arts is honored to have been chosen as a beta-site for Epson to test and approve their latest generation of equipment. Which means that you are purchasing the best available canvas prints in the market today.

Reviews

Marco Fine Arts has fantastic quality and has allowed me to almost double my margins on canvas prints. – Justine Maccario Photography

Using the acrylic as a way to showcase my fine art has been an amazing presentation; feedback is out of this world and I couldn’t be happier with the final product as well as professionalism + care from the team!!! –Danielle, Skye Blu Photography

See all the details on Photo Dough.

Expectations

Today we’ll look at album bleed lines or “guides.” One common mistake is a fundamental one. Some photographers new to flush mount and press printed albums think that labs will make the cut exactly where the bleed line is. This is simply not a realistic expectation. The way in which albums are made, make it extremely difficult to predict exactly where the cut will be placed.

Why?

In order to make flush mount and press books, all pages are printed off individually and then bound together. When the pages are bound together, they all do not line up exactly with each other. So labs and album companies use, what is called, a stack cutter. This is simply a large guillotine knife that can cut through a large block of paper. When they cut down the side of a block, the pages become perfectly aligned.

Three No-No’s

Exactly on the guides.

First of all, never place an image right up against the guides. It’s a 1 in 100 chance that the actual edge of the album will match the edge of the image. Most likely the edge of the page will end up with a very small sliver of white or will over-cut the image.

Just inside the line

Some people want to predict exactly how much white space will be between the edge and the image, hoping for something very thin. This is unpredictable. Most likely, the spacing will be too wide or the image will be cut into.

Just outside the guide

One might think that if the image is over the guide it will be cut into and will look fine. But there is a slight chance here that the page will not be cut in enough. Then you’ll be left with a thin empty space between the page edge and the image.

The Two Yes’

It’s actually quite easy to guarantee successful albums.

1. Align With Page Edge

Make sure your image is completely aligned with the edge of the page, which guarantees that the image will be cut.

2. Give enough space

Make sure you give enough space between the image and the guides, which guarantees that the image will NOT be cut into.

I hope this helps you avoid some of the mistakes I’ve made in my album making.

Fundy

Fundy is the creator of the award-winning album software Fundy Album Builder as well as a host of other workflow and proofing tools. You can check out this free trials at Fundy Software.

• The Pro Template Collection / The Pro Template Collection II
• The Wedding Album
• The Ever After Collection
• His eyes Only
• Senior Collection
• Sports Collection
• Fun Action Pak (works with PSCS and above)
• The Border Collection
• Christmas Collection
• Animal Collection
• Cards, Collages, and More
• Business and Marketing
• Beautiful Babies
• Senior Grunge

Reviews

I received the CDs – WOW what a ton of great stuff! I am thrilled with everything. It was hard for me to commit to making this purchase, but I am very happy I did. It is an amazing collection of so much really great work. – Nancy R.

I’ve been using Michelle’s template for 5 years and still use them. There are so many to choose from and so easy to use. And you just can’t beat the customer service she provides with all her templates. – Ruth D.

Michelle’s custom designed templates are fabulous!!! She provides the best service, and designs templates that are nicer than any I have seen. Unlike other templates, some of her newest templates come in layers and are easy to use and customize. They provide complete control over every element of the design, including layout and color. – Erica L.

See all the details at www.photodough.com the DWF’s daily deal site for wedding and portrait photographers.

Portland, OR. April 11th, 2011

SharedInk is excited to announce the arrival of their new metal cover photo books. The new covers, available in Brushed Silver and Bright White finishes, provide a stunning and unique way to set proof books, wedding guest books, and any other press printed photo book project apart from the competition. The new metal cover books join SharedInk’s innovative line of hand crafted books including clear covers, glove quality leather, photo cover and imported linens.Of the metal cover photo books, Andrew “Fundy” Funderburg of FundySOS1 says, “SharedInk metal cover photo books come in a high quality that you can see and feel, making them a really easy sell to your clients. We recommend them as a great up-sell for projects such as engagement shoots, which often don’t end up with a lot of prints.” According to Chenin Boutwell of Boutwell Studio2, “It is definitely a cool option for photographers who are looking for something a little ‘snazzier’ than a standard cover… the quality and craftsmanship was, as always, tip-top.”As with all other SharedInk photo books, you will find high quality images printed and hand-crafted into flawless keepsake books, then wrapped in glove-quality leather. The metal cover books are available in SharedInk’s Keepsake XL, Keepsake, 12” square, and 8” square sizes, all available with traditional or layflat binding. For more information, email support@sharedink.com.

http://sharedink.com/pro/

Calculating album costs can be a bit more difficult than calculating prints. There are a lot more variables that go into albums compared to one off products. Let’s take a quick look at possible costs that go into albums.

