Vancouver is famous for it’s rain.

Pounding Vancouver rain was what greeted my friend Laurie Patmore and I as we rolled our loaded carts into a large room filled wet shouldered people that were arranging all sorts of camera gear on their tables for the Vancouver Camera Show and Sale.

It was 7:30AM and we had two hours to say hello to long time friends and get our equipment ready for an excited crowd of photographers anxious to exchange their hard earned money for the shiny items on our table.

Laurie, as always, disappeared and left me readying the table. Selling stuff is fun, but searching for and finding treasure is way more fun.

This time I had lots of old manual zoom lenses that I just wanted to get rid of any way I could and I wanted to organize my cameras so people would see them first.

Those zooms lenses were prized and sought after back in the 1970s and early 80s, but now they have lost their allure and aren’t even used as paperweights. Nevertheless, I keep trying to sell them. Actually, “get rid of them” are much better words.

Every show I go through the guessing game of what will sell. Last time anything from the 1970s was popular and digital equipment was totally ignored. However, this show there was little interest in the old manual equipment. It was mostly digital equipment that attending photographers were interested in.

What keeps me coming back year after year? Well the people, of course.

The large, bustling, international, coastal metropolis of Vancouver British offers almost anything one could wish for, and events like the Vancouver Camera Show are always a great excuse to spend time there.

The advertisement says. “ Antique, vintage, digital, and everything else for photography, new and used. Do not miss this opportunity to the fascinating world of photography”.

I agree. What an opportunity to enjoy the exciting and fascinating “world of photography”.

I enjoy the people.

Of course looking at, touching and discussing some precious piece of camera equipment is darn fun, making pictures is stimulating, exciting and a rousing force.

I know we all can hardly wait to look at our latest picture on the computer screen as soon as we depress the shutter and making those pictures is all consuming. But talking with other photographers is exhilarating.

The Vancouver camera show and sale is over for 2018 and I’ll have to wait till the spring of 2019 for the next show. I am more than satisfied knowing that I have already planned a couple more photography excursions for this year.

I found this fun quote by the famous Canadian singer Celine Dion,

“I don’t know if the camera likes me, but I do like the camera”.