Well it's been a tough week. No plague of locusts, but nothing else came easy! But we’ve reached final and it’s an amazing feeling. Our company’s growing and we want to show our thanks. Here goes… From Day One our goal has been to build an outstanding application, which is impossible without supportive, committed beta testers. But beta testing is like jury service – who wants to get involved? It's purely voluntary, everyone benefits, and that’s why we’re so grateful. We know it’s been tough at times, but what we've done together is build cool software - thank you. Trust us – To View More >>

I know how to type, have a good grasp of English, know how to spell – but that doesn’t mean I could or would or should try to write the next John Grisham. Having a pen doesn’t make me a writer. Having a camera doesn’t make me a photographer. Having a computer doesn’t make me a designer… To be a designer takes talent, knowledge and practice. You need to understand balance, beauty, symmetry, asymmetry, flow, pace, shape, unity and contrast. Being a great visual story teller requires all those qualities. It also requires the understanding that that’s what you’re doing - telling a To View More >>

Johannes has been posting on Queensberry Connects for several months now. It's been great to have a regular photographer perspective, and personally we've found his insights and opinions inspiring. We asked him to contribute to our interview series by sharing his thoughts on album design. In the conversation, Ian asks him to expand on several posts he's written about the benefits of getting to know your clients before the wedding, and his "six secrets" to designing a great album... He also questions Johannes about how he interacts with his clients, his workflow and the part Photoshop plays. To View More >>

[caption id="attachment_7050" align="alignleft" width="200" caption="Musée 10x7 dark tan; photography and page layout design by Johannes van Kan"][/caption] If you read my Musée story recently, you’ll recall it ended with a cliff-hanger … but it turned out well. You may remember we’d made an album featuring Christian [Oth's] images, but he'd never seen it. We were nervous. Well we finally did catch up, and he loved it. Then Johannes [van Kan’s] album of Virginia and Richard’s wedding won at WPPI. You can view his complete album on Youtube (no audio) or Vimeo (recommended: this is the To View More >>

Click here for Part 1. Who are those people ... the ones staring back at you thinking, 'What does he/she want us to do?' More importantly, how do they see the unfolding of their day? Is it a fairy tale? Is it some kind of weird reality show? Is it a 'performance'? Is it the beginning of something amazing? Is it a huge party? Is it something their mother planned? Is it theirs? That's the thing. We, as the image makers, also become the storytellers.  We create the vocabulary for describing the unfolding of the day. If we don't photograph something, will it still be remembered in ten years time? To View More >>