Ashanali

High quality canvas prints as a great cost - Ally Harrison. They have changed hands but the people who have the business now are sticking to the business outline already in place. Exceptional quality canvas prints at a higher price - Bruce Peebles in Brisbane. Photographers all around Australia use him and the difference is incredible. We loved our Ally Harrison stuff then we used Bruce Peebles. WOW! Blew us away! The print quality is exceptional, the finish is perfect. The only thing that sucks about them is that you have to take them to get mounted yourself and sometimes it's the framer that lets you down. A photographer in Newcastle just had $2500 worth of canvases ruined by a framer there. She now has to go through small claims to recoup the money from the framer and in the meantime is very apologetic to her clients while she gets reprints made.

Photographers tend to not like it because it's a left over from the 90's and we've all done it to death. BUT I understand that for many people it's like a new toy when they discover they can do it. As for clients who request it, we hate doing it but we also understand that while we are tired of it because we've done it so many times, the client has never had a photo of them with selective colour in it... so we do it, make them happy and the photo will never see the light of day except in the clients' home. I have seen one extremely talented use of selective colour. Other than that, I'm still not a fan.

Is it that obvious that I'm not a fan of bogan selective colour?

Triggers. Infrared are great, but they don't like bright sunlight cheapie radio triggers will work BUT unless they are made for Australian frequencies, you may experience interference from other people/items using the same radio frequency - this is why Pocket Wizards are so expensive, when you buy the ones that are particularly for the Australian market, they are set to the correct frequency where there is very little traffic/gerenal use and therefore it's more reliable. We have pocket wizard and also IR triggers. We use the pocket wizard most of the time but will still pull out the IR trigger at times.

I had one c-section on a JRT. She was desexed.

Links will always come up black. It's only unlinked text that you can make into other colours.

Okay, the stats for 2009 January - 99 pages Feb - 44 pages March - 43 pages April - 39 pages May - 38 pages June - 27 pages July - 33 pages August - 23 pages Sept - 24 pages Oct - 3 pages (not a popular month ) Nov - 41 pages Dec - 15 pages Okay, I'm throwing down the gauntlet; let's get to 100 pages or more this January

If we can get as many people to link to this thread as possible in their signatures it would be great. I'd love to make this a bumper month. I can't remember what out biggest thread was for 2009, but I'd like to beat it. I'll need to check the threads.

Greyhound all the way. It's also rare for Pointers to have HD also.

for 2009 I took photos of chairs and had the camera on my lap at the salon as my dad did my hair and of course... the kiddies Photo a day is fun!

People don't realise how hard it is. Even though I have a camera in my hands most days, it's can be really difficult to motivate myself to take shots for 'personal satisfaction' on a daily basis. I think I got through 17 days of the January challenge for 2009. Will see if I can go the full 31 for 2010 (even if I take photos on my iphone!)

This is the challenge that started all the challenges last year. I decided to launch it early because people might be heading off on holidays and they can read this topic and still take a photo a day while they are away and add them to the thread when they return. There is no theme, there are no boundaries. The aim of the challenge is simply to pick up the camera at least once a day for the next month. The photos don't have to be world beaters, it can just be a photos of your toes if that's all you have around you - you just need to photograph it and add it to the thread. And just how successful is this challenge? Last years, "photo a day" ended up giving me two images that I entered into the Qld Pro Photography Awards and I then entered one of these in the Aust Pro Photography Awards (and won a silver). If I didn't take part in the challenge, I would never have taken the photos. So pick up your camera and start shooting!!! One photo per day for January

Mine will drool when excited... that's about it. So usually when they know they are about to go in the show ring or when they have had a bath and they're expecting to go out.

580 ex II gets a big thumbs up But you can also get some compatible Metz flashes that do a great job and are a little cheaper than genuine Canon flashes.

I don't post in the threads much but I do enjoy looking through all the posts

The challenges will continue. Some themes might be repeated but even if they are it will be good practice.

I have only had to tube feed one pup. It was a cocker litter of my mums when I was 15 years old. There were 2 pups in the litter and one by one they dropped off (fading puppy syndrome). They were strong fat pups who were feeding well then over a couple of hours they just got weak and died. Scarlet was the only one that we were able to save and that's because mum made the decision to start tube feeding her before she weakened. She was completely taken off the mother at four days old and hand raised. She ended up a normal and healthy dog. After that experience, if I had a litter who just weren't thriving from the outset, I wouldn't tube feed - I would be more inclined to pts. However if there was a litter that started strong but started to weaken, I would be willing to tube feed and see what happens (providing that there wasn't a major underlying health problem). Tube feeding doesn't bother me or scare me. I'd just rather not do it. I'd have to be pretty sure that I'm not trying to save a puppy that's going to die later anyway. It's too heartbreaking.

Can I just say again how much I love Frontier. We called them up at 3pm on the 23rd and said that we have a rush order for 13 8x10's can they get them printed. They were about to start shutting down but they said they'd put them through for us and we had them in our hands within the hour. You can see why I hesitate to go elsewhere when we get service like this - no doubt they got a little christmas present from us.

a profit is a profit big or small, no need to distinguish between them true

When we were buying our other camera in March we went to a smaller store to look at them and the owner of the store told us he would no longer stock them due to the amount of returns. We bought it anyway from JB Hi-fi and here it is in December and it no longer works (Just waiting to move before I can send it for repairs). 2 Olympus camera and both busted not even 12 months use out of them has put us off the underwater Olympus range for life.. That's what I can't understand. The policy on camera returns under manufacturers warranty is that the manufacturer is liable for replacement & costs. The store doesn't pay any costs or lose money. For them to not stock the cameras means they lose potential sales. Perhaps the store owner hadn't quite thought their stance through. ;)

I haven't seen anywhere that has refused to stock them... probably because one of the great things about Olympus is that it's one of only two brands that has a worldwide warranty (the other brand is Pentax). Speaking of which, Pentax has an underwater camera also. Not sure what it's like but like all things pentax, they copy what other companies are doing and often make it cheaper and better.

