We’re really excited to unveil a new product: a customized GUEST BOOK for your wedding day!

The guest book is a 10×8 hardcover book with ImageWrap. The book, designed by us and published through Blurb, is full of YOUR engagement photos (from the FinestraPhoto engagement photo session) and has lined pages throughout for guests to sign their wedding wishes! The number of pages can vary (if you’re expecting a lot of guests, you’ll probably need a lot of pages!).

The sample book (featured above) has almost 30 pages that alternate between engagement photos and lined pages for guests to sign.

Want to learn more about our custom wedding guest books? Contact us using our online form or e-mail FinestraPhoto at info[at]finestraphoto.com.

The Gladiator Games 2008 book is now available for purchase through Lia’s Blurb online bookstore. Check it out! The book is a collection of photographs from the annual fundraising event, the Gladiator Games, sponsored by Knoxville Leadership Foundation (KLF). The Gladiator Games tests the strength and stamina of its participants in eight different athletic events, including swimming, weightlifting, a 1-mile run, and a challenging obstacle course! Funds raised from the event go to help KLF and its programs.

The Knoxville Leadership Foundation brings together people from all walks of life to address the needs of our city. We target five specific areas of need: homes for the working poor, home repair for those who can’t afford it, help for non-profit groups, mentoring for children with parents in prison, and an abstinence program to help prevent teenage pregnancy.

FinestraPhoto was proud to volunteer as photographers for the Gladiator Games. And Lia was excited to design this book, which is now on sale to raise more funds for KLF! The book is a 10×8 Blurb book, and is available in three different formats: softcover, hardcover with dust jacket, and hardcover with ImageWrap. The book is filled with more than 60-pages of photographs from the Gladiator Games, arranged in order of the events. The winners of the Games are featured in the book, and information about KLF is included at the end, along with the KLF’s mission statement and vision. Take a minute, and click here to check out a preview of the book. Your purchase of this book will help the KLF and its programs support the needs of our growing community.

Also, click here to check out Brandon’s video recap of the 2008 Gladiator Games!

Hear ye! Hear ye! FinestraPhoto would like to announce that Lia Ballentine is now a BlurbNation Custom Bookmaker!

Lia has been a part of the Blurb.com community since the fall of 2007 when she published her first photography coffee table book of France. Together, Lia and Brandon are working with Blurb (a publishing company) to create high-quality, affordable, stylish wedding books for clients.

So, what is Blurb?

Okay, for those of you who don’t know:

Blurb is a company and a community that believes passionately in the joy of books – reading them, making them, sharing them, and selling them.

Blurb started back in 2006, and in the past two years, the book company has grown to be one of the best (in our opinion) publishing sites out there. As BusinessWeek put it,

Vanity publishing has been around for about as long as books, but it used to be an expensive indulgence. Technology has democratized publishing, as it has so many things, to the point that anyone who has secretly longed to be an author can go for it.

And that’s the whole point with Blurb: ANYONE can be an author! Which brings us to…

…BlurbNation!

So anyone can publish a book, right? Of course! But some people might just need a little bit of help doing that, and that’s where BlurbNation comes into play. BlurbNation is a community of Blurbarians with the skill set to help you create a custom Blurb book. As the newest BlurbNation custom bookmaker, Lia offers everything from design to photography to proofing/editing to help you create a Blurb book from cover-to-cover. In addition to the book creation and publication, Lia also provides services to help you figure out how to promote your book. For example, if you want to create a cookbook to sell as a fundraiser for your organization, she can help you gather the recipes, take photographs, and promote your book on the Web through her online bookstore. It’s never been so simple!

Let Lia make your Blurb Book

Lia is now available to be your very own Blurb bookmaker. To learn more about her bookmaking services, click here.

It’s time to start thinking about YOUR book! The possibilities are endless—and if you need any help (concepting, creating, promoting, and more), don’t hesitate to call on Lia and FinestraPhoto!

Photos in the mosaic above:
1. Ferris Wheel (in color), 2. Notre Dame, 3. Lights from the Tower, 4. Untitled, 5. Untitled, 6. Untitled, 7. Untitled, 8. Untitled, 9. Untitled, 10. Abstraction, 11. Le Penseur, 12. Arches, 13. Vibrant, 14. Bienvenue, 15. Bells, 16. Early Evening in Nice, 17. Passing the Fun House, 18. Big Church, 19. Marching Away from the Palace, 20. Light Show from the Eiffel Tower

* * *

Back in November 2007, Brandon and I took a trip to France (with a mini-trip to Monte Carlo, Monaco)–and “Oui, oui!”–we really had a wonderful time. And of course, when the two of us travel, we pack for a photo adventure.

We first arrived in Nice. Ah, Southern France. C’est bon! We stayed in the French Riviera for several days, exploring the markets, the Mediterranean, the people and food, and more. We visited castle ruins, walked in the footsteps of some of history’s most renowned artists (Matisse, Chagall, …), ate fabulous food, and soaked in the beauty of the Cote d’Azur.

Then we took a short trip to Monte Carlo and gawked at the richness (literally) of Monaco. The cars (Lamborghini), the stores (Chanel), the people–ooh la la! The streets were paved with diamonds. Well, not really, but they could have been. We took a train ride around Monte Carlo and visited the casino, home of the real Monte Carlo games. And we even watched the changing of the guards at the palace (Prince Albert wasn’t around that day). Also, in addition to being the home of the Grand Prix, Monaco also has a cool year-round carnival by the coast with fast rides and good crepes for snacking on.

And then we jetted up north to Paris. Beautiful Paris. The City of Light. Like all tourists, we had to trek to the Eiffel Tower, eat at a sidewalk cafe, tour the Louvre (and snap a hundred pictures of the Mona Lisa), eat more crepes, find the Hunchback of Notre Dame, and wander through the Latin Quarter like Ernest Hemingway. While in Paris, we also toured the streets of Oberkampf to look at the artwork of famous Parisian street artist Jef Aerosol (whom we met through Flickr). There was really too much to do in so little time, but we managed to cover all of Paris (including a boat ride down the Seine)–we just didn’t stop walking.

We’re planning another trip back (later this year), and we’ll be going as the photographers for a foodie tour of France headed up by a chef from Martha’s Vineyard. But until then, we’ve published a coffee table book to preserve those memories of France from the fall. And now you too can take part in our French adventure.

To preview our book, you can visit my Blurb bookstore. Click on the Blurb badge below to get to the store. Flip through a few pages. Daydream. Bon voyage mes amis!

Bon Voyage

A Week in France

By Lia Ballentine

Book Preview