I started shooting high school sports this fall and have had a blast selling action shots to parents through my zenfolio website at http://photoexperts.zenfolio.com/

At the end of the season I use Photoshop to put together 16 x 20 inch sports posters featuring a particular athlete in various action shots I've captured throughout the season.  These have been very popular and you can see some of my posters in my Sports Posters photo gallery at the above link. I now cover the three local high schools in my town and, in addition to the parents buying posters, all the schools ended up buying a poster from me featuring their head coach and presented these as gifts to their coaches at their end of the season banquets.  This was incredible exposure for me and I'm now getting tons of Xmas orders from parents who have just found out about my posters.  I usually take an average of about 600 photos at each game, so I have plenty of images to choose from to make some great looking posters.

Now to my question.  I've had a number of parents who have asked me about supplying them photo books, which are basically bound coffee-table style books with selected photos in different sizes.  I have not seen where Zenfolio offers anything like this.  Have I missed this product option and, if so, has this product been discussed as something beneficial to offer.  I think I could sell quite a few of these, although figuring out the retail pricing will likely be an issue that will take some thought on my part.

 Thanks in advance for the response.

 ZF doesn't currently offer any photobook capabilities, and I don't recall this having ever been discussed. There are so many places on the net where you can setup and create photo books of all different sizes, types, quality and cost.  I used Blurb for one book I once did for a retiring business owner, and it came out fairly nice for the price.  :)

Thanks Kevin, I was afraid that was the answer.  I thought about utilizing some other on-line services and then charging the customers for it, but it would have been nice to handle everything through Zenfolio.

Nice pics on your site.  I've always admired the photographers who do the weddings, portraits, etc.  I've had people ask me to do these, but I have more fun doing the impromptu sports photography.  Plus, my "keep" ratio on action sports shots is about 1 out of 5, so I can afford to miss a shot without any repercussions.  I can't imagine the feeling of screwing up a once in a lifetime wedding shot that can't be duplicated.

Notwithstanding the above, I have covered a few weddings for relatives as the "floating" photographer taking candid shots throughout the day.  I've done a few neat photoshop images with these, i.e., putting an image from the wedding in a crystal ball held by the bride and groom, musical slideshows, etc.  I have the crystal ball shot as an example on my main website and here's the link to that particular page if you'd like to see it  http://www.photoexperts.net/gallery4.html

It may be a little hard to see at the resolution on your screen, but I put the words "A Day to Remember" and then the date of the wedding around the outside of the crystal ball.  In the crystal ball, I have clouds both in front of and behind the couple - it's amazing what you can do with Photoshop.  This picture turned out to be the couple's favorite of all the pictures, including the ones the professional took.  I suppose the fact it was a freebie from the bride's uncle helped a bit too :o)

Take care.

You can order photo books directly through mpix - the quality is quite good (though it's not the cheapest option, for sure). I looked at a lot of different options though, including Blurb, and I was happiest with the overall package (from design software to print) available through mpix. MyPhotoBooks is he software you use with mpix and it's great.

 I will say that using the software from Blurb to create the book was often times.. ummm...'frustrating' I guess is what I would say.   :/

But is this Mpix photo book available via the Zenfolio site?  I have not found that.

 no.  none are.  and since you would have to download their software and create the book yourself, I don't see it easily being integrated into zenfolio's products.  maybe if you wanted to offer your customers a book, you could set it up as a custom product and offer it that way.  ??

It would be nice if Pro Zenfolio users could get price discount from MPIX when books are ordered. Is anyone at Zenfolio working on this??

Steve

 

what would really be nice is if zenfolio would implement a way for customers to pick photos to be included in a coffee table book or album.  haven't seen mpix's coffee table books yet, but their albums are great!

dubh:

what would really be nice is if zenfolio would implement a way for customers to pick photos to be included in a coffee table book or album.  haven't seen mpix's coffee table books yet, but their albums are great!

 

Having users make their own books is sort of entering territory I wouldn't recommend. Coffee table books should be designed by the artist, IMO. 

the brides i work with want to choose photos for their albums rather then have me choose them...  i still design the album, but at least i know which images the bride wants in HER album.  i know a couple of other local wedding photogs have had coffee table books requested instead of albums.  

most of the mothers i've shot holiday portraits for want them for greeting cards.  they usually like to choose which image goes on the card.  

 

if the OP is taking an average of 600 photos per game then it shouldn't be hard to let a mother pick out a certain number of photos online to have included in a coffee table book.  or customized graduation announcements for the seniors...  or....

I'm glad to see this thread getting some interest.

 Yes, the mothers of the athletes I shoot at the games would love to pick out pictures for albums.  I've had a number of requests for these to be used as Xmas and graduation presents.

I think this would be a great product to offer.

 Zenfolio - are you listening?

this particular feature has had my interest for some time now. 

i tried adding a custom product called "add to album" priced at $0.00 thinking that a customer could easily purchase whatever photos she wanted for the album for free, but those items (even though they're in a price list) aren't showing up on my webpage.. 

or perhaps if/when zf adds the ability to comment on photos then brides (or mothers) can simply comment on which photos they want to have added..