I hate when Jeff travels. Unfortunately, he does so a lot, usually from 10-14 days at a time and it sucks. I seriously do not know how single moms, military wives, widows or any one else having to care for a child alone gets through the day let alone 18 years.

During the work week, it’s not THAT bad, particularly now that we’ve stopped letting daycare put him down for a nap – he’s asleep by 8:30pm which is a HUGE improvement over the 10:30 bedtimes we were dealing with. But the weekends are a bit rough, particularly because I haven’t been feeling that well since Jeff gave me whatever mysterious illness he was harboring before he hopped on the plane (thanks babe!)

Keep in mind too that everything I’m about to complain about is compounded by the fact that Jasper does not listen to a word I say so that EVERY task, no matter how small and mundane becomes a battle of epic proportions. Sometimes just getting him to GET IN HIS CARSEAT can send me over the edge. In fact, I’m quite sure that our neighbors will be calling CPS to investigate us at any moment based on the fact that I am constantly yelling at him to GET IN THE CAR NOW as he stops to turn on a map light, pick up whatever random toy he threw on the car floor the day before, pretend “fall” and yet a million other stall tactics designed to drive me insane during this task that we have to repeat at least 5 times a day.

I think this pictures pretty much sums up the stage he’s in at the moment:

Also add to the backdrop of it all the fact that he asks me “Mommy can you play with me?” every second of every day. Literally, I could be getting dressed, shirt over my head, in the bathroom brushing my teeth, in the kitchen cooking breakfast- any one of a multitude of tasks which quite obviously make it impossible for me to in fact stop what I am doing and play.  And yes I know that it’s SO sweet that he’s at an age where he actually desperately wants to spend time with me – but damn it would be nice if he could entertain himself for more than .5 seconds! And then there’s the guilt too that comes with saying no, I can NOT play with you right now all the time.

So the stage has been set, here is just a little recap of the actual events of the weekend:

Yesterday I had a sales session in the morning that my parents thankfully babysat for, but  didn’t really have much planned for the rest of the day (we had a playdate that got canceled) so I took him to Target to shop for the three birthday parties we have coming up this week.  I know you are shaking your head wondering what I was thinking bringing the 3 year old with me to buy toys for OTHER children, but remember I didn’t really have the option of leaving him home (see the husband is away bit!)

I ALMOST managed to put the toys in the cart without him quite realizing what was going on, but, because he insisted on sitting in the basket part of the cart I had the toys sort of leaning on the handle bars so of course he spotted the Play doh ice cream set and his eyes got HUGE and he said “Mommy is that for ME???!” in a voice so genuinely excited and full of anticipation that I could not NOT get him one of his own. Sigh.

Oh well, at least a new toy would provide some much needed distraction.  I also picked up a robe for him because that’s his other new thing – even though our old drafty house is FREEZING to all other normal humanoids, somehow Jasper finds the constant need to take his sweaters and socks off.

Channeling Hugh and demonstrating his new and oft used sulky face:

Playing with his new guilt-gift play doh set:

After play-doh he wanted to watch a movie but he needed a bath, cue the “I don’t want to get into the bath / I won’t get OUT of the bath” routine:

At some point that night I developed a migraine-like nausea inducing headache, and then this morning I woke up with a stomach ache that lasted all day.  Had Jeff been here I would have definitely sent him with the kid and the present to the birthday party we had scheduled at 10:30, but instead I dragged my ass into the shower, fed the child (no, I don’t WANT scrambled eggs!) wrapped the gift (melt down because I didn’t let him do the actual wrapping) and headed off to Wee Play.

But not before I grabbed Jasper and quietly and purposefully held his hand, looked him in the eye and told him that mommy really wasn’t feeling well and that I needed him to PLEASE help me by listening, getting his coat on without a fight and into the carseat without giving me a hard time.   This approach used to work, but aparantly not anymore because literally seconds after our little “conversation” he was playing a game he made up that consisted of him refusing to put his arms into his jacket (wow, FUN!)

