Service or lack of it...

1DsII, 70-200mm f2.8

I love this delightful little image. Shot in the driveway of our studio, the set up for this image was so simple. Using only available light we sat the young model on the ground near the wooden cart, I positioned myself on the ground some distance from the subject so as not to distract his attention, wile his mum was just out of frame talking to the little fellow and attracting his attention. Normally I would have had Robyn interact with the child but she was on this occasion busy making sure "Teddy" stayed upright in the cart. The whole set of images from this location were created in only a couple of minutes. Plenty of time really if your fully prepared in advance.

Now to get on with my beef of today. Yesterday while running around Melbourne seeing clients and suppliers, I visited one of our regular equipment suppliers. Walking into the "Pro Photo Department", which for those of you not in the industry is not an exclusive area for professional photographers but the area of larger photographic retailers where you are more likely to find the type of equipment used by working photographers. This particular store is usually buzzing with activity and stocked with all shorts of goodies for us photo nuts to drool over. Yesterday however, instead of walking into a retail area stocked with large amounts of the latest toys, I entered a sparsely stocked area with only one sales person instead of the usual five or six.
I was soon to discover why. Instead of being greeted with the usual cheery "Hi Ian" there was no greeting or recognition at all. My first question was did they have an item that I needed in stock. The reply was a shock "It is no business of yours what we have in stock". Ok thats not a good start but there is other stuff I need, so I start asking about a couple of radio triggers that I've been looking at adding to my kit. This time a slightly better response, "There over in the display cabinet" Ok thats good... what are the features? Reply, "if you don't know, you don't need them" Ok thanks for your help...

A little shocked at that encounter I took a short walk down into Lonsdale Street and visited the Camera Exchange, where, thankfully the service from Jason was great, the atmosphere was cheerful and even though they stock mostly second hand equipment, they also handle new equipment. I was very impressed when asking about a second hand lens they had on display, to be told that it wouldn't suit me, as the new version of the lens is optically superior the one I was looking at. Now I knew this anyway but Jason gained a lot of credibility with me for being so honest. From now on a lot of my equipment purchases with be made from the Camera Exchange just because they offer helpful advice and service.

Sometimes service and helpful friendly advice is worth a lot more than price alone shopping.