Listen to people talk and you'd think only two people are involved in buying an album—the bride and her mother. But what happens if the person making the decisions is the guy? How do you sell to him? Well it's been a while since I got married but I'm a guy … let me think: If the first time you think about me is when you finally realise that I'm blocking your sale, too late! You needed to start paying attention a lot earlier. But let's start at that point anyway, and work backwards… 1. If you ignore me while doing that sales job on my girl I'm probably not going to be happy. There's been To View More >>

You, the photographer, are entrusted with telling the story of a couple's day ... not any old day ... it's the BIG one. [caption id="attachment_8319" align="alignleft" width="333" caption="The bride and groom"][/caption] They want it told with beauty and creativity. They chose you because they saw your work and figured that you would be the best person to tell their story. Or was it that they fell in love with your prices, and assumed that all photographers were equal (except for pricing)? Ultimately we are telling a story ... we need to know whether we are the authors or the observers, and apply To View More >>

I've gathered enough gongs now to qualify for an opinion on album design. Last week I was a judge for the Australian Professional Photography Awards at PMA in Melbourne. This was an honour I shared with the lovely Jo Grams, Jerry Ghionis, Jackie Chan, Yervant and other luminaries. Several things became apparent: 1) Some authors treated the album as a set of individual prints, mixing black and whites with colours, verticals with horizontals, with blatant disregard for the influence of those images on each other. 2) Some authors were hypnotised by the ability to apply a filter to create a look ... To View More >>

Like many good things, and all great albums, Musée begins with a story. In fact it begins with three stories, and the real magic is how they weave together... The first begins several years ago with a traveller on a bus in Spain, who strikes up a conversation with the woman sitting next to him. They like each other enough to introduce themselves. He's a wedding photographer from the far side of the world, in Spain on a scholarship. She's a paper conservator living in England, home to visit her family in Barcelona - and as it turns out, later, in love. The photographer and the conservator To View More >>

Every now and then we see a sample album with images from several weddings in it. We call them "Greatest Hits" albums. Even after discounts a sample album can be a big investment – we know that, especially when you're starting out – but this is not a good idea for at least three reasons. 1. Because it's not what your clients will be buying, it's hard for them to relate to. A bit of a puzzle. 2. Even worse, it's not convincing evidence that you're up to the job. Couldn't you find enough good images from one wedding, they'll be thinking... 3. What an album does is tell a story – of their day, To View More >>