Pump Digital - The Blog

Wedding Photography in an economic recession

pumpdigital — Mon, 08 Sep 2008 15:08:37 +0000

With talk of credit crunching and finances receding I have noticed a few worries addressed in Photographic magazines. With so many ‘wedding photographers’ out there ranging in ability, experience and style, many wonder if they will be able to continue to earn over the coming months and years.

There could be a wholly positive side to this recession.

The great photographers will continue to work. There will be demand for these professional artists and the clients will be willing and able to pay for their services. However as the quality of the photographer reduces, so too will their potential to earn. This will force the acceptable level photographers to reduce their fee to something more acceptable. In turn this will push the lesser able to either work for very little while they build their ability or give up.

Photography and the client will be the winner, as will the good name of wedding photographers. Something which has been recently tainted with charlatans and wannabees.

How to save fuel in your Lamborghini Murcielago: fly it in a plane

pumpdigital — Fri, 01 Aug 2008 21:31:30 +0000

Yesterday I read a story that a Lamborghini Murcielago owner has shipped his car from Qatar to London via air freight for a service. A 6,500 mile round trip costing approximately £22,000.

As a Lambo’ fan who is focused on one day owning a Lamborghini Countach this doesn’t seem unreasonable to me. Of course there are plenty of green-o-philes who are disgusted.

As usual I got to wondering what was the truth behind this? Is flying a Lamborghini Murcielago to the UK really all that inefficient?

Now I admit most if not all these figures are taken from unconfirmed sources, but then, this is just for fun:

A quick hit on Wikipedia and it seems Qatar airways use Airbus A300’s to transport cargo.

An Airbus A300 gets 9mpg when fully loaded.

An airbus A300 carries 75,000Kg of freight.

A Lamborghini Mercielago gets up to 13 MPG.

A Lamborghini Mercielago weighs 1665Kg.

Now this opens two arguments: either a Lamborghini when fully laden gets only 4 miles per gallon more than a full Airbus300, or working at MPG per Kg it is almost 30 times more efficient to fly the car than to drive it.

With figures like that, how can the ‘greenys’ be mad?

Company Christmas cards are bad … mmmkay?

pumpdigital — Wed, 30 Jul 2008 22:02:42 +0000

With only 148 days to go it’s time to begin thinking about Christmas!

Too often I have seen businesses send out piles of Christmas cards which are more corporate then Christmasy. Almost as bad, some with members of staff grafted in to a snow scene by somebody seemingly new to Photoshop.

Instead this year why not offer something useful to your customers?

Advent calendars attract daily attention, are displayed in a prominent position and are attached to good feelings of Christmas passed.

Why not offer your customers an elegantly designed calendar which they will gain from?

Of course the front should be decorated with a suitably festive image which relates to your company or cause. Inside each door a relevant smaller image should be ready to pop out. However, rather than placing a low quality chocolate inside each door, instead have a promotional code. Each day a new code will relate to a discount which may be enjoyed for that day only. Discounts, freebies, what ever it takes to get your customer talking to you.

This idea could be run on-line to perhaps even more effect. Everyday present a new promotion, and reinforce it with a daily email and blog entry so your customer can receive news of it via RSS feeds to their desktop or mobile phone. Within days your customers will look forward to recieving your message, and a conversation can begin.

Weston Pier is burning down, burning down, burning down

pumpdigital — Mon, 28 Jul 2008 12:29:27 +0000

This morning news came that the pier at Weston Super Mare was on fire and it has since proven terminal. Little remains above floor level and it amazes me how this news affected the nation.

I can’t help but wonder if this could be a positive thing for Weston. The pier was recieving a much needed investment but along the same route which it already inhabited. The rest of Weston town needs help too. The beach front streets are grubby and without charm, and what has becom of the Tropicana outoor fun pool?

What if the pier is rebuilt with vision of the spectacular? If the Tropicana building is brought back with simular style and the two are promoted with the vigure they deserve?

This is a chance for Weston to become something more than the butt of a joke. I hope this chance is taken, and the pier is not left to languish.

The cult of the plastic lens camera

pumpdigital — Mon, 21 Jul 2008 12:20:32 +0000

Over the past 12 months I have read an increasing number of blogs discussing Holga cameras. All of the posts sung praise to the plastic lensed joy they felt. I have always dismissed the Holga as a lazy gimmick to create a stylistic look to images. Of course at $50 it may even be thought of as disposable fun for an otherwise bored day.

Today I spotted something even farther from genius. Why not buy the lens from a Holga and fit it to your DSLR? http://www.holgamods.com/xt/xt.html

I’m going to save myself the money in a simple manner. I’m going to dig out the 18-55mm kit lens and smear it at random with vaseline.