Queensberry Connects

Oh what a night

noreply@blogger.com (The QBY Support Team) — Sun, 06 Jul 2008 23:30:00 +0000

How many of your competitors promote themselves as “award-winning”? Better still, “international award-winning”? “Plenty” is the likely answer. Award-winning (like quality) is claimed by too many people for you to rely on it as your only differentiator.

And yet there's no denying that winning awards doesn't just feel good, it's good for business.

Tony Bramley of Storm Photography, one of our key UK clients, certainly thinks so. He was already feeling pleased with himself for winning second place in his regional BIPP Wedding Print Competition when he was called back to the stage as the winner!

Tony's point is that you win awards by working hard to stay ahead of the game, “creating unusual pictures… developing new ideas and techniques and honing your style”.

And that does set you apart from what he describes as the “unqualified people” who each year “buy a digital camera and say they are wedding photographers... Excellent wedding photography does not come cheap but you are buying into the quality of the photographer and their work.”

We agree. Winning awards validates you as a photographer, and in the long run helps to justify the prices you need to charge.

A similar theme surfaced on the Photojunction blog, where a reader commented, “The average client just wants good believable pics that are vibrant & clean & candid. The challenge is to give them that + more by way of making sure that we include some masterpieces that are beyond the ability of the semi pro masses.” The emphasis on the client is exactly right: it’s more profitable to impress them than your peers!

Tony’s winning picture, a night shot of Stacey and Matt Armstrong (above), was lit only by a streetlight.

The second-place shot was inside the Abbey Gate arch in “a very dim, grimy corner”. Tony managed to capture the internal beauty of the architecture, with some wonderful natural light coming through on to the bride, Alex Dey.

While we're at it, several of our other clients were acknowledged that night: Gavin Woollard (Weddings by Gavin), Amanda Every, Ivan Finch (Town & Country), Rebecca Portsmouth, Jo Tennant (Studio Rochford) and David Islip. Well done all.

No sausages at Queensberry

noreply@blogger.com (The QBY Support Team) — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 03:46:00 +0000

If you’re not vegetarian, chances are you like sausages. Personally I’d like these ones barbequed a bit longer and served with onions, mustard and sauerkraut. But we don’t sell them at Queensberry, and here’s why…

There are other words to describe sausages – cheap or everyday for example, and we believe photographers should avoid the whiff of “cheap” more than almost anything else.

If you want a long career in wedding photography everything about you needs to say, “I’m worth what I charge.” Photographers can almost never compete on price. Wherever you are, the chances are good that someone out there shoots weddings for a tenth of what you charge.

It can take years to stake your claim in the market and you could lose it in months.

Your choice of album is one (important) way to stand out from the crowd. Choosing an album because it’s cheap or everyone’s using it is dangerous to your health. Tempting yes, but dangerous.

So our albums aren't made in a sausage factory. No matter how you dress them up with herbs and spices, sausages are sausages. Differentiation is our reason for being. Our business isn't selling albums, it's helping you sell photography for the prices you deserve.

And here’s the cool thing.

Most photographers don’t get what I just said. Which is great. It means that our clients are different (differentiated) and so are we.

That's why we sell steak, not sausages. Top quality; fillet or rib-eye; corn-fed or range-reared; medium, rare or well done; in a pepper sauce or simply salted. Oh, and lamb and salmon and definitely – definitely – a spectacular range of vegetarian options.

Cheers, Ian

Red and white all over

noreply@blogger.com (The QBY Support Team) — Mon, 30 Jun 2008 03:05:00 +0000

Time and time again we see albums pass through our Bindery in which the photographer has reflected the stylistic theme of the wedding in the book itself. Last week we featured an album with an autumnal harvest theme. This album uses our Pagemount page system to very different effect.

What caught our eye in Scott and Priscilla’s case was the stylish simplicity of their red and white theme, and how well Matt and Enna of Grazier Photography had captured and reflected the details in a stunning album.

The red highlights around the prints are created by trimming them to reveal the red page behind the ivory mat. Because the pages were supplied without edging and corners, the same red highlight is carried through to the edge of the pages.

Scott and Priscilla’s red theme appears throughout the album but it’s possible to add a non-standard feature colour on selected pages only.

