Late last year Ian and I caught up with award winning photographer Bruce Gabites at his new Auckland studio. He'd just won his eighth straight Kodak Gold award  in the Wedding Album category, and we wanted to find out his secret... We spent a morning talking with him about why he enters photography competitions and what makes him so successful, the affect winning awards has on his business, and albums – the part they  play in his packages, and how he goes about selling them. To listen to our interview with Bruce Gabites click here (22 mins). Cheers, Nigel PS Bruce recently shared some To View More >>

For Jo and Simon of Shoot Lifestyle Photography, several Annabel Williams' photographic training books provided the eye opener they needed to see the wedding industry wasn't quite as 'naff' as they thought... Seven years on, they've just been awarded the Annabel Williams CPT Award, for the Queensberry sponsored Wedding Album Category. Jo says, "This was a real life wedding album we'd designed for clients Andy and Lisa." Their wedding took place in a quirky little tavern which Jo says exposed some beautiful natural light. The light doesn't last long on a UK winters day though, so they had to To View More >>

We like to say “We’re local” wherever we do business, but this story is as local as you can get… When we asked our regular clients to complete a survey, we promised a free album to one lucky respondent. We couldn’t believe it when the winner was a New Zealander, Liz March, from our own hometown! In fact she used to work not a mile from the Bindery. When we asked Liz to introduce herself to our readers, this is what she wrote: “About ten years ago I was working as an art teacher at a full immersion Maori school in Glen Eden. On my way to school one morning I picked up a hitchhiker who 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 >>

I couldn't help myself ... I just had to jump in on this one. There are many reasons why photographers are coy on their pricing. They want to keep their colleagues uninformed. They don't want to frighten potential clients before they have had a chance to impress them with their own brand of personal charm, their list of awards, and the opportunity to brandish their Photoshop skills. They don't feel confident in their own pricing. We have two companies dealing with different budgets. The less expensive brand has full disclosure on the website. 65-75% of people responding to the website are booking To View More >>