We live in a digital image, and we understand the value of digital images, both the ones you snap on your iPhone and the ones from your professional portrait sessions. Their archival value, the ability to share on social media, and the opportunity to create prints, products & gifts with them is the reason why all of our sessions either include or have the option to purchase digital images. Unfortunately, we find that most clients are busy parents like us, and while they have great intentions of printing their digital images, they end up languishing away on their hard drive. Maybe they'll see the light of day on Facebook or Instagram, or be made into a few small prints for grandma & grandpa, but there are so many other fantastic options for fully enjoying these images that are really underutilized.
Commit to yourself to get those digital images off your phone or computer and in print, and you’ll thank yourself for taking the time. Here are 4 of my favorite vendors for creating beautiful prints & products.
no 1. / mpix
Mpix is unbeatable when it comes to high quality, affordable prints. They are the sister lab of our professional lab, and the quality is truly comparable. They offer several paper and mounting types so that you can get creative if you’d like, and their shipping is super fast.
no 2. / artifact uprising
Call me obsessed with Artifact Uprising and you’d be right. I love their gorgeous lay flat albums, ultra thick prints, and trendy, modern frames & image blocks. Their album design software is super user friendly, too.
no 3. / pinhole press
Pinhole Press has some of the cutest, most creative photo products on the market - think durable board books for little hands, dry erase boards, magnets, sticker books, doodle pads. Plus, they use high quality Mohawk Paper, so you’re supporting a local company at the same time.
no 4. / chatbooks
Chatbooks is truly brilliant, and perfect for the busy parent who doesn’t have time to organize their photos and design elaborate albums. Their books are small and inexpensive, and pull from your Instagram. You can create them on your own or set up a subscription to eliminate any thinking. I do this with my personal Instagram photos, and order two copies… one for safekeeping, and one of my kids to flip through. They LOVE looking at photos of themselves!
As a SUPER important aside… back up your images! The vast majority of us are guilty of not doing so, and I get at least one email a month about a client’s computer crashing and them losing all of their images. We archive images from our sessions for at least 2 years (usually more), but you should be securely backing up your personal and professional images. The best way to do so remotely with the Cloud, Dropbox, Google Images, etc., to ensure that your images are backed up off site.