Our new samples albums have finally started trickling in, and I’m so excited to share them!  First up is a two-tone leather 8×8 flush mount album featuring Meredith & Mike’s beautiful wedding at St. Ambrose & the Grosse Pointe Yacht Club.  I have been smitten with that silvery embossed leather since we got our album company’s swatches, so it was kind of a no brainer to choose this cover.  We paired it with a super soft blue suede and it looks even better in person. I LOVE petting this album.  I seriously took it out of the box every night for the first week we had it just so I could admire it.  It pained me to finally drop it off at the studio.

While I have posted before about some of our other albums, this actually the first flush mount I’ve put on the blog.  For those of you who don’t know the lingo, there are three major types of wedding albums:

• Traditional Matted Album: Photographic prints of various sizes are put in mats and then assembled into a book.  This is the book most of our mothers have from their weddings. They are beautiful and classic, and still available, though flush mount albums are the trend right now.
• Press Printed “Coffee Table” Style Book: This book is printed on a printing press, and the quality, while still quite good, is not quite as impressive as a true photographic print.  These books have thin pages, typical of a book you’d get at a bookstore.  Our “coffee table” books have a hinged binding which allows the page to lay flat.  I think this is so much better than the traditional binding because you can see all of the page.  We love these books for sign-in books or parent albums.
• Flush Mount: This style book is also known as a “digital album”, but that term annoys me, because a book is NOT digital!  A flush mount is made up of true photographic prints, but usually the pages are designed, so there may be multiple photos, white space, collages, etc.  The entire print is then bound to mat board, then the whole thing is trimmed and hand-assembled into a book.  Each page seamlessly runs to the edge, and the gutter (the center of the book) is very minimal or practically non-existant, when the print is folded.

Okay, I lied, there is one more type of book.

• Mounted Album: This style book is very similar to the flush mount, but instead of the print being mounted to the page prior to assembly, the book is put together and the prints are added afterwards.  Instead of the prints going flush to the edge of the page, there’s a small area around each print where the underlying mat board is visible.  This is still a fine quality book, but a little more economical than a flush mount.

Okay, so blah, blah, blah, where was I?  Oh yeah, so this book = 64 square inches of awesome.  Or actually, since it opens to a 16×8 image, maybe it’s actually 128 square inches of awesome.  This book feels heavy and lovely in your hands.  It’s substantial.  It’s got a bit of attitude.  The pages are thick and sturdy, and it opens flat so you can see every bit of every image.

This picture shows what I mean about the images going flush to the edge of the pages.  Also, the image on the bottom right does a great job of showing how smooth the two fabrics flow together.  In all honesty, I was a little worried about this combination, because this particular leather is really thick and the suede is a lot thinner.  But the join is smooth and beautiful.  I was really impressed.

Here’s one more to show you what I mean:

See how the pages open up flat?  That is a good thing!  :)

Finally, here is a comparison of a round spine versus a flat spine.  Our album company offers both styles, though for some speciality cover options, they can only do the flat spine.  I think the round spine looks great with the leather covers though, it makes the book look even more substantial and unique.  The cover is lightly padded as well, which gives it a luxurious feel.

We really took our time and did our homework before we settled on an album company to work with.  And I have to say, we are really happy with the choice we made.  All of our albums are made-to-order here in the USA, and are assembled by hand.  Each one is a unique creation – there’s no warehouse with a bunch of pre-assembled books lying around.  There is a staggering number of cover materials and color options so you can choose something that’s truly unique and fits your style.  They also offer metal and acrylic covers, as well as canvas, and glass, and well, the list goes on!  (We have a 12×12 with a metal cover due to arrive this week, and I’m sure it will be up on the blog soon.)

The one other thing that makes each album unique is that every album is custom designed.  We design every album from scratch, without using templates.  It’s just one more way we make your album uniquely yours.  Below is a sampling of some of the spreads in this 8 x 8 book.

