The Working Life Of the Fujifilm EF X-500

No, I don't mean how long it will continue to work - goodness, if you treat a flash right you can get decades out of it. Exercise it regularly and don't drop it off a cliff...

I mean... how does the performance of the new Fujifilm EF X-500 stack up in a working situation - where you have to use it to satisfy the client...rather than your desire to fiddle with new gear. Let's go out on different jobs:

1. The Event.

The party, ball, graduation, awards ceremony, etc. The grip and grin, speeches at 8:00, 2000-shot corporate gig where you stay sober and everyone else doesn't. The you-get-paid-if-anyone-buys-a-picture job.

Well, you are going to need to shoot those 2000 shots consistently - well-exposed if you can, but at least all the same. The last thing in the world that you want to do is sit there pushing sliders on a computer later. If they are going to be similar poses and groups you can probably trust the TTL to give you a good run off the faces and clothing - formal males suits are going to have similar reflectance and even the ball gowns tend to be alike. If you are going to do the Mardi Gras resign yourself to having the exposure system overwhelmed every now and then.

The TTL can be skewed, however, if needed...say a situation with high-reflectance stage costumes in a great many of the shots. Dive into the page button and then the +/_ exposure compensation button. twist the control wheel for up to 5 stops plus or minus output. This is vastly better than the Fujifilm EF-42 flash that only allowed + or - 1.5 stops. The fact that the X-500 does in in one dial turn vs the the 8 button presses and 20 seconds waiting time of the older flash is really significant.

Likewise the recycling time - I count 2.5 seconds on fresh batteries from a full manual dump to recharged. The EF-42 could barely manage in 6-8 seconds. Some events are very much run and gun and if your flash is not ready almost instantly for a follow-up shot, you either have to talk like a parrot to keep the subjects still for that 8 seconds or lose them entirely.

2. The Wedding.

This is like a corporate event but with a CEO in a white dress ready to explode if anything goes awry. You can multiply the pressure as much as you like - pressure to shoot far too many pictures, to be everywhere at the same time, and to do things as fast as possible. Plus the pressure to have multiple sets of equipment ready to go at a moment's notice. In that respect the new flash is a bit more expensive than the old one, but weddings are not the time to skimp.

Will you get a chance to use the multiple flash capability of the X-500? You have three groups at your disposal from the main X-500 control panel - they can be manual, TTL, or a percentage TTL that you can alter as you go on. The big group, the bridal waltz, the speeches, the formals - they all lend themselves to the studio-lighting approach of multiple groups.

As a wedding pro you will have also worked out how flash modifiers and stands can be used in these situations. You do get a flash foot with the EF X-500, of course, but you need to match it to some suitable stands. You also need an assistant, but then you knew that after your first wedding...

3. The Grande Portraite.

Funny how the mighty all want to look good, but grant portrait photographers tiny little windows of opportunity to actually do the job...Time is money is power is prestige...

Well, if you are going to play their game, play it fast. Main and fill and as many flattering shots as you can suggest in your 15 minutes with His Moneyship or Her Publicityship. The Mag Mod flash attachments may well help, as will the facility for multiple groups of lights. The fact that these are speed-lights with no extra battery packs is a blessing - less to haul in and out. The rapidity of recharge and of control changes is also vital when you are dealing with people who have decided that they have so much money and power that they need not be patient...

4. The School/ Santa/ Sports Carnival Portraits.

These are easy - just work out your main/fill multiple group setup in advance, sandbag the stands down, and take your medication. It will all be over in 6-8 hours. The fact that you can expect about 600 full-bore TTL shots out of a set of lithium batteries us a good thing - it will go down to about 150 with regular alkalines. If you plan to do your Santa photos from an armoured emplacement you may be able to arrange for a 6V power feed and the auxiliary plug of the Ef X-500 will allow you to shoot an unlimited number.

Note: there is a thermal protection circuit in the Ef X-500 that will shut it down if you have been shooting far too much far too fast. It will come on again when the temperature goes down.

5. The Advertising Business.

Well, as the sky is the limit for ideas, ( but rarely paid at stratospheric prices...), you can use a brace of EF X-500's for a lot of stuff. They have the sort of manual power control that dials down to 1/512th of full power, so that they can be used for tiny little multiple flashes. If your camera will do it, you can shoot multiple shots in a fraction of a second for stroboscopic effects. You can stop peak action at high shutter speeds - again if you are using the X-T2 or X-Pro2.