You can't avoid having children in a hair salon. Whether you agree with it or not, the fact is people can and do bring their children with them to the salon. So it is the responsibility of the hairdressers to make sure they are not leaving dangerous things withing reach of small children. I've never been to a salon where dangerous chemicals were not stored at height, or in locked cupboards or a seperate room with a closed door, and hairdressers keep their scissors, hot irons, and other dangerous equipment stored away in trolleys (or sitting on top of the trolley while in use). Its simple really. If a child manages to get their hands on anything dangerous and gets hurt, then obviously someone has been irresponsible by leaving it where the child could get to it. You don't have children... that is clearly obvious. No, but I have worked in a hair salon and one of the first things I was taught, was how to correctly store chemicals and equipment and not to leave things lying around. I never suggested that business owners should be responsible for the children themselves, just that they need to be responsible for their own tools and equipment. Surely its just common sense not to leave a bowl of bleach anywhere other than a high surface when there are children around? Of course its easy to say that parents just shouldn't bring their kids with them but the fact is plenty of people do and I doubt that most salon owners would turn away a client because they had children with them. Oh wow, really? I have grown up in hair salons my entire life. I know all about proper storage of chemical and tools - you're preaching to the choir. I also know that most hairdressers are very aware of proper storage. I also know that children around the age of the child in the OP (ie 20 months), DON'T have great communication skills but they are FAST and they can reach and touch things that you would never expect them to. Every child is different but at around 20 months old, communication is only just starting to come out - most 20 month olds don't understand, "Sit down, don't touch". I know my two don't. Children need to be able to go in public, people aren't saying that they shouldn't go out - that's just stupid. However unless the parent can restrain the child approriately (either by having someone go with them or by strapping them into a pram if they are at the difficult age where they are all legs, hands and not much communication) then in the case of hairdressing, they could start looking into alternatives such as maybe finding a mobile hairdresser to go to their home. A hairdressing salon is not a place to leave a small child unattended either... but I do agree, the dog is probably the last thing most people expect in a salon unless they are regular clients there. From the school of, "You will be seen but not heard". One of my mother's favourite quotes. I have four children and only one of them was a quiet child and happy to sit with me and not run off everywhere. I think maybe you were lucky or I'm REALLY unlucky

But see what you're all doing (and I am guilty of it too) As soon as a potential profit is mentioned, people automatically attempt to justify it. I think that as ethical breeders we should be able to say, "I did everything right by my dogs, I set a price and people paid it. I'm happy and I'm not ashamed that I made a small profit." That's it - no need to discuss the failures that have happened in the past that make you feel better about making a small amount this time around. No need for guilt. If you have done everything right and tested and studied the pedigrees and the health of your dogs, you shouldn't have to feel guilty if people pay you for your effort and your knowledge. YES, I think it's wrong that there are farms and BYB out there who have no idea what they are doing who are profiting from dog breeding but I still don't see why the ethical breeders should ever feel the need to justify the times a litter might turn a profit. Do BYB and puppy farms ever justify themselves? In an ideal world it should be the other way around - they should be justifying their methods and breeders should be guilt free. Anyway, I'm going to go watch a movie now.

Bear with me while I explain all this, there is a point... I have been doing a lot of thinking about my photography business lately. We are growing when there is a downturn towards the sort of services that we offer (mid-high range wedding and portait photography). There is a growing distrust among members of the public in regards to photography. Nowadays anyone can go and buy a digital SLR camera and take photos and call themselves professional and unfortunately it's happening on a very wide scale - There was a person who joined a forum I'm on and she announced, "My husband bought me my first camera last week and my friends all love my photos. I've decided to become a photographer, this is a link to my new website, book in asap" . People like this are eroding and devaluing the photography industry and it's making polished professional photographers (like us) have to work a whole lot harder to justify why they charge what they do. Because of all the new 'undisciplined photographers' joining the industry, we are now saturated by people who try to make us feel ashamed of what we charge. Quite frankly, they think we only work when we shoot photos but that's about 10% of it. We spend hours proofing, editing and adjusting their images but because time is intangible, they just don't comprehend it. They also don't comprehend that Uncle Bob down the street can take a photo, and I can take a photo of the same subject but because I've worked hard and understand all the elements that go into creating a good image, I'm going to charge a heap more... because they are paying from my skill and education, not because I can press a button. So while we are building our business, I have stumbled across some great online blogs that talk about photography and the costs involved and then it poses the big question, "Why do we feel guilty about earning money?" I have put this in here because I started thinking about it in terms of dog breeding. Replace the term 'photography' with 'dog breeding' and 'photographer' with 'dog breeder' and 'photos' with 'dogs'. Now I ask the question again (and I know breeding for the majority of ethical breeders is a hobby and not a business), why do ETHICAL breeders feel guilty if they might happen to earn a profit? I KNOW there are a number of breeders out there who have free whelping bitches of popular breeds that have large litters and they price the dogs accordingly... so why should they feel bad that they might make a tiny bit of cash out of their hobby? Isn't it deserved for all their hard work and knowledge that they have put into their breeding? This is just a little food for thought...