Success story · Guido Karp Photography & Princess for one Day

The star photographer, his database and 100,000 princesses

Guido Karp has been photographing the greats of the music world since 1980. Since 2007, schubec has been making sure everything runs smoothly behind the scenes: FileMaker databases for his photography business and the booking system for ‘Princess for one Day’, the photo event for which he is the photographer.

  • since 2007working together
  • 100,000+registrations since 2010
  • 100,000+princesses in 20 years
princess4oneday.com Guido Karp Photography Interview in FileMaker Magazin (PDF, in German)
Guido Karp and Angus Young of AC/DC sitting on red cinema seats, laughing, Angus Young with guitar and school uniform
Guido Karp and Angus Young (AC/DC) © Michael Koelsch for GKP.LA

Who is Guido Karp?

Tour photographer for Rammstein, Tokio Hotel and Die Flippers, cover photos for more than 1,000 music CDs and DVDs, portraits of Michael Jackson, Tina Turner, Depeche Mode, AC/DC, Roxette and Helene Fischer.

Guido Karp, born in Mayen in the Eifel region of Germany, has been taking photographs since 1980. He was named Music Photographer of the Year in 1988 and 1992, and in 2002 in New York he was one of ten photographers inducted into the ranks of the ‘Leading photographers of the world’. The way he introduces himself: ‘You probably don’t know me, but I bet you have one of my photos at home.’

For many years, his business included the worldwide sale of fan photos: orders in more than 20 languages, at times truckloads of mail, databases with millions of fans. Today he divides his time between his studio in Siershahn in the Westerwald and Los Angeles, where he offers photo tours and masterclasses. And he is the photographer of ‘Princess for one Day’.

Princess for one Day

Make-up, hairstyling and a photo shoot like a star. The format belongs to Princess for one Day Inc in the USA; Guido Karp is its photographer and has been touring Germany, Austria and Switzerland with it for more than 20 years.

The concept is simple and has worked for years: the make-up is tailored to each person, the hair is restyled, and the star photographer captures the result for eternity. Women aged 14 to 99 come alone or with friends, and men and couples are just as welcome. Taking part is a popular gift for Mother’s Day, birthdays or Christmas.

Guido Karp has already turned more than 100,000 women into princesses this way. Up to 120 participants a day, and gigabytes of data are processed on site in FileMaker: registration, photos, order, invoice.

Working together since 2007

It all began in 2006 in the basement of Bernhard Schulz’s grandfather in Salzburg, with a FileMaker database that was ‘very special’. This grew into a partnership that continues to this day.

FileMaker for Guido Karp Photography

  • Database 2008: The solution, which had grown over many years, was restructured without interrupting operations: a dedicated GUI file linked to 135 databases following the anchor-buoy model. The basic framework is still in use today.
  • Fans and customers: Address databases with millions of entries, multilingual, with duplicate detection, marketing campaigns by post, email and SMS, and complete order processing from the photo lab to dunning.
  • Used creatively: The award-winning photo book ‘The Nudes’ was created as a print-ready PDF directly from FileMaker layouts, without any layout software.
  • On the road: The FileMaker Server travels on tour as a MacBook and processes the day’s data every evening; we look after it from Salzburg via remote support.

Booking system for Princess for one Day

  • In use since 2010: The online booking system developed by schubec for Princess for one Day Inc has handled more than 100,000 registrations across several stages of modernisation.
  • Payment: Credit card, PayPal or bank transfer. The payment providers are connected to FileMaker, payments are booked fully automatically, and confirmations and reminders are sent automatically.
  • Smart invitations: Existing customers receive dates near them. To do this, the system calculates millions of distances between places of residence and venues, and the registration form is already pre-filled via a link.
  • Architecture: The online components run on MariaDB and are integrated into FileMaker as shadow tables via ESS. This way, web and studio work on the same data.
  • Claris FileMaker
  • FileMaker Server
  • MariaDB
  • ESS
  • PHP
  • Stripe
  • PayPal
  • Email & SMS
  • Guido Karp with a Princess for one Day participant, while a companion photographs the two of them with a smartphone
    Princess for one Day: Guido Karp with a participant © DomQuichotte for Princess for one day
  • Black-and-white portrait of Guido Karp holding his Canon camera
    Guido Karp © DomQuichotte for Princess for one day

‘What is the greatest strength of your FileMaker database?’ – ‘We see everything at a glance.’

Guido Karp interviewed by Bernhard Schulz, FileMaker Magazin 3/2023

The full interview, including the story of our collaboration, is available as a PDF to read (in German).

Has your database grown and now needs a solid foundation?

Whether it is a FileMaker solution that has grown over the years, online booking with payment, or a combination of both: we bring structure to it without disrupting day-to-day operations.

Discuss your project FileMaker at schubec

Get in touch

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schubec GmbH

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5020 Salzburg, Austria

Phone: +43 699 19337476
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Email: office@schubec.com