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 >>

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 >>

Melanie and Neil were married on 07/07/07, possibly one of the luckiest days in a hundred years, so Melissa Worthington couldn’t help but laugh when she saw a lucky penny laid out for the sole of Melanie’s shoe – a Southern tradition. The couple married in the quaint town of Onancock, where Melanie grew up, on Virginia’s Eastern Shore. Melanie’s history runs deep within the town, and they chose to celebrate family history and small town tradition to make the day unique: the reception was held in a mansion once owned by the doctor who delivered Melanie's grandmother. Melissa and Sam were To View More >>

Follow the links for "the story so far" in our series on the recession... Yes, times will be tough for a while but you shouldn't assume the sky is falling. It makes no sense to sacrifice your business and market reputation to survive the short term challenge. Instead you may need to pull your horns in and find ways to prosper while others decline. A good place to start is by analysing your budget and business model, and we have a spreadsheet to help with that. Most people react to the threat of declining sales by saying, "I've gotta cut my costs". Everyone needs to work out their own figures, but To View More >>

Stephen blogged recently about how, when he's away from home, he loves keeping up with friends and family on Facebook. Loves the photos, the sharing, the little messages - likes wishing his mother a happy birthday ... and seeing the message spread around his network, so the best wishes get multiplied many times. But sharing isn't the same thing as remembering, and Facebook is really about the former, not the latter, and it's interesting to ask why. For a start, what's the likelihood of Facebook being around when our children and grandchildren want to know about us? If history is any guide, not To View More >>

While we were finalising our wedding album, our photographer asked us what I thought was an insignificant question. Having received the album, I now understand why, and I think it's important. The question soon, but first the back-story. The first time my wife Kayla and I saw our photographs was as a slideshow. If you've ever seen one of Johannes' slideshows, you'll know how beautiful they are. We were drawn in by the imagery, the music, the timing. And having not seen our photos until that point, we instantly felt a strong connection to them. Framing them in a slideshow format helped tell our To View More >>

I'm looking at a truly beautiful print (sorry I can only show you a 233K JPEG). Where does it's beauty come from? It starts with a beautiful flower. I don't know who bred it or nurtured it, but I wish I did. It's a beautiful composition. I do know that the stylist was Katie Lockhart, the photographer Sjoerd. It's a beautiful file, worked to perfection at Alt group as part of our re-brand last year. And it's beautifully printed. Here's the thing. The beauty in the print is totally dependent on everything that went before. Break the chain and you're left with ordinary. Normally in our business we're To View More >>

I was listening to a lovely song by Amy Seeley and was imagining images in my head. The song is haunting and has a feeling of being connected to a story. When I think about stories I usually think in a visual way. Creating a relationship between sound and imagery that isn't literal is a powerful thing. That is the difference between an album of images from a wedding, and the emotional and visual journey that is an album as a story, a collection of memories, a journey, a love, and a destination. One is a set of pictures, and the other is a visual and emotional soundscape - a song in my head. What To View More >>

Nigel's post about Chris MacKenzie creating his own luck reminded me the world is full of opportunities. The problem is to recognise them and take action. I was at a seminar in the States 2-3 years ago, a roomful of high net worth business people plus me. We got to talking about Queensberry, and wedding albums in general. Not one of them had ever seen a Queensberry or anything like it. One guy had recently married at an exclusive Carribean resort … spent a gazillion bucks on the event … and "ticked the box" for a shoot-and-burn DVD from the resort's tame photographer. I had to go and get an To View More >>