St. Louis Photographer » A Journal by Holly McCaig

The other night I shot a few quick images of products in the studio for my senior price guide. They aren’t the best images…I really need to schedule a product shoot day with better light! But, I wanted to share how much I love these products. Honestly, they are the three main products I sell, other than prints.

Gallery Wraps. HELLO! Every one that comes in the studio and experiences them first hand knows they rock. I honestly can say I prefer to sell them over framed prints. Why? They are timeless. They never become dated like a frame can. And, if you change your decor, you aren’t having to reframe your images. I just love how amazing a group of them can look together. I would love to consult with clients about some designs we have drafted, or their ideas, before their shoot. We can look at that and shoot for that end result. Gorgeous!

Books / Albums. I offer a few styles in albums and I think my Basic Album, the little ones on the bottom of this stack, are the best sellers. They start at $250 and are 7 x 7 inches in size. Perfect for my senior clients when you want to collect as many of your images in print form as possible. It looks great on a bookshelf or on your coffee table. The perfect keepsake. I also sell the larger, more elaborate lay-flat books with the thick pages. Square or vertical and in various sizes. The possibilities are endless. If you love all your images and can’t afford to buy them in print form, consider an album or book!

Greeting Cards. Whether it’s for Christmas, a birth announcement or grad announcements, this is a great way to stay away from the norm. Custom designs are the way to go! And, they can compliment your images so much better than store-bought images. Pre-designed collections are just the cost of cards, starting at $2 per card (with envelopes) and custom-designed collections are also $2 per card plus a $75 design fee. I especially love this graduation announcement I designed for my high school grad client.

So, there you have it! The three products I love to offer my clients. We can offer you so many options in products, but when I stopped to think about it, these three stood out to me most. And, they are the things I would buy if I were my client. In fact, I better get to ordering some new wraps for the house!

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I FINALLY got it uploaded. Yesterday, I just kept having awful upload issues with my ISP. Today, I rebooted the modem and all was right again with the world. Go figure. My daddy would have been so proud. As an IT person, he used to always say, “just turn it off and on again and it will work.” – He always knew what he was talking about. Must be why I felt that smile from above!

From yesterday’s video blogging post – the actual product!

I didn’t really show the ENTIRE book, because there are 16 pages!!! Yes, 16 pages when you count the covers and inside covers. Lots of options here and I LOVE IT! Here’s just a few of the yummy looking ones I did using it for Ashley’s book with the pinks and purples.

And, because I’m just in a good mood, I even have all the fun, grungy frames available for sale for those that just want those for other uses! Click here to go to my store at Pink Ink Studios, my photography digital website!

Oh, yes! My Dream Album arrived this weekend. If you remember this post – this is a Dream Album.

I ordered a 6 x 6 album for baby Mia’s photos we took in the studio. This is the PERFECT album! It’s small, and great for large photos rather than a lot of small ones. It’s perfect for people who can’t decide which photos to choose from their session. Newborns, senior portraits, family sessions. Just a fun way to get a lot more.

It’s crafted very nicely and comes in this black box for protection:

This one comes with a CD button for the inside so if you purchase a high-resolution disk of your images, you can just pop it in right there as an option! I love that!

As you can see, the pages are really thick! My favorite kind of album! And…

The cover print can go all around the book! I love designing book covers and this is so perfect!

The print quality is really nice too. The pages are coated and printed on Fuji paper. Gotta love that!

I give Dream an A+ and will be offering these along with Finao albums to my clients. This is a lower price point that Finao, but it’s also easy to design with less options to make it go quick! For a 6 x 6, book with 20 pages, my price is $450. I recommend people plan for these types of purchases ahead of time, that way, we can shoot with your book in mind. Building a real story with your pictures as we’re taking them!!!

Hope this helps out some other photographers!

So, I suck at regular mailing. I have those Christmas gifts ready to send out. Yes, they are still sitting here. I know. I know!!!!

But, I did have a nice mail week myself. I don’t feel worthy because I am the suckiest at mailing things out. I wish I could virtually send things. Anyway. I had to start out with the fact that I received a bunch of dog photo/fun books that I ordered. I blew an entire Amazon.com gift certificate on these. I wanted them all. I love them.

Speaking of dogs, I should put the collar cams on them today. It’s cold out, but nice and bright. This week has been tough with trying to remember to put them on them.

Next up, I got this awesome cacoon from Carrie Bombria in the mail! These are used when photographing newborns. You have to see them in use!

Carrie sells her cacoons on ETSY and I believe can custom make some for you too! Click here for her store.

And, what I probably have to say was the BEST delivery ever! The surprise package from the unbelieveably rockin’, Miss Haley! She is such a sweetheart to send me this:

Haley went to the Capitol and colored this picture for me and sent me some pencils with Barack Obama’s Inauguration date and other presidents on them. In case you were wondering, Haley is Amanda Dunn’s daughter. I will treasure it forever, Haley!

Now, I need to get some more work done. Slowly progressing on the website and really want to start this upcoming week fresh with that out of the way!