Click here to watch on Vimeo. In the second half of our conversation I talk to Kristie and Brett Harkness about: • dealing with high-end clients • word of mouth • the importance of tangible products • building a relationship with venues • maintaining your business in the the recession • avoiding being a "busy fool" • changing, adapting and diversifying, and • working together as a couple – the last but not the least ;) Oh, and Brett explains why their workshops and DVD aren't for beginners or the advanced, but those in between. Cheers, Ian To View More >>

4. Create Album from Templates Coach reckons this isn't as clever as Divide and Conquer but we think it's really cool. Do you have a collection of templates that you love and use all the time? Click Create Album from Templates, select an image collection and your template collection, and PJ will build an album from the templates and pop all the images in the apertures. Sit back, have a coffee if you're American, or a nice cup of tea if you're a Brit. You Aussies will want a cold one, and as for us in New Zealand, it'll be a nice Sauvignon Blanc from Marlborough, thank you. Just let PJ do its thing. To View More >>

Click here to watch the video on Vimeo. My father's family came from Westhoughton, only twenty miles or so from where Brett and Kristie Harkness have their studio in the North of England, so we're practically neighbours. Brett's a northerner born and bred (Newcastle), but Kristie's from Saskatchewan, where the population density is only slightly more than that of New Zealand supporters at an English rugby match. In the first of a two-part interview Kristie and Brett tell Ian how they got from working on a cruise ship to their high end studio, and: learning the business side of photography; letting To View More >>

Simon Woolf is one of my favourite people. One of our longest-standing clients and quite possibly the most energetic person I know (if you don't believe me check out his Facebook page). He sells beautiful landscapes from his shop in Wellington's Cable Car Lane – access way to one of Wellington's top tourist attractions. One day Simon saw a tourist photographing one of his landscapes through the display window, and posted about it on Facebook. "I asked her for a look, and she stated, 'It wasn't a bad copy but was a little light'. I then told her I was the photographer, and she was being a bit To View More >>

My two children are getting married, and In Part 1 I talked about how my eyes have been opened by the experience. What would my kids get if they hired a "professional photographer” for $3500.00 or so? Generally the photographer's time on the day, a DVD, no post work, often from someone who doesn't know how to give a "wedding day experience" on top of everything else. $3500 feels like too much money for that, but as I pointed out, the wholesale costs involved are too high to expect much more. Prices like that encourage couples to go shopping with unrealistically low budgets for photography … To View More >>

My son is getting married in six weeks, and my daughter next year in May. So everyone's asking, “ Who did you pick to photograph your kids’ weddings?" That's not what I asked myself. I asked the same question as the people who come and see me: "How much is this gonna cost?" The answer really opened my eyes… When I analyzed it, I'm paying the photographer and their assistant for their time that day, and they are giving me the files. After the wedding, I personally will edit, color correct, create 4x6 proofs, order a proof box, design an album, do the post production work, order the album, To View More >>

We've created albums for celebrities of all sorts over the last forty years, from the likes of Pope John Paul 2, Queen Elizabeth and Princess Diana through to many others famous in business, entertainment and the arts. It's hard to talk about because many famous clients quite rightly insist on total privacy regarding their images and we often receive requests from photographers for confidentiality, not just from celebrities but regarding culturally sensitive weddings. Those photographers have been chosen by their clients because of the trust and confidence they instill. To honour that confidence To View More >>

Things have a habit of creeping up on you, as our friends at Seldex have reminded us by sending an email to their clients reminding them that come July they won't be able to use Photojunction's cover design and Send Order functions. (We announced as much here back in February.) We've counted Seldex as friends for years – in fact they sold Queensberry albums in Australia back in the day! - so this is a rather sad time, the culmination of a process that started to unfold a couple of years ago when we realised that most suppliers weren't going to support PJ as a universal album design tool, which To View More >>

Johannes has a better metaphor, but the photo is from iStock. - Ed. The Bumble Bee Effect. Different to the Butterfly Effect because they haven't made a movie of the same name with at least two sequels. The Bumble Bee effect is all about buzz and pollen. It's about being talked about. We successfully did so by putting on an earthquake (a really big one). There are other ways to create a buzz that are much more positive. Obvious buzz topics are awards, photographing the wedding of Kate and Prince William, standing tall in the face of adversity, scandal, heroism, and achievement. (Actually 'scandal' To View More >>

Today is our 16th wedding anniversary. Today, I bring out our wedding album and indulge in the enjoyable recollection of the beginning of OUR love story. I revisit with those who were with us on the day, and remember those who aren't with us now. Our wedding album gets more and more precious as the years go on. I know he still loves me. How? He still turns my light off. He knows I still love him because I stroke his hand... sometimes :-) Love, Sonya To View More >>