Finally we make it to wee-play and it’s a much needed time-killer. He has a blast on the big kid giant climber and made it to the truck at the tippy top with no fear:

But apparently the giant corkscrew tube slide was too dark and scary because I had to climb up it three times to rescue him.

I’ve only ever been to Wee play when it was PACKED, teaming with kids, but I guess I’d never been there before at naptime because by 1pm it was a ghost town.. apparently I’m the only one lucky enough to have a child who is impervious to the need for sleep.  We stuck around until about 3 before we headed home because I was feeling so bad I thought I was going to die. I counted the minutes until my parents got home from their errands and we could go over there for dinner. I had hoped that dinner was going to be more than just us literally eating (we can do that at home, it’s really a break that I need!) but they didn’t get home until after 6pm and I really want him in bed reading books by 8pm on nights when he doesn’t nap. It was a quick visit but Jasper did manage to get in a little bit of playtime with Pop-pop before we left:

So we finally get home, I throw a load of laundry in, get his milk and water ready for bedtime and am about to come upstairs when Jasper tells me that Sammy (our 17 year old deaf, blind and incontinent dog) is falling down the stairs.

I put everything I’m carrying down and pick her up to put her outside and she literally PEES ALL OVER ME as well as a good deal of the stairs, carpet and wood floor that I put her down on once I realized what was happening.

At this point, something just snapped inside my brain and I let out a strangled sounding scream of frustration, which apparently really freaked Jasper out because he started bawling. So now, I’m covered in pee, the floor is covered in pee, my child is wailing, I’m feeling like the world’s worst mom and it’s now almost 8:30 and we haven’t even STARTED the whole bedtime process.

The scary thing is that the REAL fun hasn’t even begun yet: I go off the pill tonight to start our IVF cycle, so at some point this week I get to start the whole trying to get to the fertility clinic in time for monitoring routine.  And if it works? I’ll have these wonderful business trips of Jeff’s to look forward to with TWO babies and an incontinent geriatric dog to care for on my own.. yippee!!!

Filed under: Rant, parenting by ariana
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A while back Jasper had some uh, “issues” whereby he wouldn’t poop for DAYS and then when he finally did it was so big and hard that on several occasions (and I apologize for the bad visual but) it WOULD NOT FLUSH. I’m not even kidding.

It got so bad at one point that we had to do the glycerin suppository thing, at which juncture I realized that we HAD to figure out a way to get this kid to eat more vegetables.

He’s not ENTIRELY opposed to vegetables, like he will take a bite or two of broccoli or cauliflower, loves cucumbers red peppers and cherry tomatoes, but that’s where it ends and it clearly wasn’t enough.

That’s when I started hearing about Plum Baby Organic “Mashups” from a few different sources.

My friend Ami had been giving them to her three-year old daughter and suggested them to me, but I didn’t see them in the health food store I frequent and never followed up. Then, coincidentally, my mom who has been working doing demos of different products in health-food-stores ended up demoing the same products and I finally got one for Jasper to try, the Plum Baby Spinach, Pear & Peas Mashup.

It was love at first bite (or suck, or squirt?) and since I knew no one would actually believe me that he goes NUTS over these things, here is the video proof:

He usually requests seconds or thirds!

The only downside (as my friend Ami warned me) is that at your local store these can run you $2+ each..which is fine for an ocassional snack, but Jasper eats A LOT of them. So I was thrilled to discover that you can get them on Amazon’s subscription service and then they only come to just over a dollar each AND delivered to your doorstep. Love it!

Obviously, you might want to try ONE first before ordering a case of 24 to see if your kid likes them. If so, they are in the baby food aisle of your local health food store, not the freezer section where I had been looking for them (my only prior experience with premade baby food was the frozen kind!).

In fact, you will find several different flavors by several different manufacturers. Let me warn you though that they are NOT all created equal..