1. The cost of the album from the album company.
2. The cost of any extra pages or cover upgrades from the album company.
3. The cost to design the album (whether you do it yourself or outsource it).
4. The cost/time to make any changes by the client.
5. The time it takes to order/deliver the album.

For example. (and these are made up numbers, but they should be close to real album costs)

1. $250 for a 10×10 30 page album.
2. $100 for a cover upgrade.
3. $50 (for two hours of design at $25/hour)
4. $25 (for one hour of design changes)
5. $15 (for one hour of office work)

Total costs = $440

Now we need to use a cost multiplier to come up with our retail costs. Professional Photographers of America recommends a 30% cost of goods (last time I checked). This means that if an item costs you $30, you would charge $100. So, your costs are 30%.

You can calculate the retail cost like this:

$440 ÷ 0.30 = $1466.66

If you are at the top of your market, you’d want to use a lower cost of goods. Dividing by 0.25 or 0.20 will give you a higher retail value.

I hope this final tip helps you price your albums better and gives you the confidence to stick to your prices when clients ask for a discount.

If you would like a more automated approach to pricing, Prosper™ at Fundy Software has a free 2 week trial, which automates this math for you.

Fundy

Fundy is the creator of Fundy Software. For free trials of their award winning Album Builder software or other photo tools, please visit www.fundysoftware.com

Here are a few tips and tricks I’ve learned over the years to help ease the pain. The key is to break down the entire process into little baby steps. Here, I’ll go through these steps one by one and discuss options that might solve your problems.

1. Choosing the images – The very first step is to choose your album keepers. I like to use an image browser, like Bridge or Photo Mechanic. Bridge is great, because it comes free with Photoshop. Photo Mechanic is by far the fastest image browser on the planet. But you have to buy it separately from Camera Bits. I like to quickly scroll through the images and tag the images that I think would look nice in an album. For weddings, this ends up being 100-120 images. For portraits, this ends up being 15-20 images. As you see below, I’ve used the “Label” menu in Bridge to tag the photos red. Then I take all of the photos tagged red and copy them into a folder called “Album Selects.”

Images © Michael Corsentino

2. Organizing the images – the next step in my process is organizing the images into pages. The majority of photographers that I know, organize images into “sections” of the wedding, for example “getting ready” or “formals.” For myself, these sections are too broad when I start designing. I prefer to organize images into page numbers. I have a set of folders I use over and over again. The folders are named the same as the page numbers of the album. I simply drag and drop the images into the pages that they will go into. Then when I get ready to design, I am only looking at the images for that page! It makes things so much easier. I just click on that folder in Bridge or Photo Mechanic.

Images © Michael Corsentino

3. Pre-Design – At this stage I like to pre-design the album. There are benefits to letting the bride and groom choose their favorites, but I feel the benefits of pre-design outweigh these. Brides and Grooms can take a long time choosing their images, up to a year or more. I feel like taking this out of their hands, speeds up the process. The faster your turnaround on any business transaction, the better it is for business. Most likely they have an album credit or an album in their package. While you are waiting their images, your album company might raise their prices, and you are out money. Add inflation to this and you could lose 10% of your profits due to just waiting on your bride and groom. Also, pre-design allows you to showcase your images in their best light, letting you tell your story. Additionally, it lets you tell the full story, possibly with extra pages and extra profit.

4. Proofing – I highly recommend proofing your album in some sort of visual way with your client. The most inexpensive way is to physically meet with the client. Secondly, you could print off some 8×10′s of the album and give the clients a sharpie to mark the changes with. Lastly, an online proofing solution can solve many of these problems. We’ve created our Fundy Album Proofer. There are also other solutions out there, just Google “online album proofing.”

