Spend £400

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dancook

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So I have a 10 year anniversary gift to choose from the company which is making me redundant :)

Photography related and it can be one or two items, I have a few ideas of my own possible an AD200 flash as an outdoor photoshoot carrying around an AD600 is quite cumbersome.

I'd be interested to hear how YOU would spend it, just for fun and maybe it will inspire me.
 
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Anything photo related for £400? I'd probably put it to the Olympus 12-40 pro lens I'm after, or treat myself to a high quality tripod, something I don't tend to use much but if someone else is paying ...
 
dancook said:
So I have a 10 year anniversary gift to choose from the company which is making me redundant :)

Photography related and it can be one or two items, I have a few ideas of my own possible an AD200 flash as an outdoor photoshoot carrying around an AD600 is quite cumbersome.

I'd be interested to hear how YOU would spend it, just for fun and maybe it will inspire me.
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Sorry to hear that Dan and I do hope that you've got options open to you if you intend to carry on working.

Knowing a little of your taste for quality kit my suggestions will probably be predictable and completely unsuitable :D I'd look at something for fun rather than quality. I think if ordered to spend £400 tomorrow on photo gear I might just look at a nice manual lens or a film camera as the Bessa R in the for sale section caught my eye. Something like that would be fun for me but your idea of fun may be a little different. Actually I wouldn't go for anything photography related as I can buy whatever I want and I suspect that you can too so if at all possible I'd ask the local children's hospice what they need.
 
If your thinking of the ad200 I would go with a pair of pixapro pikas . Bit more than £400 but a fantastic lightweight outdoor lighting setup and it's 2 lights with HHS and TTL
 
woof woof said:
Sorry to hear that Dan and I do hope that you've got options open to you if you intend to carry on working.

Knowing a little of your taste for quality kit my suggestions will probably be predictable and completely unsuitable :D I'd look at something for fun rather than quality. I think if ordered to spend £400 tomorrow on photo gear I might just look at a nice manual lens or a film camera as the Bessa R in the for sale section caught my eye. Something like that would be fun for me but your idea of fun may be a little different. Actually I wouldn't go for anything photography related as I can buy whatever I want and I suspect that you can too so if at all possible I'd ask the local children's hospice what they need.
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I'm making a career change to photography and spending is on hold until that is up and running, I get redundancy plus a short term contract until end of March which will help whilst I work on the photography business.

tijuana taxi said:
Probably give one of the newer version Lightroom Loupedeck + a try, sort of thing I would get as a gift
https://loupedeck.com/
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This is an excellent idea :) I've looked at this a few times in the past.. if it can speed up the processing I do for the school photos then it'll be well worth it!
 
Keep it for when something goes wrong. Being self employed or having a business can suck so bad when customers cancel you last minute or refuse to pay etc.
 
GTG said:
Keep it for when something goes wrong. Being self employed or having a business can suck so bad when customers cancel you last minute or refuse to pay etc.
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Company will make the purchase, so not an option. I will have a fair buffer with redundancy pay and additional short term work.
 
Having seen your kit collections in the past is there anything you need?
A Loupedeck and a Wacom might be handy.

If it were me I'd ask for travel vouchers and go somewhere to take nice pictures :)
 
I think i'd invest in some decent glass (or put towards at least). My lenses are OK but i'd really like to upgrade them, or buy some more specialised kit.
 
AMcUK said:
Having seen your kit collections in the past is there anything you need?
A Loupedeck and a Wacom might be handy.

If it were me I'd ask for travel vouchers and go somewhere to take nice pictures :)
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I did go with the loupedeck+ and a wacom intuos pro small :) (I have got another graphics tablet, but it's bigger which means I don't leave it out and available to use)

I actually need some more batteries for my A9's - as 4 is not enough to see me through a long wedding, I set my first batteries to charge half way through the day - I don't want to rely on the availability of nearby power sockets..

But I don't think work would have appreciated giving me batteries as a gift!
 
Cool - the little Wacoms are very good.
I used to work with graphic designers with massive ones, but then they scaled the active area down to the same size as my little ArtPad II to cut down on the amount of wrist and arm movement :)

A few years back I got bought a model Ferrari and a supercar experience for my leaving gift (unexpected) - they failed to work out that the experience was a good 4 hour drive from where I lived so in the end I passed it on to a colleague who still worked there. Still got the model car - not sure why :)

Good luck with the new venture I'm sure you'll do well!
 
Not sure what to recommend to you gear wise as I’ve not much idea about the Hassleblad line up and not sure what you have for the A9 (or even if you still have it). Extra flashes or more portable lighting would come in handy I’m sure. Or maybe just get every colour of the I shoot RAW t-shirts as worn by a certain Mr Polin :LOL:

Good luck with the new venture. What are you getting into, weddings, portraits and gigs?
 
snerkler said:
Not sure what to recommend to you gear wise as I’ve not much idea about the Hassleblad line up and not sure what you have for the A9 (or even if you still have it). Extra flashes or more portable lighting would come in handy I’m sure. Or maybe just get every colour of the I shoot RAW t-shirts as worn by a certain Mr Polin :LOL:

Good luck with the new venture. What are you getting into, weddings, portraits and gigs?
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Already chosen my gifts of Loupedeck+ and Wacom Pro Intuos Small Tablet. :)

Thanks, I'm getting into weddings and schools thus far.... in the processing of setting up a wedding website, and I should get in touch with more private schools in the area. It's actually a bit difficult to manage both if I can't book weddings in advance for fear of clashing with the school - will see which way it tips..

Also just currently processing a wedding from Saturday which is my first solo wedding in a long while...
 
dancook said:
Already chosen my gifts of Loupedeck+ and Wacom Pro Intuos Small Tablet. :)

Thanks, I'm getting into weddings and schools thus far.... in the processing of setting up a wedding website, and I should get in touch with more private schools in the area. It's actually a bit difficult to manage both if I can't book weddings in advance for fear of clashing with the school - will see which way it tips..

Also just currently processing a wedding from Saturday which is my first solo wedding in a long while...
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Good choice of gift.
Don’t overthink the bookings, whoever books a date first gets priority, some jobs might pay better than others but that’s business
We’ve all taken a days work and had to then turn down other more lucrative work.

As they say in Greece ‘s*** happens’ :)
 
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