Fortress Of Freedom Board

[Maurice Ali]

When To Call It Quits!


By Maurice Ali, Journalist



A picture of my camera and flash unit!

Well, today I made a decision to call it quits..... It had been a fun run getting all the equipment and buying the latest of everything we could possible afford, but it is time to close the door on this chapter of my life. From this moment on I will be concentrating only on production at FOF and IAIJ and have finally put a halt on equipment purchases for our upstart group of companies.


A closeup of the camera and flash unit!

My last major purchases were with audio and picture.....what else was is new. In the photographs displayed here, you will see me fooling around with a new flash we got: Nikon SB-800! This is the most sophisticated and "state of the art" of the flashes currently available with the fastest flash sinc. on the planet! I had delayed purchasing this item simply because I really don't use the big flash that much; you still have the small pop-up on the camera..... However, on one of my shoots I was indoors with dignitaries and had to use a flash, I tried one of the old Vivitar flash units and the shots were ruined and had to rely on the built in flash for the rest of the usable pictures.

That one shoot was embarrassing and for someone in my position, unprofessional! So before I called it quits on purchases, I had to settle the flash situation. I had my choice of the low end and high end of flashes made for the pro Nikon SLRs, in the end I went with the best. This little unit can be fired remote control from the camera, act as master for three of these flashes working in remote control/wireless mode. It can also throw the flash farther, work off household current and be put on a regular tripod. This last item means that I can use it with the studio flash for more flexibility, an extra plus that made the decision easier. A bit expensive, but professional equipment is always like this.....and I always regret not going for the best and eventually end up getting it anyway, so.....


Even closer closeup of the camera and flash unit!

The flash was not the only item I got before calling it quits, I also got some of the best cables money can buy. Not exactly a big deal for most of you who read this, but I get turned on buying cables..... These compliment the rest I have and now give me the capability to record on two capture devices at the same time! So I now have everything imaginable for our media company to do whatever needs to be done. I now am able to concentrate time and available funds on our projects knowing that we will not be found short in the equipment area when meeting a deadline or taking advantage of the unexpected opportunity. I believe this is the way to do it, equipment first as those prices are basically set, then this forces you to drive harder deals on the production side which can "pay" for the equipment in the end.


My last purchases for a while.....

So a change in direction. Now we start to work with equipment which is not the latest; make due with what we have and sometimes look second rate. This is all part of the business. The hard part and the true test of my business abilities is to take place with the production taking first place. I have DVDs of Dave and most probably Dan coming out in the next few weeks..... This is the direction we are starting to take now!