In the beginning there was a photograph

Funny the wheels that are set in motion by the smallest of incidents.

The “butterfly effect” is the major impact of the smallest incident on a future event or occurrence.  Some people argue about inevitability… I prefer fate.

You could say that it started from my being a poor fledgling photographer who couldn’t afford a big fancy tripod.

You could argue that maybe I didn’t fully understand the importance of having equipment that worked on more than a wing and a prayer.  My tripod was flimsy and what I lacked in experience I made up for in enthusiasm.

I was photographing my first real wedding in a small country town in Western Australia.  Many things happened at this wedding including the fan-belt breaking on my lilac Renault 12 with its paisley vinyl roof.

I digress.

Moda Fotografica Studio

It was the middle of the service and I was photographing near the altar.  I set my tripod up to photograph the bridesmaids, who were seated during a reading.

My flimsy tripod buckled under the weight of my Canon F1.

The camera ended up pointing at the bridesmaids’ feet.  I looked through the lens and thought it looked interesting enough to warrant recomposing and shooting (this was in the days of film, when every shot mattered).  I took the shot and carried on with my day.

When I returned to New Zealand I entered the image into the 1993 NZIPP awards. It got people’s attention and scored a gold. It’s still on the wall at Moda Fotografica, the studio I share with my wife Jo Grams.

Suddenly I had people telling me I needed to charge more for my weddings. I wish I’d listened. I was charging a nominal fee, a fee that I myself would have felt comfortable to pay.

But my comfort level, as a struggling new photographer, was different to that of my clients… a difficult thing for me to understand.   It took me a long time to gain the confidence to make the numbers bigger.

This one success brought out of me the need to do better. More importantly, the image caught the eye of Ian and Heather from Queensberry.  The most significant thing about this initial “connection” with Queensberry was that they had something that I wanted.   I just didn’t realise that I actually wanted it.

What was great about that first meeting was their amazing enthusiasm.   It was the beginning of a dialogue, a glimpse into a new way of doing business.  It involved a wonderful combination of personal and professional.

There was a constant battle with them… They kept saying to me, “Let us do the work for you.”

The creative soul in me struggled to let go.

I still have them saying this to me, but now I understand better the benefit of letting go.   They were trying to give me freedom.

And now that I have been in business for almost twenty years the craving for freedom has overtaken the urge to have a creative monopoly.   I still have as much creative influence as I need, but I have the choice of trusting somebody else to do the work for me.

Victorian Bound Queensberry album

A relationship was begun. I started buying the original Victorian Bound albums…

Album design then was laying pictures out on pages four to a side.   With time I advanced to pin-hinge pagemounted albums…

2007 New Zealand Wedding Album of the Year

I had a notion that I wanted to produce works of art, and often would ask Heather for things that would present my images in a way that was simple and personal.

I wouldn’t have said that I was a big client for them, but that was my lack of sales skills more than anything.

I would plan my albums on bits of messy paper. Somehow they made sense of them to create my albums for me.   Now we have album planning software and tools to help us sell. Through Photojunction we are better able to visually communicate our intentions to our clients.

It’s so much easier to demonstrate the possibilities without having to ask our clients to use their imagination.

It’s weird when clients compliment me on the software that I’m using, almost as if I had created it.

I tell them I wish I had, but pass credit to the authors (thank you Danny et al)

This 14x10 Duo won NZIPP Wedding Album of the Year in 200

Detail from 2008 Wedding Album of the year

All of this was possible by the conversations that I was able to have through what became a personal involvement with Queensberry.   They earned my loyalty by being reliable, helpful, and appreciative. They invited me to speak at conferences on their behalf.   I felt honoured to be asked, but probably most challenging of all was the request for a family portrait.

I was VERY worried … these people had access to the best photographers in the world …  How could I meet their expectations?  My wife Jo and I did the shoot one afternoon.

I created a slideshow of the work and sent it through.  The most wonderful thing to me was the number of times I was able to make Sonya cry whenever she watched it.   For me this was the moment where we had done the right thing.   It wasn’t about being amazingly creative … it was about touching somebody with emotion – the business we’re in.

I feel privileged to be part of Queensberry.

Would this have happened without the flimsy tripod?   I would like to suggest that it was going to happen regardless. It was going to happen because it was not just a coincidence,  it was fate.

And that’s why I’m a Queensberry partisan.

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