I've been following the latest hate war against David Jay and PASS with interest. Here's the post that started it all, and here's what it's all about. I like my commercial messages straight, so I wish David didn't come on to you like a TV evangelist, but that aside, he's not wrong about everything. So because we hate hate speech of every kind I thought I'd explain what he's right about before I get into where we part company... David is promoting what he calls Shoot & Share, which in practice means a photographer shoots an event and hosts the images on David's service, PASS, where the customers To View More >>

No-one likes piracy, so how can you stop people stealing your digital images? There is only one sure method: Store your data on a computer in a secure office - and don't connect it to the internet. I'm not kidding. I was speaking to a commercial lawyer friend who deals with multi-million dollar litigation, and if his stuff is super-confidential, that's exactly what he does. Recently we had an irate client complain that some of her images had been pirated from Workspace, and ask how we could let that happen. She explained how it was done (I'm not going to tell you) and she was quite right. Within To View More >>

Supported by Canon, GM Photographics are bringing their successful wedding and portrait business seminar tour to New Zealand. Graham Munro and Lauren Bootland have already enjoyed a sell out tour across Australia and are now bringing their wisdom and experience to the land of the long white cloud. There are two different types of seminar available in each city: THE MASTERCLASS: Together, Graham and Lauren will host a full day seminar full of the fundamentals of what makes a business successful in these current economic times. Tips and motivation that are actually working in many businesses right To View More >>

[caption id="attachment_12140" align="alignleft" width="300" caption=""Hi, my name's Angelique!""][/caption] Who drank the Koolaid? - Ed. Sometimes when I'm on the phone with clients, we start talking about different album companies. Typically, we gush about how gorgeous Queensberry albums are. Occasionally, on the other end is someone who has never actually seen a Queensberry book. I still gush. They question it. After all, I work for the company – of course I say it's best? Here's the thing, I tend to only want to work for companies I can stand by. While I've had a few bumps along To View More >>

Things have a habit of creeping up on you, as our friends at Seldex have reminded us by sending an email to their clients reminding them that come July they won't be able to use Photojunction's cover design and Send Order functions. (We announced as much here back in February.) We've counted Seldex as friends for years – in fact they sold Queensberry albums in Australia back in the day! - so this is a rather sad time, the culmination of a process that started to unfold a couple of years ago when we realised that most suppliers weren't going to support PJ as a universal album design tool, which To View More >>

I just made a couple of new friends, Jeff and Erin Youngren from San Diego… And it took all of a couple of minutes. Stephen and Danny first met these guys at WPPI in Vegas, and we’ve been in touch ever since. You may remember our post about their new website and promo video so I asked them to share some of their experiences around online marketing, business and their album strategy.  But it was their philosophy, not only to business, but to life, that dominated the conversation. Let’s be friends Jeff and Erin had just returned from a holiday to Walt Disney World in Orlando, Florida, with To View More >>

It's not all bad out there you know! There are plenty of people doing better than ever, even considering the recession. So over the next few weeks we're bringing you a series of interviews with clients who are doing just great. We'll share their advice, ideas and opinions as they give us some insights into how they're successfully running their businesses. Here's the first. He's been recognised as one of the world's best photographers, serviced clients like the New York Times and Apple Computer, photographed celebrities such as Alec Baldwin, Amanda Peet, Isabella Rosselini and Donald Trump,  regularly To View More >>

Why not design your albums in Photoshop or InDesign? A lot of people do, and they're great applications – we depend on them both ourselves. A few thoughts … Adobe don't think designing your albums in Photoshop is a good idea. That's not what it's for. Adobe's page layout software is InDesign. So how much does InDesign know about wedding and portrait photographers, their workflow, their albums and their suppliers? InDesign doesn't know what DPI your lab needs, or what file type, or what size the printed layouts should be, or about bleed and trim requirements, or what colour management processes To View More >>

There was a time when the saying was, "Never trust anyone over 30!" But hey, check out my picture – that was then and this is now. Seriously folks, we were talking to Jerry Tomko at WPPI, and I thought ... this man has so much sensible stuff to share. So Heather and I took him up to the suite, sat him down with wine and nibbles and interviewed him around a single mic. Jerry is now a valued client, but he used to work as a rep for Art Leather. Here he talks about teaching people how to sell, why to sell albums (and frames), pre-designing an album in the days before digital, and more. Don't miss To View More >>

The New York Times caused a ruckus a couple of days ago with an article pointing out the negative impact on professional photographers of a number of trends: the decline of the print media and therefore print advertising; the rise of digital imaging, stock photography and photo sharing sites; the flow-on opportunities for pro-am enthusiasts who don't face the same commercial imperatives. Christian Oth runs an upscale Manhattan studio. Here's his response - Ed. The New York Times posted an article about how photography is on a shrinking path. It is an interesting assessment of the state of assignment To View More >>