I discovered a long time ago that you can get anything you need online, which is pretty obvious thing to say I know. With the closure of a great number of “Camera Shops” including three in my home town of Macclesfield buying online frankly left myself and others with no alternative but to buy online. Living in the German-speaking cantons of Switzerland for over a decade I discovered that both cameras and lenses where much cheaper there than anywhere else. I also discovered that everything else was a lot more expensive, which only increased my usage of online shopping. Apart from camera and lenses that is of course.
As an advocate of putting photographs on walls, I found that printing anything bigger than A2 which I could do myself was horrifically expensive in Switzerland and tended to use a well known online company based in Germany. I used when for all types of prints acrylic, canvas metal and even framed however; not any more so what changed? I hear you ask.
The answer to that is simple, once again resident back in the UK I went to my local printer to get some business and address cards printed and discovered everything else they did. Not only could they produce large-sized prints on high-quality paper matt or gloss they could also provide canvas prints in various sizes, not that I ever use them these days, the quality was great and the prices less than a quarter of the price I paid online.
On a visit to our neighbouring town, I found on the main street another shop that could produce acrylic, aluminium or canvas of truly huge sizes plus they had over a hundred different designs for framing. Everything was carried out on the premises another added bonus.
So before you send off your work to god knows where, maybe visit your local printer. In fact I found out that not only was my local print shop able to provide what I needed, when it was closed there were other printers not that far away who could do the same. That printers had been there since before I was born and I had never even been through the door. The answer to just why I hadn’t even thought about that printer was simple, I was just ignorant not knowing what was available, simple as that. Both printers are less than four miles from my house so a lesson learnt.
As my local “camera shop” closed down about five years ago and since I returned from living abroad I have become even more reliant on the internet to find supplies. I like a lot of other people used the mammoth Amazon for various item like filters, lens caps, slave flash and all types of other things that break to simply wear or altogether. Once again more out of being too lazy to shop around.
I have always been against buying second hand equipment although I have done but very, very seldom always fearing I was buying other peoples problems. I have been of late hired equipment that I have not got and probably not use again for years, something that is worth thinking about because you may want something but do you really need it?
The online shopping giant already mentioned if fine if you are in a hurry buy it today get it tomorrow. However; if you are not in a hurry to get something as in you are willing to wait two or three weeks and the odd time little bit longer, then try wish.com I do. You will be surprised.
Shop Around as Photography doesn’t have to be expensive