Let me catch you up on the last 7 days of the 365 Project…

Emma could’ve passed for a fish during our vacation – she barely left the pool!

The seafood lovers in the family steamed crabs – poor little guys!

We had a family photo session on the beach with each family – here was part of the Rode family.  It was Maeby’s first ocean experience!

Our last day at the beach!

When I got home these little guys were waiting for me!  My new business cards from MOO!  They may have your pretty mug on them!

I think I have finally settled on my packaging.  Thanks to the boxes & ribbon from WHCC & the “OPEN ME” cards I made at MOO!

My latest find at the Target “dollar” bin – but these were $2.50 each.  Not bad for five bucks!

And we’re all caught up – until I photograph for today!

I mentioned in Day 81′s post that I was borrowing studio lighting from Severna Park Photo.  I decided to try it out one more time – in a more controlled setting – to get some shots of my new CD/DVD cases for my digital clients.  These are completely un-edited, which was sooooo nice!  I think it shows them off pretty decently.

And for those of you wanting to know, here are the specs on these cases:

Template: Design Aglow “For Collectors of Art & Style” DVD Cover

Printer: White House Custom Colour (WHCC)

Model: Clara

How do I get this case for my digital images?

You all might remember Ian from “Pirate Day” at Fells Point in Baltimore.  Well, his dad, Dustin, asked me to secretly design an album for his wife for her Mother’s Day gift.  If you know me, asking me to keep a secret is probably the worst thing you could ever do!  I hate keeping secrets, people know I can’t do it very well, and it’s just not a good idea.  However, I was able to just tell the secret to everyone but Dustin’s wife and she didn’t have a clue!  Dustin ordered an 8×8 album with a “chocolate” fabric cover – very similar to Justin & Samantha’s book.  The only difference is he chose a “lay-flat” style book.  Here is Ian’s virtual album!

Ian from joshsroka on Vimeo.

You may remember Justin & Sam from my “Bare Bellies” party a few months ago.  After they’d looked at all their photos, they decided they’d like to have an album to represent Sam’s pregnancy with baby Jackson.  Well, I finally got around to designing it, ordering it, and just mailed it off to Justin & Sam.  I thought you might like to see what it looks like as well.  Albums are a great way of getting the majority of your images at a more cost-effective price.  Although each image isn’t as large as a print may be, they are displayed beautifully in this keepsake book.  And for people like me who wish they could scrapbook, but never get around to it, it’s a single place to hold all the images from a certain event or time-period (aka: the lazy man’s scrapbook).

For Justin & Sam’s album I decided to go with my old favorite, White House Custom Colour (WHCC).  They are fabulous and have always been good to me in the past and I would recommend them to any professional photographer.  Sam chose the 8×8-inch album with a fabric cover in tan.  It has 20 spreads, or 10 pages front & back, and the pages are the “magazine style,” meaning they don’t lay flat.    And as I do with each album, I let Sam & Justin have as much input as they wanted.  Sam told me some photos that she did not want, and ones she couldn’t live with out.  After I designed the book,  I sent Sam & Justin a preview via Facebook, and they approved it.  It’s that easy.  Here are some pictures to better explain myself.

The front of the album.  It’s hardcover, with tan fabric wrapped around it.

Here’s a view from the top.  You can see the pages inside.  The first and last pages are a black.

Here is the binding.

The front and back inside cover come with black paper like this.

This is how the book looks laying open.

And finally, a view of the book from the top, opened.

Enjoy your album, Justin, Sam & baby Jackson!