Blog for photographers, portrait and wedding photographer, — QtAlbums

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photography

QTAlbums is going live!

Have you got questions about printing and products?

If the answer is YES, than you will want to read this Blog!

This Monday, September 27th, you can get your questions answered in a live Q&A session over at our friends in The Photography Business Lounge.

So if you have ever wondered what type of paper would fit your photography the best, or maybe you’re a little bit unsure about which products to offer to your clients, then meet us on Monday!

  Even if you’ve sold countless albums or if you’re pretty new to printing your photos, you may have some questions that are unanswered.

Join Iwona and Jamie from QTAlbums in a conversation with wedding photographer Eirik Halvorsen about products, paper, printing, covers and maybe also some great sales advice.

 We’re here to help you find the best products for your needs so write down your questions already and bring them to us live!

Click the button below to join the group and we'll see you on Monday!

Monday, September 27th at 21:00 CET / 3pm EST

 Hope to see you there!

Documentary photography in Heirloom Album

“If you want to be a photographer, first leave home”

This quote by Steve McCurry, famous American photographer & photojournalist, has inspired us to make an album, which is a collection of our ambassador travel photos. This 12x12'“ Heirloom Album, filled with Jide Alakija images is a beautiful magazine style piece, where every single photo gets a proper exposition. One photo - one page layout.

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The paper used in Heirloom is Digital Satin. This type of book is a bit different than ArtBooks or AriaBooks, because it doesn't open flat and starts with a right hand side page rather than a full spread. You should consider this book to be perfect for one image per side designs and lots of pages - so we highly recommend it for Documentary Photography.

To design an Heirloom, you can use various tools like Fundy Designer, Smart Albums, inDesign or Lightroom as long you follow these rules. 

Visit our stores and find out more!


PrimaBook for Christmas

Christmas Mini-Sessions on the way? PrimaBook is the perfect album choice!

As the end of the year is approaching, and the Holiday Season just around the corner, we wanted to bring you yet another good idea on how to make the most of our PrimaBook. They have been a hit in 2020 with portrait, family, boudoir, and pet photography; and now, we offer PrimaBooks with holiday-themed stamps - perfect for Christmas mini-sessions! Take a look at the examples below.

The PrimaBook is available in 10 different colours, but for our photo session we’ve picked the Bluebell and Cranberry fabrics as we think these two match the Holiday Season best. You can add gold embossing using one of our new special winter holiday stamps: “Happy Holidays”, or the classic “Merry Christmas” stamp.

Even though this year our family meetings and client meetings have been greatly impacted and limited, some of us can still head outdoors for photos, or use FaceTime for remote photography so we hope that these new PrimaBook stamps will add a little holiday cheer for those who can use them! Visit our shops for more details and pricing!

Boudoir Photography with Jasmin Jade

The Art of Boudoir Photography!

In this week’s Blog we would like to introduce you to Jasmin Jade - who is a talented boudoir photographer and works closely with QtAlbums. We’re so lucky to have her on board - her pictures are absolutely stunning and combined with our albums they make an amazing combination!

It takes a lot of experience to manage a boudoir session - you need to make sure your clients feel comfortbale and can fully invlove with you - so that their inner & outer beauty can shine.

“When you hear ‘boudoir session’ what comes to mind? When I first started my journey as a photographer, I pictured the basics when it came to boudoir: bold lingerie, striking high heels, sensual lighting. It wasn’t until after my first few sessions that I realized there was a lot more to it than just that.

A boudoir shoot can be an exciting and gratifying experience for both the photographer and the client. However, the first time can also be a little bit intimidating! It is so unlike any other style of photography out there, and because of that requires some different planning for things to run smoothly for everyone. This is why I’ve decided to come up with some absolute essentials you may not think about needing until you’re already at your session with your client. ”
— https://www.jasminjade.com/blog/boudoir-studio-must-haves

Deckled Edge Cotton Rag Artbook

We recommend Deckled Edge Cotton Rag ArtBook as the top-of-the-range album for boudoir photography. Take a look at Jasmin’s photos printed in our album with deckled edges, Peacock Silk Cover and Gold Embossing!

PrimaBook

Early this year we’ve added PrimaBook to our products collection and as it’s so amazingly priced, it can easily be part of your offering with every boudoir shoot. Let’s be honest - a boudoir session JUST HAS TO GET PRINTED! Take a look at Tropical colour PrimaBook with Stamp “XOXO” - it’s a great match along with another stamp we have “For Your Eyes Only”


Pet Photography & PrimaBook Albums

PET PHOTOGRAPHY

When we first made the #PrimaBook we thought it would be great for #portraits #boudoir #family #seniors #vacationalbum - but it turns out...

