I'm going to drop two shoes in this post. First shoe: Some time ago Johannes wrote a post he called Crikey ("that's a lot of money for an album"). It made me feel a little fidgety. I thought, we care too much about the quality of our products and services to compromise them, and maybe that's a problem. Clients often say they love what we do, but can we do it cheaper? Sometimes we try. We go about looking at how we could adapt a product, system or idea … but we don't do cheap well. We're as proud of our work as you are of yours, and compromising feels like we're shooting for the moon with an To View More >>

I'm heading back to New Zealand after four gigs for MPA and CPT. When I left home Jo (my wife) gave me two things (other than the advice to stay away from danger). She gave me an iPhone so that we could stay in touch ... my phone was in a bad way ... and she gave me a small box. Now you would have thought that a caring wife would have uploaded a set of images or a small video of her and our daughter to remind me of them in their absence ... this is the beauty of technology. No she didn't. She went 10 times better. She gave me a small box of prints of our family to take away. This low fi approach To View More >>

I don't like long posts, and I'm always at Ian and Nigel to keep 'em brief so I apologize. This recent post prompted Ken to comment and me to respond with this, my longest ever... Ken asked whether our industry's main challenge wasn't "crap photography" but competitors with stupid pricing, for example, "2 photographers, hi-res images and Queensberry with 60 images for £1500." Ken suggested that people like that shouldn't last in business but they keep coming back... So I presume that if in fact they're surviving, they're probably a high volume, low margin outfit - possibly with healthy post-event To View More >>

My interview with Rod Ellmore talked about how the close partnership between photographers and vendors in the '70s and '80s helped build some great careers, but it wasn't all positive. One disadvantage was that marketing gimmicks picked up at seminars organised by the vendors propagated like viruses! Like this one - the notorious "couple in the brandy glass". Pam brought us a picture (left) from her brother Martin's 80s wedding to Simone (thanks for sharing!). And I found proof that tacky ideas live on in Photoshop. Now you know I'm a snob – but not as much as I used to be: There's nothing wrong To View More >>

This is a big day for Queensberry. We're  launching a new look, a new website and a new blog ... all today. We love blogging – we've been doing it for two years, to professional photographers – and now we're looking forward to talking to you. Who are "you"? The bride and groom. A family. People sharing an occasion of love, connection and pride. People capturing a special day so they can enjoy, reflect upon and share it forever. People telling a fairy tale, a story told true. Because a story told beautifully should be true to you. You're the people in the viewfinder that we've To View More >>

Can Crash crash the royal wedding? Professional Photographer (UK)'s March issue features "the holy trinity of international wedding photographers", Crash Taylor, Jasmine Star and Yervant, in a competitive pitch for the royal gig. An interesting range of approaches between the three, but we're human and Crash had us at Queensberry: "Albums would be handcrafted in New Zealand by Queensberry, which is the Tiffany of wedding albums worldwide." I like how Crash stresses the significance of the event … the latest installment in the continuing story of the House of Windsor. It's not just about love To View More >>

The trouble with Seth Godin (I linked to him yesterday) is that once you start reading him it's hard to stop. Next day he's talking about how, when you're starting out ... or you're struggling ... or the economy isn't hot, it's very tempting to "take what you can get". And that has consequences. As if that's not enough, his very next post says: "If there was ever a moment to follow your passion and do work that matters, this is it. You can't say, 'but I need to make a fortune instead,' because that's not happening right now. So you might as well join the people who can say, 'I love doing this.' To View More >>

More from Mark Miller: Press books - I agree with everything you say. At Focus I had a great conversation with Danny who suggested that 'everyone' did digital, ie it was commonplace with suppliers but that Duos were the really unique albums. I agree. Aren't QBY digital albums really just a fancier, more expensive press-book? Again, that's not meant to be insulting, I'm just trying to add to the conversation. FWIW, I've stopped offering digital albums (other than mini copies) and will move to a Duo only offering for next season. No offence taken. I love our digital albums, and so do many of our To View More >>

Pre-wedding engagement shoots are fairly common these days - but Michelle and TJ Getz of Getzcreative go one step further and offer their clients post-wedding shoots too. These post-wedding "Creative Sessions" allow them to offer a distinctive and creative photography session without the pressures of the wedding day. For example, Michelle shot Lauren and Josh's wedding in October 2008 in South Carolina and the couple are working with Michelle to put together their Queensberry wedding album (they've nearly doubled their page count from 18 to 30 pages!). But Lauren and Josh also purchased this To View More >>

Michael and Anna Costa have been touring the US over the past few months sharing their secrets at PUG conferences and events. We're their preferred album supplier so we designed an 18x12 Duo for them to take on tour. The objective was to demonstrate the value of differentiation: how great presentation can help you stand out and build your studio profile. So how did it go? We received this note from them: "I wanted to tell you the album is drop dead gorgeous. The hundreds of people that saw it absolutely loved it! It couldn't have got a better response.   "There’s just nothing quite like a Queensberry To View More >>