After the enthusiastic reception from Jasper for the Spinach flavor I bough some of the Happy Baby brand Mashups when my health-food store was out of the spinach. He HATED them. I tasted them too and I have to agree with him, they just did not taste good. Whereas the spinach one tastes vaguely like a not-so-sweet applesauce, the Happy Baby one I tried was just bitter.  I feel bad posting that because I like Happy Baby as a company and Jasper loved their infant food (the frozen kind) but I have to be honest and tell you that the mashups were NOT yummy.

Let me also state that I am aware that it is FAR preferable that your kids eat their daily servings of fruits and vegetables from FRESH sources – if for no other reason than training their palate (yadda yadda yadda) and if your toddler’s favorite food is fresh kale or dandelion greens then god bless you!

But for the rest of us, I’m so happy that there is a way to get a few servings of something other than yet another variation of  wheat or  cheese into our children’s daily diets!

Filed under: product reviews, solids, toddlers by ariana
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Well, the wrapping paper has been ripped off, the piles of new toys crammed into every corner and the steady stream of Chrismukkah gifts has finally ended!

It was pretty dark out still when we went downstairs to the tree to open presents on Christmas morning, so I used my speedlight and 50mm lens to snap a few of Jasper unwrapping his gifts.

First, one of his favorites was the big hot wheel set:

I think perhaps I was on Santa’s naughty list this year, because even though in my head hot wheel sets are silent, in reality, Jeff aka Santa picked one out with some sort of roating ring of fire tunnel thing that is incredibly loud and obnoxious, but Jasper doesn’t seem to mind. In fact, I think this little video expresses his love of this toy better than any picture could:

(Since I wrote my last post mentioning the 8mm app to create vintage looking iPhone movies, I download and have been using it a LOT-  all the videos in the post were taken with it!)

Continuing the theme of loud and obnoxious, the wrestling Kung Fu Panda doll was a huge hit.

Actually, this one isn’t so much loud and obnoxious as it is plain disturbing. The box is illustrated with all the different ways you can torture wrestle with Panda to make him say different things… I keep wondering if this is some sort of serial killer training doll. Blech.

My personal favorite was the small air hockey set we got at a last minute trip to a hobby store near by:

It’s REAL air hockey.. like it’s battery powered and you turn it on so the puck sort of float/glides. Which of course means it also has NOISE but I’m willing to overlook it because it’s really fun! Jasper is pretty good at it, though he sometimes complains when we block his shot.

Another big hit was the Puppet Theater my parents and Aunt and Uncle bought him:

I think we will have front row seats to MANY performances courtesy of this toy!

One of my favorite last minute purchases for Jasper were these Emu monster boots.  He had ONLY wanted to ever wear his sketcher light up sneakers to daycare, but with the colder weather and the fact that they play outside at daycare even in the winter, I knew I needed some warmer footwear for him.  I figured that the monster faces would make them fun enough for him to want to put them on, and I was right!

I must admit that I balked at spending an extra $30 for the monster version, but then I found them on clearance at Garnet Hill which made it slightly less painful.

What I loved most about Christmas this year was experiencing how much Jasper enjoyed the traditions – from his excitement to opening the advent calendar every morning, to talking about our Elf on the Shelf Sparkle – even his new obsession with the Grinch who stole Christmas!  He just really seemed to get “in the spirit”, I even found him singing Jingle Bells to himself!

But despite all the commercial aspects of the whole Holiday season, when I asked Jasper what his favorite part of Christmas was, he said going to his cousins’ house on Christmas Eve.. that’s my boy!

And here he has a little Christmas greeting for you all!

Filed under: Holidays by ariana
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Thanks to my friend Susan who forwarded this to me.. Frances England (one of my favorite children’s musicians) released a song that you can download for free from her website to use to create your own “year in pictures.”  It’s for personal use only but I hope licensing options become available for photographers because this would be great for client slideshows!

Details on Frances’ blog here.. hurry though, the free download ends at with 2011..