In case you can’t tell, I’m SUPER HAPPY about this book.  I have always been a bookworm, and bookbinding fascinates me.  Seeing our work so beautifully bound and in such an attractive package just makes me ridiculously happy.  It’s very gratifying to us personally, so I can only imagine how exciting it is for our clients.  We will be sharing both more sample albums and actual client albums this year on the blog, and I can’t wait.  :)

This has been one our favorite (and most popular) products this year – our custom sign-in books.  I’ve mentioned these before a few times on the blog.  Kelly’s guestbook can be found here and here.  We liked this one from Amanda & Dave’s Chicago engagement session so much that we decided to order a sample for our studio.   We offer a few different styles in guestbooks – this particular book is a beautifully press printed coffee table style book.  It’s a hardcover book with a laminated canvas cover.   This book is 8.5 x 11 but we also offer these in 8 x 8 and 11 x 14.

I am really partial to the 8.5 x 11 size because it opens to an 8.5 x 22 spread, which leaves plenty of room for big images with enough white space left over for your guest’s signatures.   It’s a very distinct size ratio and just looks modern to me.

See how this book goes on for miles?  That’s what I mean.  The pages are matte to make signing easy.  (This book is also available in glossy pages too which would be great for engagement session album or boudoir book, etc.)  The pages have a nice weight and feel.  And the best part is that the book is bound with hinged pages, meaning it opens flat, like a flush mount style album.  It allows you to see the whole page, and design a spread that crosses the gutter of the page.  See the photo below to see what I mean about the hinge.

As you can see the gutter (i.e., the middle of the book where the page is split) is pretty small – and you can see here how the book opens completely flat so you can really view each image as it was meant to be – without it disappearing into the binding.  I love this feature.  :)

These books always end up being a huge hit at weddings.  The guests tend to interact with them more than a regular sign-in book.  It gets passed around and admired.  People tend to draw little arrows and point out their favorite photos.  :)  It’s a great way to use your engagement images and share them with your friends and family.

If you are one of our clients and are interested in this product, you can use part of your album credit towards it, or purchase it as a stand-alone product.  We need a minimum of 3 weeks lead time to put one of these babies together, but if you have a wedding during prime season (June-Sept) the more notice you can give us, the better!  We also have some sign-in book options using silk and leather bound books and photographic prints – talk to us and we can explain all the options!  You can even coordinate your guestbook to match your wedding album.

Say hello to Kelly & Eric – they will be getting married Saturday (tomorrow!) at The Inn at St. John’s in Plymouth, MI. They were gracious enough to come to our side of town for their engagement session just a few short weeks ago. After grabbing some coffee and getting to know each other a bit, we hit the road and explored some Grosse Pointe landmarks.

Isn’t Kelly beautiful?  I don’t know how we did it, but we’ve booked the most gorgeous ladies this year!  Kelly is just a total sweetheart and we’ve enjoyed meeting with her and helping hammer out all the final details for her wedding day.  Eric is really funny and a good sport, and I know we are going to have a LOT of fun tomorrow photographing their wedding. 

We decided to take advantage of one of the two waterfront parks Andy and I have access too.  (Each of the Grosse Pointes – there’s five cities making up the Grosse Pointe area – has their own waterfront park…..except our city….we have TWO!)  Both are great locations for photography – one has a boardwalk overlooking Lake St. Clair, and the other one has a marina & pier – so you can get two unique waterfront backgrounds, and they are located about a 45 second car ride from each other.  If you are stumped trying to think up a location for an engagement session with us, know those two locations are always an option. 

Kelly & Eric decided to have us design a guestbook for them, and we were so happy to oblige.  A guestbook is a terriffic way to showcase your engagement pictures, share them with your friends and family, and collect all your family’s well wishes.  If you are thinking about a guestbook, it’s best to try to schedule your session about 6 weeks in advance of your wedding.  But the nice thing about our coffee table books is that we can get them designed and printed very fast.  In this case, we had a design ready for Kelly & Eric about a week after their session, and her book arrived about 7 days later.  Take a look at their design below, you can use the arrows or pick up the page corners with your mouse to transition to the next page.   We are so happy with how it came out, and I’m excited to see the guests’ reactions at the wedding tomorrow! 

