Category: Salesmanship
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Gotta Get Either…
Better, cheaper, bigger, smaller, or weirder if you are going to make it in the photo world. ‘Cause most of the easy seats are filled and musical chairs is still going on. Suppose you have a standard camera – it can be a full-frame or APS-C – and you fancy a new lens. You probably…
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Carry On, Sergeant.
A 1958 launch of one of the longer-running gags on the British cinema screen. Most of the following films were rewarding and some delightful. As a philosophy it also applies very much to photography today. We are being bombarded with advertisements that urge us to change, followed by news that tries to make us despair.…
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The Vanity Book
Vanity publishing is not new – authors have been paying to be in print since Gutenberg came back from lunch. It is not a bad thing; the publisher earns the price of the printing and binding and the author gets it out of their system. The printers are careful to box up and ship the…
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What Is The Future Of Photography?
That’s electricity you’re thinking about -and it’s spelled ‘watt’. If someone offered to tell you how photography would develop ( pun, pun…) in 1957 based upon the current practice then, but ranged it forward 70 years and went on about the new bellows cameras, flash bulbs, and 100ASA colour slide films that were expected –…
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The Salesmen Tell You…
We certainly will. And you are perfectly free to ignore us. But we would prefer you did it later, in the privacy of your own photography room, rather than at the counter where we are trying to answer your questions. If you feel it necessary to talk over us, please just put money on the…
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The Wedding Landscape
Or the landscape wedding. You choose which door to open – they both hide hungry tigers. I attended a talk by a well-known photographer who does weddings as well as portraiture – and does both things very well. There was a screen presentation of some of his images and they all looked to be far…
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Herr Haubitze Bought A Leica
It was 1955. Herr Haubitze entered the Zentral Foto shop at Piefkestr. 60 and went to the counter. He asked the sales assistant for a Leica M3 camera and a 50mm Summicron lens to fit it. Considerably poorer, he exited with the new camera, a roll of Agfa film, and the adventure of a lifetime.…
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Unsure About Which Camera System To Buy?
Worried that you won’t select the right one for you? Or that the one you buy will not be as good as the one your next-door neighbour has? Or that whatever you buy will be superseded in a month by a better model? Welcome to the Photography. Unlike Hell, you need not abandon all hope.…
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The Professional Advertisement
Are you a professional? Do you even know what it means? If you do, tell me – I struggle… Apparently I was one once for some 40 years before I entered the retail photo trade, but I cannot say whether I was a professional there. Possibly so, because I fed the family for 8 years…
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What Do You Sell A Salesperson?
A question akin to speculation about what dinner you serve to a chef. Everyone has an answer but no-one asks the chef. A salesperson is easy to engage. Just greet them politely and ask a sensible question and the relief that will flood their face will be like a tropical sunrise. You may be the…
Dr. Stein's Photographic Establishment 