Over the last few days I've had the pleasure of hosting Denis Reggie on a whirlwind visit to New Zealand. A lucky few had the chance to attend Denis's workshop. We got an insight into how he operates, and some valuable tips on how to get that killer shot. From the moment we arrived Denis's passion was evident. He loves photography, and weddings, and has some strong opinions on the modern day approach to shooting them. After shocking everybody with a challenge to "shoot a wedding without speaking", he opened our minds to the true meaning of wedding photojournalism and how it can be a part of every To View More >>

This post won't mean much to those of you who's knowledge of social media is limited to, "You know, Facebook and Twitter etc". But the rest of us are trying to get good at it without feeling like it consumes all our time. Anyway, I've just been asked my opinions about automation and social media. It's something I feel strongly about, and my advice is to "approach with caution". Here's why. 1. We're in the 'intimacy business', and automation is usually the the enemy of intimacy. If I skype my wife, "Hi darling – love you!", we both feel good about it. It was impulsive and heartfelt. Automate it To View More >>

Welcome to the second interview in our series featuring clients whose businesses are thriving despite the current economic climate. Click here to read the first interview with Christian Oth. In the same year they had their first child, Chris and Darcie Siiteri started their Austin (Texas) photography business, Innovative Photography. Fifteen years later they’re still at it and doing better than ever. I gave an initially nervous Darcie an early morning call to chat about how they approach their album sales, and what they do to ensure their clients have an amazing experience and to foster relationships 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 >>

We've now released v1.49 to fix a few minor issues in 1.48, but everything in this post is still current - Ed. In case you haven't noticed, we kiwis are very modest ;) Which is why I like announcing stuff that I didn't have much to do with, but I feel really good about, because I can sing its praises without feeling bad about myself! Anyway… The dev team have been busy busy today pushing out a new final release, and I think it's a really good one. They've put a lot of time and effort into refining features first released in v1.47, especially for Queensberry Press Books, but there's some juicy To View More >>

Yesterday Johannes asked if you could send PJ Support some interesting design questions, and I think you'd better. Methinks his mind's started wandering - Ed. The first time you have sex there are so many things that could go wrong. The second time you know a bit more about what happens, but that doesn't mean that things are any easier. If, the first time you had sex, you focused on having fun over getting it right, the experience would probably be 100 times more enjoyable. 100 times more enjoyable because you would be free to get it wrong, or right, without the judgement. If you watched all the 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 >>

These articles are about strategies to combat the recession. I ended my last post by posing the question on everyone's lips: what happens if my bookings drop? You'll need to have read my previous post to make sense of what follows, but to recap, based on the numbers in the graphic below, if I get 30 wedding bookings and average $5000 per job my income is $71k. If I could get 40 bookings I'd make $114k, even if my average dropped to $4600. All good, but what happens if I can only get 20 bookings? The answer is my income drops to $28k! I could still achieve my $100k income goal with just 20 weddings To View More >>

I've gathered enough gongs now to qualify for an opinion on album design. Last week I was a judge for the Australian Professional Photography Awards at PMA in Melbourne. This was an honour I shared with the lovely Jo Grams, Jerry Ghionis, Jackie Chan, Yervant and other luminaries. Several things became apparent: 1) Some authors treated the album as a set of individual prints, mixing black and whites with colours, verticals with horizontals, with blatant disregard for the influence of those images on each other. 2) Some authors were hypnotised by the ability to apply a filter to create a look ... To View More >>

I had the privilege of being the photographer when Queensberry's pinup boy/metrosexual, Nigel, tied the knot with Kayla a few months ago, and I learnt a lesson. Pretty much at the beginning of the day I unintentionally upset the bride's parents. They had organised that I would shoot photographs outside their neighbour's property. I took half a dozen images and ticked the box for family pics at home. But I also wanted to do a quick family photograph in their own garden, in a spot that from my point of view, between rain showers, would do the job well. The bride's mother was able to conceal, through To View More >>