"Value your time, skill, training and art" - Today we're talking to Lauren & Delwyn about the photography industry, designing albums and building your brand.  • Tell us a bit about yourselves and how you got into photography Delwyn and I are both trained Graphic Designers, Delwyn at Unitec, and myself at Waikato University. We met through a mutual workplace in 2008, and started second shooting weddings for each other. • How do you promote your business and build your brand? We work hard to create a strong 'word of mouth' brand. We also take advantage of the internet as much as we can To View More >>

Chaos theory has a metaphor for the way trivial occurrences can have significant consequences: it's the butterfly effect. We're proud of Johannes' post of that name in which he explains why he's a Queensberry partisan. It's about a serendipitous image that won him his first NZIPP Gold, caught Heather's and my eyes … and led to a relationship that's lasted eighteen years. So far. All because his tripod collapsed. That relationship has been positive for us in so many ways, and we hope it's been good for Johannes too. One of the benefits has a really old name: word of mouth. Johannes has a great To View More >>

"How much for that album?"If you ask us that, and you have an approved account, we're happy to tell you.But in 40+ years, while we’ve often offered guidance, we’ve never ever told customers how much they should charge.Well I'm going to be brave and make a suggestion. Then I'm going to ask youwhat you think. But first, some background... For decades many photographers charged really high prices for their products (albums, prints, framing etc). They did this to avoid asking a reasonable fee for theirservices. You can see why. Even our wealthiest acquaintances think photographers charge To View More >>

Last week I wrote about the latest David Jay hate war, and said that if a courtroom attorney asked whether I agreed with his Shoot and Share strategy - and demanded a Yes-No answer - I’d have to say, “Yes I do.” Why? Because social sharing is a reality whether we like it or not, because social sharing is a powerful new form of word of mouth, and because Shoot & Share is a big step up the social scale from Shoot & Burn. Also I don't like hate wars. But this is not a TV courtroom drama, so if you're thinking of building a career in social photography, we believe the typical Shoot and Share To View More >>

I've been following the latest hate war against David Jay and PASS with interest. Here's the post that started it all, and here's what it's all about. I like my commercial messages straight, so I wish David didn't come on to you like a TV evangelist, but that aside, he's not wrong about everything. So because we hate hate speech of every kind I thought I'd explain what he's right about before I get into where we part company... David is promoting what he calls Shoot & Share, which in practice means a photographer shoots an event and hosts the images on David's service, PASS, where the customers To View More >>