Catherine Connor heads Aspire, one of the UK’s foremost training providers for photographers. She knows that business isn’t easy, and requires “buckets of courage”. Your first challenge, she says, is to create a business with the right atmosphere to powerfully influence the tribe you aim to attract — and of course fulfil you personally:   Make it your mission to consider the content of your business. First, study how it feels. Asking yourself if you want to be in your own business is a starting point for most creatives. What is the atmosphere like? Does your To View More >>

Will your 2015 album sales predict how well you do next year? Many photographers struggle with album sales, and David and Luke Edmonson freely admit they've struggled too … but not any more. Their 2015 WPPI Masterclass, sponsored by Queensberry, is about the tremendous impact that selling albums can have on your bottom line. We’re running a survey to support them with up-to-the-minute data about how well photographers are doing with album sales, and what’s standing in the way of them doing even better. PLEASE CLICK HERE TO TAKE THE SURVEY The To View More >>

We’re proud to be supporting David and Luke Edmonson at WPPI this year. They’re talking about perhaps the most important challenge facing every professional photographer – how to transform their passion for photography into a successful longterm career. Luke and David want to be known for producing great photography, and serving their clients — but of course every sustainable business needs to generate profits as well. We’re going to publish an article about their sales strategies shortly, along with some of their work, but first we thought you’d like To View More >>

UPDATE: Our new PDF pricelists are now available to download. You'll need to be logged in. Sorry, the online calculators will be a few days yet. New Treasure Box. New Packaging. New Covers. New Books. New Pages. We’re rolling out a series of major product updates, so let’s get straight to it! For an overview, please click through to the What's New page on queensberry.com. There’s something for everyone to love, and you’ll find lots of photos. Our new price lists will be uploaded on Monday. As you'll see, we’ve made big changes to our covers and packaging, To View More >>

Written by: Clare Breheny When someone asks me what I do for a living and I tell them I’m a boudoir photographer, the usual response is, ‘Oh, women getting pictures for their husbands,’ or ‘Oh, like a bride giving it as a gift on a wedding day’. Every time I shake my head, and explain that’s it’s WAY more than that… but how do you say modestly that the time you spend with them might actually change how they live their lives? Whilst working with a bride embarking on her wedding day is very rewarding, some of my favourite clients have come to To View More >>

CHOICE, TRUST AND TECHNOLOGY Has your lab stopped offering traditional silver halide printing? It’s sad to see such a gloriously refined technology abandoned. With forty years pro lab experience, and chemicals in our veins, we aren’t ready to turn our backs on traditional photographic printing just yet. In fact we think it retains an important place, and we’re committed to the technology. But here’s why the Big Boy Labs are selling the line that silver halide is finished. Their top priority is, and must be, internal efficiency. They have expensive, high-volume machines to To View More >>

Written by: Cate Scaglione - Life As Fine Art “Knowing yourself is the beginning of all wisdom.”― Aristotle In addition to my portrait photography business I’m a brand consultant to businesses, big and small, all over the world. One could say I grew up in the luxury business. I’ve attributed most of my business practices to a keen understanding of how luxury brands work – and how their loyal followers feel about them. Large or small, from corporate enterprises to sole proprietorships, almost every business struggles with building a solid brand. What might To View More >>

Here's a handy tip if you're using our free design service. Please hit the SEND button, or we won't get your feedback. (SAVE adds them to the database but doesn't pass them to us.) You'll find the button at the bottom right of the screen, as in the graphic. We normally have design edits done within 24 hours, so if you don't hear from us promptly, take a look in Workspace to double check that you sent the comments. By the way the same applies to feedback from your clients. If you haven't heard from them, ask them to check that they've hit the Send Feedback button, To View More >>

Our support team deals with photographers all day, every day. We know how people struggle with technology. And we think the software that professionals use can be part of the problem… making things worse, not better. How does this make sense? - Hosting your images with one provider, but your website somewhere else. Creating customer websites with a third provider, and mobile apps with a fourth. Designing albums with a fifth, and proofing them with a sixth. Branding your blog images with a seventh, but actually blogging somewhere else again! Each time there's another piece of software to To View More >>

I'm a little embarrassed to admit this but I've never read a business book. Not really. I've skirted around them … flicked through them … put them back on the shelf. Stephen on the other hand has shelves of them. He reads them and fills me in on the concepts. It's worked for many years :-) So a friend comes for the weekend and hands me this book … tells me I MUST read it: The Freaks Shall Inherit the Earth by Chris Brogan, one of Stephen’s favourites. I think it's the title that grabbed me. I’ve always felt we've bordered on the right side of being freaks. To View More >>