I'm going to drop two shoes in this post. First shoe: Some time ago Johannes wrote a post he called Crikey ("that's a lot of money for an album"). It made me feel a little fidgety. I thought, we care too much about the quality of our products and services to compromise them, and maybe that's a problem. Clients often say they love what we do, but can we do it cheaper? Sometimes we try. We go about looking at how we could adapt a product, system or idea … but we don't do cheap well. We're as proud of our work as you are of yours, and compromising feels like we're shooting for the moon with an To View More >>

I don't like long posts, and I'm always at Ian and Nigel to keep 'em brief so I apologize. This recent post prompted Ken to comment and me to respond with this, my longest ever... Ken asked whether our industry's main challenge wasn't "crap photography" but competitors with stupid pricing, for example, "2 photographers, hi-res images and Queensberry with 60 images for £1500." Ken suggested that people like that shouldn't last in business but they keep coming back... So I presume that if in fact they're surviving, they're probably a high volume, low margin outfit - possibly with healthy post-event To View More >>

My interview with Rod Ellmore talked about how the close partnership between photographers and vendors in the '70s and '80s helped build some great careers, but it wasn't all positive. One disadvantage was that marketing gimmicks picked up at seminars organised by the vendors propagated like viruses! Like this one - the notorious "couple in the brandy glass". Pam brought us a picture (left) from her brother Martin's 80s wedding to Simone (thanks for sharing!). And I found proof that tacky ideas live on in Photoshop. Now you know I'm a snob – but not as much as I used to be: There's nothing wrong To View More >>

This is a big day for Queensberry. We're  launching a new look, a new website and a new blog ... all today. We love blogging – we've been doing it for two years, to professional photographers – and now we're looking forward to talking to you. Who are "you"? The bride and groom. A family. People sharing an occasion of love, connection and pride. People capturing a special day so they can enjoy, reflect upon and share it forever. People telling a fairy tale, a story told true. Because a story told beautifully should be true to you. You're the people in the viewfinder that we've To View More >>

Can Crash crash the royal wedding? Professional Photographer (UK)'s March issue features "the holy trinity of international wedding photographers", Crash Taylor, Jasmine Star and Yervant, in a competitive pitch for the royal gig. An interesting range of approaches between the three, but we're human and Crash had us at Queensberry: "Albums would be handcrafted in New Zealand by Queensberry, which is the Tiffany of wedding albums worldwide." I like how Crash stresses the significance of the event … the latest installment in the continuing story of the House of Windsor. It's not just about love To View More >>