Trevor Meeks made a comment about his KISS book on Open Source Photo. Check out his thoughts!
I’ve seen my fair share of albums… metal covers, engraved covers, etched covers, embossed covers, silver edges, gold edges, white mattes, black mattes, pearl pages, glossy pages, lustre pages… you name it I’ve seen it. I’ve also seen a lot of photographers who offer an array of these options in many different kinds of books. This can be extremely confusing to clients who ultimately just want a beautiful way to show off their cherished wedding images.
When I started hearing about KISS Wedding Books around OSP, the idea behind the albums themselves seemed… well, radically simple. 3 sizes, 6 colors, no options. Why show your clients tons of different products and options when they (and you) have better things to do than worry about the decision between a copper cover and an etched cover and glossy pages and lustre pages and… well, you get the point.
KISS makes it simple. Yep, I’ll say it again. SIMPLE!
Even after hearing so many rave reviews about KISS on OSP, I still wasn’t fully convinced… er, motivated. I hadn’t been able to feel this super-soft leather everyone had gushed about in their blog posts and forum threads. I hadn’t been able to see the beautiful RA-4 optical printing on the spreads. It just wasn’t enough. Well, finally I got what I wanted. Kevin Swan, the simple-minded director of KISS (also a fellow OSP-er) and his partner in crime, Shaun Austin, kindly graced us with their presence in Napa, CA for OSP-West 2008. Between lectures, I found myself drawn to the 4×8 foot table filled with KISS books of a few different colors and sizes… I was hooked!
After a few months I finally motivated myself to order my first sample album from KISS. I have to say I’m sorry I waited so long. The quality of these hand-crafted books is IN-CRE-DI-BLE. The superfine Italian Leather covers beautifully compliment the stiff optically printed pages inside. The binding is flawless, and the pages sit together perfectly when the book is closed. But why keep it closed much longer than to see that? The real beauty lies inside. The crease in the center of each spread is hardly anything to write home about. No wear and tear here. No loss of image along the center of the spread… just pure color and beauty from edge to edge.
As I said, seeing is believing. Like many others I’ve tried to capture the beauty of my first KISS with a few images, but none will truly show the beauty of these books… you’ve got to see them for yourself. That being said, here are a few glimpses of my first KISS!


Thanks, Trevor!! We appreciate your topic on Open Source! You rock!

Thanks for KISSing!
Rachel : The Helpful Hottie