May, 2016 - PhotoTrice

Dare to Change

Concerning Steve McCurry;

“He bears the responsibility to uphold the ethical standards of his peers and the public, who see him as a photojournalist” – Sean D. Elliot

I’m sure most photo-cognoscenti are nodding in complete agreement. What is not to agree with, once a journalist always a journalist. No free will or growth just stay in the box.

No doubt most people with a halfway serious interest in photography have an opinion about the McCurry photo manipulation ‘controversy’. All I can do is shake my head at the sniping as people fall over one another to reach the height or depth of condemnation for his poor misguided ways. It is pure internet nonsense. Just slice and dice the gentleman because everyone else is doing it. I venture to say that most people who are crowing don’t really give a damn about his indiscretions.

More amusing is that some of the negative comments about Mr. McCurry are really just people flogging the dead horse about the evils of digital photography. The subtext is that we told you this would happen. Just go back to real photography and forget about this digital stuff.

Change is a constant in our lives. Hopefully intellectual and personal growth also occurs over time. One day you may find the box you were so comfortable working in has become constricting. Hopefully when that happens you are not required to petition your peers for permission to step out of the box.

Vacation Snaps

We get away from our day to day lives for a few days or a week. In a short time we relax and our inhibitions fade. What a wonderful feeling of freedom. We can enjoy what the world has to offer in our own good time. Our young selves emerge into the warm summer light. We capture moments to recall when the sun fades to winter.

Buying a camera online – Don’t Panic!

The eye For the last couple of weeks I’ve been selling my camera gear to free up money to buy into the Sony full frame system. Now everything is gone. I don’t even have a camera to take product images any more. I had to borrow my wife’s three year old Olympus Tough 610 to take the last of my product shots. Interestingly her camera still had several images on the SD card that were from the day I gave it to her. At least the little Oly finally got used for something.

I’ve been looking at used A7 and A7II bodies on EBay but I can’t bring myself to spend a thousand dollars on an auction site. Just seems too risky to me. The best alternative is to try to get a used body from one of the large online shops such as B&H. Good plan but my attempt ended in disaster.

I really want an A7II rather than the original A7 for the in-body IS. Being newer it is harder to find a A7II at the right price. My patience ran out last week so I decided to buy an A7 and be done. B&H had a couple of them in inventory including one graded E+. I called the store and ordered it. Then I refreshed my browser and up popped two A7II bodies for just a hundred bucks more than the A7 I just bought. So back on the phone to B&H to cancel the first order and get the better camera. As you can probably tell I was not thinking very clearly in my moment of shopping frenzy.

After all the transactions were done I checked my PayPal account and found that my balance was completely tied up by the two camera transactions. Panic! EBay fees were due to hit at any time and the cupboard was bare. Not thinking straight again (still) I got back on the phone to B&H and cancelled the A7II purchase. In the end I had no camera and all my funds tied up in authorizations. A good day’s work I’d say.