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The quickest way to go out of business is to be romantic about how you make your money.
— Gary Vaynerchuk

These posts lay out lessons from 50 years listening to successful social photographers — in other words, those who’re paid by the people in their viewfinder — not by their boss, or by newspaper editors, book publishers, corporations or advertisers. Not art or decor sold in online stores either.

We used to say that Queensberry’s clients were mid- to high-end photographers and those who aspire to be. That’s still largely true, but we now cater for two other markets, relatively new to us, whose business models generally depend on greater volumes and affordable prices. That is, photographers who offer clients the digital files only, and those who sell to groups like schools, teams, galas, graduations etc.

But wherever you sit on the high-end, low-end spectrum, this is Lesson Number One:

Love’s not enough!

What do I mean by that?

It’s love that motivates “the people in the viewfinder” — love and pride. And it’s what drives most photographers — love of photography.

But you need a healthy commercial attitude too. Professional photographers of every stripe are in business. You love what you do, and you need to get paid.

This book is about what that takes.

"I’m too busy"

I understand! But please read the 20 Questions and In a Nutshell pages. They’ll only take you five minutes each, and give you plenty to think about. I hope.

After that, just dive in. This started out as a blog, so just head for the Contents, pick a page, and scroll through it over coffee.  If you prefer, it’s short enough to read in three or four hours.

It may feel a bit repetitive at times. I’d blame the blog format for that, except it’s probably just me underlining my favourite themes.

Feel free to disagree

I don’t expect you to agree with everything I’ve said. In fact I hope it’s argumentative enough not to be boring!

It’s not the official Queensberry view of the world either, just my own.

But there’s one thing we do believe at Queensberry — that the way to succeed is to stand out from the crowd, not to follow it.

Whether you agree or disagree we’d love to hear from you.

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