Speaking to aspiring photographers this past Tuesday at Hallmark (read the blog post HERE in case you missed it!) inspired me to start sharing a bit of insight into my business and the different vendors & programs that help to make me and my clients very happy. Getting started in a career in photography can be overwhelming because there are SO many options! Prints or digital files? Matte or glossy? Canvases, albums, every size you can imagine… Everywhere you look there are so many options when it comes to deciding on where your images will live. Beyond that, there are so many great printing companies to choose from… it’s just hard to decipher which ones will be a good fit for you. So today I want to share with you 5 printing companies that I absolutely love. While at Hallmark, one of my teachers said something so simple, yet so profound (thank you Braden Chattman!)… I was talking about how I couldn’t decide which printing company I wanted to use for ordering prints & products because I couldn’t seem to find one that fit all of my wants & needs. He said, “Why do you have to use just one?” Mind.blown. So I started searching around online and ordering samples so that I could find the best-of-the-best products that fit my brand and would provide my clients with beautiful products to display their photos. Please note, I am not in any way endorsed or bribed or given free stuff from any of these companies (unless those WHCC lollipops count as a bribe…) – they’re just companies I really love and would recommend to any & all photographers out there!
WHCC | Prints
I have never been disappointed by prints that I’ve ordered from White House Custom Colour. Their prints are beautiful quality, they offer every size print on the planet, and best of all, they include a lollipop in every print order (I mean, come on, how awesome is that?!). When looking for a printing company, I was looking for prints that looked sharp and kept consistency with the color & brightness that I see on my computer screen to what it looks like in print form (this variability seems to be the biggest issue with ordering prints from Wal-Mart, CVS, etc). Ordering is easy with the ROES system and prints can be delivered to my doorstep within days. While most of my prints are ordered for portrait clients, I was so excited last year when PASS (the system I use to deliver brides & grooms their wedding photos) decided to partner with WHCC to offer prints that can be ordered directly from the gallery. That means that if couples are choosing to print their wedding photos with the PASS gallery, I know that they’re getting professional-quality prints at a very affordable price!
KISS Books | Albums
I can’t say enough good things about KISS albums. These books have a very clean, high-quality feel to them and make a wonderful way to preserve your photos. I started offering albums to portrait clients this fall and will be releasing wedding albums as an option coming this spring, and I couldn’t feel any more confident about using KISS as my go-to album company. Not only are the books great, but their design software makes it easy to design albums and send clients proofs of what their album will look like. One of my final portrait clients of 2013 ordered a 10×10 linen-cover album of her family portrait session and right after she got her hands on her album for the first time, she sent me the following message:
“PHENOMENAL JOB!!! I can’t get over the clarity of the photos! LOVE it, and can’t wait to show it off!”
It’s reactions like that that make me know I’ve found great albums that clients will love. Albums will get their own separate blog post coming soon!
CG Pro Prints | Canvases
Canvases are one of my favorite way to display photos. My husband and I currently have 3 canvases hanging in our home, and I feel like they’re a great way to hang large, understated prints in your home. Not that I don’t love a great frame, but sometimes when you want a really large print to hang in your home, a matte & frame added to that can get a little overwhelming if you don’t have a large enough space to make it work (i.e. an apartment like mine). So a canvases is so great because you can have the large print you want, but you can just display it right on your wall without needing anything else to accompany it. CG Pro Prints offers lots of different sizes but the reason that really drew me to them in the first place is the price. Canvases are undoubtedly more expensive than regular prints, but if I have to pay a fortune to get canvases printed, that means my clients do too. CG Pro Prints has managed to create an amazing product that is nothing short excellent quality at a price that makes me & my clients very happy. Win, win.
Minted | Save the Dates
I just recently started offering Save the Dates as a part of select wedding packages, so I was in need of a place where I could offer my couples a variety of designs, while at the same time making sure it was a place that printed on quality products to make my photos look their best. Minted is that place. There are lots of options & papers to choose from and they make it easy to customize the Save the Date cards to fit each couple’s wants & needs. I was so happy with the quality of the cards when I received them and I would say my bride was too because she sent me this text when she got hers in the mail:
“They came in today! We LOVE them!! Thank you so much. They’re awesome!”
Happy Brides = Happy Kelsey.
MOO | Business Cards & More
There are a bajillion and one places to get business cards printed. But once I was introduced to Moo by my Hallmark teacher, Todd Verlander, I will never go anywhere else. Usually people don’t think much about it when they get a business card handed to them (I know I never did) but when you hand someone a Luxe business card printed from Moo, you basically get the same reaction every time… “Oooh, wow. This is nice.” Even if you just go for their “regular” business card, it’s still superior quality to many other places you could get it printed. I have also printed stickers with my logo on them from Moo, and for any wedding with an engagement session, I print Moo mini cards with the couple’s PASS gallery link on one side and their photo on the other to put around on tables. These cute little cards catch the guests’ attention and gives them a way to get the link to see the wedding photos without digging a pen & crumpled piece of paper out of their pocket or purse to write the link on.
Bonus!
Artifact Uprising | Personal Use
I know the title of this blog post said 5 printing companies I love, but I couldn’t leave these guys out because I love their products & philosophy. “Inspired by the disappearing beauty of the tangible.” That’s the quote that greets you when you go to Artifact Uprising’s site. The first time I saw that I basically melted into my computer chair. Yesssss. In the world of digital cameras and image files and social sharing (all of these things are wonderful!), I cannot stress how important it is to actually get your photos into a form that you can touch. To hold an album page in your hand as you slowly turn the pages and gaze at the photos that mark precious memories to you can NEVER (ever ever) compare to carelessly & quickly scrolling through a Facebook album of the same images. Do I love Facebook and PASS and digital images? Yes, yes I do. But I also realize the power of getting your images off the screen and into a tangible object that can be held, whether it’s a print or an album. While I don’t use Artifact Uprising in any aspect of my business, I have printed several products for gifts & for myself. They specialize in printing books from iPhone photos (“Off your device into your life” – another great line of theirs) so I decided to print a book of all the photos my husband & I have taken of our cat, Oscar, on our iPhones and print it into a small 5×5″ book. { Feel free to take a moment here to judge me for printing an entire book of photos of my cat. Unless you’ve met him, you can’t understand. He’s the best & is basically human. } You can download their app & make the book right from your phone! Whenever I need a good smile, I flip through this book that sits on our coffee table. I’ve recommended this company to friends, and everyone I know who has used it has loved it! My next project is to print photos from our NYC session with Abby Grace (if you missed that, catch it HERE) and I think I would like to order some square prints through them to hang clothesline style in our home.
Pictured Above: KISS Books, Artifact Uprising, MOO
