Three points! 1. Investigate and determine your clients needs, limitations, and dreams. 2. Establish design objectives. 3. Exceed your clients' expectations. We set the parameters of size, style, and content from discussions with our client prior to the wedding. Having a series of questions to answer on a sheet means you get the information you need. Album type, size, and budget are the first questions. Then how many albums and what these would do. We gauge their response to our sample albums and ask questions about what might be important. We define the style by giving them a key description To View More >>

I was upsold to in the weekend and didn't even know it. Now that I do though, I'm ok with it. Over the last few weeks my fiancee and I have been looking out wedding bands for us both. We'd again done our homework, been put off by another raft of useless sales people and ended up where we always knew we would, with the same jeweller I'd bought her engagement ring from. I blogged about that experience a while back. An hour later I walked out of the shop with a quote for a wedding band thicker, wider, with a bigger diamond and in higher quality gold than I'd gone in thinking I wanted. Kayla made To View More >>

Three things I love... Metaphors ("Remix 'Collections' are like iTunes Playlists"). Stories (like Danny's PJ speed test). One-liners ("Colour management used to be just calling the lab to complain about your prints.") Words, that's all... But they make you think. They illuminate what you're saying and make it memorable. They use the familiar to explain the unfamiliar. They're gems of great price if you polish them till they shine, and really awkward if you don't. Cheers, Ian A few more from Bob Tulloch's seminar in Auckland last Wednesday: Our clients have two motivations, love and pride. We're To View More >>

At weddings there are always time burglars stealing from the innocent, so we talk to our clients about how long things really take ... so we don't lose the time we need. Sometimes this means that a cunning couple will deliberately try to run us out of time because they hate having their photographs taken. We distract them by focusing on their feelings for each other instead of their feelings about photography – easy if you aren't constantly asking them to smile for the camera. One of the most guilty time burglars is the make-up artist … stealing time from the photographer to get the perfect To View More >>

That is the big question. Andy Warhol said, “It is art as long as it's signed.” John Cage said, “It is anything you can get away with.” Why is it so important (to some) to be seen/considered as an artist? Are we as photographers overselling what we do when we call it art? Are we selling our vision as artists or our ability to use a filter or two to create art for the masses? Doc Ross once said that, ”If it comes with a statement then it is art ... otherwise it is just decoration.” So Art has a signature, intent, and a certain freedom. Most importantly, ‘Who cares?’ Maybe we care To View More >>