On a good day you can get a picture at 1/4000 of a second and capture a frame of art directors midway between changing their minds.

6. The Science Lab.

Here's where those tiny slices of light are the most use - scientists are always trying to take pictures of little specimens or delicate surfaces that wash out under stronger light. Three of them with TTL/ group are controllable and precise and a lot less of an impost on the department's budget than trying to do the same thing with studio flashes or portable battery and head kits.

Field workers can break these a lot less than they could a suitcase full of heads and batteries. And electricity in the sticks is more likely to be available in AA form than mains power.

7. The Real Estate Business

Hello 3:00 AM again...well, if you need to light up an interior there is nothing better than three speed lights and some Mag Mod Domes. The EF X-500 so equipped and hidden round corners and behind furniture is the answer for making pokey dark interiors look livable. You can group control them to balance the result and you can put dedicated gels into the mag Mod holders to try to match whatever the dawn or dusk is trying to do.

Try everything. If the images don't work there is always tomorrow and the owner of the place won't mind keeping everything off the tabletops for another day...

The Silent Sales Assistant

I went into our new Murray Street store* one week and stole one of the Olympus Pen F pamphlets from the rack...

Well, it wasn't considered stealing. The brochures were right there, and anyone - you included - could go in there and pick one up and take it away. Camera Electronic and Olympus Imaging would be delighted if you would. Because they would like to hire you as a salesperson.

The hours of work? 24 hours per day, 7 days a week.

The pay? No pay...in fact you pay THEM a little over two thousand dollars for the privilege of doing the work.

The working conditions? You work everywhere - in your loungeroom, at the dinner table, on the can....you may be called upon to sit up late at night in bed as your partner tries to sleep, selling Olympus cameras. You are expected to be relentless, and if we know you...you will be.

The reason? You have an actual printed camera book in your hand. You, as a potential buyer of the superb Olympus Pen F camera and lenses, are going to sell it to yourself.

 

You are going to return again and again to that printed book. You'll look at the pictures taken in Melbourne and even though they are of the monstrously ugly Federation Square buildings, the fact that they are taken in Australia with the Pen F will tell you that YOU could do the same. This is a technology that you can work with.

There is the technical information. There are the fashion-design accessories. And there are the lenses...and you cannot pass the lens page without thinking which of them would be best for you...there is one of those lenses that is EXACTLY right for you and your vision...if only you can find it...Do not despair - even if you have to buy three lenses before you find your optical soul-mate, you will have two spare views of the world that will make your life better, And who knows what your vision will evolve into when you use those other two lenses...

 Okay, here's the bottom line. Olympus Imaging has elected to make an expensive advertising brochure. Some other camera makers have decided not to do this anymore - they've decided to save a Yen by putting everything they advertise on-line. They've fallen for the vision of a net world.

But there you are, still reading that Olympus Pen F brochure at 11:30 at night in bed...and you are going to come into Camera Elecronic and spend the money to get the camera and a lens. Because you have sold it to you. You have got a yen for an Olympus...

* Good news. You have sold yourself an extremely good camera. Your judgement is sound. Now go out and go mad, as one of my old work colleagues used to say. You will succeed.

The Newspaper Advertisement Vs The Web Advertisement

Every couple of weeks I am tasked with writing an advertisement for our local daily newspaper - it goes into a section entitled " Market Place".

The criteria for the products featured are price, providence, and practicality. It can be quite a complex choice:

 a. No good trying to sell a multi-thousand dollar item in a small column - the people who are going to enter into a large camera system or select a premium-quality lens are going to do it with a great deal of care and research. Trying to sell a Leica in a one column ad would be like trying to sell a Ferrari sports car in the back of a comic book.

The item selected needs to be affordable by a large number of people. People who read newspapers...and to put it bluntly, these days that means older people. Like me.

b. We have to be able to provide the goods we advertise - particularly if they are in that very affordable range that might just spark off a rush. We HOPE for a rush! As the copywriter I need to check whether we are likely to be able to satisfy the customers without making them wait for orders.

