I’ve discovered an awesome design resource, right under my nose!  I’ve been using iPhoto to organize and share my photos for a long time, and had even ordered a softcover book of some of my nature photographs back in 2002.  However, I just finished a wedding album for a client of mine using iPhoto’s Photo Book service, and it was great!  Click on to see the iPhoto Book Printing webpage and read about my experience.

If you’ve never checked out what they do, head over to the Apple Photo Services page and read up.  It’s ridiculously cheap, strangely easy to use, and the finished product really is top-notch.  I ordered a hardcover 8.5 x 11 photo book, and I customized the layout to my liking.

I don’t use iPhoto for photo editing/retouching, as it’s pretty limiting for my needs.  I edit my work in Photoshop, then Export the saved Jpeg directly to iPhoto, where I can organize and create the photo book layout.

I also had the best-ever experience with customer support during this book’s delivery.  I initially gave an old, but technically correct delivery address to them, and when FedEx tried to deliver it, the driver wasn’t experienced enough to find it, due to a recent street name change.  I spoke with an Apple Photo Services Customer Support person (named Dustin), and he had the book reprinted immediately, shipped to a newer address with the fastest shipping possible, destroyed the old book when it came back to the warehouse, refunded the original cost, and didn’t charge for the new print!  So, I was able to deliver the book to a happy client, and ended up paying nothing for the whole thing.  Awesome.
Check it out the next time you need to make a print album!