Photographic Adventures

Last week I went out and bought a new camera! I decided to make the switch to Digital SLR technology. Now don't get me wrong, I loved my old camera but I think I outgrew it. Sometimes I see the opportunity for a really great, creative photograph. When I try to take the picture with my little "point and shoot" sometimes it turns out relatively nice, but most of the time it lets me down. Well hopefully now when I see these opportunities things will be different.

Now the story about buying it. The model of camera I bought is a Canon Rebel XT. This isn't exactly a top of the line camera anymore as the Canon Rebel XTi has been released. But for me, the 10 MP (as opposed to 8 on the XT), and the slightly larger viewscreen on the newer version of my camera was not worth the extra $350. So since the XTi came out, the XT prices have decreased significantly since stores are trying to clear them out. So I found it on sale at Best Buy and decided to order one online for store pickup later on that day or the next. On the website it said that it would take about 3 hours to process my order and once they sent me a confirmation email I could go to the store and pick up my camera. 21 hours later I received my confirmation email saying that the store had been sold out (even though it said it was in stock on the website). Well, I was thoroughly displeased with my shopping experience and I had my heart set on getting that camera! Then an idea crossed my mind. Perhaps Futureshop would match Best Buy's price. So I dragged Kim along and went to Futureshop. I showed them the ad and they said they would only match it if Best Buy had the camera in stock. Well the sales associate proceeded to call all the Edmonton stores. Sold out. No price matching here. Luckily, my friend informed me that London Drugs would perhaps match the price. So we headed over to London Drugs and I showed them the ad. Success! They were more than happy to make a sale. I was so impressed with the service there. The salesman took the camera out, inspected it all, looked over the lens, gave me a DVD on digital photography (with lots of coupons), recommended a lens filter, and gave me a gift certificate for the store (a small one, but hey it's free money). He then noticed us looking at camera bags and recommended certain features to look for in a camera bag.




So there you go, Futureshop, instead of making a sale (a big one at that) and satisfying a customer, you fail! London Drugs has my business now and for all camera related purchases in the future.






Last weekend I also bought a book on photography and am eager to try out some of the techniques I learned. Too bad it's too cold out to actually go out and get some pictures. Look for some "creative exposures" in the future!