07 Nov Making A Proper Joby Of It
I cannot pass by the Joby stand in the shop without running my eye over the accessories there and trying to think up uses for them. This is not to criticize the Joby designers...
November 2018
06 Nov Pass The Parcel
There is a military meme going about to the effect that after you pull the pin, Mr. Grenade is not your friend. Actually, Mr. Grenade isn’t your friend at any time, as his temperment is uncertain in the best of circumstances...
05 Nov FInding The Light Switch
When you enter a dark room in your own house most of you reach for the light switch...
02 Nov For Whom Do You Work – Part Three – Building Lines
I've met photographers who have changed their entire systems when a competitor came out with a camera that had a higher shutter speed. However this was achieved - mechanically or electronically - it was the primary factor in their photography. For some, it was because the subjects they photographed were in constant rapid motion with peaks of an even more frantic pace. None of these shooters was shooting architecture or real estate. Buildings don't move. Jolly well everything else does, however, from the traffic to the clouds to the sun to the wind - and not to mention the people who inhabit the buildings. And the building photographer - inside or outside - has to take this into account. a. The professional architectural photographer. They are paid by the builders, architects, owners, and tenants to record what a building looks like as it is being constructed, finished, occupied, and changed. They have a strong streak of landscape shooter in them as their subjects are large and occupy large spaces. Their equipment can be expensive and the way they are required to employ it can...
01 Nov The Budget
Do you have a photography budget? Is it an annual one? Do you have to present it to The House on a special night in the year, and then justify it to the Leader of the Opposition? And are you hounded for weeks afterwards? This may sound funny, but consider your photographic spending in the light of politics. It might help you to govern yourself better. At least it will make Question Time in The House easier to bear. Every year you have a certain amount of discretionary money to spend. If you are in straitened circumstances it may not be very much - if you’re luckier, you have more. But for nearly everyone, however much you have, it is less than the makers of new photo equipment would have you spend. Thus you must budget for your year. The temptation not to do so is strong - I would charge like the Seventh Cavalry if I had unlimited credit. I don’t, so I don’t, and am happier for it. But I still whistle “ Garryowen “ while looking at the new lens cabinet. In all budgeting,...
31 Oct The Rash Assessment
I am wary of rash assessments...
30 Oct Shop Only At Approved Places
I really should stop reading him. But it’s like a crash on the freeway...
29 Oct The Good New Days
Milkbars, Monaros, middies, and motoring down Hay Street on Saturday night. Welcome to 1966. Wander down one of the arcades in town and look into the camera shop - the one with the lights and enough space to move in. No names, no pack drill. This writer’s there behind a counter dressed in his short-sleeved white shirt and tie, looking for all the world like a refugee from “ Revenge Of The Nerds “. If you passed by the dubious attractions of the Kodak Instamatic or Agfa Clack kits and wanted to get a real 35mm SLR camera, you had several choices - two of the best being the Pentax Spotmatic or the Nikon F. They both did the business from different positions on the photographic spectrum, but they both sold pretty much like hotcakes. Admittedly there was a greater takeup for the Spotmatic amongst amateurs and for the Nikon F amongst the professionals but that was concerned with whose money was being spent. The Pentax with a standard prime lens ran out at about $ 125. The Nikon went for $ 350....
26 Oct Go To The Fair
Here’s a go - the writer for a major camera shop telling people to go to secondhand camera fairs and marketplaces instead of coming into the shop. Is he crazy, or what? Well, that should have been evident a long time ago, but in this case there is more method than madness. I will declare that I do go to secondhand camera markets equally as a buyer and a seller. In both instances it was entirely divorced from my former position as a staff member or my present one as a contributing writer. I go to the fair as a private individual - a rube or a carney depending which side of the table I am leaning upon. I have sold and bought items of great value that have proven to be perfect for their purpose. I have done the same with some useless dreck. The point of honour with me is that I bought it before I sold it...
25 Oct The Undercoat
Painting anything is either fun or torture...