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 Aspire on Facebook and Twitter.

Cheers, Ian

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Photography by Christophe Flers

When Johannes was shooting the images for the By Hand movie earlier this year in our Bindery, he happened across some images by French photographer Christophe Flers. He was taken by the romance of them – real romance, true love – and he wanted to be able to do the same himself (check out the opening slideshow on Christophe’s website to see what he’s talking about).

So one day recently Christophe asked the tradespeople renovating his kitchen to keep it down, pulled up a couple of chairs and, with good friend and fellow photographer Caroline to translate, recorded this skype audio with Johannes.

He talks about his photography, his shooting style, how he relates to his clients, how he markets, the impact of the recession and how he feels about Queensberry. No money changed hands.

Click here to listen to the audio (Johannes started by asking Christophe how he describes the photography he gives his clients).

And take a look at one of his latest Queensberry albums…

Cheers, Ian

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While we were finalising our wedding album, our photographer asked us what I thought was an insignificant question.

Having received the album, I now understand why, and I think it’s important.

The question soon, but first the back-story.

The first time my wife Kayla and I saw our photographs was as a slideshow. If you’ve ever seen one of Johannes‘ slideshows, you’ll know how beautiful they are. We were drawn in by the imagery, the music, the timing.

And having not seen our photos until that point, we instantly felt a strong connection to them.

Framing them in a slideshow format helped tell our story from start to finish, allowing us to easily (and quickly) experience again all the emotion of the day. We still do every time we watch it.

The prints arrived a few days later. They were cool, but they sit in a box. They’re kind of cumbersome to handle. We’ve flicked through them a couple of times. But we don’t get them out when people come around.

They’re a little empty on their own.

Fast forward and we’re working on our album with Johannes. We get the design sorted and he asks the question…

“Do you really want to see the art-worked images before the album goes into production?” I say yes.

Problem. To Kayla, the proofs of the newly art-worked layouts don’t look like her wedding images anymore. “They look different. I want them to look like they do in the slideshow.” She feels no connection to them.

But those hesitations disappear altogether when we see our album for the first time. She (again) is blown away. She feels connected to them in a second. As if they are really hers, and always have been.

Just like the slideshow, the album framed our images and drew out emotions, feelings, connections, the story in a way that that seeing the images in isolation, on a screen or a 6×4 print, can’t.

Now I understand why Johannes asked us that question. He knew part of the experience of seeing our album for the first time would be lost by seeing the images beforehand.

If he hadn’t shown us the artwork he wouldn’t have given us the chance to doubt what he’d done. He’s the artist, not us. I wish we’d trusted him.

Our album sits on our coffee table. It tells a story. And we show everyone.

Cheers, Nigel

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It’s not all about “strategy”.

When young @stephenbaugh was working at Fuji Xerox a very successful colleague had this advice for him:

There are three rules if you want to succeed in sales:

1. Get yourself in plenty of debt – it motivates you to go out the door in the morning

2. Don’t let anybody see the fear in your eyes. If you’re so scared of losing this piece of business, people will wonder why … are you unsuccessful?

3. Build a relationship with the prospect. Is there a personality fit? Nothing else matters until you do, and a bad relationship doesn’t work for you or the prospect.

Check out the full story on our album-based marketing webinar.

Cheers, Ian

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“The brides love seeing themselves”: In our final installment Jerry explains how blogging generates bookings and sales, the benefits from clients look forward to seeing themselves online – and the serendipity by which he ended up shooting his first wedding in India.

Click here for the audio (8:21 mins).

Thanks for listening and sorry once again for the audio quality.

Cheers, Ian

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More wisdom from the over-30s…

In this segment Jerry Tomko tells Heather and me why he won’t take a wedding booking without an album, why the lady in his bagel shop doesn’t like digital and what’s wrong with shoot-and-burn.

And Heather talks about the only question many photographers know to ask about albums … and what’s wrong with the question.

Click here to listen (9:52 mins).

More soon.

Cheers, Ian

PS Apologies again for the audio quality.

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There was a time when the saying was, “Never trust anyone over 30!”

But hey, check out my picture – that was then and this is now.

Seriously folks, we were talking to Jerry Tomko at WPPI, and I thought … this man has so much sensible stuff to share. So Heather and I took him up to the suite, sat him down with wine and nibbles and interviewed him around a single mic.

Jerry is now a valued client, but he used to work as a rep for Art Leather. Here he talks about teaching people how to sell, why to sell albums (and frames), pre-designing an album in the days before digital, and more.

Don’t miss the reason Jerry’s parents have a 20×24 sitting behind their dresser 30 years after it was taken.

Click here to listen (8:05 mins). More tomorrow.

Cheers, Ian

PS Apologies in advance for the audio quality.

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Simon Woolf is one of the most energetic and engaging people I know.

When I interviewed him he was in Auckland as official photographer at our previous Prime Minister Helen Clark’s investiture to the Order of New Zealand.

He got a hug from Helen because they know each other that well and he’s that nice a guy.

A couple of nights earlier I’d spotted him on TV in the media scrum at Willie Apiata’s Victoria Cross ceremony. Again he was the official photographer.

And to complete the picture of a guy who’s everywhere, one of his landscape images, of an unusual sunrise, had featured the day before in his local newspaper. Trust Simon to be up with the birds.

He’s a stalwart of the Photographic Society of New Zealand, offers workshops and seminars (including photographic walking tours around town), gives generously to the community and in his spare time heads up Photography By Woolf, one of New Zealand’s longest-standing and most successful photographic studios. And dammit, he blogs.

Simon is an extraordinary networker. I believe that’s a major factor in the studio’s ongoing success, and it’s what I focussed on in our interview.

There is so much you can learn from this man. Please click here to listen (30 mins).

Cheers, Ian

PS Simon and I date back to 1986-7 when I walked into Photography By Woolf for the first time, to be confronted by portraits of Queen Elizabeth and Pope John Paul II. That doesn’t happen often!

Those shots were taken by his Dad, Ronald, who’d run the studio with his wife Inge since 1960. I remember liking Simon for lobbying Ronald to buy Queensberry albums …

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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 page. All reflect his engaging style and are well worth a look.

Johannes van Kan talks to Jonas about how he got up to speed in just 12 months, how he uses social media to get his message out there and his workflow and approach to albums.

Click here to listen to Johannes’ interview with Jonas Peterson (40 mins).

Cheers, Nigel

PS Skype dropped out in the middle of the interview, so you might notice a little awkwardness where I’ve stitched together the two halves of Jonas’s response to one of Johannes’ questions.

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“I’m going to interview Simon Whitten while I’m in the UK,” I said to Heather, “Short story – what springs to mind?”

“Stately homes … panoramic images … simple, classic album designs,” she said.

Simon has established a solid business at the very top of the UK wedding market, and what struck me about our conversation was his confidence and clarity in talking about it.

To succeed in this business requires a lot more than photographic passion and skills. You need a clear understanding of your market position, your clientele and where they come from, your brand and how you project it.

The low end of the market is always there, and always has been, he says, but it’s irrelevant. His challenges come from mid-range competitors.

In our conversation he talks about all this, the history of his studio, how he responded to the recession last year, and why timeless design is so important.

He stresses the importance of his website, so be sure to check that out too.

You might also like to take a look at the albums from Simon that we’ve featured on our consumer blog.

Click here to listen to my interview with Simon. (51 mins)

As they say, success leaves clues…

Cheers, Ian

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