Recently Michael Segal asked us to design and make a 14x10v Musée album in gorgeous black embossed leather. I could show you the cover, I guess, but I'm not allowed to open it and show you round. Michael won't let us because his clients would…not be pleased. So all I can say is that it's the wedding of X and Y, held … somewhere. Among the guests are A, B, C and, oh, D, not to mention E and F. Most of them have worked together. When Michael asked Heather how she thought the book had turned out, she replied, "I think it looks beautiful. I feel very privileged to have been involved. "It's such To View More >>

I was talking to Stephen last night and he made a comment about how photographers will approach an album on the Queensberry stand at trade shows. He said that most often they will pick up the book and look at the last pages first. If what they see catches their interest they look more closely. I can think of several reasons for this behaviour. At trade shows there are many suppliers peddling their wares, It is important for photographers to be efficient in their research. The last image in an album is often a defining one and in some way summarises the quality, content and feeling of the album. To View More >>

Further to Anna's emotional cry to 'save people in photographs from random and thoughtless amputations'… I was trying to think of a way to 'stop the suffering'. It occurred to me that we could specifically shoot for the panoramic opportunity. Shoot what you might call 'the subject image' and then move slightly to get the 'rest of the scene' photograph. Use the spine as the aligned join for these images to create a panoramic effect. This has two advantages. The enlargement required is less, keeping the quality up. You plan more for the placement of your subject so that nobody has to lose an arm. To View More >>

I daren't start this blog with 'In my day ... things were different!' In my day 'We' were the difference ... we were the new generation biting at the heals of 'the old guard'. There was always going to be a new generation coming in to replace what we did. Several things happened in the wedding industry when I was starting up. People started looking for images that were less formal and more photojournalistic, and people started asking for their negatives. Enter Generation 2.0, invigorated and empowered by the digital revolution. Camera makers have made it easier for our audience to be better aligned To View More >>

I got reminded today that I haven't mentioned the follow-up to David Ziser's "perfect storm" post, which I recommended a few weeks ago. You can find Part 2 here. It's interesting reading and I hope you check it out. David's saying that, despite all the factors working against professional photography you're not doomed! There's light at the end of the tunnel. But quality and service aren't enough, so what does it take to succeed? Quite a lot really: "…product innovation, responsiveness to the client, studio-client “stickiness”, product diversity, creative marketing, full understanding of social To View More >>

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 >>

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 >>

My clients would not dream of paying me $4000 for an empty photo album. Nor would they pay that for a book with somebody else’s photographs in it. They wouldn’t pay me that much even if I supplied them the files to print the images themselves. My clients would pay me $5000 for a book that told a story about themselves that was beautiful, personal, and emotional. The tooth fairy only pays up on the real thing. What is a sample album? Sample albums have several jobs. The main one is to set up an expectation. An expectation of quality, style, and professionalism. Our sample album(s) are what 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 >>

Photography by David Jay Seth Godin said recently , 'If you want to build a brand for the ages, you need to stand for something today, and tomorrow, and every day.' Among other things, we stand for quality, which is why the prints on our digital pages are split at the centreline, leaving a gap of about 2mm (about 1/16”). Some people might not like the look, but we can't compromise products designed to last for generations. Actually, there are two reasons for this: more flexibility as to what equipment you can print on, and because the fold in the print almost invariably discolours and/or cracks. To View More >>