Someone asked me a few weeks ago “why do you photography your albums?” And it was a legitimate question! Why photograph my own photographs? Well, it serves a couple of purposes! My album designer, Align, loves blogging the finished designs. But flipping through the JPG files of JUST the spreads isn’t nearly as engaging as seeing the album in PRINT! So I actually started photographing my albums initially simply because my album designer asked me to!

Then, as we began to sell albums more consistently (80% of our couples do albums! YAY!), my brides began asking to see examples of some of my other cover treatment options, lettering options, etc. And rather than sending them to my bookbinder’s website, I wanted to be able to show them examples of past albums I’d ordered. Having these photos allows my brides to envision what THEIR book will look like with the choices they’re considering! And, bonus: I get to blog my stunning couples AGAIN after their wedding day!

We used to drop ship our books directly to our couples, which obviously made it impossible to photograph the book before my couples received them. So we began having our albums delivered to me first, which ALSO allowed us to begin implementing my brand new album boxes!

In order to photograph my albums, I set up in our foyer, right next to our front door. The gear I’m using is:

• Canon 5dmk3
• 35mm 1.4L
• Manfrotto tripod (not sure of the model, sorry!)
• White posterboard (background)
• Three white foam-core boards (reflectors)

And here’s my process! Enjoy, and let me know in the comments if you have any questions at all- I’d love to answer them!

To see more of my past blogged albums, go here!

For more educational blog posts, go here!