technical stuff

Refurbished products can keep your wallet happy

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Refurbish: to repair and clean equipment so that its condition is like new.

 

Photographers like buying new equipment and that equipment is often quite expensive. What you may not know is that many manufacturers sell refurbished or demo products at a discount.

Nikon Canada used to have a semi-secret mailing list selling demo and refurbished camera gear. While Nikon does continue to sell some refurbished and demo products at its head office in Mississauga, it seems that some refurbished camera gear is also sold through Henry’s. Many camera stores also sell demo products.

Nikon USA has a site for refurbished products but the prices aren’t very good. Canon USA and Canon Canada also sell refurbished products but the discounts aren’t the greatest.
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Li-ions and Alkalines and Acids, Oh My!

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Photographers use batteries and all batteries can leak. This means that sooner or later, many photographers will end up cursing at leaky batteries.

Contrary to popular belief, all batteries don’t leak acid. Lead-acid batteries leak acid because, well, that’s why they have “acid” in their name. But alkaline batteries leak . . . wait for it . . . an alkaline material called potassium hydroxide.
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Catalogue Shopping

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Photographers need to catalogue their images. A catalogue is a visual list of your pictures that helps you organize, search and retrieve them.

There are a lot of photo editing software but very few for digital asset management (i.e. cataloging). There are many cloud-based cataloging solutions for larger businesses but the high cost of these pushes them out of reach of most photographers.

Media Pro, a popular cataloging application for many years, was discontinued in August 2018.

I started using Media Pro in 1998 when it was called iView Multimedia. Back then, the British software company gave it away as shareware. In the early 2000s, iView Multimedia changed its name to iView Media Pro and gave it a $60 price.
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How not to get arrested for counterfeiting

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The full face of the twenty dollar bill is shown at actual size but it has a large watermark. (Bank of Canada)

You might someday have the need to photograph banknotes, coins or postage stamps. Do it wrong and you or your customer could get a visit from the RCMP or be on the receiving end of a lawsuit. Copying currency and stamps isn’t just about counterfeiting, it’s also a copyright issue.
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Photo Gear Purchases 2018

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If you’re like me, you probably buy too much photo gear. Not so much cameras and lenses but things like bags, light modifiers and various accessories. Here are some of my purchases in 2018:

Rock-n-Roller cart

I’ve been meaning to get a half-decent cart for some time. A homemade dolly-style cart with a bright yellow mat ($55 in parts and plywood from Home Depot in 1985) has served me very well. An over-priced Tri-Kart 800 is something I regret buying about 18 years ago because it was of limited use to me. But many local TV crews use the Tri-Kart.

This year I bought a RocknRoller R12RT. It’s pretty good but it takes up extra space because it’s not small and it weighs 33 lb. Fully extended, the R12RT won’t fit in some elevators.

A RocknRoller R12RT Multi-cart is shown in its smallest configuration. (Photo source: rocknrollercart.com)

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How to Write a Photo Caption

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A very long post on a very simple subject.

 

Every photographer thinks they know how to write a photo caption. Yet many photographers either don’t caption their pictures or they do it very poorly.

Two days ago, I edited 170 editorial photos from a couple dozen photographers to prepare the images for a slideshow. The slideshow will display each picture’s caption.

Many of the captions had spelling and grammar errors, broken or incoherent sentences, factual errors, no names, no locations and/or no dates. All of these captions were written by professional photographers.

 

Retired Finnish ice hockey player Teemu Selanne displays his membership ring after being inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in Toronto, Canada, 10 November 2017. Established in 1943, the Hockey Hall of Fame recognizes achievements of players, coaches and others involved with the sport of ice hockey.

Photo captions have to provide relevant information using the least number of words. Easy, right?

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Eyeball This

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My left and right eyes. The bright spot in each eye shows that I’m busy thinking :–) Look how many veins and arteries are in each eye.

A public service announcement for photographers: Get your eyes checked every few years.

We take our eyes for granted but they need to be properly maintained.
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