…it's also great for #petphotography 🐕🐱

We’ve made this cute PrimaBook in Wheat colour and gold heart symbol for Rowan Williams who is a photographer and a dog lover.

They make a great team Rowan & George, especially when it comes to work …

Image by @cutsthemustard

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“Here’s my George. He’s always accompanies me to work - in my home office. He likes to roll around on the floor, bark at the postman and remind me when it’s dinner time, while I edit photos. When I’m really lucky he’ll come bounding in to my office and dump a wet, slightly muddy and absolutely rank, rope toy on to my keyboard. Delightful!”
— https://www.instagram.com/p/CB4_BzrnQkJ/

OFFER PRIMABOOK WITH PET PHOTOGRAPHY

PrimaBook is exactly what you need for this type of album - the choice of sizes, the choice of colours and a set of beautiful stamps. Plus is amazingly priced for the usual QT high quality. If you want to learn more about this book and how to offer it to your clients, get in touch with me - I will ♥️ to help you!

Print Your Vacation Photos in PrimaBook

We all have that one special holiday (some lucky people have more!) that we love to go back to in our memory. When we’ve had great time, when we’ve been with people who mean a lot to us, when we’ve visited amazing places on this planet. We all take pictures like crazy, but what do you do with them after?

Be like Valerie and Ivana - two fantastic ladies photographers who I had the pleasure to work with to create this Blog -

AND PRINT YOUR OWN PHOTOS!

What is the best album to pick for your travel photos? Both Valerie and Ivana went for PrimaBook - it’s super affordable, so you can make albums of all your travels.

Get your code for 20% off PrimaBook!

READ THE BLOG

Valerie has created a 30x30cm PrimaBook (colour Wheat) from her stunning New Zealand trip, and here is was she told me:

“I could touch the cover all day every day. It’s super soft and I love it. I decided to not only print the pictures of my New Zealand journey but also add my texts to it. It’s like a storybook that I want to read and show to my own kids one day.”

Finish off the cover with one of our pre-made stamps in gold - “Memories” would be the perfect fit.

It was so good to see that Valerie wasn’t the only person with a PrimaBook travel album idea - Ivana had it too! And they have both inspired me to write this Blog and share this idea with you all.

Here is what Ivana wrote about her album:

“I’ve been using QT albums for a few years and I fell in love with the quality immediately! I use them for my client’s wedding albums and I was excited to try the new Prima album as it promised the same QT quality at an affordable rate. Well, the Prima book didn’t disappoint! It’s perfect for smaller sessions and travel albums to preserve those favourite photos we always forget on our phones for years. My partner and I made our own travel album with Prima and it’s a beauty! The velvet-like cover fabric is so smooth to touch and looks great with the golden embossing. We keep it on our bedside drawers and look through it often to remind us of the adventures we’ve had and that we should never stop dreaming of new ones even in these hard times.”

If you’re a photographer, who has tons of pictures from travel and holiday, and you feel that now is the time to finally print them and treat yourself with an album, we’ve got something for you!

20% OFF until the end of September on your OWN PrimaBook!

Design your PrimaBook with this quick tutorial

PrimaBook

boost your sales while you’re at home!

Almost a year ago we were getting ready to present you with a new album. That time, we have focused on eco-friendliness and we wanted to keep the wastage and the price as low as possible. This is how we came up with the BloomBook - which today is one of our top selling products.

And last year we wouldn’t have guessed that this time around we will all be facing difficult times caused by the outbreak of coronavirus. This is the new reality, whether we like it or not. But instead of just waiting, watching the news and hoping this will soon pass, we want to be pro-active. We are giving you a new product - specifically designed to boost your sales. The new album is called PrimaBook.

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PrimaBook is an album designed for family photography, couples & engagement sessions, portrait & boudoir photography. It comes in 3 sizes and 10 different colours to give you a choice, yet still keeping the price very low. This opens a whole new area for you and your clients.

While we still recommend AriaBook and ArtBook as the main album for your brides & grooms, we hope that with the extra time on your hands you can encourage your clients to print their everyday photos. In fact, our colleagues from IPSM have prepared some great TIPS for photographers during these uncertain times.