Western Australians do realise that we are living on the edge of the world... just before it all turns into misty waterfalls and dragons. So we do need to wait a little longer for goods to arrive. But we don't want to wait too long.

c. Practical items sell well in this lower price bracket. It sounds paradoxical, but the people who are likely to spend $50 to $100 on something want it to be able to do something useful... not just look good or be trendy. There are enough other shops selling collectable and impulse goods to soak up the throw-away money, but Camera Electronic has to be able to put something on the counter that DOES something.

By and large we have succeeded with the newspaper sales. The Steadepod has gone like a bomb for years. Cullmann tripods, heads, and accessories do exactly what people need. Hoodman gear works reliably and they have a lifetime warranty for stuff anyway - so does Promaster, for that matter. When we offer these brands people buy, and presumably get value out of the goods. I know I do.

But what about the internet advertisements?

Well our online shop is always a sort of an advertisement in itself - any catalogue is. People pore over the pages as much to dream about what they want as to compare pricing. Sometimes I think the internet site has a mind of its own, just as I am sometimes in despair at the social media machinery that seems to mutate weekly, but eventually nearly everything gets settled out.

Direct marketing offers are the province of the higher management of the firm - I don't think 'em up because I am not a party to the financial decisions of the place. Readers of this column may well be on the mailing list for them and if so I urge you to have a close read when they pop up in your feed. There are times when there are some very good bargains indeed - particularly if wholesale firms are adding cash-back offers to the deal.

You're also well-advised to get in on the special deals that accompany camera and lens launches - the beer and cheese roll nights that introduce new gear to the Perth scene. Frequently the prices are usefully lowered for one night. And you get the beer and cheese roll.

Advertisement is the soul of commerce - here at Camera Electronic we like to make sure that it is a reasonably clean soul at that. Please keep reading.

Footnote: The predictive text and autocorrect have been turned off here at the copy desk. If you find any typographical errors they are original and authentic, and should be prized as such.

Photokina OP

Just monitoring the net in my jammies...

Looks like we are going to have the pleasure of a Fujifilm medium format camera and a line of lenses dedicated to it. Think in terms of a larger version of an X-T2 and you'll get the shape.

A new OM-D EM1 MkII is in the offing as well, Very fast and packed with processor power.

Metz have made a compact TTL flash for a number of the systems - the M 400. Metal hot shoe foot - you beauty!

Three new Sigma lenses - an 85 1.4 Art, 12-24 Art, and 50mm f:4 Sport. WooHoo for the 500...

New Olympus Pen E-PL8 as a fashion and entry-level shooter. Brown leather variant with silver lens looks nice. Their new 25 f:1.2 Pro lens looks nice too, but on an entirely different plane of existence - the biggest little lens you've ever seen, and touted to be perfect. A prime the size of a medium zoom.

A new Sony a99 with 42 megapixel sensor.

A screen and a half of new Panasonic cameras.

And a "Concept Car" camera from Hasselblad. Looks vaguely like the old 500 film series but has a lot of new thinking on it. Fun to look at, fun to contemplate.

And there'll be more as the day goes on. Oh to be in Köln now that the camera fields are blooming...

Looking forward to the management's report when they return - hopefully with a carton of pamphlets from all the trade stands. You can do a great deal of reverse speculation with an advertising pamphlet from a trade fair - they often are prepared in advance and the advertising department doesn't talk to the engineering department so you can read up what might have been as well as what may come. The staff at the trade show are there in the middle with the public in their face and the facts as the actually are...

Heading image: They're nice jammies.

E & OE - The Escape Hatch On The Roof Of The Retail Bus

You've probably seen the letters " E & OE " at the bottom of a lot of the Camera Electronic advertisements and wondered what they mean. I asked one time and was assured that they stand for " Errors And Omissions Excepted ".

It is a sort of a quasi-legal phrase that seeks to stop arguments when the situation goes pear-shaped. We are all human...well, humanoid in my case...and troubles do creep in. Mistaken prices, goods that have run out, weird descriptions caused by typos...you can imagine the sorts of things.

Mean people might seize upon these errors and omissions to bedevil the staff - or try to compel them to supply things at incorrect prices. You can imagine the sort of trouble that a Cadillac agency would experience if a clumsy key stroke in advertising copy shifted the decimal point of a new car price a space to the left and everyone wanted to get the car for a 10th of the price. Of course the same sort of trouble would apply if the decimal shifted one space to the right...except no-one would be breaking the showroom door down to get in.

