SmugMug’s first Orange County meet up featured “Diva” wedding photographer Jasmine Star.  Jasmine’s business has taken off over the past two years.   It’s easy to see why.  She pays attention to every contact she has with the customer.  From her kick-ass web site to the shipping labels on her prints, this is a photographer who understands branding.  Oh, and she takes great photos, too.  Her outsized energetic personality is easy to like.  It wouldn’t seem out of place if a theme song played whenever she enters a room.

Chris MacAskill covered a variety of new features coming on line soon.  These include packages, coupons and greater site customization.  Customers will be able to pull photos from multiple galleries to put together their custom print packages.  By dragging and dropping from a filmstrip of photos they will build their desired package.  I believe photographers will also be able to stipulate certain combinations of photos for customers.

Sarah Bergeron from Bay Photo wowed us with photo images printed on metal.  The process makes saturated colors and especially black really pop.  They are pretty reasonably priced, a 4X6 is only $11.  She also passed around some thin wrap photos - easy for wall mounting.   FotoBento is thrilled to have a west coast printer  - shipping times are greatly reduced.

David Wolf shared his SmugMug business model.  He came for the photos and stayed for the customization.  I’m sure a lot of us can relate.   He coined the term Smugization to describe the process of maxing out your SmugMug account.

While not formally on the agenda, David Jay also shared information on his flash based custom web sites.  DJ has been a big influence on wedding photography with lots of nifty innovations.  He also has the sharpest business card ever.   Not sure how he gets through airport security with those.

FotoBento will hopefully have some video of the event up soon.   We’re next in line for processing after our videographer finishes a project for ESPN and his homework.