I couldn't help myself ... I just had to jump in on this one. There are many reasons why photographers are coy on their pricing. They want to keep their colleagues uninformed. They don't want to frighten potential clients before they have had a chance to impress them with their own brand of personal charm, their list of awards, and the opportunity to brandish their Photoshop skills. They don't feel confident in their own pricing. We have two companies dealing with different budgets. The less expensive brand has full disclosure on the website. 65-75% of people responding to the website are booking To View More >>

Meet one of Justine Ungaro's brand new client albums - a Mint green Queensberry Duo she shot and designed for clients Kristan and Steve. Justine met Steve while scouting for bands for her own wedding. He played in the band she eventually hired, and he booked her as his and Kristan's wedding photographer. Justine says, "We each had a real vested interest in the overall success of each other's weddings. It's been a pretty special relationship ever since." Kristan and Steve married on 30 May 2009 and when their album arrived, wrote to Justine to say... "We totally love this album! The photos look To View More >>

My interview with Rod Ellmore talked about how the close partnership between photographers and vendors in the '70s and '80s helped build some great careers, but it wasn't all positive. One disadvantage was that marketing gimmicks picked up at seminars organised by the vendors propagated like viruses! Like this one - the notorious "couple in the brandy glass". Pam brought us a picture (left) from her brother Martin's 80s wedding to Simone (thanks for sharing!). And I found proof that tacky ideas live on in Photoshop. Now you know I'm a snob – but not as much as I used to be: There's nothing wrong To View More >>

Photography by David Jay Seth Godin said recently , 'If you want to build a brand for the ages, you need to stand for something today, and tomorrow, and every day.' Among other things, we stand for quality, which is why the prints on our digital pages are split at the centreline, leaving a gap of about 2mm (about 1/16”). Some people might not like the look, but we can't compromise products designed to last for generations. Actually, there are two reasons for this: more flexibility as to what equipment you can print on, and because the fold in the print almost invariably discolours and/or cracks. To View More >>

Photojunction has changed so much during the year that we're going to build a brand new series of five minute (give or take) classroom demo movies, and we'd like you to be involved. The plan is to record the movies live during a webinar. We'll intro and close each separate five minute movie so we can easily chop the recording up afterwards, but you'll still be able to ask questions. We'll fit as many 'mini movies' into the hour as we can. For the first one, here's what we'll be gunning to get through: Start here! (Photojunction overview) Download and set up Photojunction Start New Project (begin To View More >>

Justine Ungaro has just published a stack of images of her first Musée album on her blog and agreed to let us feature them here too. A beautiful wedding. Beautiful album. And beautiful bride... You may recognise her as former American Idol judge, Kara Dio Guardi ;) Here's what Justine had to say about Queensberry and her first Musée... I discovered Queensberry albums way back in 2003, my first year at WPPI and have been using them ever since. Queensberry is based in New Zealand and their attention to detail and level of craftsmanship of their albums is always notable. However, in 2010 they really To View More >>

Determined to not let the rain spoil their day, Louise and Phil made the most of their personal wedding ceremony and travel themed reception at Packington Moor Farm, Staffordshire, UK. Their photographer Claire Evans says, "Louise came prepared to brave the weather with a pretty pair of red and white spotted wellies, her bridesmaid had purple ones, and even Phil had his brand new pair to wear if needed!" Luckily a break in the weather later in the day, allowed them to venture out into the surrounding countryside for some bridal photos... and make good use of those wellies! Louise and Phil chose To View More >>

I'm looking at a truly beautiful print (sorry I can only show you a 233K JPEG). Where does it's beauty come from? It starts with a beautiful flower. I don't know who bred it or nurtured it, but I wish I did. It's a beautiful composition. I do know that the stylist was Katie Lockhart, the photographer Sjoerd. It's a beautiful file, worked to perfection at Alt group as part of our re-brand last year. And it's beautifully printed. Here's the thing. The beauty in the print is totally dependent on everything that went before. Break the chain and you're left with ordinary. Normally in our business we're To View More >>

Darlene Hildebrandt was running a very successful Edmonton (Canada) studio with her first husband when we first met in 2000. She'd come from nowhere to become one of our best clients in spectacular fashion - spectacular because it happened so quickly! Often we find new clients "convert" their business to Queensberry quite slowly. In many cases they have contracts with their customers to deliver a Brand X album, and feel obligated to do so. But having made the emotional commitment to move on, Darlene wasn't prepared to be that passive. Every single one of her upcoming wedding clients upgraded to To View More >>

After all my talk about branding, I suppose I need to acknowledge that you don't have to buy "brands". The truth is most people don't. Commodity products sell on price (low price), and of course some brands do too ("The Warehouse, Where Everyone Gets a Bargain"). But what Queensberry sells is "packaging", and the purpose of packaging is to enhance the product. When the packaging is albums and the product is your photography, it's important to ask how much enhancing will be going on if you buy on price. It could be that much harder to avoid selling on price as well. Cheers, Ian To View More >>