The 12x12 Photofront album was printed and assembled by Queensberry.

Click here for a slideshow of the album.

Click here to view Grazier Photography's profile.

Harvest colours

noreply@blogger.com (The QBY Support Team) — Wed, 18 Jun 2008 22:04:00 +0000

It seems a long way from Brian Dorsey's TriBeCa studio to a pumpkin field in New Jersey, but then his clients have commissioned him for events everywhere from Anguilla to Acapulco, and Quebec to Rio.

What caught our eye about this very striking album was how Brian had reflected his client's tastes in it. Cindy and Eric were married in October, and the bride's favourite colour is orange – so think Halloween and harvest time, pumpkins, trees changing colour with the Fall... and all matched harmoniously with the striking autumnal cover image, the matching leather binding, the chocolate-on-ivory pagemounts.

The ceremony took place in the couple's local church in New Jersey. The bride's mother had worked for years with a local farmer who gave them access to his grounds for photography. A special hay ride carried the bridal party to the shoot in the pumpkin patch.

Oh, and the bride is a candy fiend! So her theme was candy. She made the lollipop tree centrepieces herself, and dessert was a candy bar! We think it's great that the personal touches and special moments of "our day" can reflect truthfully who we are.

Click here for Cindy and Eric's album (because it was made from the high-res images the mats are not shown).

Click here for Brian Dorsey Studio's profile.

High-Res Export with PJ Retro and CS3

noreply@blogger.com (The QBY Support Team) — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 20:56:00 +0000

Some people have experienced problems with Retro High-Res Export using Photoshop CS3 due to the fact their filenames have lower-case extensions, eg .jpg instead of .JPG. Photoshop CS3 scripting seems to be fussier about this than earlier versions and the solution is to change the extensions from lower to upper case, which you can do in Bridge, and then try re-exporting. Read on also for how to avoid the problem in the first place.

Here are the Batch Rename settings you need in Bridge (click on the images to enlarge them):

This will leave the filename alone but change the extension to upper case.

IMPORTANT - YOU DON'T WANT THIS...

In Bridge you can rename files and "preserve" the original file name in the metadata. Wwhat you'd be doing in my second screen-shots is changing the extension of the ORIGINAL filename, instead of the current one, to upper case, which isn't going to help.

Most important, you need to avoid the problem in the first place by un-checking the User Lower Case Extensions option in Photoshop preferences, as below:

The screen-shots are from CS2, which is what I have installed, but hopefully they make the point.

I originally wrote this on the PJ Forum and found it again with the Search feature. Chances are there are solutions to your questions or problems right there.

Cheers, Ian

PJ Retro’s Supplier Options

noreply@blogger.com (The QBY Support Team) — Wed, 11 Jun 2008 21:27:00 +0000

PJ Retro's Supplier Options window is, well, clunky - something else Remix handles far better - but it does a great job.

Once you've answered all its questions we know exactly what you want us to do. Click on the screen-shot to enlarge it, look at the questions and you'll see what I mean.

The thing we like best is that you can't send your order until you've done so! Which is be a bit like your mother checking if you washed behind your ears, but better than getting your order messed up. Or delayed.

If it's already working for you, great. But some of our clients say they answer all the questions and still we come back and ask for the info again.

Nothing in this life is certain, but if that's happening to you, here's what I think you're doing, almost certainly. Instead of using Retro's Send Order buttons you're simply sending us the original PJF, either by email or by LabFTP. And you're doing so BEFORE you save the album, which means that your "answers" haven't yet been saved to disk.

Use one of these buttons, whichever is appropriate, and you'll be fine. (If you use the second button, send us the folder it saves to disk, NOT the original PJF.)

I hope this helps.

Cheers, Ian

Send Order with PJ Retro and LabFTP

noreply@blogger.com (The QBY Support Team) — Wed, 11 Jun 2008 02:06:00 +0000

Chances are it's a bit aggravating if we ask you to send more information or files so we can process your print-and-bind order. Here’s how to minimise the chances of that happening…

Photojunction Retro has two Send Order buttons (above).

All the TOP one does is email us your Photojunction PJF file. It doesn’t send your PJT file (thumbnails) or low-res images. That’s not much use if you want us to print or assemble your album.

