{"id":346,"date":"2010-02-10T01:36:45","date_gmt":"2010-02-10T06:36:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/siskinphoto.com\/blog\/?p=346"},"modified":"2012-04-14T14:44:24","modified_gmt":"2012-04-14T19:44:24","slug":"buying-camera-gear","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/siskinphoto.com\/blog\/?p=346","title":{"rendered":"Buying Camera Gear"},"content":{"rendered":"


\n\"Branded<\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Shot For Aids Walk, Los Angeles<\/p><\/div>\n

One of my first big opportunities in photography was selling cameras at a store in Santa Barbara: Russ\u2019 Camera<\/a>. Russ Eckerstrom took a risk on me and I hope I gave him good service. I learned a lot there, not just about photography. I leaned about buying and selling and serving customers: the kinds of things that have been important in my business as a photographer. The store is still in business up in Santa Barbara.<\/p>\n

When I came back to Los Angeles and started my business I needed suppliers that were local and would carry the products I had to have. I was in a camera store every couple of days looking for film, Polaroid or chemicals. I dealt with a lot of stores that provided these products, but often the service was bad. Too often the sales people felt they needed to tell me they could do my job. I don\u2019t like spending my money and having some guy behind the counter feel he needs to compete with me. Of course there were a few great sales people over the years, but they mostly left camera sales.<\/p>\n

What I learned at Russ\u2019 and saw in many stores is that camera sales is a tough business. I\u2019ve seen a lot of stores die in the last few years, so I know this is especially true after digital. The mark-up on gear is low, the market competitive. It used to be that a lot of money was earned on photofinishing, but this too has taken a big hit. I particularly miss the stores that have a lot of junk; I do a lot with junk. You might check out my article on building cameras<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Congressman Waxmand shot for Aids Walk, Los Angeles<\/p><\/div>\n

I want to recommend that you do business with Calumet Photographic. I have been buying stuff from them since about 1984. I used to pour over their catalog, and I learned a lot from that book. For me, a great supplier has the little things that make everything else work. I remember needing several 40.5mm to 52 mm step up rings: Calumet had them, in stock. When I need a camera battery or a gel for my lights I can get it at Calumet. When they opened a store in Hollywood, there was only one problem for me; it wasn\u2019t in the San Fernando Valley. I can go in their store and actually see the products. The sales people treat me like I might know something. I have dealt with many big stores including a couple of the stores in New York. I don\u2019t look forward to buying from them again. But I do hope to do more business with Calumet. I should also say that every employee I have dealt with at Calumet has been knowledgeable, which is good, and a nice person, which is better<\/p>\n

Calumet is now associated with this site. I am very happy about this. If you would like to support this blog please visit Calumet through the link on this page. If you think I am being unreasonably nice I suggest you visit some large camera stores in Los Angeles and New York.<\/p>\n

As always, I hope you will check out my classes at BetterPhoto.com:
\nAn Introduction to Photographic Lighting<\/a>
\nPortrait Lighting on Location and in the Studio<\/a>
\nBusiness to Business: Commercial Photography<\/a><\/p>\n

The pictures this time are just a few I like. They are linked to my site<\/a>
\nThanks, John<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Shot with my 4X5 fisheye camera.<\/p><\/div>\n


\n\"Branded<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Too often the sales people felt they needed to tell me they could do my job. I don\u2019t like spending my money and having some guy behind the counter feel he needs to compete with me.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/siskinphoto.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/346"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/siskinphoto.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/siskinphoto.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/siskinphoto.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/siskinphoto.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=346"}],"version-history":[{"count":13,"href":"https:\/\/siskinphoto.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/346\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":361,"href":"https:\/\/siskinphoto.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/346\/revisions\/361"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/siskinphoto.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=346"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/siskinphoto.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=346"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/siskinphoto.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=346"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}