Clackers: The master of dad jokes, beginner tips and Pentax cameras

On his life in photography, Australia, nicknames, and giving back

By cjfeola in Pentaxian Profiles on Sep 4, 2023

A blind man sits down at the bar and figures he'll break the ice with the bartender by asking "Wanna hear a blonde joke?" In a hushed voice, a man beside him says,  before you tell that joke, buddy, I think it is only fair, given that you are blind, that you should know  our bartender is blonde, our bouncer is blonde, I'm a 6'4" black belt, the man sitting on the other side of me is 6'2, 250 lbs, and a rugby player. The guy sitting next to you is pushing 300, 6'6, and he's a wrestler. We're ALL blonde. So you think about it mister, do you really wanna tell that joke?" The blind man sat for a second, thinking over the odds and then replied "No, not if I have to explain it five times."

A dad joke! On Pentax Forums! It must be Clackers, our 2023 Otis Memorial Pentaxian! Except this is no Beginner Tip; Clackers has written so many beginner tips articles, and they have proven so popular that we decided we needed to interview him and share just what makes Clackers clack!

Chris Feola for Pentax Forums: Why so many dad jokes?
Clackers: They call it 'infotainment' these days, don't they? I work in IT, but was a high school physics, chemistry and maths teacher for twelve years. Teachers are trained now that you can't impart information to someone not paying attention. The best way to learn something is to do it, and the worst way to copy something down from a whiteboard into an exercise book. But on an internet forum, the options are limited. What can be done? One way is to bait and switch. People can come to the post for a few laughs, but stay for the lesson. The stolen gags at the start of each article are quickies generally in the style of Steven Wright or Rodney Dangerfield - a bit surreal, a bit self-deprecating. The story at the end is kind of out of place in the modern world, a longer joke. An anachronism, because observational humor is what today's comics do. I tend to think here of UK comedians from decades past like Dave Allen and Ronnie Corbett. They told them from a chair, so they were maybe sit-downs rather than standups.

Pentax Forums: What do you say to rumors that you have a shed outback filled with dads forced to write jokes for cheap beer and bratwurst?

Pentaxian Profile: Teresa Brubaker

Pentax sports photographer since 2009

By PF Staff in Pentaxian Profiles on Sep 13, 2021

I am a professional sports photographer who also does portrait, landscape and wildlife photography. Starting in 2009, when I received my first Pentax digital SLR, the K20D, as a birthday gift from my husband, I began shooting high school athletic events where my husband taught and coached, as well as where our children attended/competed. As an inner-tier suburban, very diverse school, it had many athletes who had never had any photos of themselves competing in their sports. Before long, I volunteered to provide photos for all of the athletes for no charge through my photo web page, as well as do sports collages for the teams that either my husband coached or our children participated. I also photographed many high school musicals and graduations, providing all of the photos at no charge on my webpage.

Once our children graduated, the teams/school decided that they would like to pay me for my photography services so I could continue to provide the photos to the athletes/students, which continued to be free for the students and parents to download and use as they wish. My heart and desire was to continue to be a blessing to the students/parents, especially those who couldn’t afford to purchase photos, yet somehow build this into my full-time job.

After high school, all 3 of our children went to a university where they each played 4 years of college soccer. I started photographing their games, as well as track meets, providing the photos at no charge to the athletes, coaches and parents. The university began using my photos in their athletic news media releases and promotion. Once our children graduated, the university decided they would hire me to cover sporting events for them, using my photos for their social media releases and articles. I continued to provide the photos free of cost to the athletes and parents via my website. Fast forward to 2018, while I was photographing a college conference championship track meet and an NCAA National Championship Track meet, a webmaster of a national Cross Country and Track & Field website asked if I would begin to photoshoot for this website.