Unversed as I am in retail law, I cannot say where real decision rests in this sort of thing. Good sense would suggest that where a genuine error has been made...and one that could be seen to be a typo or transposition or mistake imposed by a publisher...everyone would stand back and agree to cool down. Bad sense would suggest other things. The E & OE puts a small barrier out to stop this.

From the cash-register-drawer side it must also be said that there can frequently be errors and omissions on the other side of the counter too. People sometimes have a different idea in their mind than that which they express. Indeed, sometimes our common language of photography leads us all to confusion. A case in point once developed; I realised that it was very wise to ask for clarification whenever someone asked for a soft box, lightbox, light cube, or soft cube.

They are all similar words, but can be used to define four entirely separate products; a studio flash light modifier, an illuminated table upon which to examine transparencies, an LED light source, and a cloth diffusing device for tabletop photography. There were some pretty fraught conversations on the phone when the customer meant one thing, said another, and I heard a third thing. In some cases it was a retail version of an Abbot and Costello routine and we never did find out who was on second.

In any event if there is controversy, be patient. The staff will endeavour to do so as well. Most things can be resolved gently. Harsh words spoken over a phone or typed on a computer screen are hardly ever necessary. You can always resort to ##,@, and %!

The Big Camera For The Big Picture

Well, I saw it.

There it was in the Fridays Studio last night - Monday as it happened - the new Hasselblad H6D camera in both 50 megapixel and 100 megapixel versions. And a table of Hasselblad lenses that fit onto the camera. Also a setup with a computer, projector, and two professional strobe lights with soft boxes. All it needed was a very patient young woman as model and a professional fashion photographer to wring the new camera through its paces.

Well, he'd actually had a chance to have a go before the evening's presentation with some fashion shooting and was able to shows some of the results - large prints on the walls of the studio with amazing sharpens in the details. As the 100 megapixel camera is the industry leader at present for this sort of resolution, we had the privilege of seeing the cutting edge without getting hurt.

This new evocation of the Hasselblad HD system has added any number of conveniences and improvements - an improved range of ISO settings, 4K video, dual card slots, increased dynamic range ( 15 stops!), and a thoroughly better LCD screen with touch control.

Things is faster with USB 3.0 throughout and they have even taken to such of the fashionable modern improvements as the Q button - you get 8 vital functions displayed on that LCD screen at once.

One of the Camera Electronic staff questioned me about the size of the sensors - it turns out that the 50 megapixel model runs to a 33mm x 44mm sensor while the 100 megapixel variety has a sensor that is 40 mm x 54 mm. This is quite reminiscent of the 645 sized sensors of the film era A16 backs.

The new lenses for this class of camera have also been updated to include a faster 1/2000 second shutter speed and the flash shooters will be delighted to see that the X - synch speed can go all the way up to that top speed. Daytime flash fill could not be easier.

The photo demonstration, with the patient young lady, went well, as the ability to dial down the overexposures using the dynamic range was amply demonstrated. The camera is best suited to Phocus software...in this case the 3.0 version...though output can be sent to any number of other formats. Even rather harsh direct flash could not phase the system, and the obvious speed of the camera in processing the RAW files enabled the fashion shoot to flow very swiftly. Apparently the new tethered cable has a great deal to do with this - the simple fact of being more flexible and better connected makes a workflow difference. There is probably a fair bit of wireless capability there as well since they spoke of sending images to iPads while studio shooting is going on.

I think the high speed capture of the device is also at the top of the market, if a video that was shown is anything to go by. I was rather distracted by the photographer's use of cans of paint thrown in the air to make patterns of colour...spectacular, and possibly artistic, but probably the messiest use of a studio I have ever seen.

Let's hope the Fridays Studio never has to undergo that sort of cleanup...

Eyeing The Fish On Dry Land

There have been a number of photographic equipment manufacturers in the past who have made what are termed "fisheye" lenses. I can recall seeing examples from Olympus, Nikon, Canon, Tokina, and Rokinon in my time at the shop. Doubtless there have many others - even down to Saga or Spiratone who made a fisheye adapter that we all bought in the 35mm era.

Did I include Sigma in that list? I should have, because they have made a number of these...and this week we have one to play with in the studio.

