Behind the Scenes 8: More Photo Packaging from Cypress Albums

Wow! Cypress Albums has done it again. This prints box arrived yesterday for my latest portrait shoot. It's a 5x5 box, made to hold 150 prints, in Vintage Linen with satin ribbon and gold imprinting. The box folds out beautifully, revealing a dvd pocket in the inside cover. The box is kept closed with a hidden magnetic closure. The prints inside are from Bay Photo, proof prints, size 4x6 on 5x5 paper. (To see photos of more Cypress products on this blog, click here. To see another fabulous proofs box from a wedding I did, click here.)

I almost cried when I saw the final product with all the photos inside -- it's beautiful, classy, and pleasing to handle. With this order, I have decided that all of my senior portrait shoots in the future will include this packaging. I love Cypress Albums for their standard of quality and especially for making my work look so amazing! Hooray for Cypress!

 

A ribbon tab helps lift the stack of prints out of the box (there are about 130 here)

Behind the Scenes 2: My First Proof Box from Cypress

        K&L's wedding packaging included this 5X5 proof box and a matching dvd folio (not pictured).
  
        February turned out to be quite the stressful month; it took nearly five weeks for Cypress to process my order (granted, they were closed one week for WPPI as well as on President's Day) and the quality of the other disc printing company I used turned out to be even worse than Discmakers. I even struggled getting the proof prints made with Bayphoto because all my digital files were so large. Bayphoto came through for me, though, as did Cypress.

                                
  The beauty of a 5x5 print

Here's what I learned:
      *Cypress's 1000-print proof box only holds about 950 prints, without wiggle room. Next time, allow an extra 50-100 print space.
      *Decrease image sizes before uploading. It will take a lot less time and hassle.
      *Expect about a four-week turnaround time. Editing the photos took about two weeks (I took around 2000 photos and narrowed it down to 950); the proofs came about two days after I ordered them, which wasn't a problem, but the Cypress order took much longer.

        I also learned that all the stressing I did over the whole thing wasn't worth it (is it ever?). At moments I thought I would actually pull my hair out I was so frustrated. But by about the first week of March, the package was finally mailed off. I felt a great sense of satisfaction and a huge weight lifted. A few days later I was stunned by the check I received in the mail. I wrote Katie to thank her, and she replied with this:

Hi Ashley,

You're so welcome!  I feel like it's not enough for the amount of work that you did.  The photos and their packaging are absolutely lovely.  Everyone is commenting about it on Facebook.  Your presence and expertise were such a gift for our special day, and I wish we could do more to reward you for that! Now, to MyPublisher!

Love, Katie

(I saw the 5x5 print size inside a beautiful proof box when I visited Cypress last fall and decided then and there it would be my proof size. The actual photo does not take up the complete paper space (obviously); I thought this was actually beneficial because it helps isolate the image to help a person with enlargement decisions.)

        I guess the thing I'm wondering now is whether or not I'll ever do this again. I hope to. Certainly, if someone asks me, I think I know what my answer will be.