If you want people to come looking for what’s desirable, not what’s cheapest, build your studio on high-end values. I recently visited an Audi dealership, not to buy a new car, but to learn how Audi sell their beautiful vehicles. Predictably I left desiring something I'd never considered before, and sold on Audi. My intention was to test drive the Audi Q5, but the salesperson suggested that the Q7 might be more comfortable for my height, so out in a Q7 we went. But not just any Q7, a Q7 Premium Plus with sport options! It was more amazing than I can describe … To View More >>

“Taking pictures is savoring life intensely, every hundredth of a second.”  ―  Marc Riboud To celebrate a social media milestone Kelly Wolfe held a competition. She asked her followers to send in their stories, with one of them winning an afternoon photo shoot. You can see why Kelly decided to use the photographs, of Chase, Deo and Brody, the perfect three, for her Queensberry sample album. The dogs' owner (also called Kelly!) says her first and oldest fur baby was Brody, a "Sibord" — half Siberian Husky, half Border Collie. "He To View More >>

There are — how many? — a million professional photographers around the world? All competing for customers who are happily uploading their own pictures to the internet by the billion every day! How do you stand out in that crowd? How do you earn a living? By being a better photographer, yes. By knowing what your clients want before they do, absolutely. And by thinking differently and acting differently. By being a price setter not a price taker. By leading the crowd, not joining it. Unfortunately the world is heading in the opposite direction. Giant labs. Huge hosting sites. Software To View More >>

Sarah Brookes’ first boudoir shoot was for a friend getting married. She shot some beautiful images of her friend in her bridal lingerie and found the experience captivating. Now she wonders if it’s the best job in the world, working one-to-one with her clients on something so important to them, and witnessing their personal transformations. “I get lots of lovely comments from the husband/ fiancé too, thanking me for capturing their partner in such a beautiful way. What a privilege!” Sarah enjoys the technical challenges as well. Every booking is different, To View More >>

I got a little reminder about walking in our customers' shoes this week. We ran a survey asking regular users about twelve Workspace functions and features, from ordering albums to hosting to shopping cart sales — how important they were to people, how often they used them in Workspace, and how easy they were to use. The thing is we (OK, I) focused on how photographers experience Workspace, but not on how it works for your customers. That’s pretty bad, but in a sense understandable … because although at Queensberry we use Workspace heavily every day (in fact the entire To View More >>