My name is Jena, and I've been nick-named the Vista Print Goddess.
Feel free to email me through the contact form on the home page.
Photo book
Sigh. This is the first thing, of alllllll the VP items I've ordered, that I'm just completely disappointed with. Just peeved about the whole thing, from start to finish. I decided to test the photo books, since I've been so happy with everything else. I made a wedding album for my mom.
Pros: ::chirp::chirp:: Yup, those are crickets in the silence. I don't have much good to say. I did like that you have control over size and placement of all your pictures. Sites like Snapfish and Shutterfly give you lots of layouts, but don't let you adjust them.
Cons: 1) The software you use to design the book stinks. It's slow - you have to navigate through small sections of pictures, and as you scroll for more pictures it takes a full seven seconds to load the pictures. Uploading takes forever. You can't "hide" pictures you've already used, and there's no "Undo" button, so if you don't like something, too bad, you have to do the work again. 2) Speaking of slow, let's talk about processing time. I ordered the book on December 5th, and chose Priority processing, 7 days. Order page said it would "be delivered on or before December 13th." It wasn't marked shipped until the 14th, so already, WTH? By the 20th, I still hadn't received it, emailed customer support and received an email back that said they had reprinted it "at no additional charge" (ha ha, thanks, jerks), and I should receive it within 7 days. I wrote them back, telling them again that it's a Christmas gift, and within 7 days didn't get it to me on time. The book finally showed up on the 21st, which brings me to 3) They shipped it Media Mail. I. was. livid. Promptly sent them an email reiterating that delivery was to be "on or by December 13th," and that I had paid for Priority processing of 7 days. Media mail, in the best of times (which the holidays are not) can take up to 10 days. So even if they had shipped it "on time," it would have taken more than the 7 days just to mail. Six days later (the 27th), I received a refund of $7.50 for my shipping because my "order had not arrived in the expected time frame." 4) The quality wasn't good. The images I uploaded were huge and high res, and the pictures in the book were grainy and pixelated.
So in summary, not worth my time, effort, and the headache. Even with the half off email, the hardcover 8x8 was $17+shipping. With a good coupon, you can spend that much through one of the "regular" photo book sites. On a related note, I did our wedding album through mixbook.com, and was thrilled with the result. The software and quality are both great. It's more pricey (with a 35% off coupon - the best I can find right now, a 12x12 with shipping is going to run me $52 for a 59 page book), but still a steal over the $500-$1k that most photographers want for their books.
Pros: ::chirp::chirp:: Yup, those are crickets in the silence. I don't have much good to say. I did like that you have control over size and placement of all your pictures. Sites like Snapfish and Shutterfly give you lots of layouts, but don't let you adjust them.
Cons: 1) The software you use to design the book stinks. It's slow - you have to navigate through small sections of pictures, and as you scroll for more pictures it takes a full seven seconds to load the pictures. Uploading takes forever. You can't "hide" pictures you've already used, and there's no "Undo" button, so if you don't like something, too bad, you have to do the work again. 2) Speaking of slow, let's talk about processing time. I ordered the book on December 5th, and chose Priority processing, 7 days. Order page said it would "be delivered on or before December 13th." It wasn't marked shipped until the 14th, so already, WTH? By the 20th, I still hadn't received it, emailed customer support and received an email back that said they had reprinted it "at no additional charge" (ha ha, thanks, jerks), and I should receive it within 7 days. I wrote them back, telling them again that it's a Christmas gift, and within 7 days didn't get it to me on time. The book finally showed up on the 21st, which brings me to 3) They shipped it Media Mail. I. was. livid. Promptly sent them an email reiterating that delivery was to be "on or by December 13th," and that I had paid for Priority processing of 7 days. Media mail, in the best of times (which the holidays are not) can take up to 10 days. So even if they had shipped it "on time," it would have taken more than the 7 days just to mail. Six days later (the 27th), I received a refund of $7.50 for my shipping because my "order had not arrived in the expected time frame." 4) The quality wasn't good. The images I uploaded were huge and high res, and the pictures in the book were grainy and pixelated.
So in summary, not worth my time, effort, and the headache. Even with the half off email, the hardcover 8x8 was $17+shipping. With a good coupon, you can spend that much through one of the "regular" photo book sites. On a related note, I did our wedding album through mixbook.com, and was thrilled with the result. The software and quality are both great. It's more pricey (with a 35% off coupon - the best I can find right now, a 12x12 with shipping is going to run me $52 for a 59 page book), but still a steal over the $500-$1k that most photographers want for their books.