Keith
The best camera is one that still works!
Les Porter (the photographer's best mate) has been around for a long time so I'm told ... his web site tells you he runs a twenty hour per day business and invites you to ring him virtually any time. He operates out of Newcastle not far from Sydney.
I rang him monday night at around 8pm needing a couple of bottles of fixer, some stop, a couple of ink cartridges for the Epson and some Ilford Smooth Pearl paper all of which he had in stock. We chatted for about twenty minutes about photography, climate change etc etc and eventually discussed how I was to pay for the order before it was sent.
"No no ... don't you worry about that yet, I'll just slip the invoice into the box and you can organise that side of it when you get it ... my banking details will be on the invoice ... I'll get it in the post to you first thing in the morning!" 😱
I generally go where prices are cheapest which means 'off shore' a lot of the time which can be a pain as my last order from Freestyle had a pretty high freight component considering how little I actually got which can take the price advantage away to a certain extent. Les's prices are very competitive considering the arm and a leg you can pay in Oz for film and chemicals etc and although he doesn't carry a huge range of stock he generally has what you need most of the time.
It's really refreshing to deal with someone like Les who's absolute enthusiasm for what he does just bubbles out ... I think he's in his late sixties from memory. I'll definitely be giving him a little more of my business in future and it's nice to support an Oz business for a change when a dollar here or there is not so important.
🙂
I rang him monday night at around 8pm needing a couple of bottles of fixer, some stop, a couple of ink cartridges for the Epson and some Ilford Smooth Pearl paper all of which he had in stock. We chatted for about twenty minutes about photography, climate change etc etc and eventually discussed how I was to pay for the order before it was sent.
"No no ... don't you worry about that yet, I'll just slip the invoice into the box and you can organise that side of it when you get it ... my banking details will be on the invoice ... I'll get it in the post to you first thing in the morning!" 😱
I generally go where prices are cheapest which means 'off shore' a lot of the time which can be a pain as my last order from Freestyle had a pretty high freight component considering how little I actually got which can take the price advantage away to a certain extent. Les's prices are very competitive considering the arm and a leg you can pay in Oz for film and chemicals etc and although he doesn't carry a huge range of stock he generally has what you need most of the time.
It's really refreshing to deal with someone like Les who's absolute enthusiasm for what he does just bubbles out ... I think he's in his late sixties from memory. I'll definitely be giving him a little more of my business in future and it's nice to support an Oz business for a change when a dollar here or there is not so important.
🙂
