In business there's one thing we need to focus on constantly – our customers and their experience. It's not what I think (the business owner) but what you think (the customer). At the cafe where I got this cup of tea, the marshmallow on the saucer suggests that somebody was trying to give me a little something extra, and a good experience. But my primary desire is to have a great cup of tea. Glance around your average cafe and there's a very expensive machine to make awesome coffee. Organic, fair trade, freshly roasted beans. A barrista who's been taught how to add delight to the coffee experience. To View More >>

I don't know how you'll feel about this, but a few days ago I unsubscribed from a customer's Facebook page. I just got sick of the bad taste in my mouth from a stream of quite unpleasant political comments and links in my newsfeed. I personally don't think anyone in business should mix business and politics. Or religion for that matter. Not just because it's unwise to turn off people who might be your customers, but because it's wrong to judge people by their ideology or faith, or the lack of either. I don't care whether they're of the left or the right, in my experience if you can get past people's To View More >>

Simon and Sophie were married in Taormina, Sicily after choosing a destination wedding for them and their friends and family. They were photographed by Phil Drinkwater from Manchester. Their wedding day preparation began in their traditional Sicilian Villa and the ceremony took place at the end of the main street in an old building via an interpreter. A key moment was walking through the street towards the bar for canapés with the Sicilians passing by wishing them congratulations - a truly unique experience. They spent the rest of the day chatting with friends while taking in the stunning views To View More >>

The average wedding photographer works a lot harder today than they did ten to thirty years ago. The promise that digital photography would make life easier and cheaper just hasn’t eventuated. We've been keeping statistics about our albums for thirty years, and I thought sharing a few numbers might reinforce that cliche, “We’re our own worst enemies”. We’re talking averages here, and everybody's different, but this is how it looks to us. Old World Wedding Photography • Medium format camera, 120 roll film, 10 rolls x 12 exp. = 120 shots. • Typical album: To View More >>

Every now and then I see an "About" page that I particularly like, such as Amanda's at Orchard Cove Photography. It features this photograph, which she says "captures me and my brother running up the hill at my Grandma’s house when I was two years old. When my Grandma passed away, I found the photo framed in her bathroom. It now hangs in my bedroom." Amanda says that one image calls back countless memories of her grandmother, "playing with her dogs, exploring her movie collection, leafing through her scrapbooks, eating her famous tuna salad, feeding the birds, jumping on her bed, and trying To View More >>