iphoto books for portfolio

[smiley guy]

Has anyone ordered an iphoto book for portfolio purposes? I am thinking about doing this as a hardcopy version for showing to potential customers and something that I can carry around with me. I have an online portfolio for people to visit (http://wesmoredigital.ca/page2/page2.html) but wanted to have something handy for cold calls etc.

What have your experiences been with getting iphoto books to Canada in particular? Costs? Quality? Time? Any input is helpful.

[winwintoo]

Hi, check this thread at ehmac.ca where they have quite an involved discussion about getting iPhoto books into Canada.

BTW if you're not already a member, ehmac is THE place for all things Mac in Canada eh!

Take care, Margaret

[smiley guy]

Hi Margaret,

Thanks for that info. I was aware of that thread on ehmac and I am a member there. I actually sent you a PM a while ago because I recognized you here from there!

I was also curious about people's experiences here with the iphoto books as it pertains specifically to portfolios for individual's r&r work. It looks like a mixed bag of experience for getting the iphoto books generally but wanted to know if people had used them for their portfolios and if they even looked good enough for that purpose.

Thanks again.

[winwintoo]

Ah, yes, I remember getting an email from you - I was in the middle of moving and didn't reply - sorry!

I haven't tried the iPhoto books myself.

When I was flogging my retouch work, I was "selling" to the scrapbooking crowd, so I printed the before and after images and put them in a high-end "scrapbook" - the kind with acid-free paper and page protectors and all the fancy embellishments. It went over really well - sadly I couldn't keep up the retouching as a business though, but I still enjoy showing that book around!

An old "horse trader" used to tell me that you always use the language of the person whose going to be writing the cheque. In other words, if you're going to be selling wedding books, have your samples in a "wedding book", pictures of vintage cars would look out of place in baby frames etc.

JMHO Margaret

[smiley guy]

Don't worry about that email, Margaret, I just threw it out there out of curiousity. Like travelling in a foreign country and seeing someone you recognize!

That's good advice about the "language" of the client. I will definitely take that into consideration. I was simply thinking that anything that looked well put together and professional would help sell the services. It obviously may take more than that. Maybe a couple of different styles of portfolios; scrapbook, wedding album, antique-style album, etc.