We have stripped the PrimaBook from endless options to keep it sweet & simple. We offer it on Digital Satin paper with a good collection of standard stamps to suit different occasions.

Follow PrimaBook website and #primabook to see the colours and stamps that you can mix & match!

What a year it's been!!!

I wanted to write a short blog post to summarize what we have done this past year. I wanted this blog to be short and sweet, but it won’t be. I started writing down places we have been, people and projects we have collaborated with, new products we have introduced. My notebook page started to fill up quickly and soon I realized this:

Team QT!!! You’re freakin’ awesome!

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places

Now I’d better get to the point! So let’s start with where we have been. We started with a visit to USA - Marfa, Texas precisely - The Field Trip (what an experience!). Soon after that we went to Birmingham for the Photography Show (which btw we will be attending upcoming year too!). Then a short break and next event was already lined up - Snap UK. Sadly - this was the last time we gathered with Laura Babb and her folks in Snap formula, but we’re sure will meet up again. Oh wait! Missed one event… Way up North Cannes ;-) This location was amazing and Team QT has once again done a great job! So it turned out that we went to Stockholm for another WUN! Jamie, our USA colleague was the most lucky - she got to sail on a cruise ship! Sipping cocktails and getting a tan - good for you Jamie. We hope you enjoyed Cuba while we were in the offices!

people

While travelling and attending different workshops, we met some amazing people. It was great to sit in a cafe in Cannes with Sam Hurd, enjoy the cruise ship with a company of Eirik Halvorsen, and let’s not forget the one and only Wyn Wiley. We got in touch with Chris Garbacz from Studio Ninja and started our collaboration, we continued to work with the amazing Twyla Jones - bunch of free prints samples and clamshell boxes went to photographers from Emotional Storytellin FB Group that Twyla is running. Our cream fudges were sent to ARC Canada, our Polish Vodka was the main attraction at the last SNAP. Let’s Go Workshop in Oregon, Atelier Preface Portfolio Workshop in Marocco, I Do Community, Speak Now’19, any many, many more.

how we have grown

Did you know that all these products listed below have just been introduced in the past year? We love them so much and it feels like they have been part of our range for much longer, but no! They are all new:

The Journal Artbook - born somewhere between December 2019/ January 2019 - our top luxury album that makes people go WOW!

Folio & Matted Deckled Prints - born around springtime 2019 - a great addition to our range of products as it’s perfect for family & newborn photography.

The BloomBook - May 2019 - so young and so popular, mainly because it’s environtmentally friendly and very affordable, while still keeping the QT quality standards

New EUR Shop opened in November 2019 - based on Shopify platform, new shop is user friendly and has all of our products available in EUR currency.

Number of orders - every month, compared to previous year has brought us a significant increase in number of orders and November 2019 was the busiest month in QT history when it comes to new orders. We are present at the Pic-Time platform and we are happy to see that we’re so oftenly chosen as a supplier.

It’s thanks to you - our clients - that we have now reduced plastic in packaging to bare minimum. We started using biodegradable eco bubbles just this year - and with the amount of parcels that were sent out this year…wow…you would fill a house with it! So it’s good it’s not plastic anymore.

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We could not do this all without a support and encouragement from you guys. We love to see you posting photos and stories with QtAlbums products and hearing how happy you are with our work. Even if we make mistakes, we are there to correct them, to learn from them and move on.

Wishing you all happy Christmas, happy Holidays, happy “I’m not doing a thing” days - whatever you are celebrating. Let this New Year be as good as the last one or maybe even better!

by tomas_dolejsi

by tomas_dolejsi

Emma & James love their QT Album

This week we would love to share a blog post by Hannah Hall, one of the photographers who attended Snap Festival. She loved our albums so much that she decided to switch her old supplier to QtAlbums. We couldn’t be more happy and grateful for choosing us! We are even more delighted to hear that Emma & James, who were Hannah’s clients, loved their album too!

“I loved their finish, the attention to detail and access to round the clock support and advice which I hadn’t had with my previous company. Also, being half Polish, I absolutely loved supporting a business based in Poland”
— Hannah Hall
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Hannah also shared what Emma & James, her wedding couple, thought about their album. This lovely comment puts a smile on our faces, but the final product is a combination of great photos, the right design, and a quality lab. That’s why we love to work with professionals like Hannah. This is what Emma and James said about their album.