It is a 10mm f:2.8 DC version that is intended for use on an APS-C sized Nikon. I'm testing it by means of a Kindai adapter and a Fujifilm X-E2 camera. This is not as cumbersome as you might think - the adapter has an aperture control ring that allows you to make exposure changes on Nikon G lenses. It is not marked with conventional stops...it has 0 to 7 on the control ring but you quickly learn to count down from whatever the maximum aperture is and anyway a check of the LCD screen shows you whether you are on the right track. Fortunately the Fujifilm X-E2 has a provision in its control menu that lets you see clearly through the finder or on the screen even if you are stopping down. You can watch the DOF advancing as the numbers climb.

So, what do you use a fisheye lens for, anyway? I have no blessed idea. I never did know, even when I had the Spiratone fisheye lens screwed on the front of a Pentax 55mm Super-Takumar. I did the obligatory big-nose picture of a friend and made the headlight assembly of my old Renault 10 loom out of the picture - like I had seen in the photo magazines of the time - and then ran out of ideas. Doubtless if I had had occasion and permission to shoot straight upwards inside the Dome of St. Peter's in Rome or St. Paul's the view of the lens would have been invaluable.

Likewise I can see it as a novel establishing shot for any other imposing environment - church, cathedral, cavern, missile silo, etc should the opportunity present itself. Or produce and image that is hip, funky, swinging, or whatever the buzz word would laud, in other circumstances. A bold advertising photographer might record a product photo using one, but would have to be fast on the feet to sell it to the art director and the client - generally they tend to favour undistorted views of their sales items.

Landscape? Well, yes, but you do get to a point where the wide but distorted view becomes repetitive. Likewise use during sporting events or crowd affairs. Once seen, a fisheye picture impresses itself on the memory in such a way that it is really unnecessary to do again.

But. But. But...

But that impression can be as essential to making a visual point as a punctuation mark can be to a written description. It is not the period, nor comma of visual punctuation - it is the exclamation mark! In some cases it is several of these!! AND THE NEXT SENTENCE IN CAPITALS!!!!

You can't write a letter or email like that all the time, but you can wake up the reader occasionally with something unexpected. That's the fisheye lens.

Note: Apparently it is possible to use these lenses to construct virtual reality images but the computer has to do a great deal of electronic heavy lifting in some cases to cope with the distortion evident at the edges of the images. Be warned.

The Swedish Undra Maskin

Well, start going to the gym. Do your curls and upper arm exercises. Practise lifting heavy weights. Because the Swedish heavyweight is back.

Not Ingmar Johanssen - or Ingmar Bergman - or even Ingrid Bergman - we mean Hasselblad and the new H6D. The bigger medium format digital camera.

A new electronic email ( as opposed to the old steam ones ) went out today alerting Camera Electronic customers to the appearance on the world scene of this new camera. The press release for it is the only thing seen at present but it promises some pretty interesting things:

a. A bigger, more divided sensor. 100 megapixels to capture things. 40mm x 53mm sensor size. This is a considerable advance over the previous size and a jump ahead of their competitors. looks as though they are doing a 100C and a 50C version.

b. 4K video capture.

c. A new processor inside.

d. Raised ISO  - up to 12,800 now.

e. USB 3.0 connections.

f. Dual cards - CFast and SD.

g. The .3FR.JPG format. No, I don't know what they mean either, but it's their press release...

h. WiFi connectivity.

i. 15-stop dynamic range.

j. A touchscreen LCD and new display.

K. An orange shutter button.

I've included the last feature because it is the only bit that I can afford - no notes yet on the Australian price but I've googled up the New York price and fed it into the currency converter program and I privately suspect that you would not get any change from a $ 45,000 note on this camera. Not surprising seeing the specs and the heritage of the device, but I suspect that it will be government money or high-end advertising studio money that buys it.

Mind, you, one Powerball and I will be down at the CE front counter pestering the staff...*

*Actually, I pester them plenty, but an order for a complete new Hasselblad H6D outfit plus extra lenses and a spare pair of trousers would raise the game to the second floor.

Ask Me Questions.

But don't expect all the answers - if you need everything there is Google and the public library.

You can, however, have some answers - if you are prepared to wait. I need time to get to the computer and Google them..