If (like most people) you do want us to print and bind, use the BOTTOM button. Click it and Retro will save everything Queensberry needs into a folder on your hard disk (the PJF, thumbnails and low-res images).

Now you just need to upload that folder to us PLUS your high-res printing files.

That requires LabFTP. There's a LabFTP tutorial here. For now we’ll keep it simple…

1. Enter your details and instructions in the LabFTP order form (above – click the image to enlarge it).

2. Drag all the image files that you want us to print to the TOP right-hand box.

3. Drag the folder we mentioned above – the one Retro created, including the PJF and PJT files, and your low-res proxies – to the BOTTOM right box.

4. Click the Next button and LabFTP will start the upload routine.

That’s it! For more information you’ll find a relevant QuickTime movie and the PJ Retro Guide here (you need Chapter 11). If you don't have labFTP, please email us for the download link.

By the way, PJ Remix handles Send Order much better than Retro, another reason we recommend upgrading.

Offline

noreply@blogger.com (The QBY Support Team) — Wed, 04 Jun 2008 10:38:00 +0000

We've been off-line since the weekend – nearing the end of a fraught server upgrade! We apologise for the lack of communication. One of the consequences is that we haven't been able to read your mail in support suite - it's there but we can't access it - but at least there are still flesh and blood people working on your albums, and we'll email everyone as soon as we're up and running again. Shouldn't be long.

Queensberry’s green peanuts

noreply@blogger.com (The QBY Support Team) — Wed, 04 Jun 2008 09:00:00 +0000

OK, n8rpat8r, we love it (found on YouTube). Who are you?!

King of the hill

noreply@blogger.com (The QBY Support Team) — Fri, 30 May 2008 00:37:00 +0000

Photojunction ran an interesting post a day or two ago. Danny referenced a report from theweddingreport.com that spending on wedding photography in the US may be in decline.

It prompted Sonya to mention anecdotal reports that UK photographers, also, may be in for a rough ride for a while – bookings down etc.

Yes, times may be tougher next year. If they get tough for you, we’re concerned and sympathetic. Bad stuff happens in business, and if you’re affected, we are too.

But... Don’t sabotage your long-term business in order to survive!

What do I mean?

Queensberry has always stressed the importance of differentiation. Differentiate or cut your prices. Differentiate or die!

In other words, avoid discounting when times are tough. Avoid me-too marketing.

I’d look to my “presentation” instead. Do prospects say “Wow” when they see my display samples? Do my website and studio and dress and documentation say, “I’m King Of The Hill?” Do my client’s albums say “Expensive but worth it?” Do I cringe when people ask for my prices?

I said on The Junction, “If you've consistently marketed yourself as a differentiated price setter, now's the time to be grateful for your foresight.”

I wouldn’t throw that away because life may be a little rough short term. When the drought’s over I want to remain King Of The Hill. Or Queen ;-)

I know, easier said than done.

Cheers, Ian

Wedding venues, valued partners

noreply@blogger.com (The QBY Support Team) — Wed, 28 May 2008 20:34:00 +0000

Relationships with local wedding venues are a great way to build a strong wedding and portrait business, and a beautiful display album featuring the venue works well for both parties.

Simon Whitten is a long-standing and valued Queensberry client from Yorkshire in England. His association with the luxury castle hotel Swinton Park is very important to him, and for years his Queensberry sample album has rested on the piano in the drawing room.

When the time came to update it, the question was “with what?”

These days most of his clients tend towards the 14x10 Duo that Simon prefers. But feeling the 14x10 “didn’t quite cut it”, he decided the new display album should be a larger 18x12 Duo (in Denim Leather) instead.

Having covered many great weddings at Swinton Park, his next problem was which one to feature? In the end he decided on a “best of” album featuring three couples/weddings that reflected both his own best work and Swinton Park at various times of the year.

• Sarah and Paul had “a glorious summer wedding in 2006”, with a theme of simplicity and elegance.

• Caroline and Jonathan had a fabulous winter marquee wedding in 2007 (“about minus five degrees Celcius and freezing fog!!”)

• The most recent event was Emmeline and Robin’s beautiful Anglo-Italian spring wedding in 2008.

