Our Story

By Photographers, for Photographers.

ShootQ is not the result of focus groups or market research. It was conceived the old fashioned way — out of passion. A passion for photography, and above all, a passion for empowering photographers to grow their businesses and realize their dreams.

Rooted in the Real World

ShootQ was first developed by LaCour photographer Andrew Niesen. When the LaCour team realized that they could help other photographers, they made ShootQ available to others and hired a team of professional developers to re-write the application.

Today, the professionally-developed ShootQ is available for you. The ShootQ team, with feedback from the ShootQ community, continues to innovate and create solutions that empower photographers to grow their businesses and realize their dreams.

The Backstage Story

The Evolution of ShootQ

In 2003, the "business side" of LaCour felt disorganized. This screenshot of our desktop summed up the problem. We struggled with customer service because we were disorganized.

Feeling discouraged, the LaCour team brainstormed to find a solution. We knew that our young studio would never mature if we didn't get organized. We began searching for software that would streamline our workflow.

What we found was disappointing. Existing tools were desktop applications, and focused on traditional brick-and-mortar studio models. We worked from separate home offices, or from the road. A desktop application was not the answer to our problems.

Early Solutions

So, we took matters into our own hands. LaCour photographer, Andrew Niesen, began writing our own application. We started with FileMaker Pro, a database solution that was easy to build. But a FileMaker Pro database would only work on one computer, making multi-user support impossible. We were also concerned about what would happen if the hard drive that contained the data crashed, or the computer was stolen.

The Birth of EOS

So we called Jonathan LaCour, who at the time was the lead developer of a web-based medical records application used by hospitals across the country. Jonathan recommended that we check out a web-based tool. So we went to Barnes & Noble, and bought a how-to-book and went to town creating a custom solution, which we originally called EOS.

Within a few months, we had a tool that helped us get organized. We realized the power of a web-based solution - because the database that powers ShootQ lives on a webserver, multiple people from multiple locations can log into the database and keep information up-to-date. Not only could LaCour photographers and our studio manager log into ShootQ, but so could our clients! We also realized that ShootQ could serve as a business hub, connecting us to other software applications.

The security benefits weren't lost on us either. With security connection standards used by banking software, and a server managed by data professionals, we knew our information was much safer than if it lived on a laptop.

Over the next three years, we built ShootQ, an application that supported our growing studio.

ShootQ Goes Live

In early 2007, we introduced ShootQ, the industry's first web-based studio management solution. We committed to making ShootQ the industry standard for studio management, and hired a team of professional software developers and customer service representatives.

Today, the professionally-developed ShootQ is available for you. And the ShootQ team, with feedback from you, continues to innovate and create solutions that empower photographers to grow their businesses and realize their dreams.