Portland is a very relaxed area. WE do not have a very high rate of crime, or too many organized crimes. However, it is very easy to see that weddings are a very easy place to target for thieves. Here are two blog posts about thieves making it a career targeting weddings. They steal money envelopes, gifts, purses from getting ready rooms, and photographer/dj/videographer’s gear. In the event of money and gear, you can sometimes replace it. But the images stolen are not replacable. Most of the times, these people look just like guests.
So be careful. Make sure the gift table is not unattended or at a far away area. Lock the getting ready room or put the purses in a secure area. Photographers/videographers have an assistant watch out for your gear.
wedding crashing thieves
photographers gear stolen
Due to intense travel schedule, before I left town, I forgot to renew my domain. Yup. So one morning last week, I open my website and there was a search engine in it’s place. I had to sit down for couple minutes and felt like all of my energy was sucked down. Luckily, my hosting provider gives 30 day grace period so I was able to claim it back (and for the maximum length I could), but some of my emails are lost and I was out of touch with the world for 3 long days.
So if you emailed me and have not heard back, that is probably why.
This link has a guide that talks about photographer’s rights, esp. taking photographs in public places. Respecting the public while taking photos is very important, but also knowing your rights.
Photographer’s Rights
Sometimes when you shop the internet for cameras, you find some amazing “deals”. It is very tempting to buy from them, but you should always check the following sites.
http://www.resellerratings.com
http://search.bbb.org/
for these companies.
Also, a lot of these companies are in Brooklyn, NY and are in fact the same shop operating under different names and they force you to buy extras, or sell you super overpriced accessories and unless you do, suddenly they are out of stock.
Here are what some of the stores look like:
http://donwiss.com/pictures/BrooklynStores
Some of my favorite places to buy are :
http://www.prophotosupply.com (in Portland - I try to support the local guys!)
http://www.bhvideo.com (1st choice)
http://www.keh.com
http://www.buydig.com
http://www.samys.com/
If you have stuck pixels on your LCD monitor/game console, try this:
http://www.psp-vault.com/Article168.psp
I ran into this site called www.speedtest.net
It is pretty cool with graphical user interface and all… I use comcast, and would be interested in knowing your results!
