I think the guys at the camera store were making fun of me today

[Chriscrawfordphoto]

You won't be wasting my time. I don't go anywhere near that sort of business any more, because people make it not remotely worth it if a person has any better option. There's a reason clerks, these days, tend to be lowest-common-denominator and low-pay: people make sure very few people with competence, knowledge, self-respect, and options want to do those jobs.

What keeps good people out of retail is the fact that retailers refuse to pay anything even remotely approaching a living wage. Businessmen think people ought to work for them for nothing, and the real world doesn't work that way. Labor is like anything else you buy. You get what you're willing to pay for.

 

[Sonnar Brian]

HDR is a very ambiguous term, "as I understand the process" it would have been better described as image stacking or exposure slicing.

I would like to see an image sensor based on Foveon Stacking technology that basically slices the exposure in layers using different gain settings or ND filters on each of the sensor layers. That would reduce the post-processing work required for current HDR techniques.

As for working in a camera shop- I had several extremely rude customers, some were highly insulting. I also met some very nice ones. The same is true in most professions where you have to deal with people, not just service sector jobs. Just imagine people acting like they do on the Internet doing it in real life. Does not require much imagination, I am sure everyone has experienced this.

If I heard a salesclerk in a camera shop make the comment heard by the OP, I would have spent the next hour lecturing them on the benefits of Leica and the availability of 80 years of lenses and how "damned boring" lens design became with zoom lenses.

 

[David Murphy]

Their job is to provide good service as a human being offering said service. Their job, no matter how expensive the camera is, is not to take abuse.

Note it doesn't sound to me like the OP abused anyone.

Unfortunately the reality of the work place (I'm 54 and my first job was at age 12) is the ability to absorb a certain amount of abuse and move on from it without overtly reacting or developing a chip on ones shoulder about it. This is partly why one gets paid from 9-5 -- not to be coddled. I heard someone say once that work is about taking "sh**" from 9-5 and getting paid for it. In fact I think if one accepts this attitude one will be happier eventually at work. This is even more so in service jobs - a thick skin is mandatory. Being in business for ones self is a little easier, but certainly not without this sort of pain. Most people are reasonable, but I've sold enough gear on eBay to get a good taste of the abusive ones! On occasion buyers there treat me like I'm some sort of medieval shop keeper catering to the emperor - the anonymity of the process seems to facilitate this. I can laugh about it later with my friends though. That's one virtue of getting older - occasional human injustices , particularly in the work place, start to become amusing (because they are a constant of life).

 

[Roger Hicks]

What keeps good people out of retail is the fact that retailers refuse to pay anything even remotely approaching a living wage. Businessmen think people ought to work for them for nothing, and the real world doesn't work that way. Labor is like anything else you buy. You get what you're willing to pay for.

Dear Chris,

In that case, how do so many of them manage to stay in business?

Cheers,

R.

 

[damien.murphy]

Dear Chris,

In that case, how do so many of them manage to stay in business?

Cheers,

R.

Dear Roger,

Probably the same way we photographers manage to take photo's without being engineers 🙂

More seriously, the only idiotic business people I see staying in business are those selling a product that people NEED. Else they are operating in an affluent market that artificially keeps these incompetent business owners afloat.

Ruling out the idiots above, most people in business are competent, but very few are re-inventing the wheel. The number of innovative companies and individuals out there is not all that great.

I know you addressed this question to Chris, but couldn't help chiming in 🙂

Damien

 

[Roger Hicks]

Dear Roger,

Probably the same way we photographers manage to take photo's without being engineers 🙂

More seriously, the only idiotic business people I see staying in business are those selling a product that people NEED. Else they are operating in an affluent market that artificially keeps these incompetent business owners afloat.

Ruling out the idiots above, most people in business are competent, but very few are re-inventing the wheel. The number of innovative companies and individuals out there is not all that great.

I know you addressed this question to Chris, but couldn't help chiming in 🙂

Damien

Dear Damien,

You are no doubt familiar with Cantor's theory of transfinite cardinals: that some infinities are bigger than others. Herewith the Crawford-Hicks Theory of Transfinite Idiocy (hope Chris doesn't mind being co-opted):

Some people are bigger idiots than others. Faced with an idiot businessman, there are two possibilities. Those who are even stupider than he will buy. Those who are less stupid, won't. Unless, as you say, they need the product. Even then, for preference, a buyer will choose a seller who is as close as possible to himself in stupidity.

This accounts for different customer profiles when it comes to buying (let us say) bread and designer trainers.

Cheers,

R.

 

[damien.murphy]

Dear Damien,

You are no doubt familiar with Cantor's theory of transfinite cardinals: that some infinities are bigger than others. Herewith the Crawford-Hicks Theory of Transfinite Idiocy (hope Chris doesn't mond being co-opted):

Some people are bigger idiots than others. Faced with an idiot businessman, there are two possibilities. Those who are even stupider than he will buy. Those who are less stupid, won't. Unless, as you say, they need the product. Even then, for preference, a buyer will choose a seller who is as close as possible to himself in stupidity.

This accounts for different customer profiles when it comes to buying (let us say) bread and designer trainers.

Cheers,

R.

Roger,

Reading your post, and theory, has amused me.

I have always been fond of the quote 'fools and their money are easily parted', however this process is not always immediate. Add in the fashionable flavour enhancer of convenience, and things become even less immediately clear.

Damien

 

[RayPA]

Is this thread is getting weird?

yes. very.





/

 

[Hjortsberg]

"Smoking kills. If you're killed, you've lost a very important part of your life."

- Brooke Shields