Finding the right photo book for your clients-in time for holidays!

Right now is the perfect time to start thinking about the holidays and your clients. Custom photo books are just the right personal gift to give a client.

As a photographer, I do a lot of photo books- a lot. I've been given the chance to try out many different photo book companies and while the books are okay, the design programs and prices aren't. Many are hard to be creative and only let you use their templates. Others are just plain confusing!

And then enters Blurb. The pricing is competitive, the quality is excellent and the program to make your photo book is user-friendly while at the same time allowing for the more detailed touch or professional to make minute changes. They have lots of different styles and they just added Planners too! Love it! This is the perfect time to get started at Blurb for the holidays.

I really stand behind Blurb and would recommend them even if they didn't have an affiliate program. They've been super good to me and they run lots of coupons, so I barely ever pay full price! They also notice when you order alot of products from them and they give you more specials. I've never felt like that from any other business.

Below are screen shots of one of my wedding books.

You can see on the bottom is all the pages. You can choose from their templates, or upload your own. I choose to make my own because of the style of books I do. Booksmart is the program you download to your computer so that if you don't have Internet, you can still work on your book, or create your own layout.

 

Shipping is super fast unlike other photo books I've ordered from other companies. You have the option of even faster delivery too. Perfect for getting out early for Christmas.

I've been with Blurb for probably 5 years now and I wouldn't go elsewhere. My clients love them and I use them for my personal use too. I would so be their spokeswoman if they would let me. ; )

Until then, I can let you know that if you order now from Blurb you can save 15% off! Use the code FALLTHANKS when checking out.

The bride from hell

I just had to stop between my editing of wedding photos to write this post. My last wedding of the year is in November and thank goodness it is. I had this couple book me earlier this year and they seemed like a nice couple. I did their engagement photos and they stressed how much of a laid back they were and how they felt funny doing any serious photos because they were a silly couple, etc., etc. I assumed that this would be a fun wedding to shoot and an easy couple to deal with.

Well, you know what they say about "assuming"...

It was time to meet with the couple to discuss plans, make final payment, etc. She emailed me and told me that she lived too far away to do that and that she would mail me the payment and we could email the plans. I said that would be fine and I sent her an email with my usual questions and letting her know what time I need them to be ready by to do photos.

I got back an angry email back stating that she will do things on her schedule and she won't be rushed.

Ouch.

Then, she said she would be sending an email with my photo list. OMG... I hate lists. When I got this "list", it wasn't just poses, it stated the time that I would be taking them.

Now, mind you, I'm used to running the photography part and the couple going by what I need time wise to get all the photos I need to get. I explain this in the first initial meeting and if they don't like it, they don't have to go with me. I'm sorry if that makes me sound like a b-i-t-c-h, but I know what I have to do to get the end result of what they hire me for. To me, this bride is telling me that she doesn't trust me.

This ain't my first rodeo, honey.

You don't know how much I wanted to tell her that I've done more weddings then she's thrown one and I just might know what I'm doing. I also wanted to tell her that if she has me just take the photos that she's asking for, her album will be a disaster. I'm just sick over the thought of doing this wedding. I wish there was a loophole I could jump through to get out of doing this wedding. Money or no money, I don't do weddings where the bride is like this. You either think I can do the job or not. Don't hire me if you don't!

I have a wedding tomorrow and I'm trying to just focus on that and not let this bride get to me. I guess every wedding has a chance to be a learning lesson. I will have to be more adamant about the couple letting me be able to do my creative part in making their photos special and artistic. If they don't agree, then we aren't a fit.

I got into photography for the love of it, and I won't let a bitchy controlling bride change that for me!

Are we people, or just hired help?

I shot a wedding this last weekend for a very rich family. They were a bunch of lawyers and the air wreaked of money. Let me tell you, I was very nervous to do this wedding! If anything went wrong, they had free lawyers! lol

Anyway, every wedding that I have shot so far I've never felt like the "hired help". I like to do laid back and fun type of weddings and the couples have treated us like a friend.

The day of the wedding, we arrived at the salon at the hotel to get "getting ready" photos.
The bride and her bridesmaids were very nice and I relaxed a bit about how I would be treated. Her mom was very nice as well. What caught us off guard was how we were treated by the staff at the hotel.

When we got to this fancy hotel, it was clear that we weren't a customer, so we didn't need to be treated as one. Wait. I mean, treated as a person. We were stared at the whole morning while we were taking photos, and if we even LOOKED at the platter of food and drinks they had out for the bridal party, we were given evil glares.

The party was running behind (as usual), so we took a break to go see if the reception hall was decorated yet. There seemed to be a staff member nearby where ever we went, so we went outside to get a drink and a snack from our car.

When we came back in, we finally got the bride ready and rushed her off to the church for photos since we were an hour behind schedule- I hate that! After we were finished with the outdoor photos, her family wanted photos inside, so we started on them. For the most part, everyone was cool, but I did get treated a bit poorly by some of the family.

Fast forward to the reception (meaning, back to that horrible hotel), we were back to being treated like second class citizens by the staff. I was relieved to see that the DJ was a friend of mine. Unfortunately, he wasn't staying since his business had grown big enough to hire someone to do it for him. Bummer.

I usually enjoy the excitement of the day (why I do weddings), but my mood was very down due to how I was treated this whole day. I just wanted to get the rest of the evening over with at this point. So, as we waited for the wedding party to arrive, we discussed with the DJ how the contract states that they must do the reception events in a timely matter so I do not have to stay late. After waiting and waiting, the DJ finally had to drag the party together to get them announced. So much for respecting my contract.

After getting the party in and settled, I talked to the bride about the evening and reminded her about making sure to keep on schedule. I took this time to ask how they were doing the eating arrangements. I require a hot meal at reception since we are usually there 10 hours. She proceeded to tell me that they would have a meal for us in the some-fancy-name-for-the-hallway. Great. Put us in a closet so nobody sees the animals eat.

We had a staff member come up to us and showed us our little whole in the wall spot and said she would bring our plates out. I asked where we would get drinks and she looked at me as if I just asked for a twenty pound lobster with butter and black forest cake for dessert-sorry, I haven't eaten yet. She asked what we would like, and I said maybe a small pop with ice?

We went out to the hallway (after asking the DJ to get us before announcing anything we needed pictures for) and waited for our glorious dinner. The same lady came out shortly after and set down our plates and a basket of rolls. We didn't get our drinks until ten minutes later-wasn't that so nice of her?

Now, I can't believe as a photographer I didn't think to get a photo of this. What we had was chicken and a salad with the rolls and butter. Sounds fine, right? Well, not the way that we got it. They (wait staff) put the semi-hot chicken on the bottom of the plate, then just threw the salad on top of it. The lettuce was warm with no dressing. The chicken was hard and the rolls even harder. It took us 5 mins to just cut through it (roll)-no, we didn't eat it, we just wanted to see. We just ended up taking our Pepsi (came in a can-THANK GOD) and decided to hit Taco Johns on the the way home. We didn't even get cake.

This all brings me to this-as photographers doing a service, should we just deal with being treated as the "hired help", or should we expect to be treated as a person as well?