But first, I am way overdue on posting more pictures from Dennis & Amy’s e-session in downtown Detroit. Amy & Dennis are a super sweet couple, who moved to Atlanta a few years ago. They were total troopers coming up in March for an e-session. As someone that lived somewhere warm year round, I know exactly what kind of shock it is to return to Michigan when it’s cold. And it was freezing this day.

So we totally had a security detail kick us out of the RenCen, but it was so worth it for this picture. 

After being unceremoniously booted from the RenCen, we jumped on the People Mover and went for a little tour.

We really liked these images so we decided to use them for our newest sample, an 8×12 Guestbook Album:

I will be posting some more images of this book later.  We decided to do metallic prints for this album to really get the colors to pop and it looks A-mazing!  So happy with it!

Amy & Dennis – thanks again for braving our frigid cold and being such good sports.  We can’t wait for your wedding in August!

This is a 10 x 10 two-tone leather album.  It is gorgeous!  I decided after we shot Elisha & Brian’s wedding waaaaaay back in August of ’08 that I had to make a sample album from their wedding.  Their colors were black & red, so I decided to carry that theme through with this book.  I absolutely love it.

The leather on this book is beautiful.  The pages are sturdy and substantial, and the binding is fantastic.  Our album vendor is based in Michigan and they do a terrific job!  Here’s a full spread:

I am so freaking in love with that shoe picture.  You just need to see it in person, trust me.

Our album supplier recently started making guestbooks as well, and I just got my shipping confirmation for the sample I ordered!  It will be on the blog soon.  Just have to pick a couple to feature in it.   

Also, I should let you guys know that just because it took me months to put this together from a wedding back in August, that doesn’t mean your album will take that long.  We need about 2-3 weeks to design it, and then after you sign off on it, it’s ready in about 6-8 weeks.

I’ll be posting images of the actual album itself soon, but first off, here’s a slideshow of the spreads in this album.  I apologize in advance if this takes a little while to load, I think it’s worth seeing BIG though! 

From top-to-bottom there is a 3×3, a 5×5, and a 4×6.

Here’s another view:

Even though these are small books, they are still made with fine quality materials and workmanship just like our larger albums.  Think thick, sturdy pages, yummy fabrics, and nice substantial bindings.

They are even more charming in person.  We are now offering these directly from our proofing site.  These come included in some of our wedding packages, or you can add one as an a la carte option. 

Good things really do come in small packages.  Earlier this year we ordered a mini-album sample from our favorite album supplier and I am absolutely in LOVE with it.  We have these available in 5×5 and 4×6 sizes.  They are the perfect size to keep in your purse so you can show off your photos to family and friends.  While these would be great for a children’s session, I think they are perfect for showcasing your favorite images from your engagement session.  All too often the engagement photos get lost in the mix once your wedding proofs are ready.   Your engagement photos capture a special, fleeting time in your life and they deserve a keepsake of their own.  A little book like this is a great solution – it’s gorgeous, durable, and heirloom-quality, but it’s also simple & affordable.

While these mini-books are small on size, they offer the same quality and craftsmanship of our larger albums.  They are beautifully bound and covered in the fabric of your choice.  The album featured here is covered in  a vegan-friendly leather called “Rivendell”.  (Yes there is a whole “Middle Earth” inspired line of materials, how awesome is that?)  There are also beautiful silk brocades, funky metallics and everything in between.  We have samples of all the colors and textures available.  You can match your wedding colors, your handbag, or pick your favorite color (bright orange anyone?)

Each book comes with 10 pages accommodating 20 photos total.  15 page (30 photo) and 20 page (40 photo) versions are available as well. You simply select your favorites from your proofing gallery, choose your cover and your book will be custom made and ready in 4-6 weeks.

We are offering these at a special price of $100 starting now until January 31, 2009.  You can pre-order these before your session with us, so if you have something scheduled with us in the spring but want to take advantage of this offer now, let us know.

And yes, for the photographers reading this, that is my shootsac cover being used as a backdrop.    The blue is actually the wall in our office.  We just painted a few weeks ago and I love how it turned out!