It's show and tell time again! We've got a new Align Legacy Book on our blog today -- a gorgeous new studio sample album for Jane & Co. Photography! 
 
What is an Align Legacy Book? Glad you asked! Here at Align, we have been providing album design services to hundreds of photographers for more than 5 years. But starting this spring, we began offering our own in-house line of high-quality printed albums too! See this page for all the details. We've absolutely loved offering busy photographers an all-in-one design + printing service to streamline their workflow! 
 
The album we get to show off today is a studio sample for Portland based film + digital hybrid photographer Monica Martinez of Jane and Co. Photography. Learn about our sample album discount here. Monica requested our Simple Design Style in order to give the design a fine art look and allow her images to shine. We're in LOVE with how beautifully it turned out and Monica loved how easy it was to order! 
 
--------------------------------------------------------------------------- 

"I am obsessed with y'all. You literally take the work out of ordering an album. I can have y'all design it and then put together a gorgeous album that is high end quality. On top of that, when ordering I am actually in communication with the company from beginning to end. I am speaking with a real person, not a machine. I am not waiting for hours on the phone with customer service to make sure that what I am ordering is what I hope I am ordering. You walked me through every step of the way and in a very timely manner. I've already ordered another Align Legacy Book for a client because I showed them this sample album and they were obsessed. lol! Thank you Align!"  
      --Monica Martinez of Jane & Co. Photography

--------------------------------------------------------------------------- 
 
Thanks to Monica for sending us photographs of her finished 10x10 Align Legacy Book so that we can share it here! This album has a Yukon colored leather cover. The interior contains Monica's stunning images from multiple weddings printed on 10 spreads of our thick-page paper.

To flip through the whole design, click through the spreads below: 
 

-----------
Design by: Andrea (View More) // Design style: Simple (View More) // Blog post written by: Denise

Here at Align, we're big advocates of communicating your personal design preferences to your designer. While we have 3 base design styles you can choose from on your album design order form, we're happy to customize to your tastes! But here's a tip -- your preferences don't need to be brand new ideas you come up with from scratch! Feel free to pull inspiration from other designs you've seen in the Featured Album Designs category of this blog, from Pinterest or Google searches, or from photographers you admire! We frequently have photographers tell us they want a "Katelyn James Style" album design! They've seen Katelyn's albums at one of her workshops or on her website and they know that's the elegant style they want to present to their own clients! 
 
Today we're excited to feature this gorgeous winery wedding's album design we created for Katelyn James, a talented wedding photographer and educator based in Virginia. It's a great example of her preferred style that falls partway in between our Simple and our Classic base styles (generally 4 or less images per spread except for the ceremony and reception). She gravitates towards filmstrip-like layouts that are more horizontal in nature, so you'll notice that we rarely have images bleed off the tops/bottoms of the pages. We use extra thin spacing between images and ample white space on the spreads in order to give the design a light and airy feel. 
 
If you want to check out more of Katelyn's album designs, check out her profile in our Client Advocate section! But first, enjoy some of our favorite spreads from this lovely design!

Here's the full album design! Go ahead and flip through using the slideshow below! 
 

-----------
Design by: Kari (View More) // Design style: Simple (View More) // Blog post written by: Denise

You've GOT to check out this engagement session shot by Cassie Madden Photography! We loved the album right from the start because the setting is a romantic picnic in an open Wyoming field (so dreamy!). Then we learned that the lovebirds are a NFL player and a Miss America contestant and we became even more intrigued! We especially love that Cassie combined a NFL football, the Miss Wyoming crown, and the engagement ring into a very personalized detail shot.  
 
Cassie is a wedding and portrait photographer based out of Wyoming ...and Colorado ...and Texas ...and worldwide! She's a traveler! We love working with her and we're thrilled that she sent us photos of this finished Miller's Lab album. Thanks Cassie!

To view this engagement album in its entirety, click through the slideshow below! 
 