For more music tips, visit Susan’s Facebook page “Music for the Bear-y young” where she posts great music videos for pre-schoolers!

PS, Frances she says she used an app called “8MM” to create those vintage looking movies with her iPhone, I’m totally going to download that!

Filed under: random musings by ariana
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As we head OUT of the photography busy season and into the new year, it seems like a good time to take stock and re-evaluate, make any necessary changes which, depending on that evaluation, may include raising  prices for the new year.

This fall was by FAR my busiest ever photography wise, and I know I need to make some changes in order to feel like I’m being properly compensated for the time and effort I put into each and every session!

It’s so easy to forget just how much effort is involved when you are only working on say one client’s order during slower times, but while juggling multiple shoots, multiple sessions to edit and multiple orders to fulfill, it hit me HARD just how much time I put into each session that I wasn’t accounting for.

What follows is a break down of a single session and all the thought, planning and execution that goes into the shoot from beginning to end.

For me, this is s good exercise to remind myself why I am WORTHY of charging what I do (and probably a good deal more.)  If you are a photographer and haven’t broken it down by effort (and cost of goods of course!) I encourage you to do so too, it can be pretty eye-opening.  If your prices are based on cost of goods alone, you might be overlooking the greatest cost of all, which is time away from your family!  If you are not a photographer, then this might help you understand WHY some photographers charge what they do..what we put into each shoot is so much more than meets the eye.

Ok, I’ll get on with it now!

I’m using a session I did this fall as an example.  I LOVED this session so I thought this would be a fun one to follow through the journey that took several months when all was said and done!

Step #1: Concepting.

The client contacted me via email that her husband was turning 40 and she wanted to surprise him somehow with photos of her (gorgeous!) 3-year old twin daughters.

After brainstorming about it for a bit, I came up with the idea of the two of them standing by a chalkboard sign that said “Happy Birthday Papa” (which is what they call him).  I also thought it might be cute for them to each hold up an organic bloom frame with the words separately, and then hold a bigger one. I also thought it would be fun to incorporate balloons to go along with the birthday theme.

Step #2, gathering & purchasing supplies

For this, I had to get some black chalkboard paint and paint the inserts of the organic bloom frames.  Our helium tank from Jasper’s party was tapped so I had to go to Party City just a few days before Halloween (!) to get one.

Step #3:  Wardrobe suggestions.

I created a story board in Photoshop for the mom all with outfits from Baby Gap that she could pick up on her lunch break (she’s a busy TV producer!) and emailed it to her:

Step #4:  Find new shooting location!

Because of the early sunsets, we needed to be shooting by 4:30PM, but the girls nap until 4. This was going to make it very difficult for the mom who lives a county over to go to my usual outdoor spot that is almost an hour from her. So I spent hours scouring the internet for places closer to her and finally found something I thought would be suitable..and then we did something that I have NEVER done before, which is shoot in a location I haven’t scouted yet in person! Given my schedule, I just couldn’t make it over there to check it out in person, but I WOULD have if I could.  In the end we got super lucky because the location was to die for and is my new favorite spot to shoot. I guess maybe it’s not so bad to go out of your comfort zone a little every once in a while!

Step #5: The Shoot. (1 hour driving time there and back, 1.5 hours at the shoot)

Luckily, the spot was spectacular, the Mom did an amazing job dressing the girls and the girls were adorable and even a bit cooperative!  Here are some of my faves from the shoot:

Step #6: Editing.

If you are a photographer, I don’t have to tell you is the most time consuming part of it all (at least for me!)

Step #7:  Prepare for the ordering session.

Create the slideshow (I use Lightroom for this), load it onto the laptop etc. and also create any wall mock-ups you want to share with the client:

Step #8: Have the ordering session.

The ordering session took 2 hours.  Part of this is my fault because I proofed too many images, but the shoot went so well it was hard for both of us to decide on the 20 images to go in the album! (If you are interested in how I use Lightroom to run my in person ordering sessions, see this post.)

Step #9: Prepare the order.

