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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If capturing a fleeting moment thrills you … if beautiful colour makes your heart beat faster … if you dream about composition in your sleep… if you love telling stories with pictures – we’d love to hear from you.

We’re after images to showcase on our website and in our new season sample albums and books, as well as in our blogs and marketing pieces.

We’re looking for sets of around 80 images, but to enter all you have to do is send us TEN low-res images* from up to TWO different events – a wedding, portrait session, or whatever you happen to shoot – and email them to us at showcase@queensberry.com.

That’s 20 images in total. You can include a paragraph of supporting information if you like.

This isn’t a competition, but we can’t pick everyone either, so here’s what we’re after…

Technically brilliant imagery, yes, but more than that. We’re after images with something special to say about love and laughter, a vibrant culture, a dramatic environment or a compelling story. We want to represent the various markets we serve as widely as possible. And the events don’t need to be weddings.

Sharing the love

In return for the use of their gorgeous images we’ll give up to twelve selected photographers a US $1000 credit (or the equivalent) to their Queensberry account. Plus bragging rights of course!

The deadline for submissions is 15th July 2011.

We can’t wait to hear from you!

Cheers, Anna

Terms of submission:

1. * The initial images should be low res jpegs, and the entire upload (20 images) should be less than 5MB. If you make it to the short list we’ll ask to see hi-res images, a set of around 80 from each event.

2. To avoid delays, you must already have the permission of your clients to use the images for promotional purposes.

3. We’re looking for images to feature for the above purposes for up to two years. If selected, you will retain copyright in the images, and we will only use the images for the stated purposes. Final acceptance is subject to agreement with our terms. The hi-res images must be sent to Queensberry within one week of notification. If your images are not selected they’ll be deleted from our servers and not used for any purpose.

Any questions? Please email me.

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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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Last year we introduced The Queensberry Press, our first toe-dip into the brave new world of digital offset-printing.

Everyone, from our designers to our developers immediately started working hard on v2.0 – starting with a hard look at what you had to say about the first release!

So here’s what’s in The Queensberry Press v2.0. It starts with a really good introductory deal.

Order any Queensberry Press book before Friday 20th May 2011 and you’ll pay half price. Our discount on all “value packages” also increases from the normal 40% to 50% for the same period (as listed in Photojunction). We’ve had such a great response we have decided to extended the offer for another week until the 20th of May.

Fully integrated with our album range
All the cover materials listed in our album swatch book are now available in Queensberry Press books. We’ve also included a completely new “Pacific” range of striking coloured covers.

New art page options
As well as our standard satin pages, you can now choose from three “art” page options (Nettuno, Tintoretto and Pearl Metallic).

We’ve also dramatically reduced the price of the satin pages so you can get as many pages and images as possible into the books!

Designable translucents
You can now place translucents (vellum pages) throughout the book, and these are fully designable by you, with both images and text, in Photojunction.

Designable dust jackets
You can now design the dust jackets of Queensberry Press books separately from the cover (you don’t have to use the same design on both as you do in ordinary press books).

Presentation case upgrade
Our books already come elegantly packaged at no extra charge, but you can now complete a very striking presentation by upgrading to a hand-made Japanese-inspired Mayu Case.

New Software
The Photojunction development team have been really busy working on the software to make this all possible, and you can read about this here.

If you have any questions you can contact us by all the normal means. We’d love to hear from you. And don’t miss out on the half-price deal!

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We’d never been to Lyttelton until a couple of years ago. At school we’d all learnt it was Christchurch’s port, but that didn’t mean you had to visit.

Now everyone knows it’s at the epicentre of Christchurch’s earthquake.

The reason I did eventually visit Lyttelton was to catch up with Johannes van Kan and Jo Grams. It’s a fabulous little town, with a nice traditional pub (you walk down the corridor to the bathroom, just like the old days), lots of local music, good restaurants, great coffee, a beautiful setting. And in centre of the town the original, often funky, sometimes beautiful, apparently sturdy heritage buildings.

Jo and Johannes bought the old council building and courthouse and set up house, studio and baby there. It was damaged in the first quake last September, but they still had a building.

But watching TV last night, after the new quake, there was no coverage, no pictures from the town. Just word that it was near the epicentre, that the road tunnel was closed and the main street “destroyed”.

This morning I hear that Jo, Johannes and Ida are safe, but their building is “broken”.

Marg and Peter from Beverley Studios have been wonderful clients of our lab for decades. They’re in the CBD and were hit badly by the September quake, and again by a major aftershock on Boxing Day. They’ve only had two hours daily access to their studio since then (and they used to live above it). The earthquake update page on their website gives an insight into the impact. This time they were safely away at Lake Tekapo with family, and there’s no way they can get back to check for new damage.

Neil and Katherine from Tandem Studio operate mainly from home but they had a rented studio that was damaged in the September quake, so moved to new premises in the Square … right opposite the Cathedral, which crumbled yesterday. They’re fine but Neil says it doesn’t look good for the new studio either.

We don’t do as much business in Christchurch as we’d likely, mainly because there’s a local album company run by a fine gentleman, Brian Whitehouse. I phoned this morning. They have a big clean-up on their hands. Our hearts go out to Brian, his staff and customers, just as they do to our own.

I know there are tragedies around the world daily, but there’s no escaping it, the ones close to home hit deepest. We’re hundreds of miles away and perfectly safe, but close to home is how it feels.

Ian

Update: Photos of Lyttelton and surrounds after the quake;

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Just a heads-up that we expect our phone system to be down for a couple of hours from 4.30pm today New Zealand time while we move to a new server. (click here for the time where you are).

We apologise for any inconvenience but we’ll be back online soon.

Update: Phones are back to normal – thanks for your patience.

Best wishes from everyone at Queensberry.

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After 2-1/2 years Nigel is leaving us to take up a new position as the marketing and comms guy at Medtech Global.

This is short notice because Medtech, which specialises in medical software, is keen to have him in a hurry (we don’t blame them) and we felt able to oblige.

I’m regretting it already, but never mind

Nigel leaves to progress his career with our very best wishes and my personal gratitude for everything he’s done for us while he’s been here. We’re going to miss him.

Don’t be a stranger Nige!

Cheers, Ian

You know Nige is our metrosexual in residence. Maybe he’s leaving ‘cos he gets to wear a suit to work.

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[Edited 6 December.]

UK clients are doubtless aware that VAT rates are increasing from 17.5% to 20% effective from 4 January 2011.

We had understood that it would be necessary for us to charge additional VAT on orders placed but not dispatched before the change date, even if they have been pre-paid, but after reviewing HMRC’s anti-forestalling guidance notes this turns out to be incorrect.

We’re pleased to advise that all orders placed, confirmed and paid for before close-down will incur VAT at the old rate of 17.5%.

If you have any questions about your orders or how we’re handling this change please contact your Account Manager.

All the best from everyone at Queensberry.

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Queensberry and Photojunction’s phone systems will be offline for several hours tomorrow, Friday (November 26) from 4pm New Zealand time as we upgrade and relocate our main phone server.

Click here to check what time that makes it in your part of the world.

During this time all phone functions, including incoming and outgoing calls, and voice mail, will be unavailable.

If you do need to contact us during this time, please email us at info@queensberry.com and our customer service team will be in touch.

We apologise in advance for any disruption this may cause, we’ll be back on line as quickly as we can.

Thanks for your patience.

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