"Just Bring Your Camera"

"And I'll give you something for your film".

These two statements were frequently heard in the analog era when someone wanted you to do a professional job of sports, event, or wedding coverage but did not want to pay a professional price for the result. You were foolish if you thought that it was going to excuse you from doing a professional job - that was still the standard. But you were not going to get paid. You were a relative. Or a mate. Or the relative of a mate.

It always went the same way. The cost of the film and processing was never fully paid - they gave you something but that something was based upon their recollection of the price of a roll of Kodak Gold  or Sakura film seen at the checkout of the local supermarket. If you presented them with the actual cost of the pro neg film and the processing at the pro lab they recoiled in horror and accused you of being a gouger.

Once the pictures were delivered they asked for the negs, and then they took them off and used the pictures without any credits or thank-yous. But they would pass you onto their mates at a party to do the same thing for them...at the same rates. It was like being a football - the boots that kicked you changed but the sensation was still the same.

Well, now everything has changed. Now with the digital era the mates of mates realise that there are no more films to be bought and no more lab fees to be paid...so they no longer have to offer anything in compensation. They are entitled under their rules of the game to demand all the RAW files, all the jpeg files, and frequently the memory card as well.  You'll sometimes be offered a drink - and that is rare - and sometimes be offered "exposure".

Exposure is the method the ancient Greeks used to dispose of unwanted infants on hillsides and it is equally effective on modern photographers. The only difference is the modern mates of mates will then tell the mates of their mates that you'll do their weddings/sports carnivals/car shoots/parties for free, and you can die on that hillside repeatedly.

"Just bring your camera".

Waiting For The Buffer To Empty

Here are ten useful things a photographer can do to fill in time while waiting for the files to crowd off the buffer of the camera onto the card:

1. Calculate how much money was saved by purchasing a 15 MB per second card over a 95 MB per second card. And how that money has been put to wonderful use saving the planet...

2. Time a boiled egg from the flashes of the little light as the files are transferred. Rather have soft-boiled eggs? Buy a faster card.

3. Hold the camera with the right side down and gently shake it. That lets the pixels run into the card faster.*

4. Watch the rest of the football game as it goes on. Wow! Did you see that winning goal? Just as well...your camera didn't.

5. Look all Ansel Adamsy and face ruggedly into the driving sleet. Okay, you're inside at a christening, but you can still be rugged....

6. Sing a Wiggles song to the timing of that damned little flashing light. A happy Wiggles song. Sing it through gritted teeth.

7. Watch the guys with with the 1DX Mk II's and the D5's as they flash through the high speed zillion frames per second exposures. Pray that one of their cameras catches fire from the friction of the air.

8. Practise saying " I like to contemplate the steady rhythm of Nature by slowing down my camera's metabolism. " Try not to giggle or wince as you do.

9. Shield the LCD screen from observation so that people can't see the little hour-glass turning over. pretend that you are editing the images for ultimate quality. Occasionally shout out  " 5 Stars! ".

10. Make a list of things you would like to do to the designer of the camera.

Let us lift your morale, if not your morals. Buy a new card - a fast card. They cost a bit more but they give the modern camera a chance to process the raw files fast enough to let you do a sensible series of shots. Camera Electronic has Hoodman, Lexar, San Disk, and other fine memory cards - some of them are blazingly fast. You can get 'em on-line as well - they ship through the post easily if you cut air holes in the crate.

* I read it on a Facebook side advertisement so it MUST be true...

For more information on the best card for your camera please come visit our sales staff for a speed test!