After editing, this is the MOST time consuming step, particularly if the client has ordered products that need to be designed such as mini-accordions etc.  My most popular package includes an 8×8 session album, 2 mini accordions, various gift prints and 3 digital negatives, so most of the time I am at least designing the minis.

In the case of this particular client, she wanted to get the album back in time for her husband’s surprise party and I wasn’t able to guarantee her that if I used my normal Session album vendor (Finao Elements album) so I had the idea that we could do a photocover album from H&H which only has about a 4-5 day turn around time including shipping!

Because the Photocover album is not fabric like the Finao, the album cover itself needed to be designed, which is more time consuming,  HOWEVER, I did get to save time not having to assemble the self mount album! Here is what I came up with and the client approved it:

The mini album also needed to be designed an approved:

Because I think it’s kind of fun to see how everything came out, here are some photos of the finished product. (You can see many more images of the album on this post that I did reviewing the H&H Photocover album.) The little pink frame is an Organic Bloom ornament which I included as a gift to all my clients that had sessions in the fall/holiday season!

Step #9: package up the order.

This is always more time consuming than I realize, all the ribons, stickers, wrapping the ornament, writing a little thank you card etc.

Step #10: Deliver the product.

Because this mom needed all the product before the birthday surprise and lived a little ways away from me, I met her for coffee half way.  Part of this was self-serving because I wanted to see her face when she saw everything!  But still, this is the kind of service you can only expect when hiring a “boutique” photographer.

So that’s it, the 10 steps just for one session!  Each one of these, even the ones that seem short often require MULTIPLE emails back and forth with the client, those communiques are something we often don’t consider when assessing the amount of time we spend on each session.

After calculating all of the time I spend shooting, editing, designing, concepting, communicating plus my cost of goods, I realized that I definitely need to raise my prices in 2012.

How ’bout you?

Filed under: Photography Biz by ariana
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So, clearly I didn’t have it together enough this year to create a holiday gift list in time for you to get anything shipped to you (unless you are an Amazon prime member!) and almost thought I should skip this post altogether.

But then I realized that there must be other last-minute shoppers like me who could use a suggestion or two of what to pick up in the stores this week if you are so unfortunate as to have to battle the throngs. Plus, you guys all gave such good ideas how could I not post them?

First, for 3-ish year olds because that’s what I have and all I really know/remember at this point!

Zingo!  Jasper loves this game. It’s like bingo but with pictures. I’m big on games with him at the moment because they seem to have more staying power!

Monkeys on the Bed – we all like this one! Jasper particularly likes when the monkeys fall off!

Melissa & Doug Folding Castle.  Still one of his favorite toys EVER!

There’s also a princess castle:

Reader Anne-Marie suggested the Quadrilla Marble sets – they look like so much fun! And bonus points for not being plastic and hideous :)

Kristy is getting her 3.5 year old a hotwheel race track, we got Jasper one too since all he’s asked for this year is a “red race car” (??)

LeapFrog Leapad Explorer

The whole interent is a buz with this whole “leap pad” craze. I’ve largely ignored it only because my iPad has pretty much already become Jasper’s plaything and I’m trying to cut down on his ”screentime” in generally anyway.  But also, they are sold out everywhere regardless!

Probably too late to get this in time for the Holidays (unless you are an Amazon prime member) but Susan is getting her 3 year old daughter this adorable Kidcraft Dollhouse!

Some of you may remember we got Jasper the Kidcraft red retro kitchen last year and it was also a big hit!

For the 18 month old set
There were only two suggestions and BOTH were for the Fisher-Price Laugh & Learn Piggy Bank!

For the adults

I know so many people have the Kindle Fire on their list, though I must say I’ve read some conflicting reviews..

I couldn’t LIVE without my iPad. Just sayin! :)

I put the Keurig on last year’s list and it’s going on this year’s list again too. Last year I didn’t have the benefit of knowing that I would fall madly, deeply in love with mine. Like to the point where I PANICK if we run out of k-cups!