“The album has been beautifully designed and shows the timeline of our day, all the happy, funny, exciting, beautiful moments we had with friends and family! The detail you can see in the photos is superb and we keep on spotting new little bits in each picture that really brings back the memories of the day!”
— Emma & James

Thank you so much Hannah, Emma and James!

Check out Hannah’s Instagram!

The Photography Show 2019

The Photography Show, Birmingham 16th – 19th of March, 2019

 The Photography Show is back again for its sixth year in a row, all events will take place in the National Exhibition Centre (NEC) in Birmingham from 16th – 19th of March, 2019. QtAlbums never misses a chance to present our premium quality albums and we will be there to meet you at our stand J51. Join us and see our new products like the velvet cover albums or folio!  (coming soon)

You can come and visit the Photography Show and claim a 25% discount on your ticket using this coupon code QTATPS19 (T&Cs apply).

This huge event offers everything that you can possibly want – from super brands like QtAlbums to the best names in the industry. Our friend from SNAP Photo Festival, Laura Babb will be one of the speakers (click here to see details ). Laura is also one of the Ambassadors of Women Who Photo which is a campaign launched by The Photography Show and The Video Show 2019. We strongly support all the ladies in the photo industry and this fantastic initiative.

Woman Who Photo - find out more!

There is so much that you can see at the show that you won’t be disappointed. Stages and Theatres include Wedding & Portrait, Great Outdoors and a Super Stage (including lives and careers of photography best people). Also, masterclasses dedicated to both beginners and professionals. And let’s don’t forget - Exhibitor drinks! a beach party no less! - at The Great Outdoors Stage. Another fantastic event ahead of QtAlbums!

Photo by https://www.instagram.com/thephotographyshow/

Photo by https://www.instagram.com/thephotographyshow/

Yeah Field Trip

Yeah Field Trip

Marfa, Texas

28th February – 4th March


“Field Trip is hard to explain” – not a conference, not a festival. What is it then? We are soon going to find out… We’re going to Texas, baby!

A gathering, a collective of artists who once met and who love art in its different ways. Each reunion is unique, each year you gain a new experience. You learn to be better at your profession, but it also brings your spirit up, inspires and motivates. The community gives support and encouragement. This time QtAlbums will be there to understand the Field Trip phenomenon.

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Based somewhere in the middle of a desert, under insane number of stars. There will be talks, meditations, jokes, nice weirdos, love, questions, desert, photoshoots, laughter, dancing, and let’s hope – plenty of teaching. And more desert.

Marfa Field Trip might seem a bit from outer space but it’s really a place for most talented people in the photography industry. Here is what they say:

“I have watched the sunset by myself. I have danced on top of a table. I have challenged people and been challenged. I have made people laugh. I have laughed. I have laughed. I have laughed. I have made friendships, though sometimes that feels like too small of a word to describe them. I have bloomed.”
— Heather Jowett

We’re so super excited to be going, that all we want to do is to scream YEAH!!!!!

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SPEAK NOW!

Girls Who Run the QtAlbums

Firstly, I will give you some numbers and facts: QtAlbums team consists of 16 ladies and 6 gentlemen. That is an astonishing number of 72% girls. That percentage corresponds to our age & gender Instagram statistics. Almost 70% of our Instagram followers are women! 80% of them are aged between 25-44 years. Beware! – this is written by a lady 😊

Anything you want done, baby, we’ll do it naturally!

Now that you have all the maths, it’s time to tell you what we do. Apart from producing beautifully handcrafted products, we donate a percentage of profits from every album to Books for Africa Foundation. Over the past 12 months, Books for Africa have shipped 3 million books, 93 computers & e-readers containing 223,000 digital books. We are thrilled to hear that all of the proceeds from Speak Now ’19 will be donated to The Helen Bamber Foundation that supports refugees and asylum seekers.

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We strongly promote Speak Now '19, which is a unique event providing female photographers with the support, skills, and encouragement to take on visible roles in the photography industry. BTW – did I mention the new eco-friendly, biodegradable packaging? We do that too.

Born This Way

We believe that women and men should be treated equally & given the same opportunities. It makes no difference what race you are, what your religion or sexuality is. We are all people who deserve one thing in our life – happiness.

“Girls just wanna have fun!” – so please do, we hope that you all have a great time at the Speak Now ’19. Our ambassadors - Laura Babb and Marianne Chua will be there too. Register on our website and put Speak Now’19 as your referral to receive 15% off from your first order. We will e-mail you the details once you register. T&C Apply.

Find inspiration on our instagram account.