Although a lot of you love our albums (us too!) we operate on the simple principle that you're running a business, and if you can't make money selling them you shouldn't buy them. But there's no doubt many photographers do struggle. Partly that's because they sell a la carte, and have persuaded themselves that their clients don't want albums. I don't buy it. A la carte is often shorthand for having a cheap headline price, and no levers you can pull to make a better sale. (I'm not saying a la carte's a bad idea, but it needs close thought). As for people not wanting albums, it was the same story To View More >>

Competition isn't the problem, obscurity is. For years now I've watched frustrated at how little most photographic associations do to promote the idea and importance of wedding photography. More often than not these organisations - run by hardworking volunteers who do great things to educate their members and promote standards - can do little to convince couples that they need a professional photographer. But I'm not going to be frustrated by this any more :) We're doing more to promote our customers I said two months ago that I believe in professional photography, and although we obviously aren't To View More >>

[caption id="attachment_16947" align="alignright" width="300"] Musée - object of desire, or waste of money?[/caption] It's hard to shake off a reputation for being expensive. It's hard to shake off a reputation for being cheap too. The question is, which reputation do you prefer? Our people get frustrated when they hear, "Oh you guys are so expensive…" In fact this week they ran an email saying, "That's not right!" Their point is we have six different product ranges, six very different price points, and most people are genuinely surprised by what we can offer. My point is that cheap doesn't To View More >>

If there really are 3.5 trillion photos, which are the important ones? The ones that get picked, printed and presented. Presented in a magazine, a book, a frame, an album. But who does the picking? If it's social photography and the photographer's doing the choosing, which images will make the cut? The perfect shots. The ones that tell the story. The ones that fit in the book. And inevitably, the ones that make the photographer look good. Hundreds and thousands of photographs get discarded because they're imperfect or don't suit our purposes. But those "rejects" could tell a different story, and To View More >>

A little over 6 years ago I returned to my office after a meeting with staff to introduce a design audit and branding project. My phone rang and a man introduced himself and said he was from Apple. At first I thought I was being punked - all through the presentation the consultants had compared us to, and suggested we benchmark ourselves against, not our competitors, but great companies like Apple. This gentleman proceeded to tell me he was from Cupertino and that his boss was Steve Jobs. I tried to act as if I took calls like this everyday. He said they wanted to develop a premium book, and would To View More >>