5. Contract – Albums can be very expensive. One misprint and you could be out hundreds of dollars. Be sure to have an album specific contract that details the number of pages, the cover materials and anything special in the album and have the client sign off on it. In the event of a mistake, many album companies can replace just one page. This is not ideal, but it can save you a ton of money.

6. Delivery – Albums are a very emotional, a hand-delivered album will do wonders for your business. The more emotional the better. Even better, deliver it at the bride’s work and let all her friends see

I hope this helps a little in the entire workflow process.

Fundy

A special thank you to Michael Corsentino for use of his wonderful imagery. Fundy is the creator of the award-winning album design software Fundy Album Builder, as well as other photography tools including the Fundy Album Proofer. Free trials are available at FundySoftware.com.

It’s my philosophy that certain products can serve as hooks for photographers, both in pricing and in selling. Certain wall art has worked as sales hooks for decades in portrait photography. In some parts of the country, they are still great hooks. Where I live, in the Northwest of the US, it is getting harder and harder to sell large wall art pieces. In wedding photographer, and increasingly in portrait photography, I believe that the album can be the ultimate hook.

©Forbeyon Albums

Why Albums Are the Ultimate Hook

Albums are different from other photographic products in how flexible they are. It’s easy to adjust pricing depending on a variety of factors: size, press or photographic, cover options, etc. With albums, it’s possible to hit almost any price point.

Albums are also one of the easiest sells. It communicates directly  to clients’ needs. With photography, people are looking to preserve their moments. Simply explain how these modern books will last for decades, even centuries. With the superior book binding and printing album companies do, with proper care, albums will last multiple generations.

©Forbeyon Albums

How To Use the Album Hook in Sales

In order to use albums as a sales hook with clients, the key is to make them earn the right to get an album. First and foremost your bottom package should not contain an album at all, whether it be a portrait package or a wedding package. The second from the bottom package should contain, at the very most a “small” 10×10 leather album, with no fancy covers. I recommend only issuing album credit in album packages. It’s rare that couples will upgrade an album from a package. But if they have album credit, “money to burn”, it’s much easier for them to take a look at all of your album offerings and choose what they really want. And hopefully, it will be that big 12×18″ album with the etched metal cover!

Conclusion

Albums can be a great source of revenue for a studio. I hope that these tips help.

Fundy

Fundy Software is the creator of the award-winning Fundy Album Builder, as well as other software tools. Free trials available at Fundy Software. To learn more about Forbeyon Albums, please visit www.forbeyon.com

DEAL HIGHLIGHTS:

Get a great price on a 20×30 Gallery Wrap Canvas! Only $65.00 for this wonderful ProDPI product. Use this deal as a studio sample or pass the savings on to your clients!

ProDPI brings gallery wraps to you! We have added our green touch and impeccable quality to gallery wraps.

Using the latest in eco printing technology we print on 400GSM white poly-cotton canvas. This canvas is optical brightener additive-free and fluorescent whitening agent-free. Excellent color rendition, saturation and sharpness make your canvas prints shine! The manufacturer of this material is also proud to help to rebuild forests by planting a tree for every roll of material that ProDPI uses. They do this by partnering with American Forests, you can read more about this great organization here.

Extensive independent testing by a UKAS accredited laboratory has concluded that our canvas meets and exceeds the standards set forth by the Fine Art Trade Guild for pH and lightfastness. The Fine Art Trade Guild has established these standards in order to protect the interests of consumers. The canvas and ink combo used by ProDPI will insure that your canvas will have 100+ years of display life.

We offer a bunch of different sizes and have fast in lab times! Canvas prints come stretched gallery wrap style, have black paper backing, sawtooth hangers and rubber hanging bumpers.

Terms & Conditions

• Maximum 3 vouchers per customer
• Voucher expires 10/15/11
• Free shipping included in Continental US
• Additional shipping fee for Canada, HI, AK.
• Deal available in US & Canada only.
• ProDPI will email voucher within 48 hours of close of deal

Goto Photo Dough and Subscribe for FREE Now

The second deal at Photo Dough went live this morning after a successful sell out on our first deal which saved photographers over $8,000 dollars. Stop on over and check out what AdoramaPix is offering.