Thus the state of photographic knowledge in 2015. The facts that are given and immutable - like the sun never shines up under our feet - are few and far between and even they can sometimes be challenged by the semantic quibblers. This is annoying and makes me feel all Anti-Semantic - a difficult position in my family. I have decided to go selectively deaf to many of these flights of argument and feel better for it.

The internet is a wonderful resource when you have too much time and/or intellect on your hands and want to waste some of it. You needn't resort to pictures of cats or naked ladies - there are innumerable sites dealing with photography that can sand the surface of your brain smooth. In some cases down to 1200 wet and dry and with a fine gloss.

Chief amongst these are the photography forums dealing with any of the manufacturers in the business. I do not know if there are fan-sites for water pumps or horse feed but if there are I'll bet they don't get to the level of acrimony that I have seen on some photo pages. People are passionate about being passionate and are not afraid to hit each other with literary rocks to prove it. I strongly suspect that most of the writers:

a. Have never taken pictures with the equipment under debate.
b. Have never handled the equipment under debate.
c. Have never taken pictures.
d. Are not fully dressed while typing away at their computer.*

With all the enquiries that people seek to make I generally advise them to come down to the shop and hold the item/device/advertising pamphlet/concept/old wad of chewing gum in their own hands and make their own decisions. Nothing that a manufacturer's advertising team or an anonymous poster on an internet group can say will be more powerful than your own judgement.

 Not even my opinion...

* I am. I assure you.

Houndstooth - What's In A Name?

Did goe past a studio in North Perth the other Wednesday and was greatley amused.

There was a picture of a rather intense looking cat displayed in the main window with a  big sign saying that the studio wasn't just for dogs.

Love 'em or hate 'em - cats that is* - that sign was absolutely brilliant advertising. I remembered it - alone - out of a couple hundred other advertisements seen while on that drive. And I had not seen that studio before - the last time I had seen that location it was quite another business. Now I know it is Houndstooth Studios. And I cracked a smile.

Is your studio memorable? Will I see it while tootling past? Will I know it is a studio? Will I know what it does? Will it make me smile? If yes, you are in a fair way to getting me - and others - to drop some money there.

Consider your studio name well. You can't have Houndstooth Studio because that is already taken and you can't have Dick Stein's Little Studio because that is already taken, but there are lots of other names out there.

You may have one yourself - look on your driver's license to see if you do. Consider whether you should use it as part of the studio name - if your proper name is John Dillinger or Baby Face Nelson perhaps not. You might attract the wrong sort of clientele. Even adding "Photographer" at the end of the sign will probably not improve public relations.

Big picture of happy client on the sign? Stylised camera? Swish logo?

You'll still be going to beat the picture of the cat. Now EVERY time I go past that studio I will be looking. Damn, I'll drive out of my way now just to go past and see. That's advertising.

* I have not asked our cat, Ratbreath, whether he cares if I approve of him or not. I suspect he would not take any notice one way or the other.

Branding And SEO In The Nieuw Werrldde Orddrurre

" Hello? Hello? Is this the executive director of Google? This is Crispian van Astralle - Pleine of Nieuw Werrldde Phautaugrafickts Studieaux. I wish to complain about your search engine.

Neither of my clients can find me on their computer. I have told them my name several times on my mobile phone and you still do not display me at the top of the list of professional photographic legends. We have been established for jus months and this sort of thing is holding back what might be a multi-billion dollar business. It's just not good enough.

Unless this changes before lunch I am going to take it to the highest authorities. We do all we can to  make it easy for you people and we expect you to do the rest. "

And that, folks is that. We all want to be us. We all want to be unique. Identically unique in some cases - like teenagers...

We want to have our business seen as unique - fair enough in a difficult market - but we need to remember that to be seen, we need to be found. Laboured spellings based upon trendy phonics are fine for band posters in summer concerts. The cleverness is no more wasted than the readers...but it is different if you are trying to sell a studio.

Lots of names are already taken. You won't be allowed to register yourself as Kodak or Leica or The Royal Australian Regiment. Calling yourself the Caltex Studio because there are all those signs on the petrol stations around town already will not succeed - Caltex has more lawyers on speed dial that you have had hot dinners.

