“Taking pictures is savoring life intensely, every hundredth of a second.”  ―  Marc Riboud To celebrate a social media milestone Kelly Wolfe held a competition. She asked her followers to send in their stories, with one of them winning an afternoon photo shoot. You can see why Kelly decided to use the photographs, of Chase, Deo and Brody, the perfect three, for her Queensberry sample album. The dogs' owner (also called Kelly!) says her first and oldest fur baby was Brody, a "Sibord" — half Siberian Husky, half Border Collie. "He was To View More >>

There are — how many? — a million professional photographers around the world? All competing for customers who are happily uploading their own pictures to the internet by the billion every day! How do you stand out in that crowd? How do you earn a living? By being a better photographer, yes. By knowing what your clients want before they do, absolutely. And by thinking differently and acting differently. By being a price setter not a price taker. By leading the crowd, not joining it. Unfortunately the world is heading in the opposite direction. Giant labs. Huge hosting sites. Software To View More >>

Sarah Brookes’ first boudoir shoot was for a friend getting married. She shot some beautiful images of her friend in her bridal lingerie and found the experience captivating. Now she wonders if it’s the best job in the world, working one-to-one with her clients on something so important to them, and witnessing their personal transformations. “I get lots of lovely comments from the husband/ fiancé too, thanking me for capturing their partner in such a beautiful way. What a privilege!” Sarah enjoys the technical challenges as well. Every booking is different, and To View More >>

I got a little reminder about walking in our customers' shoes this week. We ran a survey asking regular users about twelve Workspace functions and features, from ordering albums to hosting to shopping cart sales — how important they were to people, how often they used them in Workspace, and how easy they were to use. The thing is we (OK, I) focused on how photographers experience Workspace, but not on how it works for your customers. That’s pretty bad, but in a sense understandable … because although at Queensberry we use Workspace heavily every day (in fact the entire To View More >>

I just finished a book that pinged all my Queensberry values. Gutenberg’s Apprentice is a novel by Alix Christie that brings to life the inspiration, invention and sheer hard work over several years that went into the Gutenberg Bible. Published in 1454-5, it was the first major book to be printed using moveable type. Until then books were copied by hand — by scribes — and therefore scarce, hugely expensive and prone to error. I love the way Alix Christie has given credit not just to the inventor, but also to his foreman Peter Schöffer, his business partner Johannes Fust To View More >>

Our UK friends have lots of exciting learning events coming up. We wish we could be there - check 'em out! This summer Aspire Photography have a variety of different courses to suit all abilities, from Lighroom Essentials to polish those post-production and workflow skills, Inspire My Weddings for advanced wedding photographers, and Becoming a Lifestyle Commercial Photographer for those wanting to step into the world of commercial photography. Brett Harkness also has a bunch of exciting events coming up. On his two day Prague Documentary To View More >>

We designed, printed and bound a number of special edition Q-Books for AIBP (Association of International Boudoir Photographers). The books feature a collection of beautiful photographs that were part of the “2014 Best of AIBP Image Competition”. (We were 'oohing' and 'ahhing' throughout the entire product shoot). AIBP seeks to unite professional boudoir photographers globally, to share in common interests from the beauty, art, technique and business aspects of the industry. AIBP has members on six continents, and believes in recognizing amazing talent, which To View More >>

I subscribe to an email newsletter by Bernie Griffiths that I really enjoy. Why? Because Bernie knows what he’s talking about. A very successful professional photographer in Melbourne for many years, he now offers seminars, workshops and mentoring services. Each email is a brief, well-written piece of advice that could have helped so many people we’ve seen enter this industry and struggle over the last forty years. Sound marketing and business practices are key, and even if you disagree with Bernie he’ll make you think. If you like the following, be sure to subscribe at www.berniegriffiths.com. To View More >>

If you’re building a career in photography we’ve published some great articles by highly successful people here lately. Here’s a quick run-through — starting with Justine Ungaro and The Edmonsons because they’re giving Master Classes at WPPI next week. Please don’t miss them — they’ll be great value — and please don’t miss their sponsors either — Queensberry! Catch up with Stephen and Sonya at Booth 1365 in the Marquee Ballroom. Justine’s WPPI class is about moving to a new market, but her article for Queensberry is To View More >>

Any serious professional will tell you that photography isn’t an easy way to make a living, and it probably won't make you rich. Even Annie Leibovitz filed for bankruptcy. Here is a piece of our story on the journey to where we are today. By Koby & Terilyn Brown. Early in 2010 Koby and I had a serious talk about the direction of Archetype Studio. Key to that discussion was figuring out what lifestyle we wanted to live. For us, photography is about passion. The need to craft memories into something emotionally tangible. It’s about freedom to go where the wind blows, and live To View More >>