Is it just me?

[yvon_bourque1]

Once a week or more, I can be seen in Barnes & Nobles, looking at what's new on

the shelves in the photography section and the magazines section. I usually find

all of the new photography magazines on the rack and bring them with me in the

coffee section. I sit at a table, order myself a Starbuck coffee, and I scan through

all the magazines.

 

The first thing I do is look if there are any reviews of any of the Pentax equipment. I

then put those magazines aside. Here in California, or at least where I live, you

can get all of the American published magazines, one from Canada and most of

the magazines published in the United Kingdom. The American magazines are

priced from about $5.00 to $8.00. The Canadian Magazine "Photo Life" is priced at

$5.95 and the United Kingdom magazines are very expensive at $10.00 to $12.00

and more. (It's understandable because of the shipping costs, I guess).

 

The magazines from the U.K. usually have a lot more detailed "How to" sections

about photography in general. The advertisements are not very useful to me as

equipment prices are generally higher than here in the United States. So, most of

the times, I read the U.K. magazines at the book store and put them back on the

shelves except when they have very informative Pentax material. They simply cost

too much for what you get out of them. If they were priced about the same as the

U.S. magazines, I probably would buy them all.

 

Next, I go through all the U.S. magazines that have no special review or article

about Pentax. I'm looking for articles that can help me be a better photographer. I

have been reading or buying photography magazines since I was about fifteen

years old. It is amazing to see the same subjects coming back over and over

again through the years. They are brought back by new authors, with a few twists

for the Digital SLR cameras, but Aperture, Shutter Speeds, Rule-of-Third, Depth of

Field, etc, are still meaning the same as before. It is useful for folks that are just

getting into photography and want to learn as much as they can. Frankly,

Photography Books are a better resource for entry-level photographers. They have

a lot more to offer in terms of learning the trade. They are a little more costly than

magazines, but you usually get all what you need in one book, instead of many

magazines. That said, magazines do sell a lot, otherwise there wouldn't be so

many on the stands every Month. I buy at least $50.00 of magazines myself every

Month and occasionally, I buy a new book. I tend to buy books about the

computer side of photography, such as Lightroom, Photoshop, etc.

 

Books for the Pentax DSLRs are rare and I believe that here in the USA, the

Magic Lantern publishing company and I are the only two resources for Pentax

DSLRs cameras. Although I write books for the Pentax cameras, I have purchased

the Magic Lantern K10D and K20D books. If there were more Pentax books, I

would buy them all.

 

I always purchase the Canadian magazine "Photo Life". I like their approach to

photography and it always remind me of where I'm from, being a Canadian

expatriated to California.

 

When I visit my family in Montreal, which is not very often, I always purchase

every magazine available in French. I do like "Chasseur D'images" which is

published in France but available in Canada. I tried to subscribe to it but it seems

that they do not ship their magazine to the United States. Oh well...

 

Now, back to the magazines with Pentax reviews that I have set aside, I'm usually

done with my coffee by then, and I just proceed to the check out and purchase

them all. I put myself to sleep every night reading my magazines. It sometimes

takes me a week to read a magazine because I fall asleep in the middle of an

article and try to get back to it the next night, or the night after that, all depending

on how tired I am. I read every article, every ad of all the magazines I purchase. I

clip everything Pentax so that I can refer to them when I write a new book about

Pentax DSLRs or just for reference.

 

I would say that I might be a little obsessed with my Pentax equipment, but isn't it

what all Pentaxians do?

 

Thank you for reading, and I hope you didn't fall asleep at the keyboard. That's

best done with magazines. Let me know what your approach to magazines is.

 

Yvon Bourque

 

http://pentaxdslrs.blogspot.com/2008/06/is-it-just-me.html

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[dale_france]

Yvon, it's not just you I do the same thing. I work for the railroad and everytime I get to Chicago I go to the book store and look for the new mags, anything to do with Pentax I buy. I think I give a review of the K20D myself. Hey we have it in us. I love my Pentax K20D! So don't worry it's in all of us. I think? You know every new review is like a pat on the back for spending our hard earned money. Hey I'm ok with spending over a grand on a camera. It makes us feel better. I moved from a GX-10 to a Pentax K20D and don't regret it one bit. Happy shooting. Dale

[dorus]

I think you have a great hobby :)

[stemked]

Yvon,

 

Moi aussi.

 

Back in the 1990s I did pretty much exactly as you did (only I hit Borders and really don't like coffee). About the only magazine I purchased was Practical Photography (at $8 a shot) because I felt they generated the only equipment reviews I felt I could trust. Popular Photography seemed to be exactly as you said, repeats of the same-old, same-old and the reviews seemed to rather non-critical, I always suspected so they didn't annoy their advertisers.

 

PS. I also would buy the Canadian magazines; I too am a Canadian-phile, only it was because I grew up in Alberta (as an American I lived there from ages 6-16). I didn't seek out the French magazines though-in my part of Canada people were more likely to be speaking German, Ukaranian, Japanese, Chinese, or First Nation languages rather than French. I do miss watching Hockey though in French on the CBC.

 

I don't buy the magazines anymore; no time for it. For a while I was buying the 'Nature's Best' quarterly magazine. It rivals the BBCs 'Wildlife Photographer of the Year' series of books. But even that I haven't kept up with. The life of a prof and a four year old changes priorities. Probably explains why I have to rely on Y'all to explain all this digital technology and jargon to me!

 

So you're not *totally* alone in this hobby. Don't worry though; I'll resist the urge to include 'group-hug' ending to this.

 

Doug

[personalphotos]

Yes I have to 'fess up' to buying too many magazines for the same reasons. Too often they have sat, basically unread because of too much advertising and not enough substance. So these days I don't buy as many. A couple of favourites now are Photo Life and Canadian Outdoor Photographer. I'll still always check out Pop Photo as well.

 

I thought you might hail from Quebec Yvon. Not a common name in California I bet. Beautiful city you come from and still one of my favourite places to visit.

[ed_yuen]

Hi Yvon:

 

So, you're from Quebec. Me, I'm from Calgary, AB. Are you planning to head back for the 400th Anniversary celebrations for Quebec City? You probably can get some great shots of the celebrations.

 

BTW, I responded to your queries about the solar panel project a while back. How is that going? Working well I hope.

 

Best regards.

 

Ed

[godfrey]

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I don't have time to read all the magazines, nor can I afford to buy them all. I only skim most of them at the local periodicals rack and

buy one or two as appropriate to my work and interests occasionally. Frankly, equipment itself is only a small part of my photographic

interest: I hate buying most of the magazines that are little more than advertising folderal as I am far more interested in the subject of

photography (as art, as news and documentary, and as a business) than I am in equipment for its own sake.

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The magazines I subscribe to and read every issue are Lenswork, Camera Arts, News Photographer, Aperture and Photo District News.

Of the others, Photo Life is an often buy, as are Focus, Black And White, JPG, Silvershotz and a couple of others.

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Godfrey

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