Drop everything and do this now! SHORTEST DAY, LOWEST PRICES Tomorrow is the shortest day down under. It's a little cold and wet – and between our busy seasons – so we're running a very special special to keep warm! Queensberry Press books: 50% off Queensberry Press albums: 50% off Classic Flushmount albums: 50% off Free design if you submit the order in Workspace. There's not much fine print. Your order needs to be submitted, confirmed and paid for in ten days (ie by June 30), so you need to be quick… And this can't be combined with any other special offer. Happy Mid Year Christmas from To View More >>

We have been running Live Help for a few weeks now and the response has been overwhelming. If you spot the little green button on most of our website links, click on it to connect with one of our team who can help with your queries. It certainly cuts out the emails, and we enjoy talking to you guys. If the button is grey it means we're not on line or are all busy right now, so just write your query and and we will answer with an email as soon as we possibly can. Help is never too far away. Cheers, Pete To View More >>

I was talking to Pete at the lab who said we’ve had an influx of album design orders recently. Pete's a funny guy and he said that in some orders the client was even sending "the kitchen sink", a bit of Kiwi humour that denotes one who is going a bit over the top. As it happens a lot of new people have been trying the service as a result of a special we ran, and a few have sent us several hundred images to put in an album with maybe 15 pages. They’re obviously expecting us to select the images for the album, so we thought maybe a post on how we work might make it easier for you. A few years To View More >>

In the context of professional people photography here are a few things that surprise and puzzle us. How often the images are released from the studio before the sale is finalised. How the album planning/sales process can take months, sometimes years. How there's often no attempt to up-sell after the event. How the album is treated as a cost, not a marketing tool. How album planning is treated as an obligation not an opportunity. How studios go with the crowd, instead of standing out from it. None of those maximise your opportunities, and there are probably less of those to go round right now. To View More >>

Have you ever wanted a Photojunction or Workspace tech sitting on your shoulder as you work? We have introduced a new service which is a little more comfortable for us and most likely a little less painful for you (trust me, I'm not a featherweight). Live chat is a new feature you'll find in Queensberry Workspace (in fact on all our web and blog pages). If you are used to instant messaging such as SMS messenger, this will be a walk in the park for you. Whenever you see a green logo like this one, it means there's someone available at Queensberry to talk to you right now. If it's a different colour, To View More >>

I've talked about Photojunction and Workspace. Now may I introduce you to Queensberry Lab Direct. This downloadable program is for Aussie and Kiwi photographers to order print products (traditional prints, canvases and fine art inkjet) from us. The difference between Lab Direct and the Workspace shopping cart system is that with Lab Direct, you are placing a wholesale order and paying for it yourself, whereas in Workspace it's your client placing the order, and paying the retail price that you set. Lab Direct very simple. All you need to do is to import the images, much the same as you do with To View More >>

Now you’re doing your own publishing, you have more to concern yourself with than the quality of your images. Of course people will judge you by those. You do so yourself. But they’ll also judge you by your writing, your tone of voice, your graphic design sensibilities. Plenty of people will judge you because you don’t know how to use apostrophes, or when to use i before e. These days plenty more will judge you for not re-reading before you publish, and so not noticing how predictive texting has messed up your sentences. Neither you nor I have a professional sub-editor polishing our stuff, To View More >>

I was reading that professional women sometimes find it difficult to get in touch with their feminine side. I concur. I know I might get lynched by some of my feminist friends but I like nothing better than getting in the kitchen. I find it relaxing and a total break from work. Try making this “Pink Lady Cake” and sharing it with family and friends. Serve with a slice of love and a glass of bubbles. It’s pink, it's pretty and it’s really delicious. I made it for morning tea on Anna Matsuoka's last day (sadly for us, she's heading back to Japan). The recipe is from our good friends and To View More >>

I got a few pats on the back for my "check your files" post. Chris Meiklejohn, our lab manager, liked it so much that she wanted a sequel. In fact she wrote one! The funny thing was my team mates had already got me one started on a follow-up, and the things on Chris' list were pretty much the same as ours. So, drum roll… (If you like this, I wrote it. Otherwise, it's Chris!) 8 ways to better print files Would you love to have your albums arrive on your doorstep faster, hassle-free, and beautifully printed? You put a lot of work into them, so they might as well be perfect. We definitely want To View More >>

When duplicating albums in Photojunction, the new album is automatically named with the original name with "_copy1", "_copy2", etc added to the end. This can get quite confusing. If I don't touch the album for a month, I'll have no idea which copy is the right copy. I try to rename as soon as possible. I have a few suggestions that might help with your workflow, and give you an idea of the kind of confusion you can get into. 1. If you're duplicating an album to make client changes, I rename the original album as just that, "Original". 2. If you're duplicating an album to send corrected files, adding To View More >>