I Big Puffy Heart My New Lab

Hope everyone is having a busy fall season of shooting and selling holiday orders!

I've been pretty dedicated to one lab since I started my business two years ago. I had some quality issues with that lab and decided to try out a few different labs again. I am absolutely in love with ProLabExpress! I first heard about PLE from the instructors at the Unleashed workshop last September. I had received my samples from PLE after returning from the workshop but then they fell off my radar. I decided to place an order with them last month and I'm so glad I did! PLE's customer service is great and their prints are amazing! They use Fuji archive paper and I just love the richness of it. A bonus is that their prices are a hair lower than my previous lab, so my cost of goods hasn't really changed since making the switch. They also offer some very unique and different products than some of the other labs.

ProLabExpress also offer Grand River Imaging for event photography print fulfillment services. I actually have an event coming up this weekend that I looked into using GRI for. You upload your photos to PLE and then access the GRI site to sell prints directly to the client. For a large event, it's a great opportunity to not have to deal with small print orders. GRI charges for the lab print and a percentage for credit card processing. That's it, they print and ship the order to your client and then they pay you!

I'm thrilled with PLE and will be using them for all my print orders. I've been testing out a few other labs for press printed products and other unique products for my clients.

Mpix Pro Custom CD Cases!

I have to admit - I use WHCC for almost everything - prints, gallery wraps, cards, you name it. My prints are ALWAYS spot on! I've tried other vendors, some have been good, others have been blah with horrible colors from most.

I calibrate my monitor with the x-rite eye-one. Rarely do I have color issues with WHCC when I've properly calibrated before editing my images.

When I saw that Mpix Pro was offering custom CD cases, I decided to try them out. I'm going to be honest, I had ordered sample prints from Miller's in the past (Mpix's parent company) and I was not happy with the colors in both my corrected and uncorrected images I sent in. So I was very surprised when my test prints from Mpix Pro came back spot on. I decided to try out the custom CD cases for my digital collections. I just got in a CD case for a recent client order and I LOVE it! The best part is that you can design a custom cover for ever client order. Once I placed my order, I had my snazzy new case in about two days ... I love the quick turnaround too! To the left is a horrible photo I took with my Blackberry, but it gives you an idea of what the finished product looks like.

I'm trying out some new products from additional vendors right now. When those come in I'll let you know what I think!