-----------
Design by: Andrea (View More) // Design style: Simple (View More) // Blog post written by: Denise

As you might guess from poking around on our website, the majority of the albums that Align designs are for weddings. But that's not ALL we offer! We absolutely love designing albums for portrait sessions too! We love the flexibility and beauty that comes along with family portraits, senior photos, boudoir shoots, newborn sessions, etc. And it's a special bonus when we get to design a portrait album for Rebecca Sehn Photography! Rebecca is a Vancouver-based photographer who specializes in childhood and family portrait photography. Her work is always stunning! 
 
We asked Rebecca about her album process and she came back with a wonderful testimonial that I think with be helpful to both portrait and wedding photographers alike! Let's meet her....

(Photo by White Linen Photographers) 
 
Hi, I'm Rebecca. I'm a childhood and family portrait photographer based near Vancouver, Canada. I love where I live, but also love to travel! I've photographed some pretty wonderful families all over the world, including France, Ireland, and Hong Kong. 
 
While expecting my first baby in 2014, I had visions of work slowing down a little as I adjusted to life as a new mom. I was so wrong. After my daughter Penny was born, business kept growing... fast forward to August of 2015: I found myself fully booked in Vancouver, as well as a packed week of portrait sessions abroad in Hong Kong (a dream come true!). But I was also eight months pregnant with my second baby, and life was a bit chaotic, to say the least. 
 
I've felt so torn between giving everything I have to my family, while also growing and tending to my work -- everything I had been working toward in my business was happening, and it was so hard to say no. But my once forty hour work weeks were now chopped down to stolen hours in the early mornings and evenings, and I was scheduling client calls during overlapping nap times. I began to take a good look at what I really needed to be doing in my business, and what I could outsource. 
 
One of these things on my outsource checklist was album design. I sell albums to almost every portrait client, but they've so far been very simple, with just one portrait per page. When I added a new premium album that needed beautiful design, I knew that this was something I could (and should) outsource. Align makes more beautiful album designs than I could ever dream of! My clients appreciate that they are both modern and timeless, and I love how responsive the designers are to creating albums to my specifications, and remembering these notes each time. It's easy, fast, and perfect.

The cost of design is worked into my album pricing. But beyond that, in the time it would take me to complete one album design, I can market to new clients, or provide above and beyond customer service to my current clients.  
 
A lot of photographers ask me how I 'get' my portrait clients to purchase albums. Long story short -- I make it the most logical choice. My clients receive a digital copy of every portrait that they choose for their album, and digital files on their own are priced in such a way that unless a client chooses less than five portraits (and who can choose just five??) it's more cost effective to purchase an album.  
 
These days I feel like I have things a lot more under control, thanks in a large part to outsourcing. Does that mean it's time for baby number three? 
 
-----------------------

Oh my goodness, Rebecca, you're brilliant! We sometimes have photographers ask us how they can get portrait clients to value albums as much as their wedding clients do... now we have an answer! I'm going to point them right to this blog post and your sales strategy. And YAY for baby #3 -- we vote yes!! AND we're throwing "Al" into the hat for a boy name! The fact that it's short for "Align" can be our little secret! ;) 
 
Now it's time to check out some prettiness! Here is one of Rebecca's recent albums designed by Align and printed by GTA Imaging. Thanks for sending us these photos of the finished album, Rebecca!!

If you'd like to flip through this portrait album design in its entirety, click through the slideshow below! 
 

-----------
Design by: Andrea (View More) // Design style: Simple (View More) // Blog post written by: Denise

This outdoor Tennesee wedding simply radiates charm and beauty! AND I am swooning over these flowers!!! 
 
This lovely event was photographed by the Nashville-based Watson Studios. Dan requested Align's Simple Design Style (no more than 4 images per spread), which is often a style requested for portrait albums, but I feel like the minimalist style is what MAKES this design. *heart eyes*  
 
Here are a few of our favorite spreads:

And here's the full design. Enjoy flipping through! 
 

-----------
Design by: Denise (View More) // Design style: Simple (View More) // Blog post written by: Denise