I've packed my bags and shed a tear (as I leave my family) and right now I'm eating airline food and watching all of the movies I can as I jet over to the UK for a speaking series for Queensberry. It all started with a stranger walking into my studio and being curious. Liz from the MPA was on her last days of travel in  New Zealand and happened to find our studio. We had a conversation and what do you know ... I'm off to the UK with MPA. I'm going to talk about me and all of the things I did wrong to get to where we are now ... because I know so much on that subject. I'm going to talk about albums To View More >>

[caption id="attachment_1348" align="alignnone" width="500" caption="Photography by Michael + Anna Costa"][/caption] Although we'd love all our clients to print with us, and most now do, we can't expect that everyone will. It's a huge ask to send your images to the other side of the world for printing.  But sometimes, for reasons that have little to do with the printing itself, we need really tight control to deliver you a good result. Duos are a prime example. The design and craft processes that allow us to integrate digital and matted pages, create split mats etc are intensive and very demanding. To View More >>

I read Ian's post on the Kodak Carousel and immediately wanted to put my hand up .... (a sling back to the days of discipline at a Catholic school). I'm probably stating the obvious but I felt the message was SO important that it deserved emphasising.  Yes, I understand the business side of the message but there was this other thing that became important too. The post has a video clip from Mad Men, a sublime tv program about an advertising agency in the States in the 60's. It's about the launch of the Carousel .... Forgetting the wonderfully clever pitch, the ability to turn an electromechanical To View More >>

"Previously we were offering albums we knew our competitors were also offering, but we’ve realised we can use the album to separate us from our competitors." That quote from Nigel's interview with the Youngrens reflects Queensberry's key message to photographers and it got me thinking... A while ago I posted about album companies in trouble – and not hitching your own wagon to dying stars. Today I'm suggesting you be wary of the latest and greatest too ;) In the US and UK markets of 2000, Queensberry albums were revolutionary because we hand-made every album to order. That meant photographers, To View More >>

My last post said that press books are great but they’re everywhere. "And that's the problem." Someone here was a bit concerned about me saying that. "Won't it put you offside with a lot of photographers?" Maybe. Although if you disagree I hope it's something to think about rather than get upset about. But the fact that many people do disagree is a good thing, at least for us and our clients. If our albums were everywhere they'd have no value. To you or to us. For example see the comments here. Does presenting your imagery in press books trumpet your high-end quality to the market? I don't think To View More >>