Professional Lab Tour

bucket list

NOUN

informal

• A number of experiences or achievements that a person hopes to have or accomplish during their lifetime.

  ‘making this trip is the first thing on my bucket list’

I believe we all have a bucket list of items we want to complete in life. And we have each of these listed for a variety of reasons. For some it may conquering a feat that we once thought wasn't attainable, or that someone told us we would never be able to do. For others it may be an amazing beach destination vacation or a trip to a foreign country to learn about your ancestry or learn about the history and culture of that area. For some it may be a mission trip to build or rebuild in a third world country and spread a little love!! 

One thing remains a common thread for each of these list, and it's that we all have them. And I encourage them because we all need a goal to be striving for in life. I recently read a great quote by Robert H. Schuller: 

"Goals are not only absolutely necessary to motivate us. They are essential to really keep us alive." 

A good goal helps you to keep pushing forward in the day to day. It gives you passion and the heart to learn and grow. It's a dream without a deadline. 

I have a few items on my photography bucket list in no particular order, some bigger than others (updated 12/28/2021):

1. Grow my business to replace my previous income as an Occupational Therapy Assistant (goal met in 2017)

2. Re-establish my business in Bloomington-Normal after we move in June (exceeded goal in 2021)

3. Having a business use images for advertising on a billboard (still waiting on this one…as of now my images are being used on a brochure for Westminster Village)

4. See one of my clients products go through the production process (goal met in 2019!!)

5. Snow Session: Family, Senior, Maternity (Family session 2020)

6. Outdoor Summer Newborn Session

7. Have my own commercial studio space (Goal Met in 2021…studio tour coming soon)

8. Having images published in a magazine (in the Ladue News newspaper, would still like another publication)

Here’s the day I got to check off Bucket List Item #4!

In 2019 I attending the annual Reset Conference, that year is was hosted in Louisville, KY. While there I met Amy with Miller's Professional Imaging Lab in Columbia, MO. I’m a strong believer in what's the worst someone is going to say, no?! I told her about my bucket list dream of being able to see one of my items go through production. Her response was simple: "We could probably help you with that!" For real??

So we set a date. Now one thing you should know about Miller's is they are a well oiled machine that works very efficiently. As soon as I submitted my order it literally went into print, so they paused the order so I could be there when it went through 2 days later.

Here is a look behind the scenes. 

The order as it arrived in the lab. Printed on yellow paper to signify it is a press product. Also marked with a Wednesday flag that represents in came in before 3PM and should be completed on that day.

After the barcode is scanned it is picked up by this printer which creates all of Millers press products. John did an amazing job of explaining how the images are printed by a combination of static electric and bonded with heat...I don't do the explanation justice!

The Epson print creates the canvas cover, this is not the exact cover as mine had already been created--that crazy fast turnaround process!! Love my Millers!!

I'm not gonna lie, I squealed with joy when they flipped open this page...I wasn't expecting it because at this point I had only seen other photographers work going through production. And now I'm a little emotional, this was my favorite moment. Well it all was, but this was the art I created. :) I love it, look how excited John and Amy are too!

This is Eric, he's taken the pages from the previous image through the machine that crimps the pages.

Next step is glueing that pages together, I guess I always though they were printed front and back. A layer of glue is applied to the back of each page which then glued together kind of like an accordion. After it comes out it is then pressed together for 15 minutes while the glue dries.

The raw inside of the canvas cover...this had already been created too but the shell is beautiful.

After the pressing was complete I got my first chance to flip through the pages. LOVE!

Final step of production is a glue application to the cover and pages and then pressed for about 3 minutes to dry. And then receiving the finished book!!

And then packaging in bubble wrap, marking completion and shipping it out.

To all the staff at Miller's Professional Imaging, THANK YOU!! I dubbed this my adult field trip and will be forever grateful for the experience. I absolutely love all my printed products and am so passionate about my families receiving these beautiful hand crafted products as family heirlooms. You guys are top notch!