Everyone has an opinion and preference on what software or method is the best to design albums.  I use Adobe In Design and I love it!!!  I recently started using a set of In Design templates especially for designing albums and have to say, that is has helped speed up my work flow quite a bit…about 30-40%.  The templates were designed by Ben and Laura Harrison of Ben Harrison Photography…two killer photographers based in Grand Rapids, MI.  If you haven’t seen their work, check it out, it is fresh, fun, and elegant…THEY ROCK!

      The template set includes 65 different templates for 5 different size albums, including 8×8, 10×10, 12×12, 9×12, and 11×14.  Each set for each size, also comes with black designs with white keylines and white designs with black keylines.  The templates are what I call a timeless design, with a clean and sleek layout, that is not too trendy and won’t become dated in a few years.  I’ve been using In Design to design my albums for about six months and it has totally changed the way I design albums and how efficient I am with doing so.  These templates have made me that much more efficient as I no longer have to keep creating layouts from scratch and I can add my own templates to the sets as I create them making them more and more powerful.  As you know time is money and being more efficient, has saved me time and money AND I like the album designs I have made with the templates better too!

      The templates are great, but what is even better (especially for those of you out there new to In Design) Ben and Laura have included around 20 instructional videos to get your album design rocking with In Design.  These aren’t videos on how to use all the features of In Design, but are for simply churning out stunning albums in a short amount of time.  They teach you the basics that are needed to design an album quickly and efficiently using Adobe’s page layout software In Design.  The videos are done by Ben and are short and to the point and are seperated and titled in a way that you can only watch the ones you need to to get going.  I was pretty comfortable with In Design before I started using these templates, but watched all of them to make sure there weren’t things I was missing that would make my design process even quicker.  There were a few more things I learned that I did not know from the videos, so I am thankful I watched them all!

These templates have helped me so much, I just wanted to share the experience I have had in hopes it will help some of you!

 

CLICK HERE TO CHECK OUT THE TEMPLATES!!!!!

 

 

Yesterday, I had the privilege of going to a seminar with two of the ‘Top Dogs’ in the industry and it absolutely rocked!  Joe Buissink and Yervant were the two photographers and all I can say, is……WOO HOO!  It was absolutely inspirational and it is things like this that make me love what I do more and more.  If you can go to Two Views….GO!!!!

For you non-photographers out there, Joe has photographed many, many weddings, including Jessica and Nick, Brendan Fraser, Jennifer Lopez, Jenny Garth, Christina Applegate, Hillary Swank, Kelsey Grammar, and Christina Aguilera just to name a few.  Joe is one of the people I have admired through my venture as a photographer and notice, I say people, not photographer, because I truly mean that…he is just one of those amazingly good people.  I teared up twice watching slide shows of some of his imagery as well as a third time listening to him speak.  So much of what he said, I agree with wholeheartedly or implement in my business and relationships.  I could go on and on about my thoughts on Joe.  Thank you Joe!

Yervant was in many ways very different from Joe, but he rocked as well.  Yervant is a photographer based in Australia and has so much energy and focus on what he does.  His imagery and approach is very unique, but naturally stunning and passionate.  He speaks with such conviction…no wonder he shoots so many weddings!

The two together, were so natural, it was almost eery.  They are different in so many ways, but their passion is what brings them together.  I feel honored to not just have met and listened to them speak individually, but as a duo as well.  Please, check out their work if you are unfamiliar with it, it will take your breath away.

A few images from the day, but it was really to learn, not to photograph…

The two masters at work…

Every photographer chimps…at least a little bit anyways…

A Yervant style inspired image…

Well today I was supposed to host my Tasty Light Seminar, but was not able to do so, due to some of the photographers not being able to make it.  I still hooked up with a few photographers to do the photo shoot, as I still wanted to get out and play a little.  Jackie Blair, Rachael Brinton, and Lauren came downtown Ann Arbor to do a couple hours of shooting.  It was fun, but not the best photographically in my opinion.  I don’t know why….maybe it was the light or wind or something, but I wasn’t necessarily ‘feeling’ it today.  I got a few shots that are ok and I’m cool with that…I was just happy to be able to get together with some people and shoot for the sake of shooting.  Lauren and Rachael also got a few of me jumping and shooting and whatnot and I gotta say, even though I think I look a little heavy, I like being in front of the camera sometimes.  My sister Jen, and her husband Tony modeled for us…thanks you two!  

 

 My sister…ain’t she purdy!?!

 

 

 Me in action… 

 

 Me really in action…thanks to Lauren for this sequence!  Yes, that’s $6k in my hand…Mike Larson throws his camera in the air, so….

 

 A better example of my ‘ups’…this white boy can jump!  I held my high school long jump record for 7 years (22′ 1″…the previous record, 21′ 8″, was set the year before I was born) as well as a few others and I also cleared 6′ 3″ in the high jump when I myself was only 5’7″.  I gotta say, I do miss jumping…

  

 

 

 

For all you photographers out there, Adobe just released Lightroom 2 BETA for download. The release was made at Photoshop World (naturally) and looks to be great. I’ve downloaded it and used it and have a good handle on all the new features. I know this is going to get much better, as Adobe, like Apple, is one of those great companies who listens to it’s consumers. The localized corrections panel, just is so powerful and useful and really strengthens how awesome Lightroom already was. There are other very useful features, but this, is the best and strongest. The main reason I am so excited for this, is it will allow me to create even better images quicker than before…alright!