Smart Enough To Be Dumb

Way back in the 1960's I bought a book in a secondhand bookstore in Spokane, Washington, that was made up of Kodak pamphlets. These were loose-leaf style instructional treatises that explained how to use the Kodak materials of the day to do professional work. I thought they were the official word from on high. They were actually the official word from Rochester, New York. They made a million of them dealing with any and all aspects of photography. Some were arcane and dry and some were very entertaining.

Later in the 1980's and 1990's I rejected all the principles that they taught - sure that I knew better. Besides, they spoke of films and processes that had been superceded - so how could they have any relevence? I foolishly gave the looseleaf binder full of pamphlets away...

Well, here we are in 2017, and I am still doing light set-ups for some shots that are straight from those  1960's trade pamphlets...because the Kodak people knew what they were doing. They had years of experience dealing with different face shapes and skin tones and as these have not changed, neither has the technique for lighting them. We now do it with pixels and RAW files but we do it on the same basic anatomy as before....

Formulaic? Stilted? Outdated? Well ask your portrait sitters if they would like to look good to themselves, to their relatives, to indifferent viewers, to you, or to the camera club committee. If you are brave, ask it before you set up the lights. If you are foolish, ask it when you present the bill...Ask it of yourself when you do the studio accounts...

Okay. You know the answer... Now go out there. Go to the secondhand bookstores...if not in Spokane, Washington, then in Melbourne, or Perth, or Sydney. Go to Camera Electronic and ask Saul if you can buy the old Linhof Grossbild and Leica LFI books. Haunt the internet. Haunt the Workshop Camera Club Photographic Markets ( they have enough ghosts there to satisfy any taste...).

 Find those old pamphlets and books. Buy them and smuggle them home and never admit to your hipster friends that you have read them...but learn what light does and what people want and how to do it. Your studio bookings list will thank you. So will your accountant.

PS: If you fancy your knowledge newer and with more theatre go to some of the SHOOT Photography workshops.

One Day With Ken Duncan OAM...

And that one day is going to be Friday, the 7th of October. He's going to be at the Pan Pacific Hotel - 207 Adelaide Terrace, holding a one-day seminar to help Western Australians understand their digital cameras and - to paraphrase his own advertising - to make something very simple out of something that might have seemed hard work.

Ken's a landscape person - Oh, Boy, is he a landscape person - and the landscapes he has captured are the wide views of Australia. Limited edition prints, published books, calendars, cards, DVD's, and even jigsaw puzzles. He is an honourable jigsaw maker - he gives you ALL the pieces in the box...

Well, he's coming to Perth to present a seminar that will help nearly anyone who takes pictures. Really - anyone from pro to amateur to family snapper. The main poster for his seminar lists the topics and there is a good mix of what you need to know and what you need to do - and also the candid inclusion of what you DON'T need to worry about. Bless us, thus is just what the Camera Electronic sales staff and management want to see - a man who loves photography as much as we do.

Well, he's got some good backup - makers of the famed Lumix range of digital cameras and lenses, Panasonic are the event partner and we're going to be the exclusive retail partner. We stock Panasonic here at Camera Electronic and we know how good they are for taking landscapes - that's one at the top of the column taken on a Panasonic Lumix GX-7 with a 20mm lens. Some people have said it looks a little like Japan...

Well, more good news from Panasonic - one person at the seminar will win a Panasonic camera valued at $1099. And there will be more free give-aways - goodies, discount vouchers, tools and tutorials.

You won't starve or parch either - morning tea, lunch, and afternoon tea are included in the $249.75 seminar fee. Please don't ask me where the 75¢ comes into it because I have no idea...

But goodies aside, what you REALLY want to get is what you really will get - Ken's expert advice on what to buy, what to set, what to look for in a picture, and how to capture it. It doesn't need to be award-winning landscape panoramas like he does - it can be people, places, events, and objects just as easily...and easily is just how Ken wants you to do it. Come along and be charmed and instructed all at once.

The link to go to to book for this day is: https://www.trybooking.com/BookingEventSummary.aspx?eid=200588

If you key in CAMELEC as you are checking out you can get a 10% discount off the ticket price.

Now, go and do two things - go book that ticket and then google up Ken Duncan OAM and press the "images" button on your browser...

WOW, Sir! Those are really some pictures! Wouldn't you like to find out how he made them look so good?

7th of October is the day to find out...

Uncle Dick's Hot Wash Up - The Photo Live Expo 2016

I hope that all the people who visited us yesterday down at the Novotel Langley hotel got home safely and slept soundly - I know I did. It's because I had a happy day.

Tasked with minding the table with the old books o n it, I still had time, thanks to assistance, to tour the rest of the trade room exhibition. What I found were very friendly industry representatives and a pretty good selection of current equipment and materials on offer - and there were  a few surprises for me as well. I'll detail them later in the week.

But was I'd like to say for Monday morning is how well-behaved the crowd of visitors was on Sunday. Not that we expected a soccer riot or anything...what I mean is the tenor of the conversations and questions I participated in or could hear seemed to be very pleasant. I know I don't talk all that much at a bookstall as I tend to bury my nose in the stock and read what it says in there, but lots of people called by and had interesting things to say.

It looked as though that was the case on the other trade stands as well - particularly when a new item like the Fujifilm X-T2 was lurking there amongst the other goods. I was an honourable employee and did my duty and did not spend all my time poking away at the X-T2 but I can tell you that it will be an interesting thing to play with when it comes into ready sale.

Someone remarked during the day that - worldwide - the photo trade is supposed to be shrinking. They cited cell phones as the reason - then general economics were mentioned - then world terrorism (?). They might as well have blamed garlic or the letter "Q" for it... From the looks of the crowd that surged through the Novotel, the trade is doin' fine. Remember that this was a cold Sunday and the hotel was not on major train line and we still packed the room - packed it with people from 35 miles away in some cases.

For myself, I was more than happy to see that a lot of the books went off to new homes. Some of the literature was not old enough to be historic nor new enough to be relevant...but in nearly every book or magazine there was something that could make the reader think. And thinking is what really starts photography going.

More on the Photo Live Expo 2016 later in the week. For today, here is the new Fujifilm X-T2. It exists!