Try to think up your new business name in the morning, when you have had coffee. Leaving it until after Happy Hour risks the sort of flights of fancy that end up never being heard of again - names that are so impossibly clever that no-one succeeds in finding them. Make no mistake - people are impatient. Three pages into Google and they couldn't give a damn - they'll hire another photographer.

If in doubt - use your own name with the appellation " Photographer" added. Even if you aren't now you might be one day. But it is no fair using someone else's photo on your card...

The Iconic Image - Camera Electronic On Your PC!

As we get older we discover an amazing phenomenon - young people do not know as much as we do.

Young people who wish to take exception to this may protest as much as they like - the replies section on Facebook is open all the time. They can type on their laptops, tablets, or mobile phones with the assurance that it will be read. Full sentences in English are preferred though if you must txt we hav ppl her who cn trnslat.

But how many of you know " Howdy Customers"...and who said it.

Never mind - the real point of this $ 11 is the fact that Camera Electronic has scored an advertising coup in the world of the PC. Many of our readers use PC's as opposed to Mac computers and have become familiar with the icon symbols that the PC uses to indicate various functions - things like "print", "open", "format", and..."save".

Especially "save". Look closely at "save".

Young people who have never used the older computers really don't know what that is. We do. It is really a tiny little representation in symbol form of the front appearance of the Camera Electronic store. There's the front windows, the door, and the workshop windows above it. Note that the symbol was drawn before we got the workshop air conditioners, but that was a long time ago...

Go on. Look at the top of the Windows page. Now stand outside in Stirling Street and look up at the front of our shop.

There you go. Advertising coup of two centuries...every time you save your work - you save our workplace.

You'll NEVER guess who works in the "print" icon building...

Good Laud - We List the Canon AIPP Annual Awards

The annual event that Canon and the AIPP conduct to examine and display the work of Australian photographers has just been concluded. There are a number of divisions in which they consider photography can be divided and there are awards for the leading Australian practitioners - and one for an international person. It's a big ist, but the people who make it are the best for this year - take it as a good hint to look up their work and see why they have received the plaudits of their peers.

If you're in the market to hire anyone for photography...well this is also a pretty good shopping list of people - but remember that you're looking at the Paris end of Collins Street...

So, to the list. Please note that the Canon company's name is linked to the AIPP in each case.

1. Canon/AIPP Australian Photographer of the year - James Simmons
2. Canon/AIPP Creative Photographer of the year - Kirsten Graham
3. Canon/AIPP Wedding Photographer of the year - James Simmons
4. Canon/AIPP Family Photographer of the year - Kelly Brown
5. Canon/AIPP Portrait Photographer of the year - Peter Rossi
6. Canon/AIPP Illustrative Photographer of the year - Keren Dobia
7. Canon/AIPP Birth Photographer of the year - Victoria Berekmeri
8. Canon/AIPP Documentary Photographer of the year - Anthony McKee
9. Canon/AIPP Science, Environment, Nature Photographer of the year - Joshua Holko
10. Canon/AIPP Landscape Photographer of the year - Ricardo Da Cunha
11. Canon/AIPP Travel Photographer of the year - Nick Rains
12. Canon/AIPP Sports Photographer of the year - Matt Palmer
13. Canon/AIPP Commercial Photographer of the year - Aran Anderson
14. Canon/AIPP Fashion Photographer of the year - Peter Coulson
15. Canon/AIPP Advertising Photographer of the year - Matthew Everingham
16. Canon/AIPP International Photographer of the year - Luke Edmonson
17. Canon/AIPP Photography Book of the year - Peter Eastway
18. Canon/AIPP Album Photographer of the year - Nadine Saacks
19. Canon/AIPP Australian Tertiary Institute of the year - Photography Studies College
20. Canon/AIPP Emerging photographer of he year - Adam Williams
21. Canon/AIPP Student Photographer of the year - Jacqui Hogan
22. Canon/AIPP Highest Scoring Print - Kelly Gerdes

Thats a powerful lot of awardin'...

I noted the category of Birth Photographer and wish to accord Victoria an especial degree of respect. Never mind all the other camera businesses - she is the one in this list that is concerned with the essential part of life - and it is a tough time for everyone in the place. If she can cope with new babies, new mothers, new fathers, and old theatre sisters and get the top spot for Australia she is the star at the top of the tree as far as I am concerned. Yay!

And congratulations and an increase of business to all the other winners.