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Posts Tagged ‘Revolution’

A real opportunity

June 18th, 2009 in Marketing by Ian Baugh


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“Previously we were offering albums we knew our competitors were also offering, but we’ve realised we can use the album to separate us from our competitors.”

That quote from Nigel’s interview with the Youngrens reflects Queensberry’s key message to photographers and it got me thinking…

A while ago I posted about album companies in trouble – and not hitching your own wagon to dying stars. Today I’m suggesting you be wary of the latest and greatest too ;)

In the US and UK markets of 2000, Queensberry albums were revolutionary because we hand-made every album to order. That meant photographers, for the first time, could custom-design albums to suit their imagery … and actually get them made.

Another revolution quickly followed, what we now call digital albums, coffee table books, flush mounts, magazine albums, whatever.

Both these “revolutions” were fruits of the digital revolution, an impossible dream come true!

A constant stream of digital albums now progresses through our Bindery. Many of them are beautiful – and we feature some of them here.

But…

But a mindset has developed in some quarters that “digital albums, coffee table books, flush mounts, magazine albums” are all there is.

Check out forums like DWF and notice how infrequently matted albums are mentioned, and how badly most album planning software handles them (generally via drag and drop templates).

If you agree with the Queensberry Rules, that mindset represents a real opportunity for Queensberry clients and anyone else who believes in standing out from the crowd.

And unfortunately for professional photographers, press books may be great but they’re everywhere. What was unimaginable a decade ago is now commonplace. As you can tell from the number of start-ups and labs getting into the game, the downwardly spiralling prices, and the fact that any amateur and part-timer can now design and order the books themselves for very little money.

So be careful building your business around press books, indeed any generic presentation. It could be a bit like saying that you want to join the crowd, not stand out from it, that you intend to compete on price, not quality and service. A mistake, in our opinion, especially if your goal is to build a long-term career.

That doesn’t mean there isn’t a place for press books. There absolutely is. We live and compete in the real world. If I was a photographer I would offer them. Probably.

But if they define your business you’re competing with the bottom of the market, not the top. And that’s a tough, crowded neighbourhood.

Cheers, Ian

 

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    • Before they invented pixels …

    February 28th, 2009 in Photography & Design by Johannes van Kan


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    Before they invented pixels much of the stuff that we do in post production happened to the image as it was taken.

    There used to be a vignette you could apply ‘on camera’, there were wonderful things that you could do using a softar filter.

    There also was attention to detail. Details of composition, lighting, expression and, dare I use the word, posing.

    We now shoot a ridiculous number of frames as we become more opportunist and somehow more reckless.

    Certainly from this reckless/prolific behavior we get some true gems, but we often create more work than is necessary.

    I just wanted to give a plug to doing it right in camera over fixing it in post production.

    Know your light, know your composition, and start with well exposed images.

    I am aware of a move to learning more about the craft of photography, and I fully support that as the new era of photography … another case of the latest ‘new thing’ being the old thing but better.

    Why does it matter? It matters because it costs us … It costs us in time and quality to deal with these things in post production …  Join the revolution! The revolution for photographs shot right in the first instance.

    Cheers, Johannes

     

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    February 23rd, 2009 in Marketing by Ian Baugh


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    You’ve probably got it that I’m a Seth Godin fanboy. Every day I get my daily dose of something to think about.

    Posting about the digital revolution in our industry reminded me of this quote. It’s from a very long post about the music industry, but it’ll bounce ideas round your head:

    “The new thing is never as good as the old thing, at least right now.

    “Soon, the new thing will be better than the old thing will be. But if you wait until then, it’s going to be too late.  Feel free to wax nostalgic about the old thing, but don’t fool yourself into believing it’s going to be here forever. It won’t.”

    Some examples:

    The guys who used to typeset, lay up and make the plates for a newsletter I published in the ’80s. They  sneered when I bought an Apple Mac and Pagemaker, and what I could do with them was pretty pathetic, but they’re the ones long gone.

    A few years ago we spent a small fortune on scanning equipment for the lab. Now it’s almost idle.

    Or here’s Seth again on how the telephone destroyed the telegraph.

      Cheers, Ian

       

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      • Why did you change?

      February 19th, 2009 in Products & Services by Ian Baugh


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      A couple of weeks ago I posted about aggravating business policies and touch points, and asked readers to tell us about the things we do that’s frustrating! We received three comments. One I’ve mentioned already, and the other two also raise important issues.

      Katherine (not her real name) emailed her account manager to say she doesn’t like Photojunction. More important, she doesn’t like feeling pressured by Queensberry into using it.

      She feels that if QBY were truly customer focused she wouldn’t feel this pressure and could continue in the way that’s suited her perfectly for the last seven years. She thanks Jo for her “never ending patience with me and PJ, but I do feel it is an overly complicated, non-user friendly piece of software.”

      We really appreciate Katherine for sharing this. It’s hard to exaggerate the value to any business of someone who’s been with you for seven years. We all want things to work for her, and certainly understand why she might not want to change. How can we respond?

      FWIW here’s my take on it. 

      Seven years ago our industry was very different.

      • Most of our clients still used film.
      • Album companies didn’t print and bind.
      • Digital albums were as scarce as hen’s teeth.
      • Our clients printed locally and assembled their albums themselves.

      Our product was unique back then. Even well before 2000 you could design the pages as you wanted – but you did so with pen and paper, and we “digitised” the design in-house. And we wrote earnest articles about how to design and sell from stacks of prints!

      In the last seven years there’s been a revolution. Everything I’ve just described has been turned on its head.

      It started with the very first US studio we visited. I remember Cara in Sacramento asking Heather and me, “Don’t you have album planning software for these?”

      It seems to me that some of the people who did business with us before the “revolution” – and liked us as we were – wish we wouldn’t change.

      But we can’t be the way we were because it was a different world then, and what we do now would have been impossible.

      Photojunction and the systems we’ve built around it are how we make your stuff. Other suppliers have (and need) their equivalents.

      Interestingly, we can still receive faxed orders etc, but we have to recreate them in PJ before we make them! What we can’t do in these tough times is ask other clients to pay that cost. PJ users already get their albums cheaper, faster and more hassle-free, and that can only become more marked.

      So realistically, all we can do is ask for Katherine’s goodwill and forbearance as we help her through the transition. But…

      I had the privilege of sitting in on a PJRemix album review session with Johannes recently and I was blown away by what I saw. Photographer and client riffling through the files… changing layouts… swapping images and opinions… adding pages… An intense, creative collaboration. Profitable too.

      Cheers, Ian

      PS  So having watched me sweat, have you thought about how your own customers feel? Another story tomorrow.

       

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      • The man who kept the lab honest

      July 31st, 2008 in People by Ian Baugh


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      img_0169

      Rodney Ellmore, a good friend and long time Queensberry client, enjoyed a distinguished 46-year career.

      Over lunch recently I asked him about the shift from black-and-white to colour photography that transformed the portrait and wedding industry. Profitable careers were built on strong partnerships between a generation of photographers and their vendors.

      I believe there are lessons here for our own tumultuous times.

      Click here to download the mp3 file (6.5 mins).

      Cheers, Ian

      PS How did Rod “keep us honest”? If we were ever unsure of something, we’d ask ourselves, “Is it good enough for Rod?” Every business needs such good-humoured, supportive, demanding clients. And to listen to them.

      I shot the picture on my iPhone. Rod says he likes the back-lighting but I’m sure he’s being kind.

       

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