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Queensberry Connects


Ian Baugh

Ian graduated with an arts degree too long ago to remember (OK, the early '70s), then worked in secondary teaching and small boat design and construction, including a foreign aid project in the Solomon Is. He developed Queensberry with his wife, Heather, who founded the company in 1969. Ian is a Director of Queensberry and focuses on marketing and strategic planning. His wealth of industry knowledge is the result of many years talking with Queensberry's clients.

http://www.queensberry.com/

Ian's Archive

Creativity is like happiness

September 5th, 2011 in Inspiration by


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Heather and I have been in Penang for a few days, “recharging our creative juices”.

But what does that mean? Creativity is like happiness. You can’t reach out and grab it directly, although we do believe that getting out of your comfort zone (I couldn’t think of another cliché, sorry) – and sleeping a lot – both help.

We’re staying in old George Town. It was declared a Unesco World Heritage site in 2008, as the locals are proud to tell us. They’re also proud that Jimmy Choo was born into a family of local shoemakers, and apprenticed to a little shop just a few metres from where we’re staying on Muntri Street. His Dad helped finance his studies in London, where he came to the notice of Princess Diana and Vogue in the late ’80s.

I’ll never be seen wearing a pair of Jimmys, but suddenly they mean something more. Less Sex in the City, more the flamboyantly decorative crafts of Penang – real, not devised by an agency.

They have a voice and a backstory. I can imagine paying good money for them.

So, creativity: built on hard work, tradition and craft. Those certainly aren’t enough, but they can’t be by-passed.

Cheers
Ian

There used to be hundreds of shoe makers and factories in Penang, but sadly most are gone. Sadly? Inevitably, I guess.

 

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    • Excited, even proud

    August 17th, 2011 in News by


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    If you’ve been wondering where we’ve been lately, this is it!
    We’re excited – even proud in an understated Kiwi way ;) to announce Queensberry Press version 3.0.

    We get to say “yes” to a lot of things you’ve been asking for, and well … we think you’ll like the prices!

    So with that little fanfare please welcome Queensberry Press Albums. Press printed, flushmount or matted albums. Simple, affordable and gorgeous.

    Here are some of the features:

    Pages are either flushmount – unmatted and similar to our digital albums…

    Queensberry Press Flushmount

    … or matted – overlay style in a clean cut page block reminiscent of Duo.

    Queensberry Press Overlay Matted
    Images are printed on our Press paper range of Satin paper, Pearl, Nettuno or Tintoretto art papers, or our new photo-quality Kodak stock.

    The Photojunction development team have been really busy too, and they’ve just released v1.53 to make it all possible. The resources you’ll need to design Press Albums will download automatically once you upgrade.

    The new price lists are also available on our website. We think they’ll make good reading.

    To top off our accountant’s anguish, and get the new press albums into your hands as quickly as possible, we have another half-price introductory offer.

    Order any Queensberry Press Album before Friday 2nd September 2011 and pay half price on the original as well as the first duplicate if you want one. (NB offer applies to the new Press Albums only, not to Press Books.)

    If you have any questions you can contact us by all the normal means. We’d love to hear what you think.

    But don’t miss out on the half price special!

    Cheers, Ian

     

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    • Great way to spend a Monday

    July 18th, 2011 in News by


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    We’ve just spent a great Monday afternoon browsing through the submissions for our Bragging Rights campaign, which closed last Friday. Thank you to everyone who participated!

    We had a terrific response from friends old and new. Plenty of weddings of course, but also engagement shoots, family portraits, maternity, pets, you name it. Different countries, cultures, locations and styles.

    So that was inspiring, but now comes the hard part – choosing!

    We’re looking for twelve sets of images to showcase on our website, in our new season sample albums and books, and in our blogs and marketing pieces.

    As Anna said, we’re not choosing just on the basis of image quality, either – all the more reason to say that some awesome photography is going to miss out.

    We’ve been swamped with riches, thank you!

    Cheers, Ian

     

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    • Phone server down

    July 11th, 2011 in News by


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    The Queensberry phone server is down right now due to an external fault – no idea yet when it’ll be back up again, sorry.

    We’ll let you know on Facebook and Twitter (links to your right).

    Sorry for the inconvenience.
    Ian
    UPDATE: everything back to normal – Ed ;)

     

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    • Getting us all on the same page

    June 25th, 2011 in News by


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    Our email list goes back well over a decade. A scary thought when you think about it!

    People could have been shooting film when they signed up … or still at High School.

    Mac OSX and Win XP could have been in the future, let alone Facebook and Twitter!

    (On the other hand there’ll be people on it who signed up for Photojunction only yesterday, but in order to design albums from Brand X.)

    The fact is we’ve been changing just as much as the world has, but I’ll bet many people won’t know about the Queensberry Press, for example, or Musée, or our Apple® connection.
    Or that that you no longer need to buy a starter kit to do business with us. ;)

    To get everyone on the same page we’re sending a few emails to introduce the new Queensberry, and we’re going to copy in our valued clients, so everyone knows what’s going on.

    If you don’t want to hear from us, you know what to do – but hopefully you’ll stick with them for a while: we have a lot of catching up to do!

    Cheers, Ian.

     

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    • People: Crash Taylor

    June 21st, 2011 in People by


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    Click here to watch on Vimeo.

    I’ve never met Crash Taylor, but I’ve been looking forward to interviewing him because of this endearing habit he has of poking his head above the parapet and getting shot at.

