Justine Ungaro is conducting a Master Class at WPPI about the challenges of setting up business in a new market. We're proud to be sponsoring her. We all know that selling albums can make you more $$, but did you know that selling albums will also make you a better photographer? It’s a hard-learned lesson that took me years to figure out, so I will try to save you time by giving it to you straight! When I started out as a wedding photographer, I didn’t sell a whole lot of albums. I was intensely focused on improving my photography skill and developing my creativity. But as the To View More >>

It’s so refreshing to meet people who act as if the only thing coming between them and their dreams is a plan. Dmitry and Victoria Fedotov built a photography business serving some of the world’s wealthiest people by being clear about their goals and plans, by going the extra mile for their clients … and by shutting out the voices inside that say it can’t be done. Read on for the short story, or click here to listen to my conversation with Dimitry. Download Dmitry’s free Wedding Photography Guide. Dmitry and Vika met while they were studying power To View More >>

Catherine Connor heads Aspire, one of the UK’s foremost training providers for photographers. She knows that business isn’t easy, and requires “buckets of courage”. Your first challenge, she says, is to create a business with the right atmosphere to powerfully influence the tribe you aim to attract — and of course fulfil you personally:   Make it your mission to consider the content of your business. First, study how it feels. Asking yourself if you want to be in your own business is a starting point for most creatives. What is the atmosphere like? Does your To View More >>

As told to Cate Scaglione In the photography world they’re sometimes referred to as the Texas Royalty for their dramatic aesthetic, their long-term success and their A List clientele … but spend five minutes with David and Luke Edmonson and you’ll discover they are anything but elitist. I was fortunate enough to spend time with Luke, who generously revealed the Edmonson sales ethos. With over $100k in album sales alone, their rather emotionally charged sales approach might come as a surprise, often counterintuitive to our industry’s professed sales strategies. To View More >>

By Megan DiPiero   Frustrated with this situation? You’re talking with a hot lead. Conversation is going smoothly. She loves your work! She’s excited about the possibilities for her shoot! And then her biggest question arrives: “How much will this cost?” You tell her your “starting at” prices and then… crickets. Hmmmm… maybe she didn’t love your work as much as she thought. The convo quickly wraps up and you have this pit in your stomach knowing that another one just bit the dust. : ( What to do? Here’s a sales adage for ya. “If To View More >>

We’re proud to be supporting David and Luke Edmonson at WPPI this year. They’re talking about perhaps the most important challenge facing every professional photographer – how to transform their passion for photography into a successful longterm career. Luke and David want to be known for producing great photography, and serving their clients — but of course every sustainable business needs to generate profits as well. We’re going to publish an article about their sales strategies shortly, along with some of their work, but first we thought you’d like To View More >>

Before we close the doors for our holiday break we hold team get-togethers at the Bindery and Lab. Every year they're truly inspiring, and I thought I’d try and tell you why, and say thank you. The chart shows Queensberry's work in progress for the last nine months, lifted from yesterday's daily management report. It shows, more clearly than words, how our business trebles every November and December, as it has for more than 40 years. We call this hay-making season, a nod to my farming background. You have to make hay while the sun shines, and when I was a kid our neighbours turned To View More >>

Written by: Kate Hopewell-Smith Come summertime you can’t open a newspaper or magazine without articles about getting your body ‘beach ready’. Many women are secretly terrified at the prospect of getting into swimwear publicly, because whilst very few people actually suffer from body dysmorphia (the belief that one's appearance is unusually defective) most women have body issues. The truth is that I deal with this reality on a regular basis because I shoot a lot of boudoir photography. Last week I put a few pictures on Facebook from a shoot that both I, and the lady To View More >>

Kate Hopewell-Smith believes that the more confident you are, the better photographer you'll become. But she worries about the lack of confidence in our industry, and wonders how many photographers are considering whether to carry on or not… From my experience meeting and communicating with lots of photographers there is a serious problem out there with lack of confidence, which for some can become quite debilitating. In fact I describe it as an “epidemic” –extremely prevalent, widespread. I read a lot of photography magazines but I can’t recall ever To View More >>

I believe that to succeed in this “industry" we need to fully engage our heads and our hearts, and Sonya's post demonstrates how truly engaged she is. It was about the albums she’s been keeping of her two daughters since they were born, and it reminded me of another album that Heather made years ago. So here am I, hand on heart too… Twenty-one years ago we hired a professional photographer. It was our daughter Adrienne’s birthday. Stephen was coming home from Australia with his fiancée Sonya to meet the family. Heather's Mum and Dad had long passed To View More >>