I know the word "networking" gets bandied about a lot. I used to roll my eyes and put in the same category as "politically correct" and "multi-tasking" but in reality it's where business is today. Once upon a time a photographer could rely on the quality of his images and word of mouth. Maybe a bit of advertising in the Yellow Pages and the odd display in the local mall. Next minute, along comes the internet and screws it all up. Suddenly you have to be on Facebook, Twitter and this that and the other. As a photographer you have a major head start at this. First, you have cool images to show people. 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 to watch the video on Vimeo. I remember someone in the graphic design industry (quite well known actually) posting a tweet saying, "Colour management is bullshit!" The picture that flashed through my mind was of graphic designers and brand managers hanging out at the printers, tweaking colours on the machine before they sign off on a job… And yet here we are at Queensberry, printing for very fussy photographers (often on the far side of the world), putting the prints into really pricey albums (sight unseen) and flying them at great expense to Europe, or North America, or Hong Kong. To View More >>

Our first Northern Hemisphere show was in Birmingham UK in 2001, when we shared a booth at FOCUS with the Guild of Photographers. We did so well we decided to fly solo at WPPI the following year. Our first time in Vegas! At that first show I turned up late on Day One because of a minor drama back home. It was amazing. Our little team (with an Aussie customer in support) were red-faced and practically shouting to make themselves heard to photographers piled up like driftwood round our booth. We had a blast for three days, heading back to the Casino in the evenings for a quiet drink in the din of To View More >>

That's a question we've been asked a few times, and the answer is different for Press Books and Press Albums. Books are inherently more affordable than albums – although as the saying goes you can really pimp your ride with Queensberry’s Press Books: translucents, art papers, leather covers, Mayu cases, the works. In fact it’s surprised (and gratified) us a bit how many of you have gone for the upmarket options. On the other hand, with Press Albums the challenge was two-fold: to offer something you couldn’t get with our classic albums (art papers in particular) and to strike a dramatically To View More >>

To continue my rave on The Junction earlier in the year about image slicing and dicing, here are a few thoughts about designing a pressbook with particular consideration to keeping your mind (and your clients' heads) out of the gutter! Photojunction makes designing a Queensberry album very easy and FAST. But while the layouts look very similar on-screen between albums and press books - in reality these two products are vastly different. When you're working on screen it's really easy to forget that a press book is, well, a book, and the pages don't lie flat. Queensberry press books (like most other To View More >>

We've just spent a great Monday afternoon browsing through the submissions for our Bragging Rights campaign, which closed last Friday. Thank you to everyone who participated! We had a terrific response from friends old and new. Plenty of weddings of course, but also engagement shoots, family portraits, maternity, pets, you name it. Different countries, cultures, locations and styles. So that was inspiring, but now comes the hard part – choosing! We're looking for twelve sets of images to showcase on our website, in our new season sample albums and books, and in our blogs and marketing pieces. To View More >>

After talking to Jessica Mills from NZ Colour Management, I thought we should bring in someone from the front lines! Philip Laing is one of our lab support specialists, and if my conversation with him paints a picture of a bunch of people obsessed with quality and delivering you the best possible album, my work is done. If you get get an insight into the many ways in which our lab service is truly unique in the album business, even better! Philip is what we call a "support detective". With a stack of experience – and huge enthusiasm for photography – he's in the front line every day ensuring 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 >>