If you're flying in to shoot a wedding and the weather's so foul the plane mightn't be able to land, you have every wedding photographer's nightmare. And to say the weather was foul would be an understatement... But the plane did land and Johannes (of Moda Fotografica) had already covered the other bases before heading out to shoot Vicky and Ricky's wedding at French Farm in the South Island of New Zealand. With heavy rain forecast and weather warnings in place, Johannes discussed with the couple what would happen if the weather didn't play nice. He walked them through how it might effect what To View More >>

We'd never been to Lyttelton until a couple of years ago. At school we'd all learnt it was Christchurch's port, but that didn't mean you had to visit. Now everyone knows it's at the epicentre of Christchurch's earthquake. The reason I did eventually visit Lyttelton was to catch up with Johannes van Kan and Jo Grams. It's a fabulous little town, with a nice traditional pub (you walk down the corridor to the bathroom, just like the old days), lots of local music, good restaurants, great coffee, a beautiful setting. And in centre of the town the original, often funky, sometimes beautiful, apparently To View More >>

For a country with the population of the San Francisco Bay Area, New Zealand has a lot of great photographers, and we're proud that many of them are Queensberry clients. We're delighted to say that one of the best has agreed to write for us. Johannes van Kan of Moda Fotografica has been a friend since 1993, when Heather and I first met him at NZIPP's annual conference and awards judging. Since then Johannes has qualified as a Fellow of the New Zealand Institute of Professional Photographers and was New Zealand Wedding Photographer of the Year in 2004 and 2005, and winner of the New Zealand Wedding To View More >>

If there really are 3.5 trillion photos, which are the important ones? The ones that get picked, printed and presented. Presented in a magazine, a book, a frame, an album. But who does the picking? If it's social photography and the photographer's doing the choosing, which images will make the cut? The perfect shots. The ones that tell the story. The ones that fit in the book. And inevitably, the ones that make the photographer look good. Hundreds and thousands of photographs get discarded because they're imperfect or don't suit our purposes. But those "rejects" could tell a different story, and To View More >>

The Image College in association with Queensberry, is bringing Johannes van Kan to Australia for a brief visit in August/September to present one day seminars in Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne. The heart and soul of the high end wedding album Winner of the 2010 WPPI Album of the Year, and multiple winner of the NZIPP Iris Awards Wedding Album of the Year, Johannes van Kan is one of an elite group of world class photographers creating profoundly beautiful albums for his wedding clients. In this event Johannes will take you on a journey beginning with: - Why he does what he does - The thought processes To View More >>

Well it's been a tough week. No plague of locusts, but nothing else came easy! But we’ve reached final and it’s an amazing feeling. Our company’s growing and we want to show our thanks. Here goes… From Day One our goal has been to build an outstanding application, which is impossible without supportive, committed beta testers. But beta testing is like jury service – who wants to get involved? It's purely voluntary, everyone benefits, and that’s why we’re so grateful. We know it’s been tough at times, but what we've done together is build cool software - thank you. Trust us – the To View More >>

I know how to type, have a good grasp of English, know how to spell – but that doesn’t mean I could or would or should try to write the next John Grisham. Having a pen doesn’t make me a writer. Having a camera doesn’t make me a photographer. Having a computer doesn’t make me a designer… To be a designer takes talent, knowledge and practice. You need to understand balance, beauty, symmetry, asymmetry, flow, pace, shape, unity and contrast. Being a great visual story teller requires all those qualities. It also requires the understanding that that’s what you’re doing - telling a To View More >>

Johannes has been posting on Queensberry Connects for several months now. It's been great to have a regular photographer perspective, and personally we've found his insights and opinions inspiring. We asked him to contribute to our interview series by sharing his thoughts on album design. In the conversation, Ian asks him to expand on several posts he's written about the benefits of getting to know your clients before the wedding, and his "six secrets" to designing a great album... He also questions Johannes about how he interacts with his clients, his workflow and the part Photoshop plays. To View More >>

[caption id="attachment_7050" align="alignleft" width="200" caption="Musée 10x7 dark tan; photography and page layout design by Johannes van Kan"][/caption] If you read my Musée story recently, you’ll recall it ended with a cliff-hanger … but it turned out well. You may remember we’d made an album featuring Christian [Oth's] images, but he'd never seen it. We were nervous. Well we finally did catch up, and he loved it. Then Johannes [van Kan’s] album of Virginia and Richard’s wedding won at WPPI. You can view his complete album on Youtube (no audio) or Vimeo (recommended: this is the To View More >>

Click here for Part 1. Who are those people ... the ones staring back at you thinking, 'What does he/she want us to do?' More importantly, how do they see the unfolding of their day? Is it a fairy tale? Is it some kind of weird reality show? Is it a 'performance'? Is it the beginning of something amazing? Is it a huge party? Is it something their mother planned? Is it theirs? That's the thing. We, as the image makers, also become the storytellers.  We create the vocabulary for describing the unfolding of the day. If we don't photograph something, will it still be remembered in ten years time? To View More >>