Simon was tempted to add an Autumn wedding to create a true ‘Four Seasons’ album, but had too much material from the three weddings already selected. (Emmeline and Robin's own Queensberry album is in twin volumes totaling 98 pages and nearly 300 images.)

Simon feels the result speaks for itself. “It’s a pretty fabulous showcase album and hopefully will do me sterling service at the venue for many years to come.”

Something else that wouldn’t surprise us: brides wanting to upgrade from the 14x10 to the 18x12, so they can have what they saw at the castle.

Click here to view Simon Whitten's Swinton Park display album.

Click here for Simon's profile.

My Kenwood, my toaster and my iPhone

noreply@blogger.com (The QBY Support Team) — Wed, 28 May 2008 02:10:00 +0000

Heather and I bought a second-hand Kenwood mixer thirty years ago when we went to live in the Solomon Islands. We thrashed it for three years making our own bread – a lot better than the sweet yellowy stuff from the local store! – and it still works fine today.

After I used it last weekend I posed it next to our toaster and snapped a photo with my iPhone. It looks a bit beaten up but it won't surprise me if the darned mixer outlasts us! Unlike the toaster, which has been a dog since Day One and may not survive the month.

Isn't it an awesome thought that the albums you're creating right now will quite likely survive all of us? Might that thought affect the way you shoot weddings and design albums?

Cheers, Ian

Two-volume discount

noreply@blogger.com (The QBY Support Team) — Wed, 28 May 2008 02:04:00 +0000

Just a quick reminder that we do not offer albums with more than thirty pages (60 sides) inclusive of Wings and Flips.

If your 12x12 or larger feature album design requires more than 30 pages (60 sides), you will need to order two volumes. We offer a second cover at 40% discount.

With so many pages in them the albums become very heavy, and the purpose of the page limitation is to ensure their structural integrity.

What’s going on here?

noreply@blogger.com (The QBY Support Team) — Mon, 19 May 2008 21:38:00 +0000

Without the images you may not recognise this as a Photojunction album layout, but that’s what it is (a Duo album in PJ Retro).

But the apertures go off the page on the right hand side! You can’t do that in Photojunction, so how could it happen?

Answer: Outdated resources in the client’s studio. It’s a good example of the importance of keeping your resources up to date, and why, with regret, we can no longer accept orders created with old versions of our PJ resources.

Nine months ago we published new album resources (updated for our new season product release). To overcome some technical limitations in Retro we also published Duo albums resources separately, and at the same time slightly reduced the page dimensions of most of our Duo formats to match our digital page sizes.

So what you’re looking at here is a Duo album created with the old resources (larger page) opened at Queensberry using the new resources (smaller page).

It’s impossible for us to make this album without correcting every layout. Not all the apertures will bleed off the page like this, but the alignment of every aperture relative to the page will have shifted.

What’s more, if you have submitted files for printing, the prints will not fit the album!

Because of the resulting confusion and difficulties in production, if we come across orders like this we will in future notify our client and ask them if they want us to correct the order and the print files for them at our normal hourly rate. The alternative will be for the studio to do so themselves and resubmit the order.

Obviously the best thing to do is avoid the problem in the first place by installing the latest version of Photojunction itself and our resources, which you can do by following the links in this paragraph. Better still, upgrade to PJ Remix!

We recommend Remix because Retro has a few technical limitations that complicate Duo design and are all resolved in Photojunction Remix. It’s by far your best choice if you’re designing Duo albums. Although it’s still in beta we already use it for in-house design and we love it.

You can learn about the intricacies of designing Duos in PJ Retro on our website (watch the two Duo movies, or you'll find the PDF is a great summary).

Ends of the earth

noreply@blogger.com (The QBY Support Team) — Wed, 14 May 2008 21:13:00 +0000

Here's a wedding from the ends of the earth, where your albums come from. Louise and Tom were married before 250 guests at the First Church, Dunedin New Zealand, on 24th February 2007.

The dress was made by Louise Anderson of Christchurch (no relation!) with fabric brought back by the bride from a shopping trip in Italy. With that exception the groom was an equal opportunity wedding planner.

The wedding was photographed by New Zealand's 2006 Wedding Photographer of the Year Jo Grams, of Moda Fotografica. It was an "exhausting" 12 hour shoot, with just one photographer, and ended at 11.30pm.

