People and why I hate them.

I wouldn't say I'm a photographer. I would say that I enjoy photography though. I don't go out on Sunday afternoons to take pictures, I don't have a dark room, I don't read photography magazines. I love taking pictures when we're on our trips, I love seeing the results. I have one camera and two lenses. I'm not part of the photography fraternity.

On a few pictures on a few rolls of pictures taken on our Romania/Italy trip there was a small hair on the developed pictures.

I took my camera in to get cleaned today. About 10 days ago I took it in to be cleaned and the store owner (a Mum and Pop shop) said he wouldn't clean it until I brought some pictures with me to show him what (where?) the problem was. As he was telling me he wouldn't clean my camera without seeing pictures he was telling me how filthy my camera is and how much it needed to be cleaned. I didn't quite follow why he wouldn't clean it at that point but I didn't ask questions.

I brought the camera back to him today. Wonder of all wonders he looked at the pictures and said there is a hair in the camera - just like I told him last week. As he looks at the camera he gets all snooty and says this camera is filthy it really needs to be cleaned. (As you , the reader may recall, I took the camera in to get cleaned - apparently he has short-term memory loss.)

He then opens up the battery compartment and says: "You also need to change your batteries."
Me: "They're brand new."
Him: "They're cheap. You need to get high end batteries."

Him: "You really need to do some research. You shouldn't put your camera in the case like that. You need to dry the case on low and then put your camera back in in a plastic bag."
Me: "O.k."

Him: "Never buy this type of lens again."
Me: "I bought it because it was cheap and met my needs."
Him: "It's a terrible lens."

Him: "Where is the eye piece?"
Me: "Oh, I must have lost it."
Him: "Tsk, tsk. You can buy one from me. It's $15"
Me: "O.K."
Him: "It'll be done on Saturday."
Me: "Actually I think I'll just take it somewhere else."
Him: "Calm down. I'm easy to talk to."
Me: "Actually, no you're not. You haven't been every time I've come in here."
Him: "I'm just telling you how it is."

He could have said all that he said in a different way and I would have thanked him, felt good about myself and felt educated, instead he acted like an elitist photography expert who is bitter when "amateurs" have the nerve to own cameras and not know every little thing about them. Jerk.