One Million views!

Wow! I never thought my blog would be so popular. I guess it's time for the usual thank-you round like they do at the Emmies etc. So thank you, aunty Maud's left knee, thank you to the big tin of spaghetti that lurks uneaten in my closet and thank you Donald Trump for wearing the scariest attack wig I've ever seen. Really, I know exactly how I'd have done it all without any of you!

Seriously, a few moments ago, views clicked over from 999,999 to 1,000,000. I'm impressed that my blog has become so popular especially given that over the last 12 months posts have become so spartan due to my concentration on building my own home rather than taking photos.

Speaking of photos, I've been watching some entertaining shouting matches (can't really call them arguments nor debates) on the merits of different camera types. Basically the arguments go...
Cellphones are great because the photos are good and can be uploaded instantly.
Micro four thirds are great because they're smaller than digital SLRs and pretty much as good image wise.
Digital SLRs are great because they look impressive and have good image quality.

Now the reality is that people don't have a clue what they're talking about. For most purposes, cellphones are probably the best camera because they're lightweight and provide excellent image quality.

Bigger cameras come in more for long exposures, low light photography, action photography and peeping Tom photography where long lenses are needed. Conveniently ignored by the screaming masses are larger format digital cameras.

Really and truly though, cellphone image quality is more than adequate for 90% of photography. This is why compact digital sales collapsed and compact digitals sent off the market. Mirror less compacts were introduced to head off the decline in camera sales by offering a more convenient option than a DSLR. It's not enough though as phone cameras are just so darned good.

A few months ago I sold off most of my DSLR equipment. I kept two bodies that each cost over $1000 new that now, I'd get maybe $40 each if I sold them and a couple of lenses. The original expenditure of around $8,000 got me $1,000 approximately. I'm glad I sold it all though I should never have allowed myself to be talked into starting a business of such dubious prospects as photography.

In the old days, photography required knowledge and skill. These days with auto everything, there's no skill needed and an amateur with zero knowledge can pick up a camera and take a phenomenal photo. Now, that can be achieved with a simple cellphone.

This photo was taken off a back deck in a heavy rainstorm with poor lighting with my cellphone. Could a more expensive DSLR or interchangeable lens compact have taken a better quality image? I doubt it. The point is that for all save very specialised applications, DSLRs and interchangeable lens compacts are beginning to look increasingly like Dodos. Indeed, I love photography but 99.9% of my photography these days is done with a cellphone. I bring out the DSLR only when I want to do the kooky off the wall photos that can't be done with a cellphone such as this.

My question is, in the face of competition from cellphones, what are camera makers going to do? WiFi, Bluetooth and nfc are not going to save cameras from the Grim Reaper. Bulk is killing them and lack of instant upload ability. I suspect some form of built in photo editor is needed together with upload via a built in cellphone connection.

Mobility and possibly upward too

Today I have considered yet again selling my camera gear to rid myself of some old and unhappy memories associated with the purchase of the gear and of the memories of the rather unfortunate photography business that I once owned.

For about the past year I've been trying off and on to sell some of the gear that I own in order to reduce down to a sensible amount. Out of desperation I tried one of the online dealers and went for a quote. It seems I'll get more selling to a dealer than I'd get selling on eBay and of course a ton less hassle.

What narks me tremendously is the amount of money that was thrown away on such a stupid venture as a photography business. Having said that, there really was no alternative to starting a business with such dubious prospects at the time. That's a story for another day though. I feel very much as though somebody saw me coming and said "here comes a sucker - let's fleece him".

Anyway, the amount I'd get selling my stuff isn't a vast sum but it would generate some money - enough to re-equip with more modern equipment and in a different format. Looking at the current selection of camera gear, I notice one huge issue... There seems with the smaller formats to be almost nothing in the way of wide lenses nor anything much in the way of fast lenses.

I am not a professional photographer nor do I have any aspirations to call myself a professional photographer. I am happy taking photos for myself. I don't really care whether people think they're the worst garbage anybody has ever seen nor whether they think they're better than sliced bread. All I care about is taking images and memories that please me. If others like them, it's a bonus.

Two things I would love to photograph are the night sky and the autumn colors. Maybe with a new camera kit, I will feel more like going out specifically to photography the night sky and autumn colors and even both at the same time.

At the moment, it's just thoughts but other plans such as getting more versatile accommodation go hand in hand with my camera plans. I'm slowly freeing myself from an unhappy past. I'm moving forward with both my life and my photography.

Rumblings from the deep cavernous bowels of retail.

Warren Buffet and all the big investors all pulled out of retail a year or two back. They sold all their retail shares and went over to other things. When Warren Buffet sees trouble, trouble usually arrives in spadeloads. Retail is definitely facing a real hammering at the moment.

In the past few weeks, two stores that I've shopped in have closed. Today news came through the grapevine that Walmart is now going to start making their staff buy their own uniforms from Walmart. The reasons are unclear, however, it does scream that Walmart could be facing a tough time and that making their staff buy clothes sold by Walmart could increase sales at a critical time.

Bookstores are closing all over the country if not the world due to competition from the big gorilla, Amazon. Now the strange thing about Amazon is that it has never ever made a meaningful profit. It is, however, driving many stores to the verge of bankruptcy.

A classic example - from when I worked in a bookstore. People would come in to buy a book and find it was $25 in the store but $16 online with Amazon. Instead of supporting the local store and local staff, they would go away and buy on Amazon. Needless to say, the store closed.

All around, retail stores are closing. They're not all "dead wood" like Circuit City, Ritz or Office Depot. Those weren't really dead wood anyway. They were less able to hold on than the survivors. The problem was that people stopped spending money so freely when the recession arrived.

The recession has never left. It has changed form and mutated but the recession that started officially in 2005 is still going strong. Don't belive it? Then how many stores have closed in the last 12 months near your location? More than 1, more than 5, more than 10? All I have to do is to look at www.columbiaclosings.com to see the whole sad affair.

The recession did not start in 2005. Its roots were way before that. The roots of the recession started ten years before, in 1995 when subprime loans were offered to people that had no hope of paying them back. Of course they all defaulted when it worked out cheaper to default than to pay off the loans and quite understandably so. The Russian mafia has another way of dealing with debt - if they owe money and don't feel like repaying the debt they send a hit man around to the creditor.

Recent figures showed camera sales have been dropping. This is 100% because nobody has any money. The recession (in fact a fully fledged depression) is still rumbling onward. Nobody has any money. People don't have any money. Governments don't have any money. In many ways, this is a similar situation to 1930s Germany. We know what happened in 1936 in Germany and what happened subsequently.

If this economic depression leads to war then it will not be a war of the 1940s. It will be a slower, longer drawn out more insidious type of war. It will be a war of insurgents where neighbor will be unable to trust neighbor. Nobody will know who is on whose side. Friends to ones face and a dagger in ones back. This is the future to which this depression is leading. Warren Buffet has shown us the light.