Jo says she "loved photographing the wedding". The couple chose a "generous" 15x12 black leather digital-paged album which was printed and bound at Queensberry. "I loved it so much I got one for the studio display."

The couple are expecting their first child at the end of June.

Click here to view Louise and Tom's album.

Click here for Jo's and her husband Johanne's profile.

Print-Responsibility

noreply@blogger.com (The QBY Support Team) — Wed, 14 May 2008 00:15:00 +0000

In many labs these days the only people who look at your prints are the Dispatch team. Strange as it seems, that makes sense – it's your files they’re printing, and something has to give if you want low prices.

But it doesn’t make sense at Queensberry. We critique everything we print, including Print-Ready. The difference is we see the image files with Full Colour Service (because it’s our job to colour correct them) whereas we don’t see Print-Ready work until it’s printed.

But why review Print-Ready work at all? Print-Ready means you edit your images yourself, and we don’t modify them. We just print what we’re given, right?

It’s not that simple.

We can’t afford to put a client's prints into an expensive album, ship it to them and then have a debate about who’s to blame for the printing.

It’s not just about print quality either. We need to check for other things that can spoil an album, such as alignment, cropping and panorama problems. Otherwise we risk converting a few wasted prints into a major expense, with neither party wanting to wear the cost.

All the issues I’ve mentioned are the photographer’s responsibility under Print-Ready, which is why we charge for any reprints necessary to fix them. (To save on cash and frustration, see our own checklist.)

But equally important, we have our own standards to maintain. People are paying for the very best when they choose a Queensberry album. And many of our staff have spent a lifetime in this industry and deservedly hold their heads high. What should we do if they come to us and ask, “Is this OK to put in one of our albums?” It happens.

That said, there's no implicit "We're right and they're wrong" here. You might not like our colour correction policy, for example, or the characteristics of our equipment, and that's OK. There’s no "blame" attached to differences of opinion or taste. And yes, we do get it wrong sometimes.

But in a quality-focused organisation we can’t ask staff to compromise our own standards. And after all, their goal is the best possible outcome for your clients.

Cheers, Ian

Claridges... twice

noreply@blogger.com (The QBY Support Team) — Tue, 06 May 2008 23:17:00 +0000

It was an unusual celebration indeed when Hiro Sekine and Vino Mahalingam married on 14th October 2007 at Claridge's, one of London's most celebrated and glamorous hotels. Vino was dressed in black tie and Hiro in her traditional Kimono. Bright colourful flowers were the order of the day, and traditional Japanese gifts for the guests added to the many special touches that Vino and Hiro had organised. This was a small and intimate celebration with close friends and family, and the whole day was fun and relaxed.

The event was photographed by Berkshire UK photographer Nikki Hill. The couple chose an impressive 18x12 Sand Leather Queensberry digital album featuring 180 of their favourite images.

Only 3 months later, on January 22nd 2008, Vino and Hiro's beautiful son Kasey was born. Nikki says, "We revisited their favourite London hotel when Kasey was just six weeks old for a very different style of shoot. Hiro's mother and sister were visiting from Japan, and we had another wonderful day of photography, fantastic club sandwiches and afternoon tea. Vino and Hiro now have a second 18x12 Queensberry album, featuring their wonderful new addition to the family!"

Click here to view Vino and Hiro's wedding album.

Click here to view Kasey's album.

Click here to view Nikki's profile.

Local for sure

noreply@blogger.com (The QBY Support Team) — Thu, 01 May 2008 22:37:00 +0000

We like to say “We’re local” wherever we do business, but this story is as local as you can get…

When we asked our regular clients to complete a survey, we promised a free album to one lucky respondent. We couldn’t believe it when the winner was a New Zealander, Liz March, from our own hometown! In fact she used to work not a mile from the Bindery. When we asked Liz to introduce herself to our readers, this is what she wrote:

“About ten years ago I was working as an art teacher at a full immersion Maori school in Glen Eden. On my way to school one morning I picked up a hitchhiker who wanted a lift to Queensberry. ‘What’s Queensberry?’ I asked. As we drove she explained.

As I was already shooting weddings in the weekends after school it was great to discover Queensberry just behind the school and get to know the staff.

