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Tip #6 - Buying Camera Equipment
New or Like New (USED)? That is the question... well, I have to say that sometimes I buy new gear - especially when it comes to the lenses, however, when buying a camera body, I think that buying a used body is just fine... the sensor can be cleaned and the camera generally works or does not work. So where can you go to save a few clams? Ebay, of course... as much as we may or may not like them and/or their payment system, great deals abound for the buyer (not so great for the seller). Have a look at the following to see current pricing for Canon and Nikon:
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Tip #5 - Mailing and Printing...
on your own equipment or having a lab do it? It really comes down to volume I would say, maintaining printers can get expensive and I'm sure you've noticed that ink is pricey...one can get pretty decent results from many of the online providers these days. POSTAGE & Mailing: The last time I went to the post office, the line was long and there wasn't enough help... so after you have your prints and you want to send them to family, friends, or hopefully to clients that have purchased them - how's the best way to send them??? Well, I decided to try Stamps.com (Get Up to $25 in FREE Postage!) angle out... I'd invite you to check it out as well - they have a great video explaining how it works so I'll save myself that bit. |
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Tip #4 - Make no mistake...
that there are an ever increasing amount of people are holding digital cameras today - so your competition has never been larger. Don't despair! It takes time to garner success in this field. I have been involved with photography for the last 20 years... that's a lot of trial and error & learning (endless reading, books, ebooks, forums)... rolls of film that never engaged the spool and every other kind of mishap - including a recent backup drive failure. How did I fix it? Believe it or not, I put it in the freezer for about one hour (inside of a plastic bag). I then plugged it in again - turned it on... still the drive didn't mount. I was in SHEER PANIC. I thought to myself...okay what now... I flipped the drive over and gave it a slap for good measure and the drive mounted and I was able to recover ALL of the files. The moral of that story is BACKUP you photos in more than two places... do not be UPSET if you lose them b/c you didn't back them up. The only thing you should feel is utter EMBARRASSMENT! In order to be successful, you must also protect you most precious investment (besides your time) - your photographs. They represent untold amounts of effort and expense. |
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Tip #3 - Domain Registrar's and Webhosting
A word about where you register your domains... jumping onto the bandwagon of superbowl domain name advertiser's might be unwise in the long run... check out http://www.nodaddy.com. I have had only good experiences with Directnic.com - been with them for over 10 years. Yes, it costs a bit more... but it's $5/domain more. Depending on what type of service you are looking for and your budget will dictate your hosting options. I use two options: this website is running on Volusion.com - a full featured webhosting solution including a backend - it's an ecommerce powerhouse. |
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Tip #2 - Travelling with Digital Media - (how to keep it out of the shitter)
Digital camera flash cards are the greatest thing to come along in a long time. With that comes a new challenge - that of effective/fast storage while out in the field. It's one thing to be a casual photographer - you have time to go to the Internet cafe and unload your images onto a CD... but what if you are taking more images than you have time to or wish to risk your hard earned images to 'someone' in an Internet cafe that is not a 'photographic professional'... things can go wrong. I've recently tested the PDX70 Compactdrive - it performed without a hitch. It comes from Singapore almost faster than a pizza ordered here in the USA. I put about 2000 images into it... The device itself is nothing more than a 40GB laptop harddrive in an aluminum shell powered by 4AA's (useful if you are somewhere w/o power to recharge). It is a little heavy, but smaller and lighter than an armload of medium format film. For now, I'll avoid the fancier ones that allow you to 'review' your images... isn't that what the back of the camera LCD is for? The storage devices with viewers are great, but maybe I don't really want someone I don't know holding 2 months worth of work in their palm... Ironically, I was forced to put some images onto 3 CD's from a digital IR camera because I left the PDX70 in another city (thinking I'd not run out of space on my flash cards)... yes, no less than two prize images went down the... |
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Tip #1 - Travelling with Film (dang, that was a while back huh!)
When travelling internationally, one is faced with a very real danger... x-ray machines that are waiting to do terrible things to your film. No matter what the x-ray machine operators may tell you... it's better to have your film hand inspected. Place your film into zip lock type bags with out the paper boxes or plastic wrappers that are found on some medium format films. Sometimes, it is useful to have at least one roll of highly sensitive film... such as Infra Red or a roll of 3200 BW film just so you can pull that ace out of your sleeve when they tell you - "this machine is safe for your film". Just ask nicely & politely to have it hand checked and hand the bags to them - that helps get the process going instead of waiting for them to 'decide'... you make the decision for them without the person realizing it. I've found that some items are fine to carry on in some countries, but in Japan, a Benbo tripod is not (rightly so, it could be used as a club or battering ram). |
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