]]> http://www.digitalweddingforum.com/blog/new-photo-dough-deal-at-adoramapix/feed 0 http://www.digitalweddingforum.com/blog/the-denis-reggie-experience-by-bella-pictures http://www.digitalweddingforum.com/blog/the-denis-reggie-experience-by-bella-pictures#comments Wed, 16 Mar 2011 16:04:38 +0000 Mark Lutz http://www.digitalweddingforum.com/blog/?p=20654 This past fall Denis Reggie and Bella Pictures joined forces to form “The Denis Reggie Experience by Bella Pictures.” The professional photography community had quite a reaction to this event, indeed almost a ‘shock and awe’ event!

What a difference a few months make as today you’ll find DWF members speculating about the current status of this controversial project.

Was it all ‘much ado about nothing’ as links to the DRex now appear to be missing from the Bella Pictures website? Also, the DRex page itself is now titled “Access Denied – Wedding Photography.”

Discuss the DRex in the DWF Pro Business Forum now. (Not a DWF pro member? Grab a free 14-day trial now)

Think of it as Groupon for Photographers. – Seshu (tiffinbox.org)

The DWF community is no stranger to collective buying power. For years we’ve offered our members the chance to save with our DWF Group Buys right here on the forum. We’re proud that we’re now able to use our longstanding relationships with so many of the vendors in our industry to get great and sometimes never before seen discounts for hard-working pro photographers.

Want to know what Photo Dough is all about? Head on over, subscribe by picking the location closest to your and enter your email address. Our current deal is a 51% discount on Fundy SOS Image Brander…

Image Brander, Fundy Software’s brand new product, makes it easy to protect your images for Facebook and blog posting. Simply choose your input folder, output folder and your setting and Image Brander quickly produces elegant, resized images with your logo and an optional color bar.

Start saving today with Photo Dough and the DWF.

There are plenty of shy photographers out there. I know because I’ve seen them with my own two eyes. Rob & Lauren have released a FREE guide to confidence for the timid amongst us.

Head on over to Photography Concentrate and snag a copy.

STOP HOLDING YOUR BREATHE!

In an interesting write-up on techdirt they discuss the fact that 70% of people find “piracy” okie dokie. Specifically they are talking primarily about internet downloads but I say…

As goes those pirated MP3′s and Movies so goes your Photos.

The actual numbers of the study cited float from 30-70% depending on which way the wind is blowing but I’d love to hear what you guys think.

To help you plan this important day we’ve created wedding-specific templates in Google Sites, Google Docs and Picnik, and gathered tips and tricks for using these and other Google products at google.com/weddings. From wedding websites to save-the-date cards, these tools simplify wedding planning, letting you focus your time on the fun things—like tasting cakes!

Yup.. plan your wedding on Google. Oh and did I mention EDIT YOUR WEDDING PHOTOS on Google too? That should be interesting…

Then their is their budget planner with <insert drumrolll> a default of $400 for wedding photography. Thanks Google! We love you too.

Discuss this one in the DWF Pro Photography Business Forum. Not a member? Snag a FREE trial.

Read more on the official Google Blog

]]> http://www.digitalweddingforum.com/blog/google-weddings-yeah-i-said-it/feed 9 http://www.digitalweddingforum.com/blog/7-tips-to-selling-more-albums-tip-4 http://www.digitalweddingforum.com/blog/7-tips-to-selling-more-albums-tip-4#comments Wed, 09 Feb 2011 14:45:07 +0000 Fundy http://www.digitalweddingforum.com/blog/?p=20535 If you are not capitalizing on album sales in your studio, you’re leaving money lying on the table. If you missed the first three tips, you can find them here.

Tip 4 – Shooting for the Album

Jim Garner, American Photo Top Ten Wedding Photographer and creator of the Boda Bag v3, speaks of this often. When he’s shooting a wedding, he looks for “the shot” in the current situation and then looks for ‘accent shots’ that help tell the story. If you are consciously shooting for the album during the wedding, then designing the album is even easier. You spent all day shooting the story, in “main” shots and “supporting” shots. Now, you just need to take those photos and lay them out.

