NEWS IN BRIEF


IPAD PAINT IT Corel has introduced Corel Paint it! Show, the first photo- painting slideshow app created specifically for the iPad. Corel Paint it! Show automatically turns photographs into a customizable slideshow of painted masterpieces. The app can use images on the iPad or an album from the user’s Facebook account. It is priced at £0.59 from Apple’s App Store


OLYMPUS GOLD The Digital Imaging Website Association, DIWA, has awarded Olympus’ PEN E-PL1 the DIWA GOLD Award for best Advanced Digital System Camera. This award follows the TIPA Award 2010 for Entry- Level Compact System Camera and the red dot award for product design.


SOAPBOX


WHERE HAVE ALL THE CAMERA SHOPS GONE?


ASKS PHOTOGRAPHER, STEVEN TAYLOR


I got the bug for camera shops when I was an art student in1974. It might have had something to do with the smell of fixer but I was certainly obsessed with looking in the windows of the local camera shops.


In those days every town had at least one good camera shop. My hometown had three all within 100 yards of each other. I would move from one to the other. It wasn’t the new equipment that I drooled over, I couldn’t afford that, it was the rows and rows of secondhand cameras and lenses. Pentax, Olympus, Nikon, Minolta and every now and then there would be an old Hasselblad or, even more exciting an MPP


5x4 kit. Over the years I bought and tried most of them but it was those early years, the excitement I felt when I was looking at these engineering masterpieces that has never been repeated. Camera shops were not just about supplying our need for cameras though. They were places to go and chat about photography. Most of the assistants who worked in them and always the proprietors were keen photographers and usually very knowledgeable. They could give you sound advice. I didn’t learn about film types and film developer combinations at college or in books or for that matter from my professional mentor. I asked in the camera shop and there was always


somebody there who had tried what I was intending and had the answers. Photography is a lonely occupation, we are not working on a factory line where we can chat while we work. I’ve never been keen on Camera Clubs and I tend not to go to BIPP meetings so the Camera Shop was like a meeting place. The Lab fulfilled that need for a while but now I upload to an FTP so we don’t get that either. As well as all the good advice we could have a laugh as well. I understand the industry has changed. This is a lament for that fine tradition that probably only lasted around 100 years or so.


steventaylorphotography.co.uk PIXEL 03


PREPARE NOW FOR 20% VAT


A rise in VAT had been long predicted and so it shouldn’t have come as any great surprise to high street retailers when the Chancellor announced in his post-election budget that VAT would be rising to 20%. Over three months have passed since that announcement and there are now less than three months to go until the increase comes into force. The Chancellor has rung the warning bell and there is still just about time for retailers to develop a strategy to combat a potential second economic dip. Retailers have been given a life line, there are still three months left in which to draw up a battle plan to secure that all important, but ever diminishing share of the consumer purse. So, how can you make the most of this small window you have been given? Simple, by auditing


> > IND U S T R Y SNIPPETS


your business, re- negotiating with your suppliers and landlords and implementing cost saving restructuring strategies so that you are leaner and fitter to combat the rocky road ahead. Vital planning now will ensure survival but also position you to emerge into a better economy, stronger than your competitors around you. Retailers often need to consider getting outside help to increase efficiency and prepare for the battle ahead but whatever they choose to do, if they haven’t thought about it yet, then they had better get on with it to avoid being caught out with a bad bargain in the January sales. Danielle McCormick advises some of the leading names on the high street and beyond.


by Danielle McCormick, Thomas Eggar LLP. 01293 742938 • danielle.mccormick@thomaseggar.com


SAY HELLO ON FRIDAY The Retail Imaging Show is a great opportunity to chat to suppliers and manufacturers without the general public listening in. It is also a chance to meet the team at Pixel. Please say hello if you are at the show. We’d love to hear your views on the trade and Pixel.


CONTACTS & CREDITS


EDITOR


Laura Knight Tel: 01323 433701 l.knight@parkview- publishing.co.uk


MANAGING


EDITOR Ian Trevett Tel: 01273 382329 ian@parkview- publishing.co.uk


PRODUCTION MANAGER Clare Fermor Tel: 01323 433700 clare@parkview-publishing.co.uk


SUBS / EDITORIAL ASSISTANT Julie El’Roubi


subs@pixelmagazine.co.uk


ADVERTISING Lee Mansfield Tel: 01323 411601 lee@pixelmagazine.co.uk Simon Skinner Tel: 01323 433707 simon.s@parkviewmedia.co.uk


MANAGING DIRECTOR Lee Mansfield Park View House, 19 The Avenue, Eastbourne, East Sussex BN21 3YD Tel: 01323 411601 lee@pixelmagazine.co.uk


MARKETING DIRECTOR Simon Skinner Tel: 01323 433707 simon.s@parkviewmedia.co.uk


MEDIA DIRECTOR Linda Grace


Tel: 01323 433704


ACCOUNTS Caroline Morley Tel: 01323 433703 caroline.m@parkview-publishing.co.uk


PRINTERS The Ghyll Print, Heathfield, East Sussex


No part of this magazine may be reproduced by photographic, elec- tronic or mechanical means or stored in a retrieval system or republished in any form, without the written permission of the publishers. © 2010


© Copyright 2010 Pixel magazine Tel: 01323 433706


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