Enough Is Enough

I wanted to bring everyone up to speed on some new business enhancements we have been working on over the past few months to you an even better experience.

Last year, we switch all of our printing to Pictage because it was "suppose" to be easier for us, better quality, easier ordering for you, and lower prices. Well, after nearly a year with them, here is there report card :

OLD LAB

Easier for us : C

(We never knew what you ordered until AFTER the fact and if something was wrong, too bad..... We have until the end of business THAT DAY to cancel an order and resubmit. All the while, you still got charged for both orders. TOTALLY not fair !!!!

Better Quality : B

Progressively better, but not TOP NOTCH

Easier Ordering for you : D

most people called us to figure out how to order. Easy means easy.

Lower Prices : D

With all of their fees, we ended up paying more for prints than we did previously

Customer Service : C

I'm still waiting on 3 emails / calls to Customer Service and it's been 2 months with a "few" reminders to them along the way.

So, in light of that, we have been quieting piloting a new print lab. Wanting to see would be get better response, same response, or worse response.

NEW LAB

Easier for us : B+

We now review EVERY order PRIOR to get going to print. This way we can make certain the image is cropped right and it's the right image and size.

Better Quality : A

Perfect in every print. They even got John Deere Green and Yellow right ! For those of you that saw our prints last Fall of Earl Squires on his John Deere 'G' , SORRY.... Pictage just couldn't get the true JD colors right. That's been corrected.

Easier Ordering for you : B

pretty simply. However, as a Web Developer, there are a "few" enhancements I want to make to make it even better and I am working with our new partner to help them refine the process even better. Look for an update later on this.


Lower Prices : A

Customer Service : A

Rather than us calling them about an order, they call us after the order making sure everything is fine.

That's our print update, more to come later....

PRODUCT SPOTLIGHT : Premium Photo Cards

We are excited to announce our NEW Photo Greeting Cards.

Our 5x7 Photo Greeting Cards give you a variety of layout options. These include creative holiday art proof greeting with your personal text signature and a photo of your choosing. Or, simplified cards that highlight your unique photo and personalized text messages.

These are great for "Thank You's" and engagement announcements.

Greeting Cards are printed on one side of our quality Kodak Endura photo paper, and are shipped with blank white 5x7 mailing envelopes

• Cards and include plain white 5x7 envelopes. No return address printing available.
• Additional envelopes can be ordered
  
• Greeting Cards are printed on one side of our quality Kodak Endura photo paper.
• Includes photo of choice and personalized test message / text signature.
• The spelling on Photo Greeting Cards is solely the responsibility of the consumer placing the order, and is not a reason for return. If we catch an obvious mistake at any point prior to shipment, please correct the order. Any questions about spelling should be run through Customer Service.

(image courtesy Pictage.com)

PRODUCT SPOTLIGHT : New Sequoia Flush Mount Albums

SEQUOIA™
Flush Mount Album

Like the Giant Sequoia of Northern California, this flush mount album has a majestic beauty and natural longevity all its own. This classic album is characterized by a seamless center and storybook layout that evokes tradition and elegance.

Each album is created from your square, vertical or horizontal professional prints and carefully mounted flush to the page. Additionally, this classic album comes in several sizes and is bound in your choice of genuine leather or metal.

SPECIAL FEATURES OF THE SEQUOIA ALBUM:

* All of your images carefully mounted on durable hard-backed pages with a beautiful book-style binding, making it a perfect heirloom for customers who prefer a slightly more traditional album style.
* A narrow binding seam that lets you design a variety of cross-page layouts, giving you the freedom to be as creative as you want.
* Customized imprinting and several beautiful cover options including, genuine leather and metal, giving your album a personal touch that customers will appreciate.
* A large selection of album sizes to choose from.

COVER OPTIONS

Black Leather	Camel Leather	Dark Brown Leather	Ivory Leather
White Leather	Light Brown Leather	Burgundy Leather	Red Leather
Navy Blue Leather	Sage Green Leather	Olive Green Leather	Brushed Metal

Our new Flush Mount Album Sample is IN !!!

WOW !!!!!

We ordered our first flush mount album and it is freakin' cool. As you have seen, for 2007, we had LOWERED our rates to shoot a wedding, but also increase our packages to allow an album credit. This album has THICK pages and is over 1" thick.

I wish I had one of these from our wedding! Unfortunately, our wedding photographer never offered us anything other than 4x6 proofs and an option to order some 8x10. He did a good, traditional style, shoot of our wedding, but that was it.

That very reason of not even being offered an album is why in 2007 we are shifting our focus to custom album design for each of our wedding couples. In fact, we are going to be doing engagement albums as well.

An engagement album, why you ask? What would be cooler than pictures of the bride and groom at the wedding from their engagement shoot and to use it as a guest book. We are working on designing our first one of those as well and I'll post pictures once that comes in .

Until then, this is an example of the new albums.



See, that sooooooo much better than a box of 200 proofs that you'll never look at or a DVD that after you watch it once, goes back on the shelf. These are meant laid out and looked at over and over and over again.

If you want to see it in person, stop on by and we'll let you take a gander...

Our new Proof Magazines are Awesome !

We recently switched our printed proofs over to Pictage's proof magazines. These are great ! We order the 10x13 size with 6 wallet size images on a page. Once our clients see these, 4x6(s) in a box just won't cut it !

Take a Look !