(My favorite flavor is the Newman’s Own Organic Bold which I just about died when Costco started carying in bulk. Yay!)

For the Photographer

Too late to get most nifty little gadgets in time for the holidays but you COULD always do a software download:

LR3 anyone?
I couldn’t live without Portraiture
Photographer’s Wall Display Guides.. (KIDDING! sort of!)

If you have a local camera shop you could walk into, consider getting a remote like I used in these images and GET YOURSELF IN THE PICTURE!

That’s all I have time to post this year sadly.  But, I encourage you to take a look at previous years lists because they were pretty comprehensive and had some great ideas. Back when I had two minutes to myself to THINK! ;)

2010 Holiday Gift List
2009 Holiday Gift list

Thanks to everyone who contributed ideas this year and all previous  years!

Filed under: Holidays by ariana
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Meet “Sparkle” our new Elf on the Shelf (I was quite proud when Jasper came up with that name all by himself!)

I held out as long as I could against the tide of Elf on the Shelf status updates and images flooding my facebook and Pinterest feeds, because let’s face it, he’s kinda creepy.

But, in the end, I’m a sucker for anything that can be construed as a family tradition. Plus, the potential for behavior control that this little spy Elf can wield was too tempting to ignore.

I’m happy to report that it’s been working so far!

Here are some exchanges from just this morning, our first full day with Sparkle watching from his perch on the radiator cover:

Jasper (shaking a box of uncooked noodles in my face): Maaaaaawm, I want NOOODLES for breakfast!”

Me: “Jasper, stop whining – Sparkle can hear you- Santa doesn’t like whining!”

Jasper: (Getting into his car-seat really fast, which happens about .000001 % of the time)

Me: “Jasper, what a good boy for getting into your carseat so fast, I think Sparkle saw that!!”

etc etc.

Other benefits of ownership include the ability to enter into Jill’s Inappropriate Elf contest. I’m still brainstorming for my entry..

My only concern with this whole Elf on the Shelf business is what happens on Christmas day when the Elves are supposed to disappear and go back to the North pole to be with Santa until next year?  Will the entire population of American children act out simultaneously now that there is no threat of bad reports to Santa to be taken into consideration?  Hmmmmmm.

Have you caved into the Elf mania yet?  If so, I’d love to hear if it’s been keeping your kids on the nice list.  And just for fun, let’s hear your Elf names!

Filed under: Holidays by ariana
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Growing up, we lived 5 minutes from my parents’ closest friends the Kagels.  While much has changed in the past 20 years or so since then, we still manage to celebrate Holidays together almost every year.

Last night my mom threw a little Hanukkah party. I use the word Hanukkah a bit loosely, it was more of a Latka eating party and an excuse to get together with the Kagel clan before my sister heads back to LA..

But we did light the Menorah and ATTEMPT to sing the prayer.. but it kind of went like this:

I will post the same disclaimer that I posted on Facebook when I uploaded this video there:

A) I am aware that it’s not even Hanukkah yet, let alone the last night and

B) None of us really know all the words to the prayer and

C) You think that’s bad? You should have heard what came next: Jeff Falerni leading us all in a group sing-along of Adam Sandler Hanukkah song!

But, you can’t expect too much from our Motely crew of Jews, who are mostly not even Jewish, or if they are they are half (and not the half that counts!) or  identify as either Hindu or Buddhist, agnostic or Athiest.. but we all understand the value of family and tradition and I wouldn’t have it any other way!

For Jasper it was a particularly special day because Auntie Roxy and her dog Ludlow came to the party AND stayed at our house last night.  Jasper fell asleep an exhausted and happy boy while Auntie Roxy read him “The Night before Christmas” (just to further continue the religious smorgasbord!)

He was so excited when I told him this morning that she was upstairs sleeping.. you should have seen his eyes light up!  Nothing like the Holidays to make you realize the importance of family -I’m glad even the youngest member of ours is catching on to that idea already.