The exact same can be said for portrait shoots. Portrait Albums can be a huge profit center. I live in an area where people tend to not put huge family prints on the wall. It happens, but it’s not the norm. High end, portrait albums can drive serious profits in a studio with everything from seniors and families, to boudoir. Shooting portraits is all about backdrop/location cohesiveness.

At this photo shoot. I had two classic lifestyle portraits taken against this great blue wall. I knew that I needed a matching photo for the album layout. The two boys, are typical boys and they loved nothing better than tormenting their brother. So, I let them have at it. The parents loved it.

If you shoot for the album, half the work is done. You’re able to lay out an album that the bride, mother, father, groom, etc. are going to love. People buy on emotion. If they love the album and the layout, they’ll find a way to make it work. If you work hard on creating albums that clients love, the selling will take care of itself.

Fundy

Fundy is the creator of the Fundy Album Builder, the 2011 Hot One Award Winner for best album design software. Fundy Software also has solutions for studio pricing, online album proofing, and Photoshop work flow. Free trials are available here.

Say hello to the new owner of Bella Pictures. CPI Corp! Who are they you ask? Well according to their website they have over 3,000 portrait studio locations principally in Sears and Wal-Mart.

Since the opening of its first studio over 60 years ago, CPI Corp. has been a leader in the portrait photography industry. Headquartered in St. Louis, Missouri, CPI is the leading portrait studio operator in North America offering photography services in approximately 3,100 locations, principally in Sears and Wal-Mart stores.

The acquisition was just announced in this press release sent to Bella Photographers:

Dear Bella Photographers,

We are pleased to announce the acquisition of Bella Pictures assets by a subsidiary of CPI Corp, the nation’s leading provider of studio and portrait photography with over 3,000 studios across North America. CPI is excited to work with the photography and video communities to grow the superb base of talent established by Bella Pictures. The digital capabilities and infrastructure of CPI combined with Bella’s talented network of photographers and filmmakers will help us achieve our shared mission of providing high quality, high value photography and video services to thousands of additional couples in a vastly expanded number of markets across the country. What does this mean for you? Future growth of the business leading to more assignments Planning and assignment of the 2011 season will continue without disruption through the Assignment Desk There will be no disruption in the pay cycle We look forward to sharing more details about the future opportunity that this acquisition will provide, and to growing the Bella business with you. If you have additional questions, please contact Tahra directly: Tahra Makinson-Sanders, VP of Photography tahram@bellapictures.com 415-544-5500 x5274

Want more discussion? You’ll find it in the DWF Pro Business Forum. (login required by trials are FREE)

Tip #3 – Let people know what is popular and what most people are getting.

Most clients don’t get married every year, have family portraits taken every year or have their senior photos taken every year. They don’t know what the current trends in photography are. Maybe their friend got married 5 years ago and those cool metal covers weren’t even available then. Or maybe she’s never even seen a nice portrait album in her life.

Image from Finao Albums

Without educating the client about our products, the chance that they’ll buy one is next much slimmer. We can increase the chances  our album “buy-through” rate with simply phrases that, not only educate the client, but help our bottom line.

• “Most brides are ending up with between 38-42 pages in their album.”
• “Most seniors are getting an 8×8 album and a canvas wrap.”
• “Most families are choosing the 10×10 album with a leather cover.”
• “This is our most popular leather cover.”
• “This is our most popular cover upgrade.”
• “This album is my favorite.”
• “Most couples end up getting our medium sized album.”

With simply phrases like these, we can guide all of our clients to our best products. If we truly believe in our albums and products we aren’t really selling. We’re helping them make better decisions. If I shot the best wedding of my life, I wouldn’t want my client to get a 10×10″ leather album with 20 pages. I’m sure you wouldn’t either.

Fundy

Fundy is the creator of the Fundy Album Builder, which was just awarded the Hot One Award for best Album Design Software of 2011. You can download a free trial, here, at Fundy Software.

_____________

Vendors Beware..

I would have hoped that our first bulletin of 2011 could be about something positive, but unfortunatelly it is another scam alert. Oh well…

Do not answer emails, or Bridal Network “leads” from “Kate White”, “Sarah Rose” and “Jenny Lhee”

The full addresses are:

• katew1980@hotmail.com
• sarahrosebc@hotmail.com
• JennyLhee1@hotmail.com

Their “weddings” are sometime in 2012 (usually in July)

These are not brides!

