I have taken up a temporary position helping out with the Photojunction support team. One thing that I have noticed is that people seem to have more problems with the mechanics of Photojunction not fitting into their own experience or habits. Hardly ever does anybody ask for design advice. I wonder if it is the same with photography. People will ask about technical things like lighting and composition but much less often about content and emotion. ARE WE TOO SHY? I don't think so! As photographers we are called upon to be the creative voice for our clients. Is it that we don't like to ask for help? To View More >>

I couldn't help myself ... I just had to jump in on this one. There are many reasons why photographers are coy on their pricing. They want to keep their colleagues uninformed. They don't want to frighten potential clients before they have had a chance to impress them with their own brand of personal charm, their list of awards, and the opportunity to brandish their Photoshop skills. They don't feel confident in their own pricing. We have two companies dealing with different budgets. The less expensive brand has full disclosure on the website. 65-75% of people responding to the website are booking To View More >>

Here in Shakey Town (Christchurch) things won't be 'normal' for a long time. In Queensland they are still drying out the carpets. In Japan they haven't even started. These are all timely reminders of our vulnerability, and a very good reason for having an offsite backup. The unforgiving nature of these disasters made us think about ways to store information securely and safely. Our problem is the volume of data we generate every time we head out to shoot. I just wanted to prompt people to think about it, because for us, one of the first thoughts for our business, after the big quakes, was access To View More >>

So you have a few album designs under your belt and you are thinking "I need more!' Flips and wings are a remnant from early creative album design days, but are in fact a very cool design addition. They are easy to use and add an element of difference – provided your album maker allows them, as Queensberry does. A Flip is an extra page that folds out from the outer edge of a standard page while Wings are half pages that fold over the base page and meet in the middle. They are simple to add and can be found in the Layout tab in the Tools window. [caption id="attachment_5603" align="alignnone" To View More >>

Three quick tips to simplify album design. 1. Avoid unnecessary repetition (eg this is the bride looking slightly left, straight ahead, and slightly right) unless you make your profits from the number of images you sell. 2. Embrace open space (especially in sample albums - lead by example). 3. Offer a two album option that allows people to have lots of images without overcrowding. While I'm mentioning 'leading by example': If you don't make a sample album from each order, at least make each design into a slideshow you can show prospective clients. This library of slideshows allows you to show them To View More >>

'Oh So Beautiful Paper' is a really awesome blog. They have new visual delights every day - that are often beautiful wedding invites - but also anything gorgeous to do with paper. A little while ago, Queensberry featured in a post about a Musée album with images by Justine Ungaro. Hope you enjoy browsing:) Just a warning though - it's incredibly addictive! Anna To View More >>

I got reminded today that I haven't mentioned the follow-up to David Ziser's "perfect storm" post, which I recommended a few weeks ago. You can find Part 2 here. It's interesting reading and I hope you check it out. David's saying that, despite all the factors working against professional photography you're not doomed! There's light at the end of the tunnel. But quality and service aren't enough, so what does it take to succeed? Quite a lot really: "…product innovation, responsiveness to the client, studio-client “stickiness”, product diversity, creative marketing, full understanding of social To View More >>

There are two things you shouldn’t do with a problem or mistake: just ignore it, or just fix it. Just ignoring it really annoys people, so don’t do that. But sometimes just fixing it isn’t much better – especially if someone else caused the problem in the first place. That’s because (with many problems) if all you do is "fix them" the same thing will happen again. And that soon gets really annoying. Annoying for the person fixing the problem (of course) but just as annoying for the person who may actually be causing the problem. If things keep going wrong they’re left wondering why To View More >>

I used to have a rule, 'If there is a black and white image in an opening the whole opening should be black and white!' It was a good rule because it fitted well with my 'Keep it simple' approach to album design. I have however seen some lovely designs from some very talented photographers where they are using the contrast between the black and white image and the colour one to either remind you of colour, or remind you of form. So I have modified my rule. Use colour and black and white together with intent only. Random meaningless mixing creates visual chaos and disturbs the viewing experience. To View More >>

In my posts a couple of months back about album marketing I suggested that you need an entry-level price that doesn't scare people. That prompted Darlene to tell a good story... "If a bride has a Mercedes budget and your prices start at Ford, she won't even come look at you. I've seen that in action with some of my clients. "One guy from a rust-belt town was charging $1500-3000. He told me, 'I can't sell your albums – they're too expensive and I can't get $5000 for a wedding round here'. "I told him he'd be surprised to learn, then, that one of his competitors (20 minutes away) was using To View More >>