Pentax banned from trinidad fashion week!!!!!!!

[Torphoto]

My little rant, and yes I am quite unhappy to!

Now for some background, I work with a local online fashion/lifestyle/entertainment website, the 2nd largest one of it's kind and have affiliations with the local AP office and their largest newspaper ( my brother is a writer and I am good friends with their lead reporter ).

For 3 weeks the website was trying to get media passes for me and their writer to cover it, we are the only ones who have a proper dedicated fashion section online for the island and are reputable and known. They even have their own full studio and have done several ( locally ) well known music videos in their studio with our local top artists.

So normally we GET passes to fashion shows and carnival band launches, large club events with out even asking but this time was different. Well 3 weeks later today we are told that we were sending the media request to the wrong email address ( the one on the form ) and we need to talk to a new person to get the passes. Fine we call this new person and they are "who are you? we need to speak to YOUR BOSS". Now I'm not going to start a fuss but she made a mistake wanting to speak to the manager and owner, he's a good normally nice guy but will not stand for egos from anyone, he has chased some top singers out for using drugs kind of guy and will take the repercussions to stand for decency type.

After 20 min trying to get passes his voice raises a bit on the phone, we now have to give them the model and type of cameras we have and are going to use, well he wants to send 2 photographers and a writer, one with a D300 and me with my K20D, I will be sporting the 50-135 and the D300 a 18-125. The lady says ok to the nikon but not to the Pentax, it's an amateur camera is there another nikon, we have a D40 to, ok that is better she says ( like huh? ). He argues a bit more as I am one of their top photographers and he knows the 18-125 isn't great, the better lenses are to stay in the studio he does not want them to go out. She then decides to give 1 pass, we can send a photographer one day and the writer another ( which makes no sense at ALL ). He argues the point and gets turned down.

Now the strange thing here is I also got a call from another photographer arguing he didn't get his passes either. I called one of my inside sources and told them what was going on, strange he asks if he could borrow my Pentax before I got to tell him about that to.

Now I can get in if I do some back channel dealing but why should I! I won't get paid for it if I do so whats the point now.

[flyer]

When they asked for the type of cameras, your boss should have told them he didn't know yet, and it was none of their business. They are not in the picture taking business, so they should leave that to people who know what they are doing with a camera.

[and]

Heh they obviously dont know anything so just tell them you will bring the d40 and gaffer your k20d and they wont know

[netuser]

Originally Posted by and

Heh they obviously dont know anything so just tell them you will bring the d40 and gaffer your k20d and they wont know

I would do that and even do the job for free only for teasers. A once time deal

[Arpe]

That's just weird, and sad.

[IsaacEastgate]

You guys are crazy, didnt you hear?!?
nikon + canon = PROFESSIONAL (great photos!)
anything else = AMATEUR (not so good photos :[ )

its simple, just keep saying it and eventually youll get the hang of it!

[Ash]

Originally Posted by IsaacEastgate

You guys are crazy, didnt you hear?!?
nikon + canon = PROFESSIONAL (great photos!)
anything else = AMATEUR (not so good photos :[ )

its simple, just keep saying it and eventually youll get the hang of it!

Except when the amateur can get just as great photos as the professional!

[user440]

Should have told them 'Canon 1Ds' and showed up with the K20D anyway. I doubt the guy at the door is checking.

[kristoffon]

Originally Posted by flyer

When they asked for the type of cameras, your boss should have told them he didn't know yet, and it was none of their business. They are not in the picture taking business, so they should leave that to people who know what they are doing with a camera.

What he said.

Also, let's see the next year how they treat your magazine after you ignore their event or cover it as a failure. Who needs who the most here?

[Torphoto]

The other strange thing is the local skin flick paper ( Think of Toronto sun or the page 3 uk paper but worse ) got 3 passes, a new start up got 8 etc etc. An AP photographer and the large local paper are also upset with them it seems, I think some favoritism is going on in here.

[reeftool]

Sounds like some underhanded stuff going on. You mention some other local press also getting snubbed so I hope your feelings on this treatment are being expressed in your local press also. Perhaps they are only giving passes to those who they know will give favorable reviews and not honest ones.

[emr]

Could Nikon be a sponsor of some sort?

[benjikan]

Originally Posted by Torphoto

My little rant, and yes I am quite unhappy to!

Now for some background, I work with a local online fashion/lifestyle/entertainment website, the 2nd largest one of it's kind and have affiliations with the local AP office and their largest newspaper ( my brother is a writer and I am good friends with their lead reporter ).

For 3 weeks the website was trying to get media passes for me and their writer to cover it, we are the only ones who have a proper dedicated fashion section online for the island and are reputable and known. They even have their own full studio and have done several ( locally ) well known music videos in their studio with our local top artists.

So normally we GET passes to fashion shows and carnival band launches, large club events with out even asking but this time was different. Well 3 weeks later today we are told that we were sending the media request to the wrong email address ( the one on the form ) and we need to talk to a new person to get the passes. Fine we call this new person and they are "who are you? we need to speak to YOUR BOSS". Now I'm not going to start a fuss but she made a mistake wanting to speak to the manager and owner, he's a good normally nice guy but will not stand for egos from anyone, he has chased some top singers out for using drugs kind of guy and will take the repercussions to stand for decency type.

After 20 min trying to get passes his voice raises a bit on the phone, we now have to give them the model and type of cameras we have and are going to use, well he wants to send 2 photographers and a writer, one with a D300 and me with my K20D, I will be sporting the 50-135 and the D300 a 18-125. The lady says ok to the nikon but not to the Pentax, it's an amateur camera is there another nikon, we have a D40 to, ok that is better she says ( like huh? ). He argues a bit more as I am one of their top photographers and he knows the 18-125 isn't great, the better lenses are to stay in the studio he does not want them to go out. She then decides to give 1 pass, we can send a photographer one day and the writer another ( which makes no sense at ALL ). He argues the point and gets turned down.

Now the strange thing here is I also got a call from another photographer arguing he didn't get his passes either. I called one of my inside sources and told them what was going on, strange he asks if he could borrow my Pentax before I got to tell him about that to.

Now I can get in if I do some back channel dealing but why should I! I won't get paid for it if I do so whats the point now.

Tell them they are "F'ing Idiots" and the last time I checked I was still a Pro Photographer. Just send them to my web links and then tell them they are "IDIOTS" again...

PS...You might want to tell them that Photographers like Albert Watson, Demarschellier, Newton, Bourdin etc used Pentax for a lot of their shoots for Vogue, Harpers Elle etc...

[Dom]

Yes I can totally understand why your not happy.
What a bunch of power crazed butt munchers. They obviously no absolutely nothing about photography.

[MRRiley]

what twits! You should have said you'd send Ashton Kutcher with his Nikon P&S... Afterall, Nikon = Pro...