I Want a Pony!

On second thought, maybe this requires too much care and feeding.

Spring Snow, Customer Service

Once in a while -- even in these tough economic times -- I am pleasantly surprised by some act of great customer service from a company. This was the case recently with Pentax. I had a Pentax Optio WP camera that had started including unwanted vertical lines in every photo. Very fine lines, but still annoyingly obvious. So I wrote to Pentax explaining the problem and also mentioning that I did not have the receipt for the camera and thus no proof of warranty.

Randall Schumacher at Pentax replied and suggested I send the camera in "for examination." He said they would assess the problem and that they would fix it if the camera was still under warranty or give me a free repair estimate if it was not. So I boxed it up and sent it off.

About a month later, the camera came back. Fixed. And it is taking photos like the recent one above (of Indian Plum blossoms under a March 15 snowfall). It probably was a small fix for the Pentax techs, but it returned to my use a perfectly good camera (and my only waterproof one!). My hat is off to Mr. Schumacher and his pals at Pentax for performing customer service beyond their legal requirement. That's the way to inspire customer loyalty!

Lost Surprises

I was experimenting with my new $2.09 macro studio last night (about which, more soon), and one of the subjects I used for test shots was this old German film camera. It's one my dad gave me, and I used for several years before getting a more "modern" film camera.

It brought back memories of photographic surprises. I wasn't a prolific photographer, and sometimes a roll of film would stay in the camera for months before I finally finished it and had it developed. So when the images came back, they often contained surprises I'd forgotten about.

With digital photography's instant feedback, such surprises are few these days. Not that I'm complaining...just a little nostalgic for that lost element of being truly surprised and delighted by something a second time.

Then and Now

Shooting hummingbirds on the deck, 1974
Self-portrait in teapot, 2008