When I started shooting weddings in the late 1980's, formal wedding albums were so ugly and had so many design limitations that I simply refused to use them! I found Italian archival scrapbook albums were the only way to elegantly display a dynamic magazine style layout. The established alternatives were heavy matted albums with garish gold borders on ivory pages with gold gilding and gold lettering. The pages were about a quarter inch thick!

Today there are so many different and beautiful ways of making albums that it is overwhelming to keep track of them all. Not only are there many elegant brands and styles available from all over the world but each brand offers countless design and cover choices. Some are even 100% customizable. The latest traditional style albums (mounted photos in bordered frames on textured pages) and the new "flush" coffee-table book digital albums have a lot to offer.

But there are two drawbacks to all this progress: The first is the high cost of these albums due to the increase in design time, the quality of the materials, the number of images included and the unique configuration of each order. The second is what I like to call "Album Fixation".

"Album Fixation" happens when a couple looking for a wedding photographer or visiting recently married friends come across an album they find so cool, and stylish that they only want that album and only want a photographer who offers it, usually for the best price. They seem to care less about the photos that go inside or don't realize that the album only looks that good because it is a portfolio or just perfectly suited to the style and content of the photos inside it.

I feel it is a mistake to obsess over an album before you see your pictures. A great album is designed around the images you have selected. It is a handicap to shoot or select images to "fit" into a predetermined album layout or style. It is fine to have an idea of what you like before-hand and to let me know about it as long as you remain flexible and open to new ideas along the way. The reason I stopped offering "packages" that included specific albums with set number of photos is that I discovered that EVERYONE changes their minds about what type of album and how many pictures they want. It was unpleasant to have to re-negotiate everything when it was time to make the albums and to add on extra charges for changes made. That is why all my album options are "a la carte" and I give you the price list when we meet. I also make it clear when I give estimates for albums that I am assuming you will want at least 80 pictures in the album. That is realistic; studios that offer packages with albums containing 40-60 photos are kidding you. If they do a good job you are going want more; they know this and they are going to charge you for it! Instead of "packages" I offer other incentives to give you better value.

The album brands I showcase in my studio represent only a fraction of what I can do for you. Every year we make a couple of albums for clients that want something other than what we usually make. Maybe they've seen it somewhere else or maybe they just dreamed about it. It's no problem. We can basically make any type of album you like and design it anyway you like even if you don't see anything like it when you visit. Making albums is tiresome but not difficult. Taking great wedding photos is difficult!

We have a highly interactive and collaborative way of designing albums with our clients and our process includes a lot of quality control to insure that the album comes out right the fist time and without delays.

We frequently use the following album companies: Capri, Leahter Craftsman, Art Leather, Queensberry, Picto Books and Kozo.