New gadget: the R-Strap

I’d been hearing a lot about the R-Strap through some of the PodCasts that I’ve been following. In fact, one of the other delegates on the Wedding Seminar brought one along with him, the Double R-Strap which he used to great effect.

I had been very skeptical at first. After all, how could someone rave about something as simple as a camera strap? What was it that made the R-Strap so absolutely fantastic that people were discarding their brand new, manufacturer supplied neck straps in favour of this little thing? As it screws into the tripod socket, would it actually be OK to use, particularly with heavier glass such as a 70-200f2.8 lens?

No idea, but I wanted to get a new strap. In particular I wanted something that was more discreet than the one Canon supplied. Bad idea to announce the fact that I was using a 5DmkI, so back in November, I decided to plunge in and buy one. Eleven days later, a small parcel arrived from Seattle (wherever that may be :-)). Lo and behold it was my new R-Strap.

Never heard of the R-Strap? Check out these videos to see what all the hype is about…

http://www.youtube.com/v/yD7TIyMQ-a8&rel=0&color1=0xb1b1b1&color2=0xcfcfcf&hl=en_US&feature=player_embedded&fs=1

Continue reading New gadget: the R-Strap »

How not to sell…

In a recent post, I wrote about my change in attitude towards receiving telephone marketing calls. That hasn’t changed and yesterday morning I had a truly mind boggling call, full of lessons of how not to sell.

I forget the name of the company concerned which is probably just as well. The caller started out by disguising what he was trying to sell to me by first appearing as a potential corporate client who wanted to put a lot of work my way. Having set a level of expectation he then completely failed to deliver and lost my trust. I don’t know about you, but as a customer I certainly wouldn’t feel happy parting with my hard earned cash to someone I did not trust. Continue reading How not to sell… »

New monopod and head

I splashed out last weekend on a new piece of kit to help out with the wedding photography, particularly in low light conditions, namely the Manfrotto 685B monopod and the 322RC2 head.

Amazon.co.uk were offering the best price for the monopod and Calumet (via the Amazon marketplace) for the head. In both cases the service was unbelievable. I ordered them together on the Saturday. The monopod arrived Monday morning and the head, a little slower. came on Tuesday. Not bad at all. Especially as I don’t generally buy from the marketplace but in this instance I felt happy buying from a name as large as Calumet.

So, why a monopod??? Continue reading New monopod and head »

It must be getting near Christmas…

…I’m starting to see Christmas Card sales go through once again through my shop front at Photobox.

The most popular ones are still the snowman/snowgirl cards, shown below. Last year I sold over 250 of these so I’m hoping to sell more than that this year.

Best regards,
Gavin

Advertising for Second shooters…

I’ve been looking at a few adverts for second shooters recently. There are a lot out there too but one in particular caught my eye this morning.

The advertiser was looking for 4 or 5 wedding photographers to cover his bookings for next year. These aren’t for second shooters or assistants though. Oh no – he is looking for lead photographers. Interesting business model:

  • book the brides for the season
  • figure out how many weddings you need to cover
  • hire a few wannabes to shoot for you

Continue reading Advertising for Second shooters… »