Camera Armor

I recently bought a camera armor for my Nikon D90 camera from B&H Photo in the USA.

My first impressions of the camera armor was ok.....it did not amaze me per se.

Things that bothered me were.....

1) Added bulk and weight to camera.
2) Cannot use a battery grip with camera armor bottom cover attached.
3) Cannot use standard size tripod heads directly on the camera body because hole provided on the bottom cover too small. I will have to personally modify the bottom cover to allow the screw plate of my Manfrotto head to properly attach to camera body.
4) Buttons became harder to push even if they matched 100% on the camera armor because camera armor rubber is thick. This is especially bothersome for me since I am now used to using thumb focus button to focus instead of the shutter release button to focus.

Is the camera armor worth it? YES it is!

A small incident happened that convinced me beyond any doubt that the camera armor protection on my D90 was worth every US$ I spent on it.

I was taking photos of our equipment installation on a customer's project site on October 5, 2009 at SM Megamall, Manila, Philippines. I kept on taking photos of our equipment unmindful of what was happening until something from the ceiling dropped on my camera armor close to main command dial. It was moisture with grease from some of the old airconditioning piping system above the open ceiling.

I tried to wipe it off with a clean tissue. I got it off when I used tissue with a bit of alcohol.

Imagine if that moisture with grease fell on the main command dial and it seeped in?

I was thankful that I was using my camera armor that day. You see; I remove the camera armor sometimes when I think my camera won't need protection from the elements.

Is the D90 camera armor worth it? You bet your a** it is! :)

Ocean Conservancy: International Coastal Cleanup Registration System

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Master food stylist comes to Manila in July - INQUIRER.net, Philippine News for Filipinos

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How not to sell your products by Nikon Philippines

I recently took up photography as a hobby.

To learn more about this new hobby; I talked to people who are into photography, I took lessons in basic photography and I try to learn photography from people with more experience.

I recently visited WPPP (Weddings and Portrait Photographers of the Philippines) Photo Congress 2009 from May 4-6, 2009 at Megatrade Hall B at SM Megamall in Manila Philippines. I was there to visit and learn more about photography by talking to the different trade suppliers who are exhibiting at this event.

Most of the trade exhibitors were happy and willing to discuss the advantages of their products on display except people at the Nikon booth.

To say I was disappointed at their behavior is putting it mildly. I have never walked around a whole booth 2x without anyone coming up to me and asking if there is anything they can help me with; except at Nikon booth at WPPP 2009 photo congress.

It seems to me that the people sitting inside Nikon booth with the Nikon Pro shirts believe in their products so much that their static product displays will eventually sell themselves even without them doing anything at all except sit and chat among themselves.

Directly opposite Nikon booth is Canon booth which was full of people since Canon people I believe were more customer-oriented.

Now I fully understand why Nikon grey market in the Philippines is a thriving industry.

I am a Sales and Marketing professional and our company has exhibited at AFEX, WOFEX, Tuna Congress, CCAP conference, Bakery Fair and I know for a fact that is NOT how sales and marketing people should act in a trade show. I have been a visitor to AHR Expo in the US, IKK in Germany, Euroshop in Germany, China Refrigeration in Shanghai and Guangzhou, Bangkok Refrigeration Show in Bangkok, FHA in Singapore, HOFEX in Hong Kong, FHC in Shanghai and none were as disappointing as Nikon booth in WPPP 2009 photo congress.

On the opposite side of the scale; the people at Echostore / Focus One Marketing booth were amazing. They are the official distributors of Think Tank Photo products.

Stephen Chu of Focus One Marketing did an amazing job explaining to me the advantages of Think Tank Photo products eventhough I was just browsing their product displays and asking for brochures. He was even the one doing the demo on their Belly Dancer harness system. Now, I have decided that I will be buying and using Think Tank Photo products because of their local representatives.

Again, I got nothing except deep sigh.....

Campbell Brown commentary: Obama breaks his own rule

President Obama wants to appoint William Lynn (a former lobbyist for Raytheon) as deputy defense secretary.

According to Wikipedia; Raytheon Company (NYSE: RTN) is a major American defense contractor and industrial corporation with core manufacturing concentrations in defense systems and defense and commercial electronics. It was previously involved in corporate and special-mission aircraft until early 2007. Raytheon is the world's largest producer of guided missiles.

This is exactly 48 hours after President Obama proclaimed "The executive order on ethics I will sign shortly represents a clean break from business as usual. As of today, lobbyists will be subject to stricter limits than under any other administration in history. If you are a lobbyist entering my administration, you will not be able to work on matters you lobbied on, or in the agencies you lobbied during the previous two years. When you leave government, you will not be able to lobby my administration for as long as I am president."

