I’ve been procrastinating pretty badly on the blog, which for those who know me knows it’s not very Nara like.  Well, today’s entry is a special blog  post.  I have a new product to share as well as a new sample album from Forbeyon.  Back in February, I attended a tradeshow in Las Vegas (I think I still owe a blog post for this too) where I was able to learn about new products and services in the wedding photography industry.  Prior to the tradeshow/convention I had done some online research on numerous album companies.  Although there are many great companies out there, I was drawn to one company as a new photographer entering the industry.  This company is Forbeyon.  I liked what I was reading from other photographer’s experience with them.  Without ever seeing a sample of their album I chose them as my premier album company.  Last Summer, I was able to get my hands on one of their albums at a mini-tradeshow in Seattle.  That only confirmed my decision further.  Then earlier this year, I was able to check out more of their products.  Despite countless other album companies under the same roof I still feel I made the right choice with Forbeyon.  I just love their album options, the quality of their products, their customer service, turnaround time and they do it all with affordability.  A new product this year is their premium boxes for albums.  The boxes can be customized to match the album.  Not only is it a display case/box for the album, but it also protects it.  After I got back from Las Vegas I ordered a sample box with a picture imprinted on the cover.  It is very nice and I recommend ordering one along with an album if you decide to get one.

I wanted to experiment with the album cover options so I ordered a sample of Ronelda & Dexter’s wedding album from last year.  So earlier I mentioned that this is a special blog entry and by that I mean I want to send a special shout out to Ronelda & Dexter on their one year wedding anniversary TODAY!  I figured now is the perfect time to share images of the sample album box and wedding album featuring their wedding which  I had ordered a few months ago.

I wanted to try out a dual-material cover.  Pictured here is the eco-material “Glam” with a strip of the “Classic Black” leather.  Both cover materials are super soft.  You won’t want to let it go!

Something else I wanted to try was the “Metal Cameo” on the cover.  It was hard to photograph up close to show the metal, but the material is actually metal!  The premium box cover contains the “Photo Luster” cameo if you want to compare.

Another new album option  is the “thin split” binding.  If you take a close look at the album Ronelda & Dexter ordered last year, you’ll notice it had “panoramic” binding which basically means no gutters in the bindings (center of the album).  Many of the “split” bindings I’ve seen leave too big of a gutter for my preference and so I’ve always recommended the “panoramic” binding.  However, Forbeyon now offers “thin split” binding and the gutter is as thin as I strand of hair.  Love it!

Matching premium box cover and flushmount album together.

All the cover material options!!!

If you want to see any of these in person feel free to contact me and I’d be happy to show you =).

Canvas wraps/wall arts are a great way to display your favorite photos.  Turn your home or office wall into your very own art gallery by hanging up canvas clusters of the same or various sizes.  Here I took snapshots of a family session we shot back in December.  One of the daughters decided to order canvas wraps to give to their mother for Mother’s day.  What a great gift that any mom would appreciate!

The sizes of these canvas wraps are 16″ x 24″.  They come in many sizes though!

For these canvas wraps, I ordered the standard 1.5″ thick wraps.  You also have the option of .75″ and 2″ thick canvas wraps.  We also offer Thin Wraps, which you can read and see more photos of here.  Thin Wraps are super slim/thin canvas wraps for those who don’t like the chunky feel.

Hoooorray!  We received our very first flushmount wedding album last week.  Unfortunately, we had to give it up a few days later to our clients to whom the album belongs to.  That just means we’ll need to order a sample for ourselves very soon because I miss the album already!  It’s a good thing I snapped a couple of pictures to share.  Ronelda + Dexter’s wedding album was massive!  It’s a 10×10 leather album and we’re talking about 25 spreads (50 pages) thick.  Although I forgot to weigh the album to confirm, the packaging slip said it was 10.5 lbs.  That’s heavy.  Anyway, the client decided to go with the classic black leather cover which felt so nice and soft. Much, much softer than it looks…

You have the option to imprint on the spine or the front cover in four available colors.  Silver is shown here.

Thick archival pages.

The album pages lay flat when open.

Flushmount means that each image spread is printed and then mounted to an archival page/board.  This allows for us to custom design each page layout.  Our layout design is aimed at two thing:  clean and simple.  We believe in a design that will be timeless.  Trendy, special effects and fancy layouts will appear cool now, but will it stand the test of time?  Trendy always goes out of style.  Ten or Fifteen years from now will it still be cool or just plain tacky?  Something to keep in mind =).

There are two options for binding 1) panoramic or 2) split.  Panoramic means there’s no gutter at the spine while split means there’s a gutter.  This album is an example of panoramic binding.  Panoramic binding allows more design flexibility and you don’t lose any part of the image to the gutter.

Each page is printed on Kodak’s Supra Endura photo luster paper with UV coating.  There’s also Kodak’s Metallic Endura paper with a linen texture option.

As you can see the spine is very well constructed.  As we mentioned earlier, this album is 25 spreads (50 pages) thick.  We recommend no more than 20 spreads.

Of course we had to slap our name onto the back cover =).

As part of your wedding day investment, we strongly suggest taking one of these high quality photographic albums into consideration to re-tell your wedding day for years and years to come.  After all that’s been said and done a wedding album that captures your story will be one of your most precious keepsake.  We’re proud to offer the flushmount albums in three different sizes: 8×8, 10×10 (recommended) and 12×12.  In addition to the options mentioned above there are over forty cover materials to choose from as well as cameo options that can be built into the album cover.  We hope to get a couple more samples in from Forbeyon, our choice for album print & bind, to showcase the different album options that are available.  After much research and finally seeing their album samples at the WPPI Seattle Roadshow this past August we were very impressed with their album products!  We look forward to working more with this company.

Looking for new ways to showcase your photographs?  We are now offering Canvas Thin Wrap, a stylish and frameless way to display your favorite pictures.  Your image is printed on a canvas material and then laminated over with a satin or glossy laminate.  This beautifully mounted and finished print is available in a wide variety of sizes.  A 1/2″ spacer mounting block can be attached to the back of the print to provide a contemporary float effect when hung on a wall or an optional easel stand can be ordered instead.  Please contact us for more information and/or if you’re interested in ordering one of these!

Closer-up of the canvas texture.

Optional 1/2″ spacer mounting block.

For this client, we ordered the 8″x12″ Canvas Thin Wrap w/satin laminate and got both the mounting block and easel stand.  This will give the client the option to hang the print or display it in a variety of locations such as on a table, mantle or shelf.

I’m happy to share with you one of the products that we offer.  We received our sample image box recently and I just now have the chance to post about it.  The cover of the box is customizable and is individually designed with custom images, graphics or text.  It is beautifully made with a silky canvas-like finish.  The pictures don’t do it justice at all.  It’s a unique and alternate presentation for your 4×6 print photographs and it holds up to 150 of them.  Currently, the image box is included in selected wedding packages along with our favorite images from the wedding.   The image box has other practical uses as well and doesn’t have to be used to store or showcase photographs.

Note:  The spine will not say Nara Photography on it (unless you want it to).  The image box will be completely customized for you!  The image used on the sample cover is one of our favorite pictures from our wedding and the credit goes to our wedding photographer Mikal Lok of Lok In The Moment Photography.