    As in this post, for example, which I published because he was nice enough to call Queensberry “the Tiffany of wedding albums”. I didn’t mean to buy into a storm, but I did anyway – as you can see from the post comments. You can read the full brouhaha on DWF if you’re keen.

    For the record, I think it’s hard to argue with “cheap publicity” (is there any other kind?) and when I spoke to him Crash came across as an energetic, engaging guy with interesting ideas. Not having heard him speak, I thought he was a Brit, but he’s actually from LA.

    I talked with him about LA and Nottingham; hard work; controversy and criticism; creating that ‘wow’ factor; getting booked; Lightroom vs Photoshop; story telling; being aware; albums and album design; workshops; realistic expectations; personal projects and work/life balance. I asked him about his workshops too.

    Crash operates on the one website per subject principle, but you can get to his studio work, blog and workshops through crashtaylor.com or his Facebook page.

    His photographer interviews are definitely worth checking out.

    Enjoy!

    Cheers, Ian

     

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    • “The cheek of it!”

    June 15th, 2011 in Marketing by


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    Simon Woolf is one of my favourite people. One of our longest-standing clients and quite possibly the most energetic person I know (if you don’t believe me check out his Facebook page). He sells beautiful landscapes from his shop in Wellington’s Cable Car Lane – access way to one of Wellington’s top tourist attractions. One day Simon saw a tourist photographing one of his landscapes through the display window, and posted about it on Facebook.

    “I asked her for a look, and she stated, ‘It wasn’t a bad copy but was a little light’. I then told her I was the photographer, and she was being a bit naughty! Her reply was that at least half a dozen other people queueing for the Cable Car had done the same thing!”

    It’s not my image, of course, but, after coming up relatively clean on a quick internal audit, I appreciate his indignation – knowing Simon I’m sure it was good-humoured – but I don’t really think there’s a problem, for two reasons:

    1. He’s selling a relatively expensive product. If people are content with a photo of a photo (shot through glass) they’re not his customers. Just like those people who’re content with prints from your low-res web images. Nothing lost. And it says good things about the image!

    2. In an online world there’s no choice but to put at least some of your images, in some form, in harm’s way. Call it paying it forward, or the price of online marketing. The people that don’t buy are still marketing for you. Even via a crappy home inkjet print they pass around with your watermark on it. The challenge is how to monetise what you’re giving away. Simon knows this, and practices it by the way.
    I wrote this hoping he’ll comment ;)

    Cheers
    Ian

     

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    • People: Brett and Kristie: part 2

    June 14th, 2011 in People by


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    Click here to watch on Vimeo.

    In the second half of our conversation I talk to Kristie and Brett Harkness about:

    • dealing with high-end clients

    • word of mouth

    • the importance of tangible products

    • building a relationship with venues

    • maintaining your business in the the recession

    • avoiding being a “busy fool”

    • changing, adapting and diversifying, and
    • working together as a couple – the last but not the least ;)

    Oh, and Brett explains why their workshops and DVD aren’t for beginners or the advanced, but those in between.

    Cheers, Ian

     

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    • People: Brett and Kristie Harkness

    June 10th, 2011 in People by


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    Click here to watch the video on Vimeo.

    My father’s family came from Westhoughton, only twenty miles or so from where Brett and Kristie Harkness have their studio in the North of England, so we’re practically neighbours.

    Brett’s a northerner born and bred (Newcastle), but Kristie’s from Saskatchewan, where the population density is only slightly more than that of New Zealand supporters at an English rugby match.

    In the first of a two-part interview Kristie and Brett tell Ian how they got from working on a cruise ship to their high end studio, and: learning the business side of photography; letting the experts print for you; working your butt off as a recipe for success; finding your own approach; photographic style and inspiration; adapting to your clients; the role of Photoshop; getting it right in the camera.

    Enjoy!

    Cheers, Ian

     

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    • Twittering butterflies

    May 31st, 2011 in Marketing by


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    Chaos theory has a metaphor for the way trivial occurrences can have significant consequences: it’s the butterfly effect.

    We’re proud of Johannes’ post of that name in which he explains why he’s a Queensberry partisan. It’s about a serendipitous image that won him his first NZIPP Gold, caught Heather’s and my eyes … and led to a relationship that’s lasted eighteen years. So far. All because his tripod collapsed.

    That relationship has been positive for us in so many ways, and we hope it’s been good for Johannes too.

    One of the benefits has a really old name: word of mouth. Johannes has a great reputation with his peers and he tells them how good he thinks we are. The best marketing out there! And we’re very quick to reciprocate.

    Word of mouth has a new name too, social media, and it’s changed everything.

    Social media is systematised word of mouth. It’s like the butterfly effect in that any one of your posts, tweets, status updates and comments is a tiny event that separately or together can have a major impact on the future of your business. The same goes for the posts and comments that mention you!

    As these messages percolate out to your friends, and the friends of friends become your friends, as you demonstrate what a great guy you are (hopefully!) so does your network, your reputation, your audience grow – one friend, advocate, potential customer at a time.

    It is hard, slow work to build an authentic audience, and if it all feels too next year, too hard, too just not you, just stop, and see where that gets you. Actually I wouldn’t unless you have something really good to take its place. A Yellow Pages ad or a magazine ad probably doesn’t cut it any more.

    Social media is a two-way street. Our I Own A Queensberry Facebook page is a tool for us all to jointly build our networks. We hope you join in!

    Cheers, Ian

     

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