Stock photography may be eating into commission opportunities for professionals, but some people are doing very well out of it, including Aussie photographer David Freund. I saw David online talking about iStockphoto's 10th birthday and asked him how this fitted with his wedding business. - Ian Ian Baugh from Queensberry recently posed a question to me about the role my stock photography takes in my wedding photography business. It’s not unusual to find that most wedding photographers also photograph other things. Commonly wedding photographers are also portrait photographers, some are landscape To View More >>

Did you see the album we posted on our brand blog. Michael Soo photographed it himself and I stumbled across it. He photographed Christine and Ben's album when it arrived and, as well as blogging it, emailed them a few photos as a teaser. Ben wrote back within minutes saying, "We're on our way!" What a great, easy way to enhance the excitement and experience for his clients of seeing their album for the first time. Cheers, Nigel PS Good for business too, and we see more and more people putting juicy photography up for clients, their friends and prospects to see. To View More >>

Like many good things Musée begins with a story. In fact it begins with three stories, and the real magic is how they weave together... The first begins several years ago with a traveller on a bus in Spain, who strikes up a conversation with the woman sitting next to him. They like each other enough to introduce themselves. He's a wedding photographer from the far side of the world, in Spain on a scholarship. She's a paper conservator living in England, home to visit her family in Barcelona - and as it turns out, later, in love. The photographer and the conservator like each other enough to swap To View More >>

With the release yesterday of the latest version of Aperture, Apple's powerful photo editing and management software, we are delighted to announce Queensberry's new plug-in and album collection for Aperture 3. Please register for one of our free webinars (tomorrow or next week). Queensberry's plug-in for Aperture allows professional photographers to design and order a selection of our albums directly within Aperture 3. Timeless simplicity The watchword for the Queensberry album collection for Aperture is 'timeless simplicity' - simple designs to create confident, timeless classics and project the To View More >>

UPDATE: This recording has been removed and replaced by an updated version of our Advanced Photojunction webinar available for viewing here. Last week we jumped in the deep end and kicked off this year's Photojunction webinars with a brand new one - Tips, Tricks and Power Features. This is a follow-up to our newbie webinar and a little more advanced, so we assumed attendees had (some) experience with the software. In it, we covered lots of tips, tricks and power features including: - Working with PSDs and JPEGs - Sorting and selecting images - Alignment - Productivity features - Working with clients To View More >>

[caption id="attachment_1348" align="alignnone" width="500" caption="Photography by Michael + Anna Costa"][/caption] Although we'd love all our clients to print with us, and most now do, we can't expect that everyone will. It's a huge ask to send your images to the other side of the world for printing.  But sometimes, for reasons that have little to do with the printing itself, we need really tight control to deliver you a good result. Duos are a prime example. The design and craft processes that allow us to integrate digital and matted pages, create split mats etc are intensive and very demanding. To View More >>

I don't read the instructions unless I need to. Needing to is defined by 'it won't work unless you read the instructions.' One of the weaknesses in Photojunction is its simplicity and a sense that you can work it out just by using it. Some of us would have it no other way. But that means there is a tendency to apply the status quo approach to it. It is too easy to write off something because you had a bad experience with previous versions. Ultimately we can become neglectful of progress through our established habits. I had a conversation over dinner with another photographer last night. They said To View More >>

Customer service edicts state that the customer is always right. Sometimes we disagree ... out of self defense. We don't like the implication that because the customer is right then we must be wrong. We defend our innocence and integrity!  Step back for a moment. There is a principle in Tai Chi that states that you can use your adversary's energy on themselves. Imagine saying the customer is always right. If you stop defending yourself and ask the client for a realistic solution to their own problem (a solution that, if they were you, they would see as fair)  you move away from being wrong To View More >>

Being photographed for your wedding (especially your first one) is worth remembering. Well it should be!        Actually, no! The thing you shouldn't remember is being photographed. You should remember having a great time. You should remember laughing, feeling in love, being nervous, being energised, being with the one you love, being happy, but not "being photographed".  Your photographs should remind you of the feelings and emotions of the day, and not of somebody pointing a camera at you. This is an interesting concept ... The photographer as the facilitator for imagery that uses great To View More >>

Three points! 1. Investigate and determine your clients needs, limitations, and dreams. 2. Establish design objectives. 3. Exceed your clients' expectations. We set the parameters of size, style, and content from discussions with our client prior to the wedding. Having a series of questions to answer on a sheet means you get the information you need. Album type, size, and budget are the first questions. Then how many albums and what these would do. We gauge their response to our sample albums and ask questions about what might be important. We define the style by giving them a key description and To View More >>