Ritz has about 800 photo stores scattered over 40 different states, including Ritz Camera, Kits Cameras, Wolf Camera, The Camera Shops and Inkley’s. It also operates 130 Boater’s World stores (good luck figuring out the connection between Boating and Camera equipment).

I used to go to Inkley’s when I was growing up and window shop at the latest camera gear. That was back in the day of the Canon A1, and AE1. I wanted the auto-drive for my Canon A1 so bad it hurt, but I was just a kid and never could afford it.

I have bought a lot of equipment at Inkley’s over the years, so I am not to blame in this latest victim of the economic downturn.

Ritz Camera has about 6,400 employees nationwide and recorded sales of just under $1 billion last year.

As part of the Bankruptcy filing, Ritz Camera listed Nikon and Canon as two of their top 30 creditors with outstanding balances of ~$40 million, with an additional $8 million owed to Fuji Photo Film USA.

The company experienced a significant decline in it’s profitable photofinishing business due to the shift from film to digital cameras, lower than expected holiday sales in 2008, and a sharp decline in boating sales due to increased gas prices and other economic factors.

Read the complete article at Business Week

I wonder if they will seek bailout money from the government like the other failed/failing businesses these days (don’t get me started about this mess – It makes me grumpy).

Once upon a time, there was a thing called film.  Photographers had to use it in order to create pictures.  You could buy print film, slide film, fast film, slow film, film with vibrant colors perfect for nature images, film color balanced for portraits, even black and white film.  You had to be careful when you went through the airport with fast ISO film that the XRay machines did not harm your film, etc.

I grew up with film.  My high school photography class taught me how to develop it and print it in the darkroom.  One of my first jobs was working in a darkroom.  I would smell the developing chemicals for hours after I left work.

There is an entire generation that have never seen a film canister and never will.

Digital  is the choice of the new generation.  There are digital cameras built into cell phones, into binoculars, and even into pens – Just like the old James Bond movies.  The quality of these cameras built into other devices is poor, but give it time.  I can imagine a day when you will be able to purchase a pair of sunglasses with a built in 10 Megapixel camera that will automatically download the images to your computer when you get in range.

The distribution mechanism is changing as well.  There used to be family pictures blown up and mounted on the wall of the family room.  Now they are one of 1,000 pictures that are displayed on the wireless digital frame mounted on the wall.

Photos are uploaded to Facebook, flickr, even on to your digital phone.  When the proud father is showing off his children, he doesn’t pull out his wallet anymore…he reaches for his cell phone or PDA.

The newest trend that will hit the market with a bang will be HD video.  Canon’s newest (and most expensive) camera has an HD video camera built in.  You can shoot HD quality video using Canon Glass which is an amazing feature!

Internet video sharing sites, i.e. YouTube and Google Video will continue to grow as new video becomes easier to make, edit, and publish.

Memory cards are getting bigger and faster.  A 1G CF card used to cost $250.  Now you can buy one for $20.

The photography world is changing and I like it.  Just get in, hold on, and enjoy the ride!

There is something about owning the latest camera, flash, studio flashes and reflectors, battery packs, faster memory cards, flash brackets, and faster lenses that will make you a better photographer.

The truth is that newer, fancier, faster, sleeker, and sexy photography equipment will make you a better photographer. The technology today is getting better and better. Lenses focus faster, cameras can do more with less light, memory cards hold more and more pictures – faster, flashes are getting smarter and can light a subject wirelessly and still communicate with the camera to provide just enough light.

However, newer, fancier, faster, sleeker, and sexy photography equipment costs money – lots of it! The latest professional camera bodies from Nikon and Canon cost over $5,000 just for the body. You can spend $2,000 for a lens and still need a wide angle and a telephoto lens for your bag – and a new bag to hold it all in.

I told my wife that I wanted a new camera and she just gave me the look. All you husbands know exactly what I am talking about. She told me that I already had fancy equipment and I didn’t need another expensive camera. She is right – the equipment in my camera bag cost more than the last car that I bought – and depreciates just as fast.

I tried to tell her that the latest camera equipment didn’t have as many problems with noise – especially at high ISO’s. I tried to tell her that I could take better pictures of our kids playing basketball in those horribly lit high school gyms. I don’t think that I am going to talk her into it – at least until she gets the home improvements that we have been planning for.

OK – Do I need new equipment or do I want new equipment? I shoot a lot of high school basketball of my son playing. Faster lenses would enable me to shoot in those cold dark high school gyms and get a shutter speed higher than 1/60 at ISO 1600 or higher. In a fast a furious game with lots of action, 1/60 is not fast enough to get shots that are not blurry. In addition, the new Nikon bodies (D300, D700, D3) would reduce the amount of noise in those basketball shots at high ISOs. So new equipment would help me to take better basketball pictures.

In addition, I shoot a lot of stock photography. The new D700 or D3 would enable me to upload larger files enabling me to have XXL files available for download – thus increasing my photography income. So I could actually make a case that I need new equipment. But not everything that I want. I will write about stock photography in a future post.

So here it is – My new years resolution – I am going to make enough money this year (with my photography) to upgrade my equipment. I challenge each of you that read this to do the same – earn enough income with your photography to pay for the new sleek and sexy equipment

Who’s with me?
Happy new year!
Dave