Happy (early) Hanukkah!

Filed under: Holidays by ariana
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As some of you long time readers know, every year I compile a list of holiday gift ideas and every year I ask for YOUR ideas to help me make it as comprehensive as I can!

Answer any or all of the following and I will take your ideas and mine and try to get something decent together to post next week. Still PLENTY of time to get Amazon delivery before Christmas right? Right!

1) What is your child’s FAVORITE toy right now (and your child’s gender and age).

2) What do YOU want for christmas?

3) What does your spouse want for christmas and or

4) What are you actually GETTING your spouse for christmas?

I apologize that this is Christmas centric, but let’s face it I’ve already missed the boat on Hanukkah :-)

I look forward to seeing your ideas!

Filed under: Holidays by ariana
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Some of you may remember that I did a post a while ago about “Session Albums.”   I have been using Finao Elements self mount albums until now, but all this time I’ve been looking for a flush mount album (i.e not a peel and stick!) that would be around the same price, or perhaps even a tiny bit more, but be worth the price difference so I don’t have to assemble them.

I had thought about using WHCC’s press printed albums for this purpose, but unfortunately their press color is just too red/magenta.  So the search continued..In fact, one of my main reasons for attending Imaging USA last year was to scope out the different album vendors to find this elusive affordable flush mount album.

This is where it gets ironic: My search finally ended with the H&H photocover album!  Why is this ironic? H&H is my primary print lab so this album has been under my nose the entire time!

The problem was that I had misunderstood their pricing structure, which is to price per page that is a double page spread. I thought the prices were per side, so in my mind I had been doubling the cost. When I finally figured it out and did the calculations, I realized that the price for this photographic flush mount custom photocover album is the exact same as I had been paying for the Finao Elements (when you calculate the 4×4 window opening, the cost of the album, the prints for the album and the shipping!)

The excuse to try the photocover album came when a client needed an album in time for a birthday surprise for her husband.  There was no way I could gaurantee her a Finao with such short lead time, but the H&H album is just a 2-day turn around time in lab, then 2 day shipping.  The client gave me the green light, I created the album and then a few days later it arrived..and took my breath away!

First of all, I was very impressed that it came in a snug fitting 8×8 box. (Finao 8×8s come in a loose fitting 10×10 box that they stuff with tissue paper to fill in the gap. Yuck. )

Then, I was even more pleasantly surprised to find that it had both an album bag and a “how to care for your album” card. Nice!

The cover is lined with fabric Moire:

Front:

side

back

This shows how flat it lays..

Trying to show the page thickness. I ordered the standard single weight pages and they are perfect.

Another view of the lay flat:

Spine:

Of course the colors and clarity are amazing, just like I knew they would be from H&H.
Other things I love about this album:

1) You can do as many pages as you want, from a minimum of 10 spreads (20 pages) up to 40! So in this album I actually did 11 spreads.

2) When you order it in EZSuite you have the option of dragging and dropping a full size pano spread into the middle OR dragging and dropping the two sides separately. I love that because my workflow in LR includes a print template that I created to put a 5×7 image on an 8×8 page so I was able to export and use my images in the same way that I did when I was ordering 8×8 prints from H&H to go into the Elements album. (If you are interested in that print template, it’s on my original post about session albums, check it out! )

3) Sample albums are always 25% off (and in January, they will be 50% off!!)

Now, to be sure, this isn’t the album for everyone.. some clients just LOVE fabric album covers (would love for H&H to offer that as an option too! ) so I might still show my Elements albums for this reason. I haven’t decided yet.

Another thing that I actually realized was a security blanket with the self mounts is that I got to see the prints before putting them in the album.. that allowed for me to reprint any page(s) that I noticed a problem with. Not so with an entire album, that would be a costly reprint. I need to get in the habit of inspecting my files VERY closely.

Other than that though it’s really the perfect solution if you are looking for a photographic print album around the same price as a self mount!

Filed under: Photography Biz by ariana
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