I always worked late and one night after school I called in and met another late worker, Heather, who started the company.

After a while I could not keep two balls in the air at once and took the step to go full time into photography and have never looked back.

My business, now into its seventh year, has run well. I have loved the privilege of being part of people’s lives in this way.

NZIPP has provided good connections with other photographers and Queensberry makes great albums.

I have won one gold and two silver awards in the last three years in the Kodak gold wedding album awards.

I feel it is good to keep your personal creative juices running and have kept up work other than weddings, and have had several exhibitions and a publication.

It’s time for a new display album and I had been working on new designs. So this prize is much appreciated and came at the right time.

Many thanks, Queensberry.

Liz March”

Are you winning?

noreply@blogger.com (The QBY Support Team) — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 08:00:00 +0000

Food for thought... Photographers do a huge amount more now than they used to in the old days - and it's questionable whether they get paid for it.

They used to "send their work to the lab", now they ARE the lab.

Colour management and colour correction used to be the lab's problem, now they're the photographer's.

My thought for the day – you can't afford cheap printing for two reasons:

- YOU do all the work - that's why it's cheap.

- BECAUSE you do all the work you can't do other, more profitable stuff (or just go home earlier in the evenings).

Truth to tell, many photographers would also get a better result if they didn't touch their files, just left the work to the lab. Think of it, higher quality in less time for the small price of a higher lab bill.

Don't tell your competitors, but that's the point of Queensberry's Full Colour Service. To tweak the old Pantene ad, it won't work for everyone but it does work.

If your images could speak

noreply@blogger.com (The QBY Support Team) — Tue, 22 Apr 2008 03:03:00 +0000

Bear with me for a minute while I get opinionated – I know plenty will disagree with me ;-)

I happened across a forum post recently. Someone asked if a certain prominent photographer's winning print at a certain prominent convention was so close to the edge that it had fallen off!

After checking it out I thought the comment was a bit tough, but I could see the point. And the prominent guy wasn't alone – all the winning images were photoshopped within an inch of their lives. But the most striking thing? How different those images were to so much of what we see and admire in our Bindery.

It's incredible how much some photographers expect of themselves today that was impossible a few years ago.

It's a few years since naturalism and photojournalism were the buzzwords du jour. Maybe it's time for the pendulum to swing again – and maybe save you a ton of time.

Two questions worth thinking about: Are your clients paying for your Photoshop efforts? And could your images speak for themselves?

Just because something can be done doesn't mean it should be. That's been good advice since the dawn of desktop computers.

Cheers, Ian

“Yay for Remix!”

noreply@blogger.com (The QBY Support Team) — Tue, 22 Apr 2008 02:47:00 +0000

We reckon it's time to upgrade to PJ Remix. The guys at Team PJ haven't gone final yet, but they must be getting close.

Talia from our design department loves it: "Yay for Remix! I've been doing a heap of digital album exports lately and I use a lot of non standard sizes in digital albums. Using Remix I don't need to make any adjustments to the alignment in Photoshop because PJ is now spot on! So much time being saved!"

Talia had been holding off because the QuickTime movie function was "too slow", but now that's fixed there's no holding her back.

So you know, you can move from PJ Retro to Remix at any time without charge. Your version 6.23 subscription will continue until its normal expiry.

Here's some feedback from a survey PJ did in February.

Click here to download PJ Remix

A natural palette

noreply@blogger.com (The QBY Support Team) — Mon, 21 Apr 2008 03:31:00 +0000

This impeccably shot and designed album nearly got away from us. We didn't photograph it before we shipped it, and we were too late contacting the studio before they sent it to their clients!

But it's too beautiful not to show you as much as we can, which fortunately includes a slide show of the album. We love its natural, restrained good taste – professional wedding photography at its best, and typical of the consistently good work Geoff White sends us.

Liz and Adam choose Meadowood, St. Helena, in California's wine country as the location for their destination wedding on May 19th last year. They wanted a simple, contemporary celebration for friends and family, most of whom had very busy schedules in Washington DC.

After hiring designer Alicia Falango to design the wedding and coordinate the details, they were referred to one of our San Francisco clients, Geoff White Photography, known for their contemporary, clean images with vibrant color.