Maybe William Lynn was a Raytheon lobbyist but has stopped being their lobbyist around 2 years + 1 day so that executive order does not apply? (me snickering in the background)

Maybe President Obama should discuss this with his White House Counsel if this is a good idea or not.

Oh wait; this is the same White House Counsel who convinced President Obama to retake the oath to prevent some "constitutionalist" to file suit because President Obama inadvertently re-arranged some words from the actual oath taking ceremony......but which the US Constitution considers anyone who was President-elect to be President automatically at January 20 at 12 noon even without formal swearing in ceremony for "continuity in government"

Ok....enough with the sighing.

Puppet and Puppeteer in sports

One of the things I admire in my dad; Mr. Julian G. Camacho; is his integrity especially when it comes to financial or money matters.

He has been Philippine Wushu Federation president for almost 8 years, almost running unopposed and uneventfully since people know him to be an honorable man.

He was even elected to be Philippine Olympic Committee treasurer since even other NSA (national sports association) heads knows that he has not and will not do anything inimical to the funding for all the different sports associations under the POC.

We are proud of the fact that under his tenure as Philippine Wushu Federation president; the Philippines won GOLD in the Beijing 2008 Olympics even if wushu was just an exhibition sport. We are also proud of the fact that under his administration; all (and I mean all...every last cent) of funding for wushu development was put into wushu development; and nothing less. We believe this is the reason that wushu won their medal haul during Beijing Olympics 2008.

Now, with Philippine Wushu Federation elections only a few weeks away; and my Dad having accounced his decision NOT to seek any other elective post within wushu federation; someone has decided to "forcibly" remove him from office. Let's call this someone the Puppeteer (a.k.a. FC).

The Puppeteer (a.k.a. FC) has the reputation of being a smooth operator / talker. He has the reputation of being able to convince eskimo's to buy more ice.

You see Puppeteer (a.k.a. FC) used to have a position within the federation. He has been known to get his "icing" from the funding received by the federation (either thru POC or thru private donations). This has been going on for so long that people had not noticed until my Dad noticed it and put an abrupt end to his craving for "icing".

Now the Puppeteer (a.k.a. FC) has convinced legions of Puppets (a.k.a. LP, EP, DY, JL, etc. Some Puppets even have tryst....now that might just be interesting enough for another blog) within the organization to move against my Dad so he can be Puppeteer again. With him being Puppeteer; he knows that he can get his "icing" funds back again.

You see, the puppets are emboldened to mobilize against my Dad since the P brothers are cousins of Mr. HA of the PSC who was recently appointed by PGMA.

Mr. HA has gone beyond his supposed mandate and has started unfolding and extending his tentacles into the internal affairs of independent NSA (national sports associations) under the POC (Philippine Olympic Committee). One example of this is the mysterious power outage during the legal elections held at Wushu Federation Philippines building at Rizal Memorial Sports Complex. The power outage happened during the actual elections of new Wushu Federation Philippines board members....isn't that the most amazing coincidence ever?!?!

If my Dad gives up....we are 100% sure that funding for athletes training will be affected because the Puppeteer and some of his puppets will get their cuts. Chances of getting more gold medals from the sports of wushu after Willy Wang might just become a distant mirage.

The athletes who train hard for the love of the sport and for the love of representing the country in international competition are the biggest losers in all of these.

I hope Puppeteer and his puppets don't gain too much weight and become diabetic from their icing fetish.

deep sigh......

What is happening to the US economy and to the rest of the world's economy as well?

I guess it was not a complete shock that a financial services company would file for bankruptcy in the US especially with what's been happening to their economy. The only shock was that it was a company as big and as established as Lehman Brothers.

The question here is why would the US government allow such an established financial institution like Lehman Brothers go down while Merrill Lynch and Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae were "seemingly" given a helping hand.

How much percentage of China's overseas investment does Lehman Brothers have? Now thats a US$ 1 trillion question.

In the Philippines; there are reports going around that some local banks and some financial services company will lose money (big or small... we'll soon find out) or be affected by Lehman Brothers going bankrupt.

AIG is having "financial difficulties" as well. They supposedly hold US$ 1 trillion in financial assets from 130+ countries all over the world.

How will the new US President cope with these problems?

If you've read my previous blogs..... where's those general sweeping statements I'm waiting for?:)

sigh...... deep sigh.....