There was a time when the saying was, "Never trust anyone over 30!" But hey, check out my picture – that was then and this is now. Seriously folks, we were talking to Jerry Tomko at WPPI, and I thought ... this man has so much sensible stuff to share. So Heather and I took him up to the suite, sat him down with wine and nibbles and interviewed him around a single mic. Jerry is now a valued client, but he used to work as a rep for Art Leather. Here he talks about teaching people how to sell, why to sell albums (and frames), pre-designing an album in the days before digital, and more. Don't miss To View More >>

Every now and then we see a sample album with images from several weddings in it. We call them "Greatest Hits" albums. Even after discounts a sample album can be a big investment – we know that, especially when you're starting out – but this is not a good idea for at least three reasons. 1. Because it's not what your clients will be buying, it's hard for them to relate to. A bit of a puzzle. 2. Even worse, it's not convincing evidence that you're up to the job. Couldn't you find enough good images from one wedding, they'll be thinking... 3. What an album does is tell a story – of their day, To View More >>

New Research indicates that older people are indeed wise, both in knowing how to deal with conflicts between people and in accepting life’s uncertainties. This is called social wisdom. - recognising that values differ among people, - accepting that uncertainties are in fact a certainty, - accepting that things change over time, - and acknowledging others’ points of view. This is different to knowing stuff about technologies. As technology becomes the new playground the rules are the same but they execute differently. As photographers who ran successful businesses become last year's model they To View More >>

Girls, here's a tip. Go out and buy yourself a nice big folder. The ring binder type is good. Something that you can keep adding to. Call it your 'Wedding Folder'. The only reason I know anything about this is because Kayla bought a 'Wedding Folder' the day after we got engaged. And the only reason I'm talking about it is because it became our most important wedding planning resource. Kayla divided it up into sections - receipts, ideas, booking forms, correspondence, stationery... that kind of thing. In that folder went everything even remotely related to our wedding: pictures of dresses, hair To View More >>

By Isaac de Reus It’s getting towards the end of the “wedding season”… we’re totally snowed under with editing… we are shooting 2, sometimes 3 weddings per weekend… and I’m shattered! So… I thought I’d sit down and list a whole heap of things I love about weddings – as a way to rejuvenating myself – and why not share it? I love seeing families come together, and capturing the little moments as old friends reconnect. I love seeing “everyday people” going through the process of having professional hair, makeup, putting on a beautiful dress. I love the reaction when the To View More >>

We have discovered a new range of Photoshop plugins that allows us to put the soul (which we forgot to put in while shooting) back into our imagery. Because these soulful images are our unique selling point, I can't tell you where we found them. With this set of plugins we are able to take a loveless bride and groom and turn them into passionate beings. We are able to take an indiscreet glance and turn it into the look of love. We are able to take monochromatic feelings and turn them into a fiercely burning fire ... all with the help of some photoshop and a couple of plugins. It's not true! That's To View More >>

Rex is a regular coffee drinker and if ever you were to meet him you would instantly know that he was a straight up kind of guy. Rex keeps a quiet eye on our town. He rises early and walks the hills around Lyttelton. Rex knows stuff. People share with him because they know that he is that straight up kind of guy. He can be trusted. Our town also has its share of Astral travelers, bad eggs, party radicals, poets and pop stars. There is a lot of spirit here ... all under the quiet and watchful eye of Rex. James and Co at the Lyttelton Coffee Company make the coffees that keep these spirits on form. To View More >>

This video by Zack Arias for Scott Kelby's Photoshop Insider touched a chord for me. If you haven't seen it it is worth the five minutes to do the journey. Zack Arias is one of the speakers at Photoshop World in March 2010. Cheers, Johannes PS Trust him, this is good ... but it's more than 5 minutes - Ian To View More >>

I watched a video on DWF by Jesh de Rox ("Client Connections"). Everybody loves Jesh, and “Jesh loves everybody" ... Actually there are probably a few photographers who don’t "love Jesh" because they don’t know him ... Possibly fairer to say, ‘To know him is to be loved by him" ... and we all know that love works best as a two way street. He talked about getting couples to show their love to you, the photographer. You cannot do it without trust. And you cannot do it without first giving them some love of your own. How profoundly simple but true! Johannes To View More >>

I was upsold to in the weekend and didn't even know it. Now that I do though, I'm ok with it. Over the last few weeks my fiancee and I have been looking out wedding bands for us both. We'd again done our homework, been put off by another raft of useless sales people and ended up where we always knew we would, with the same jeweller I'd bought her engagement ring from. I blogged about that experience a while back. An hour later I walked out of the shop with a quote for a wedding band thicker, wider, with a bigger diamond and in higher quality gold than I'd gone in thinking I wanted. Kayla made To View More >>