1. Tell us a little about yourself, your photography business and what you do! I have a Bachelor of Design in Graphic Design. I did a bit of film photography in my last year of University, but it wasn't until I got a job working for the University of Auckland as a public relations photographer that I started to learn the craft of photography. It was there that I learnt about manual settings, studio lighting, editing etc. I photographed hundreds of events and people for the University. I learned how to interact with people when taking their photo, and how to get great photo-journalist shots. I To View More >>

Simon Whitten of SMW Photography has an interesting perspective on timelessness. He says the albums he's designing today should have looked current ten or twenty years ago, not just years into the future. That's the real test of timelessness, he says. That philosophy underlies his approach to album design - simple and uncluttered. We've featured Simon's work on Queensberry Connects before, but we grabbed this album for the beautifully simple design and the thought behind it ... He created a 14x10 Duo album for clients Charlotte and James and also made a stunning 18x10 Silk display sample for the To View More >>

[caption id="attachment_17731" align="alignnone" width="500"] © James Yeats-Brown[/caption] James Yeats-Brown is a leading UK social photographer specialising in children's portraiture and the creation of family albums. He asks why shooting for a fee or commission shouldn't work in the social sector, since it's common in other areas of photography, and thinks a sales model based purely on speculative product upselling is dangerous these days - mainly thanks to new consumer-oriented products from Apple, Blurb, Photobox etc. This began as a comment on Ian's post suggesting the Shoot and Share model 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 >>