About twelve months ago Jonas Peterson left his high profile, high paying position as a leading advertising copywriter to become a full-time photographer... In his first year on the block he shot 42 weddings and jumped to number one in Google rankings for 'Brisbane wedding photographer' (actually he did that in two months). He's booked 15 destination weddings so far this year and describes his business as 'wedding photography with a touch of awesome'. He's built a loyal following on his blog (over 2000 hits a day), has over 1450 followers on Twitter and a similar number of fans on his Facebook To View More >>

Catherine Connor of Aspire Photographic Training in the UK Lakes District has been a good friend of Queensberry for over a decade. Catherine is a highly experienced marketer and business development manager, and since 1998 thousands of photographers have benefited from both her own coaching and the experience of her impressive team of trainers. I talked to Catherine about what it takes to succeed in this industry. Is there a future for professional photography? Is it really harder today? How has digital changed things? Should photographers depend less on weddings? You can follow Catherine and To View More >>

Four years in, and Suzanne Black could teach a lot of people a lot of things…especially about marketing and surviving when times get tough. I had a chat with her about what she thinks are the keys to success, how she turns 90% of her enquiries into bookings and why albums are so important to her business. Positivity is contagious. Suzanne is feeling positive right now. I haven't heard that response to a question about the state of the economy in a long time, but after chatting I've decided describing her as "positive" is an understatement... She says, “In the current climate I think it's more To View More >>

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 >>

Welcome to the second interview in our series featuring clients whose businesses are thriving despite the current economic climate. Click here to read the first interview with Christian Oth. In the same year they had their first child, Chris and Darcie Siiteri started their Austin (Texas) photography business, Innovative Photography. Fifteen years later they’re still at it and doing better than ever. I gave an initially nervous Darcie an early morning call to chat about how they approach their album sales, and what they do to ensure their clients have an amazing experience and to foster relationships To View More >>

It's not all bad out there you know! There are plenty of people doing better than ever, even considering the recession. So over the next few weeks we're bringing you a series of interviews with clients who are doing just great. We'll share their advice, ideas and opinions as they give us some insights into how they're successfully running their businesses. Here's the first. He's been recognised as one of the world's best photographers, serviced clients like the New York Times and Apple Computer, photographed celebrities such as Alec Baldwin, Amanda Peet, Isabella Rosselini and Donald Trump,  regularly To View More >>

Wedding and portrait photographers are lucky.  There is an automatic point of difference built into the core of our businesses - our photography.  Other businesses selling books, bricks or ice-creams are dealing with the same commodities and therefore need to make their businesses about something other than the product, such as service, fast delivery or lifestyle branding. We start out with a product that is already differentiated - and what do many of us do? We try our hardest to look like other photographers. Why? If we use the same actions, poses and website colours as our competitors, what To View More >>

Recently Michael Segal asked us to design and make a 14x10v Musée album in gorgeous black embossed leather. I could show you the cover, I guess, but I'm not allowed to open it and show you round. Michael won't let us because his clients would…not be pleased. So all I can say is that it's the wedding of X and Y, held … somewhere. Among the guests are A, B, C and, oh, D, not to mention E and F. Most of them have worked together. When Michael asked Heather how she thought the book had turned out, she replied, "I think it looks beautiful. I feel very privileged to have been involved. "It's such To View More >>

I was talking to Stephen last night and he made a comment about how photographers will approach an album on the Queensberry stand at trade shows. He said that most often they will pick up the book and look at the last pages first. If what they see catches their interest they look more closely. I can think of several reasons for this behaviour. At trade shows there are many suppliers peddling their wares, It is important for photographers to be efficient in their research. The last image in an album is often a defining one and in some way summarises the quality, content and feeling of the album. To View More >>

Just read a post (love the internet -pause- sometimes) and had to share the punch line. The complete post is here and it's written by a guy called Spencer Lum for a blog called Ground Glass. Read this and grow. I wish I had written it. Find yourself in 13 steps 1. Be true to the art. The art powers it. It’s not a flash to the side, a quilt on a couple, or a texture on an image. Those are just techniques. Techniques have no soul. You do. Art does. 2. Don’t rush it. Faster isn’t always better. You start on a path, and it’s hard to get off, so if you push too hard, you get lost before you To View More >>