I’m dropping my prices … people aren’t spending as much … my bookings are down … I need to go to cheaper albums … I’ve started doing shoot-and-burn … I’m worried about my income. You’ve heard the talk. Are you struggling in the face of competition, recession and demanding clients? Or do you just want to hear someone else’s take on things? As well as our usual Photojunction webinars, we’re hosting two new ones on the most critical issue facing professional photographers: how to survive and thrive in today’s demanding market. Webinar 1: How to sell albums (and why) Thurs To View More >>

I’m dropping my prices … people aren’t spending as much … my bookings are down … I need to go to cheaper albums … I’ve started doing shoot-and-burn … I’m worried about my income. You’ve heard the talk. Are you struggling in the face of competition, recession and demanding clients? Or do you just want to hear someone else’s take on things? As well as our usual Photojunction webinars, we’re hosting two with Queensberry on the most critical issue facing professional photographers: how to survive and thrive in today’s demanding market. Webinar 1: How to sell albums (and why) To View More >>

If you haven't been to the Photojunction website or blog lately, you won't recognise them. What's going on? Well, the old PJ site had to go, for several reasons. • Danny was embarrassed by it (me too). • PJ has changed so fast that a lot of the support info was out of date. • There's a bit of misinformation out there (I'll get to that). • And it's high time we came out of the closet… So here's the story: In case you don't know, Photojunction is a Queensberry project. It dates back ten years to when we first realised that any album supplier without a software solution was history (we were To View More >>

It's that time of year when we take stock, make resolutions and ask questions ... like how can we make this year a winner? Are there too many photographers? Why do we ask our competitors for advice? What can we learn from musicians? And the big one: How much are our images worth? Sadly, that's not just about how good they are or how much time we spend on them in post-production. Our latest client newsletter is below. Let us know what you think by leaving a comment here or emailing Ian directly. Cheers, Nigel How much are your images worth? We received this present from our design consultants, Alt To View More >>

Food for thought... Photographers do a huge amount more now than they used to in the old days - and it's questionable whether they get paid for it. They used to "send their work to the lab", now they ARE the lab. Colour management and colour correction used to be the lab's problem, now they're the photographer's. My thought for the day – you can't afford cheap printing for two reasons: - YOU do all the work - that's why it's cheap. - BECAUSE you do all the work you can't do other, more profitable stuff (or just go home earlier in the evenings). Truth to tell, many photographers would also get To View More >>

Alan (not his real name) and his wife were long-standing clients of one of our competitors. They came to us because they didn't like the way they'd been treated. Unlike Katherine, who likes us (even if she's frustrated), we haven't earned anything from Alan and his wife except a chance to win their business. Alan's customers really like our Duos, which of course they couldn't get before, but he finds designing and ordering them difficult. Alan designs them on paper and his wife recreates them in Remix. Alan's designs are reasonably complex, his wife is a fan of her old software (which can't handle To View More >>

"Previously we were offering albums we knew our competitors were also offering, but we’ve realised we can use the album to separate us from our competitors." That quote from Nigel's interview with the Youngrens reflects Queensberry's key message to photographers and it got me thinking... A while ago I posted about album companies in trouble – and not hitching your own wagon to dying stars. Today I'm suggesting you be wary of the latest and greatest too ;) In the US and UK markets of 2000, Queensberry albums were revolutionary because we hand-made every album to order. That meant photographers, To View More >>

Prompted by the unfortunate demise of Spicer Hallfield, which was once the UK’s foremost album manufacturer, I emailed our list in the UK yesterday. The gist of my message was that their ex customers should think twice before choosing a replacement supplier – especially if their gut reaction was to look for someone offering a similar product at a similar price. My email generated quite a lot of enquiries for Sonya's team, plus some feedback that I thought I'd discuss over the next few days. But let me start with the tough one... Someone called my email an "unbelievable bit of ambulance chasing". To View More >>

Sad as it is, it's no secret that one or two of the traditional album manufacturers in the USA and UK have had serious problems, and not just because of "the economy". It's hard for everyone when a company struggles, hard for their staff, hard for their suppliers. Harder still when you know the people involved. Hard for their customers too, who've spent a lot of time getting to know their people, understanding their systems and foibles, making bookings with couples who will expect one of their albums... So why have they been in trouble? Because companies like Queensberry started eating their lunch. To View More >>