Together, Liz and Alicia designed the wedding around the idea of relaxed elegance, with a modern, clean feel to the design. Working with a natural palette of chocolate brown and ivory, Liz chose Calla Lilies for her bouquet. The ceremony took place on the lawn, followed by a cocktail hour. Guests relaxed in the lounge area and dined under the stars before moving inside for dancing and desserts.

Liz and Adam chose a 14x10 vertical format pagemount album in iron leather with ivory mats on white-edged ivory pages; assembled at Queensberry from the studio's own prints. Click here for a slide show of the album.

Click here to view Geoff's profile.

Horse and rider

noreply@blogger.com (The QBY Support Team) — Thu, 27 Mar 2008 22:48:00 +0000

Nicky and Richard Barrett are world famous Dressage riders who were keen to document their lifestyle with a photography album they could keep forever. They were recommended to contact Hampshire (UK) photographer Emily Hancock, who is known for her original equestrian imagery of horses and their owners.

Emily spent four separate days over six months with Nicky, Richard and their son Milo. She photographed Nicky riding, competing and with her family in a lifestyle shoot with their horses. The first day was in the summer of 2007 and the final day just 10 days before Christmas.

The end result was a beautiful digital album from Queensberry that will last forever, and safeguard their memories.

Nicky and Richard chose a 14x10 horizontal format album in iron leather with digital pages; Queensberry full service printing and assembly. Click here to view the album.

Click here to view Emily's profile.

“What a swell party...”

noreply@blogger.com (The QBY Support Team) — Tue, 18 Mar 2008 01:12:00 +0000

It’s no wonder Luke and Chantal’s wedding album caught our attention. For starters, there were three albums, not one, and the first two featured the most amazing celebrations at a fabulous location. We certainly did “wish we were there”.

Luke and Chantal were married in April 2007 in Mauritius, East Africa. Chantal had wanted to have her wedding at The One and Only, Mauritius since she was a little girl and spent time there with her family. The festivities lasted five days and included a welcoming cocktail hour, beach Olympics, a salsa party (featuring Emilio Estevez and his salsa dancers) and a fabulous beach party on a private island the night before their wedding that ended with fireworks and the couple sailing off into the darkness.

Luke is a tailor and makes clothes for some of the world’s most exclusive clients. Chantal worked at Kerzner International, in which her family has a major interest, before deciding recently to take time off to be with their beautiful little girl.

Matt Blum (Minneapolis USA) says he was honored when asked to be part of their celebration. “I can tell you it was one of the most amazing events I’ve ever witnessed. One of the things I loved about working with Luke and Chantal is their amazing stories and the things they’ve done with their lives. Working with such amazing people is what makes my job so truly fulfilling.”

Chantal and Luke ordered three 15x12 vertical format full Photo Front albums with digital pages; Queensberry print-ready printing and assembly. Click the links below to view the albums.

Beach Olympics 16.5MB
Cocktail Hour 17.1MB
Chantal and Luke 14.4MB

Click here to read Matt’s profile.

“A perfect canvas”

noreply@blogger.com (The QBY Support Team) — Wed, 20 Feb 2008 21:52:00 +0000

Now that so many of our albums are printed and assembled right here, our staff love checking them out as they pass through the assembly process.

One that made waves all the way down the line was Dilip and Anchel’s wedding in Toronto, Canada, photographed by Manpreet Sokhi of Mansa Photography.

Anchel Ghai and Dilip Krishna were engaged in August, 2006 and married on May 5, 2007. The couple were married in a traditional South Indian Hindu wedding as per the groom’s family's traditions. Six hundred guests enjoyed the festivities, which lasted over a week.

The couple expressed how important the photography was to them. “The second we met Manpreet we knew he was our photographer and that he would help us create a visual reminder of our wedding memories for many years to come.”

They described their Queensberry album as a “perfect canvas” and “timeless” in its design. “With Manpreet’s creative skills we knew we would get a book that truly was a reflection of us as a couple and our event.”

We loved it too.

Anchel and Dilip chose a 14x10 horizontal format full Photo Front album with digital pages; Queensberry full service printing and assembly. Click here to download an album slide show.

Click here to view our feature profile on Mansa Photography.