MMOOOOoooooo

Moo Cards. The coolest thing since sliced bread in the business card world. When I upgraded my flickr account to pro status (no that has nothing to do with my skill level, it just means unlimited storage capacity), they gave me 10 free Moo Cards as a promotion...actually there were 9, the 10th card was a reminder to order more! In a nutshell, it's like using any image (photograph, graphic image, crayon drawing, whatever) as a business card. You upload said image as the front of the card, and then you can add whatever text you want on the reverse side. Ingenious. For photographers it's even sweeter in that they'll let you upload any of your photographs straight from your online album or off your computer. What better business card for a photographer than one of your own images!

So almost immediately after receiving the "10" promotional cards, I went ahead and ordered a box of 100. I needed something to give people I photograph and I don't have any regular business cards. I needed something with my name, my email, and the address to my flickr site, so that people could find the photos I took of them if they so wanted to. More importantly, when I came across people I wanted to photograph, it gave me a tiny bit of legitimacy as a photographer if I could give them a card while talking them into letting me photograph them :) ...tricked ya!

Anyways, after starting the 100 Strangers project, I really do need something to give people. After photographing my Strangers I'll give them a card and let them know to check the website in a couple days to see their portraits. Sometimes they ask before I can give them a card. It beats having to write it down for them or asking them for an email so you can send it to them.

But now I'm starting to run out of cards and need to order new ones. I'm not actually out yet, but the ones I have left look like doodoo and don't really want to give them to people. The format for the Moo Cards is about half the size of a regular business card, cut lengthwise, so it's slim looking. Given those dimensions, what may look decent as a photograph may not always look good as a Moo Card. So the ones I have left fall into that second category. Small details (wide angle photos) don't really stand out in Moo format. Larger graphic like photos and bold colours seem to work best.

So this time around I'm trying to pay more attention to the photos I use. These are the ones that I've shortlisted. Some are from the first box, ones that I really liked and want to keep using. The rest are from newer photos, so we'll see how those look. And as I go along, I'll keep all the ones that work well in a set so I'll have easy access to them when I need more. The company is based somewhere in the UK and cards seem to take about 2 weeks to arrive in the mail. So I'm ordering tonight before I run out.