I just made a couple of new friends, Jeff and Erin Youngren from San Diego… And it took all of a couple of minutes. Stephen and Danny first met these guys at WPPI in Vegas, and we’ve been in touch ever since. You may remember our post about their new website and promo video so I asked them to share some of their experiences around online marketing, business and their album strategy.  But it was their philosophy, not only to business, but to life, that dominated the conversation. Let’s be friends Jeff and Erin had just returned from a holiday to Walt Disney World in Orlando, Florida, with To View More >>

Why not design your albums in Photoshop or InDesign? A lot of people do, and they're great applications – we depend on them both ourselves. A few thoughts … Adobe don't think designing your albums in Photoshop is a good idea. That's not what it's for. Adobe's page layout software is InDesign. So how much does InDesign know about wedding and portrait photographers, their workflow, their albums and their suppliers? InDesign doesn't know what DPI your lab needs, or what file type, or what size the printed layouts should be, or about bleed and trim requirements, or what colour management processes To View More >>

On 23 October, Gold Coast based couple Hayley and Greg came home to New Zealand and married at Tarureka Estate. Planning a wedding from abroad is a tough ask, but Hayley's dad acted as their local wedding planner and did an excellent job. Haran of Haran Photography shot their wedding just outside of Wellington, and says their wedding day was a simple but beautiful celebration of Greg and Hayley's love. As is their album... Here are some of the layouts. Click here to see more of Haran Photography's work. Cheers, Anna To View More >>

When Kayla and I were planning our wedding we decided... We'd rather pay someone to design and assemble our invites than do it ourselves. We'd rather pay our photographer a travel fee and have him sort out his own travel. We'd rather pay a wedding co-ordinator to run things on the day. That's us shifting the responsibility ... taking the easy route ... spending more than necessary. Whatever. But during that period, our time was worth more. Managing the process as opposed to doing it ourselves left us with plenty more time for the things we really wanted, or needed, to focus on. How valuable is To View More >>

This week we're planning to cover another five topics to add to our growing collection of classroom movies... - Exporting your page layouts - Sending your order - Image management (problems and fixes) - Sorting and selecting your images (the Collection Builder) - Power users tips and tricks Click here to register and for more information. There are now 11 movies on our new classroom movie page where you'll find the entire series so far. For best viewing we suggest watching them full screen, in HD. Cheers, Nigel To View More >>

A quick note to let you know our webinars are taking a break this week, but we'll be back on deck again next week. We're in the process of lining up a couple of interesting new webinars, including a major Queensberry announcement (more soon – can't wait!) and an interview with US photographer Justine Ungaro. You may have come across her online recently pimping her new Musée album. We're also planning a few live Photojunction webinars that we can slice and dice afterwards into a series of quick tutorials. We'll see how many Danny can fit into the hour. ;) Details soon. Take care and see you next To View More >>

(Photography by Simon Whitten) Truth is, sometimes I've felt a bit self-conscious writing about our wedding. Every day I see albums from top photographers around the world of the most elaborate, extravagant and expensive weddings you could imagine. Sometimes I've wondered if what I'm writing is even relevant ... because Kayla and I didn't get married in a castle! But my intention has been to share our experiences and insights, not to compare our wedding to another. And the truth is that the weddings we're lucky enough to share in at Queensberry take place everywhere, "from humble homes to palaces." To View More >>

Yesterday, I had one of the cheesiest sales line I've heard in quite a while tried on me... "Nigel, how will you feel tomorrow if you don't buy it now." I didn't buy and I feel OK. But I did buy wedding photography recently. I'm not sure which one of Johannes' categories I fit best, you'll have to ask him. And Ian – who says that, as a man, I'm not interested in the detailed (girlie) stuff? I was. Maybe that makes me a 'Control Freak'? Here's my take on selling to a man... (including a metro-sexual one). 1) Don't try any cheesy sales lines on me... I'll think you're a douche. Have a conversation To View More >>

Stock photography may be eating into commission opportunities for professionals, but some people are doing very well out of it, including Aussie photographer David Freund. I saw David online talking about iStockphoto's 10th birthday and asked him how this fitted with his wedding business. - Ian Ian Baugh from Queensberry recently posed a question to me about the role my stock photography takes in my wedding photography business. It’s not unusual to find that most wedding photographers also photograph other things. Commonly wedding photographers are also portrait photographers, some are landscape 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 >>