Rather, they are some new (and insignificant) wedding website (from Montréal I believe), calledmarketplaceweddings.com

What they are doing is pretending to be local brides getting married in 2012 and requesting quotes. If you email them, they go into some lengthy misleading spiel about how they are registered on some great Vancouver, Toronto, Ottawa etc website called marketplaceweddings.com and you should join that website so that you can message them… blah blah..

Don’t bother. You will never get a booking from this (there is no wedding!). This is just a spam-scam.. trying to sell you advertising.

(*) you may still want to evaluate their offerings on their own merits, but I would suggest that anyone who starts off by lying and attempting to trick & mislead their customers is not really someone you want to be doing business with!

(**) If you have purchased and answered a Bridal Network lead from these scammers, do not worry – we will be running a batch-refund for those, later tonight.

Questions? Just reply to this email or call me: 1-877-437-7755
Otherwise..

.. Have a Fantastic & Profitable 2011!

(It is already showing signs of being the best year in a long while. Get ready, tweak your marketing, there will be a lot of brides available this year..)Nicholas Lourotos
Network Manager, Bridal Network

Photographers Get Their Lives Back in 2011 – Introducing zookie pro

DEERFIELD, ILLINOIS – Photographers get their lives back in 2011 thanks to a new service called zookie pro. On January 16, 2011, Zookbinders, one of North America’s premier album manufacturers, debuts zookie pro, a complete album design, print and bind service that is the ultimate hands-free workflow solution. zookie pro places quality, convenience and extra income at the photographer’s fingertips while placing a beautifully designed album in the client’s hands.

Take the “Work” Out of Workflow. Photographers are frequently frustrated by the digital dichotomy – technology that makes their jobs easier and harder at the same time. Digital capture is instantaneous, yet considerable time is required to edit, color correct and design images in order to create albums and photo books. The significant amount of production time prohibits many photographers from selling albums and limits their clients’ ability to fully enjoy their memories within the covers of a beautifully bound album. zookie pro takes the “work” out of workflow by handling the entire book design, color correction, print and bind process for the photographer. Relieving the photographer of this burden gives the pro more time to pursue their true love of photography while providing them with a valuable income stream.

Upload Your Best – zookie pro Does the Rest. With zookie pro, photographers need only select and upload 50-150 images, choose the album size, and sit back and let the zookie pro team do the rest. Designers complete the album layouts in about a week and post them online for review. Upon approval the book is printed by Zookbinders. To streamline and simplify the process, all zookie pro layouts are designed for square format albums and printed as a Lustre Book by Zookbinders™ with a Leather Spine cover. The Lustre Book is a premium, lay-flat book printed on real photographic paper. All page spreads are protected with a lacquer coating and folded, rather than split, for a true panoramic view.

Good Things Come in All Sizes. ‘The Bigs’ are the primary books that include design services and come in three sizes: 12×12, 10×10 and 8×8. ‘The Bigs’ include a Leather Spine cover with a full-bleed image covering the front and a black leather spine and back cover. Photographers can choose to upgrade the leather spine to one of 15 premium leather colors for a more customized look. ‘The Smalls’ come in sets of two in 8×8, 6×6 or 4×4. These books include a photo wraparound cover that is a replica of ‘The Bigs’ cover. ‘The Minis’ are packages of six soft cover 6×6 books or 12 4×4 books. ‘The Minis’ are perfect bound, press printed books that do not lay flat. Three sizes of frames are also offered to feature a single page spread from the album layout. All pricing is based on the number of images designed into the book. Base model wholesale pricing starts with 50 images at $240 for an 8×8, $290 for a 10×10 and $340 for a 12×12. Additional images are $1.50, $2.00 and $2.50 respectively.

Be a Hero. With zookie pro you can be a hero in 30 days. Photograph a wedding on Saturday; upload the images on Sunday; review the layout the following week; and deliver the finished album within 30 days of the wedding. zookie pro helps create happier photographers AND happier customers who might otherwise be counted among “albumless brides.” Zookbinders’ research shows that a majority of today’s brides are overwhelmed by the number of albums and the number of images they have to choose from. With the zookie pro formula, photographers simplify their offerings to a specific number of images and let zookie pro design a simple yet elegant layout. The bride is able to review the layout, but all of the hard work is done by zookie pro so she can have a finished album 30 days from her wedding.

