You know that all important first impression? Well for a lot of people, the first impression they'll have of your business is your online Yellow Pages listing, and we spotted an interesting way some of our clients are making the most of theirs... Yellow Pages gives you the option to add search terms to your listing, to help describe what products or services you offer. What we noticed was that some of our clients were adding terms like 'Queensberry' or 'Queensberry Albums' to their listing. It's a simple idea but a powerful one too. Aligning yourself with a well known or reputable brand is a great To View More >>

On my trip to the UK I had the opportunity to visit the studio of Alan and Jackie Rankine. Their work is aimed at a high end market. Their sales are substantial. They don't aim to be the latest newest thing. They do work to stay current but they have cleverly understood the needs of their clients. Their formula is simple and effective. Know your clients, produce consistently good work, back up your promise to perform with the quality of your presentation (including coffee and cake), always have something bigger and better for the client to buy, and have your studio in a castle. They don't chase To View More >>

While talking to photographers in the UK, I realised that what I really wanted to get across, was a simple but important message. The album is for the clients. Our part is to gather collateral and write a story for them. Here's the tip: Step back from the design and pause deliberately... Then start  with the idea that this album is not a showpiece for you, the photographer, but is a story for the bride and groom. We can apply our own 'signature' to the imagery, but they own the love and the history that we're writing the story about. We are the story tellers, and it's our sensitivity to them To View More >>

Well not always, and she hasn't said it that way ... but Ida does often "change" before she goes out in public. How is it that dressing your children can have so many possibilities and attract so much attention? Jo prefers things that "go together". I like things that make a statement about the day. I imagine that I am Ida and wonder what she would  choose if she hadn't yet realised that you can't wear stripes with spots and didn't even know how to say, let alone spell, "fashion disaster". Maybe I am wrong and maybe she does realise. One day she will tell me how I ruined her life (as only teenagers To View More >>

Meet Dave and Alianor, a tattoo artist from Atlanta, and a Catholic girl from Michigan. Tim Will shot their wedding in Atlanta last year. I could tell you about how the bridal party smoked and drank heavily before the ceremony, or that they carried guns with their names inscribed on the handles, or that the bride married in black. But I won't. Tim's images can do the talking... Instead, I'd rather highlight this album as a great example of how an anything-but-traditional wedding can fit so beautifully into a Queensberry. We're proud that our albums are so flexible and diverse. And that our album To View More >>

How much is an experience worth? (Contains a movie plot spoiler...) If I said to you, "Yeah, in the end the shark gets it," would you still go to the Jaws movie? I could tell you there was blood, pretty girls, lots of really stupid people in boats and a very big angry shark. It could never match the experience, just spoil it. What is that experience worth? Apparently it was worth $260,000,000 in the US alone. If you give your clients a good experience, what is it worth? What is it worth when they tell their friends? I can't tell you enough how valuable the experience of you is to the Bride and To View More >>

The stranger in the coffee shop looked at us, almost as if we were insane, and said in a tired voice, "Sleep while you can!". It was an ominous warning, over a month ago. We were (Jo was) a month off giving birth and at the time sleeping was getting uncomfortable. On June the 2nd, 2009, Ida Valentina van Kan graced us with her arrival. 7lb 3oz of beautiful girl. [caption id="attachment_3365" align="alignnone" width="500" caption="Ida Valentina"][/caption] After 10 days the warning seems premature. Sleep isn't too bad, in fact we feel incredibly lucky. I am learning things from her.  She will let To View More >>

Final feedback from my email, Your next album company Unless you have someone on the ground talking to people you are never going to get the real story... That comment's from the UK, where we actually do have someone on the ground – take a bow, Jo! But Jo, a Londoner, is the exception not the rule. Most of our client support people work from New Zealand. Gino, for example, gets up really early to talk to people in North America, while Kirsten works really late to help Jo with the Brits. But it's great to meet people face-to-face, so why don't we base more people locally? First, where would To View More >>

Manpreet Sokhi’s album of Dilip and Anchel’s South Indian Hindu wedding made waves through Queensberry. Talia Neal of our design team worked on the striking photofront cover and it triggered a flood of memories in her. The cover symbol is a representation of Ganesha, the Hindu elephant deity whose influence extends even beyond Hinduism and India. The memories evoked were of Talia's time in Nepal as a teenager working for Sir Edmund Hillary's Himalayan Trust – memories rubbed raw by the recent passing of Sir Ed, who with Sherpa Tensing Norgay first climbed Mount Everest in 1953. In March To View More >>

I got an email from Mark Miller today, and he's happy for me to share it and comment. I wanted to let you know how much I've been enjoying Queensberry Connects lately, specifically the posts about how QBY albums differentiate us as photographers from our competition and the idea that press-books are everywhere. I have a couple of comments/questions that I hope might add to the conversation: 1. QBY albums differentiate us as photographers - my clients love my (your) albums but they don't know who Queensberry are (I tell them all about you 'You're the best in the World' etc), but I don't think they To View More >>