Pentaxian Profile: Nguyen Nam

Professional photographer from Vietnam

By PF Staff in Pentaxian Profiles on Oct 25, 2017

"Nguyen Nam" is the signature you'll find in all of my photos, and that's what Pentaxians in Vietnam call me. I graduated as a civil engineer, which taught me a lot about different building materials, but not much about creative art. Honestly, becoming a photographer was not my first idea after university.  Before the crossroads that led to my photo career, I spent my days working with technical drawings and engineers at project sites.  This trained me to effectively cooperate with others while working, which in turn, surprisingly, taught me how to capture emotions in photos.
 
I discovered the Pentax world somewhat accidentally. In Vietnam, there are many Japanese factories, and I worked for a Japanese construction company which contributed to the modern-day Pentax factory. (If you encounter any manufacturing issues with your lenses, please don't blame me— my colleagues and I have done our construction jobs very carefully!)
 
Early on in this project, I had no idea what Pentax was. The factory staff (workers in white coats) looked just like those in other industrial factories where I had worked before.  My first impression was simply of how clean they were.  What I didn't know at the time was that all this would lead to a big change in my future line of work.

Film shooting with the MZ-S

After 2 years of traveling between many brands of DSLRs, I met my first match– the Pentax K10D.  This camera allowed me to take on many jobs, including travel, wedding, and product photography. To this day I remember the unique rendering that the K10D's CCD sensor delivered.
 
The merry-go-round of destiny turned me to my next body.  This was the charming, super-rare silver edition of the Pentax K200D.  Half of my product photos came from this camera.  At times I questioned whether it was right to stick to Pentax, since the focusing was definitely slower than other brands. I had to fight to persevere and learn how to control the camera optimally.

Luckily, these grey days didn't last long. When Pentax K-5 IIs was released, I was proud to be one of the first users of this flagship body.  I realized that the focusing performance had been very much improved. I could effectively capture photos of my daughter as she played in the yard.  With her hyper character at her age, the older generation of Pentax DSLRs really struggled to keep up.

My FA* workhorse lenses

Pentaxian Profile - Giovanni Corona

By jphotography in Pentaxian Profiles on Sep 17, 2017

My name is Giovanni Corona. I was born in Carbonia, Sardinia (Italy) in the last days of 1982 and my passion for photography was born in 2009 with a series of basic old compact digital cameras (Nikon, Olympus, then Panasonic). In the middle of 2013 I switched to a bridge format camera, a Fujifilm Finepix HS30 EXR. This was a camera that introduced me to the more serious side of photography.

In the middle of 2014 I finally defined the kind of photography that I want to focus on: Landscape, in particular low light and macro photography. For this kind of photography I've made my choice of camera brand, namely Pentax. The choice had many reasons, but especially the build quality and the right feature set for this kind of photography stand out.

My first goal is to show and represent my fascinating land, Sardinia, seen from various aspects.  Sardenia is full of urban subjects to be explored, ancient abandoned and forgotten structures (most of all nuraghes or structures from many wars and conflicts). Add to this a very low level of light pollution so Sardenia is a really good place for night photography with these old subjects!

Pentaxian Profile: Peter Maasewerd

What the eye can't see and the brain must guess....

By Pete_XL in Pentaxian Profiles on Jan 23, 2017

As I am an applied natural scientist also addicted to photography, the work with an advanced camera like my Pentax K-3 II offers an extension of the human senses to me. The camera can combine space and time in a way the human combo of two eyes and a brain cannot— just by variation of exposure time and sensitivity. Together with some fantasy, factual knowledge and processing skills, this ability gives the photographer room for the aesthetic visualization of real world issues that the human senses miss. And this is what I’m after!

Far apart – a one kilometer wide view of the Guidecca Island / Venice “wrapped” from a giant el panorama[Img01 Far apart – a one kilometer wide view of the Guidecca Island / Venice “wrapped” from a giant parallel panorama]

My favorite images show scenes that are too far apart, too small, fast, slow, dark or too far away to be caught by the eye and/or processed by the brain. I also use the daylight but my preferred playground is the night and the absence of bright light.

Small - landscape caught in a spider's net[Img02 Small – landscape caught in a spider’s net]

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