"I'm going to interview Simon Whitten while I'm in the UK," I said to Heather, "Short story - what springs to mind?" "Stately homes ... panoramic images ... simple, classic album designs," she said. Simon has established a solid business at the very top of the UK wedding market, and what struck me about our conversation was his confidence and clarity in talking about it. To succeed in this business requires a lot more than photographic passion and skills. You need a clear understanding of your market position, your clientele and where they come from, your brand and how you project it. The low To View More >>

Simon Whitten of SMW Photography has an interesting perspective on timelessness. He says the albums he's designing today should have looked current ten or twenty years ago, not just years into the future. That's the real test of timelessness, he says. That philosophy underlies his approach to album design - simple and uncluttered. We've featured Simon's work on Queensberry Connects before, but we grabbed this album for the beautifully simple design and the thought behind it ... He created a 14x10 Duo album for clients Charlotte and James and also made a stunning 18x10 Silk display sample for the To View More >>

Last week was fantastic! Our free design and colour correction announcement generated more comments and support suite enquiries than anything else we've ever done. And it started a lot of conversations with people about how it would work in practice, and how they could use it to increase their sales. What's driving this free service is the change in our industry, with more photographers adopting the line that albums aren't worth the time and aggravation. That attitude isn't new, and we think it's always been nonsense, but the best way to challenge it is to eliminate the "time and aggravation", To View More >>

Today we're announcing free album design and free standard colour correction on all our professional albums - Flushmount, Overlay Matted, Classic Matted and Duo. Here's why... When we're discussing how we can improve our products and services, we ask ourselves three questions: Can we make it fun? Will it save you time? Will it make you money? This time we're aiming for all three :) Many of our customers pay us to colour correct their images. Many pay us to design their albums as well. Many more wish they could afford to do the same. ALL OF YOU are going to enjoy one of two things. A fresh chance To View More >>

[caption id="attachment_17731" align="alignnone" width="500"] © James Yeats-Brown[/caption] James Yeats-Brown is a leading UK social photographer specialising in children's portraiture and the creation of family albums. He asks why shooting for a fee or commission shouldn't work in the social sector, since it's common in other areas of photography, and thinks a sales model based purely on speculative product upselling is dangerous these days - mainly thanks to new consumer-oriented products from Apple, Blurb, Photobox etc. This began as a comment on Ian's post suggesting the Shoot and Share model To View More >>