Learn More. zookie pro is currently in beta testing and will go live January 16, 2011. To learn more, visit www.zookiepro.com, email customerservice@zookbinders.com or call 888-895-3593. Zookbinders Inc., a Chicago-based company serving the professional photography trade, is a leading provider of complete presentation solutions featuring the award-winning Zook Book® panorama-style album, The Lustre Book by Zookbinders™, PhotoBook PLUS™, The PhotoBook by Zookbinders®, zookie pro™ design | print | bind service, Framed Album Panoramas, and more!

Stay Connected. For the latest tips, inspirations and observations designed to help professional photographers save time, energy and money, subscribe to Z-Blog at www.zookbinders.com/blog; follow Zookbinders on Twitter at http://twitter.com/zookbinders; or become a fan of Zookbinders on Facebook at www.facebook.com/zookbinders.

(image by Dawn Shields – WPPI Grand Album Award Winner)

1. Lightroom 3 Serial Number Issues? (I’m willing to bet these hits are all from people trying to “FIND” a lightroom serial number)
2. A Facebook Warning for Photographers
3. Johnny Tran is the Man
4. An Amazing Storytelling Experience WPPI Grand Album Award Winner
5. The Top 10 Sites for FREE Textures (photoshop must have)
6. DWF Featured Member Boudoir/Pinup Photographer Robert Alvarado
7. Building a Better Bridal Show Booth
8. Shoot for FREE and Next Time We’ll Pay You!
9. Facebook is Printing Your Photos!
10. Our Interview with Marketing Guru and Author Seth Godin

Joe Bussink’s new book is about how to focus on clients, how to connect with them, and how to capture perfect moments (not perfect pictures).It is not a how-to take pictures book, about apertures and sync speeds and stuff like that, though he usually does give the technical details for each photograph he shows.

Joe loves himself some photojournalistic action, which shows in his writing and in his mantra throughout the book: there is no such thing as a perfect photo, only perfect moments. I’m not quite sure if he’s saying you can’t capture those moments if you are actively posing your clients, but he certainly isn’t afraid to express his preference for unposed shots. Even the staged shots he shows are often fired on the sly, while people are still getting ready.

This is not an educational book in the strictest sense of the word. His concern is more with the heart, and with feeling and with learning to be sensitive for recognizing moments, without really covering off how to learn these skills.

Which is not to say that there aren’t a lot of helpful tips to be found, especially in the first chapter, just that this isn’t the main concern of the book.

If it isn’t a how-to book, and it isn’t educational, then what is it? Well, at its heart, it is a collection of images—more than 150—presented with some tips and tricks, but mostly with Joe’s ruminations on the nature of wedding photography: how to see with the “eyes of your heart”. How to build relationships with the clients at the engagement session. How to tell the story of the wedding day.

By the end of the book, you will have learned something about the way Joe shoots, and hopefully, picked up a couple or three tips or tricks, either from the text or from the images, that you can apply to your own weddings.

Is this the essential guide to wedding photography? No. Should it be on every wedding photographer’s bookshelf? Nope. But it is a well written, thoughtful book on wedding photography that says what it has to say, as much, or more, through the images presented than through the text itself. Which, considering the book is about photography, is not really such a bad thing.

Wedding Photography From the Heart

One of my favorite sites, the consumerist, is sharing a story of broken Holiday dreams sure to put a smile on the face of any photographer who’s ever lost a reprint order to snapfish.

One shopper tells how she placed an order on December 19th (which according to their shipping deadlines etc should have been fin) only to be given what amounts to a customer service runaround.

MERRY CHRISTMAS courtesy snapfish!

If you’re a fan of Simply Canvas, or Simply Color Labs, chances are you’re a fan of Simply Cash and, more importantly, their annual simply cash sale, where you purchase Simple Cash online and get 50% more. Basically it’s a half price sale that you can use anytime.

Well, you might not know that the simply cash sale happening right now until December 31 is the LAST ONE EVER.

We don’t know yet if this is the end of an era or if they have something coming down the pipes to replace it, but if you want 50% of your canvas purchases for next year, now is the time to buy.