Any serious professional will tell you that photography isn’t an easy way to make a living, and it probably won't make you rich. Even Annie Leibovitz filed for bankruptcy. Here is a piece of our story on the journey to where we are today. By Koby & Terilyn Brown. Early in 2010 Koby and I had a serious talk about the direction of Archetype Studio. Key to that discussion was figuring out what lifestyle we wanted to live. For us, photography is about passion. The need to craft memories into something emotionally tangible. It’s about freedom to go where the wind blows, and live To View More >>

Written by: Kate Hopewell-Smith Come summertime you can’t open a newspaper or magazine without articles about getting your body ‘beach ready’. Many women are secretly terrified at the prospect of getting into swimwear publicly, because whilst very few people actually suffer from body dysmorphia (the belief that one's appearance is unusually defective) most women have body issues. The truth is that I deal with this reality on a regular basis because I shoot a lot of boudoir photography. Last week I put a few pictures on Facebook from a shoot that both I, and the lady To View More >>

Kate Hopewell-Smith believes that the more confident you are, the better photographer you'll become. But she worries about the lack of confidence in our industry, and wonders how many photographers are considering whether to carry on or not… From my experience meeting and communicating with lots of photographers there is a serious problem out there with lack of confidence, which for some can become quite debilitating. In fact I describe it as an “epidemic” –extremely prevalent, widespread. I read a lot of photography magazines but I can’t recall ever To View More >>

As told to Cate Scaglione - Life As Fine Art “Fear is the lengthened shadow of ignorance.” ~Arnold Glasow As artists we are a different breed within the human race. Our right brains guide us with a heightened sensibility, to help us translate the world in an emotionally meaningful way. We’ll witness the same events and circumstances entirely differently than others, and often with more intensity. These are our blessings, except perhaps when the worst demon surfaces. Fear. All humans experience fear in one form or another. But is all fear bad? Is there such a thing as beneficial, To View More >>

I watched this amazing Youtube video on my iPad yesterday. An awe inspiring piece of street theatre. It got me thinking how our lives are lived more and more in two dimensions … on our “devices”. We can, and do, connect virtually with almost anything, anywhere, any time. In fact Ian discovered this event reading a (gasp) book, and googling it. But I wish I’d really been there. That's the point of street theatre, right? Imagine being there on the streets of London - closed to traffic to make way for a five-story elephant, a giant girl and a huge happy crowd. Getting sprayed To View More >>

Mario Lopez (current TV host on The X-Factor) and his fiancee Courtney Mazza wed in the beautiful Punta Mita, in Mexico at Joe Francis' compound. Kevin Weinstein, photographed their two-day extravaganza beautifully. If you think a videographer getting in your shot can be frustrating, or a little iPhone jutting out in the aisle, Kevin had to dodge an entire film crew, producers, and the army it takes to produce a reality TV show. This beach-side wedding ticks everything in my books. Jaw-dropping location, a mariachi band, a grand wedding cake (created by Carlos Bakery ), and a midnight To View More >>

Johannes posted a quote from The Velveteen Rabbit by Margery Williams on his blog. It's about what it takes, what it means, to be real. Are you in fashion photography or reality photography? Cheers, Ian PS Surprise surprise, that's a question, not an opinion. PPS Jo and Johannes (not sure which) took the picture. And that's our grand-daughter with Lucy :) To View More >>

Last week I wrote about the latest David Jay hate war, and said that if a courtroom attorney asked whether I agreed with his Shoot and Share strategy - and demanded a Yes-No answer - I’d have to say, “Yes I do.” Why? Because social sharing is a reality whether we like it or not, because social sharing is a powerful new form of word of mouth, and because Shoot & Share is a big step up the social scale from Shoot & Burn. Also I don't like hate wars. But this is not a TV courtroom drama, so if you're thinking of building a career in social photography, we believe the typical Shoot and Share To View More >>

I've been following the latest hate war against David Jay and PASS with interest. Here's the post that started it all, and here's what it's all about. I like my commercial messages straight, so I wish David didn't come on to you like a TV evangelist, but that aside, he's not wrong about everything. So because we hate hate speech of every kind I thought I'd explain what he's right about before I get into where we part company... David is promoting what he calls Shoot & Share, which in practice means a photographer shoots an event and hosts the images on David's service, PASS, where the customers To View More >>

This is a long post, so I’m starting with the short story! Some people are upset about the terms of trade for our new web-based lab service, Queensberry Print. We want to clarify that, yes, Queensberry Print products are available to both professional photographers and end-consumers. Certainly, “consumer” means “everyone”, but in reality we believe these products will only be of real interest to professionals, serious amateur photographers, and people who received digital files from a professional and who really care how their photos are printed. Our existing range To View More >>