Thank you Jay Gould and Hunt's.

[Christopher C.M. Cooke]

I spent weeks trying to get a 500 f/4 IS L, Gitzo Tripod, Wimberley Mount here in Australia with very little luck and exorbitant prices.

Enter Jay Gould who saw my plight on BPN and contacted me and placed me in the great hands of Garry from Hunt’s.

Gary answered my Email promptly and passed me on to Chris from the international Dept. and within 1 day I had placed an order for all the equipment (which they had in stock) the following day I did a funds transfer and bought the lot which when landed in Australia and duty is paid saves me almost $2500.

Dealing with an organization as professional as Hunt’s was a delight, and sadly not something that we Aussies are accustomed to, you Yanks take the cake when it comes to service.

When Jay returns from his world trip (if the poor chap survives the Earthquakes, Volcanoes, Hurricanes, Typhoons and Tsunamis) I owe him a big drink.

Forget the $ savings just pleasure of dealing with competent, polite professionals was worth it.

Thank you BPN, Jay, Gary and Chris and Hunt’s you have my business from now on.

[Chris Hansen]

Christopher,

Glad to hear that you have a new lens. I would just like to second that the people at Hunts are top notch and great to deal with.

chris

[Christopher C.M. Cooke]

My popularity among our top Canon Retailers has taken a nose dive as I have handed out printed out front page of Hunt's website to our group of wildlife photographers, but stuff them they have been treating our photographers like c**p here for years.

For some strange reason service in this country is seen as "servile" and not something to be proud of, we get that from our elitist Colonial masters the British to whom we still doff our caps to.

I so look forward to the day that Australia joins our American friends and becomes a Republic. :) :)

[Dave Hassell]

I look forward to that great day as well!!

Dave.

[Christopher C.M. Cooke]

I look forward to that great day as well!!

Dave.

No worries Dave, I will be happy to shout you a beer at the inauguration of our first President. :):)

[LouBuonomo]

Gary runs a first rate operation with great customer service.

[Roger Clark]

Agree. They came through in January 2009 when I was headed to Africa with a new 5DII and needed some spare batteries. No one else could get them, but Hunt's came through and I had 2 spare batteries for my trip. It was months later before I could get another battery.
Roger

[Jay Gould]

Unfortunately, Australians - I am about to get into big trouble - are not s.... enough to vote out the Queen and vote in a Republic.

Can you imagine in this day and age - the 21st century - people would actually vote to be subservient to an accident of birth?

PS: Chris, we will survive all! What you left out of your list was the lack of oxygen in Peru when you are +- 4000 mtrs high. It is killing me when coupled with my incipient CRPD.

[Christopher C.M. Cooke]

Jay if you suffer from CRPD stay away form heights where the partial pressure of Oxygen is low I am sure that you can find many great areas to explore that do not require you to have the fitness levels of Reinhold Messner.

Yes Mate I would like to live long enough to see the Union Jack removed from our flag and Australia finally kick loose the shackles of servitude to the Queen, we have earned our freedom from our Colonial masters.

I would be happy to bid goodbye to the Privy Council, the House of perverts and drunks (sorry the House of Lords) and the inbred progeny of the Saxe-Coburgs now renamed as the House of Windsor.

Now get thee down to sea level and continue your adventure in comfort.

All the best mate and again thanks.

[Danny J Brown]

Thanks for the little history lesson guys. That was way better than hearing about head angles and hot highlights!

[Christopher C.M. Cooke]

My sincerest apologies Danny if our discourse about matters not directly related to the matters Photographic annoyed you.

I shall, in future use the PM to discus these matters with other members of this site.

I shall also not renew my membership to this site as I was unaware that the folk here were constrained by matters politic to the point that polite conservation was considered unacceptable.

Sad, as this is a great site but I would not wish to disturb it and shall continue to lurk here for the wonderful information it contains.

[Danny J Brown]

My sincerest apologies Danny if our discourse about matters not directly related to the matters Photographic annoyed you.

I shall, in future use the PM to discus these matters with other members of this site.

I shall also not renew my membership to this site as I was unaware that the folk here were constrained by matters politic to the point that polite conservation was considered unacceptable.

Sad, as this is a great site but I would not wish to disturb it and shall continue to lurk here for the wonderful information it contains.

Hey Chris -- I wasn't being sarcastic!!!!!!!!!! I honestly, truly enjoyed the discourse between you and Jay and even read it to my wife as we shared a chuckle at the state of other countries. I found it refreshing, as I indicated, as a comparison to, as I said, comments on the head angle of an "almost great" bird shot. Please continue the banter, as you have in the past, as its about the only thing bringing me back for a visit to BPN these days. Again, you just misunderstood my comments and took them exactly opposite from my intention. I'm very sorry for the confusion.

Danny Brown
browndanny@sbcglobal.net

[Christopher C.M. Cooke]

In that case Danny I must apologize to you again:)

I am afraid I read it all wrong and obviously I must have been on some very wrong forums in the past, I am elated that this forum is one that accepts good natured banter as well as hard photographic talk.

You have lifted my spirits and once again sorry for reading you incorrectly.:):)

[Danny J Brown]

Just a misunderstanding, my friend! Thank you so much for going back and re-reading my comment. Have a great weekend!

[Christopher C.M. Cooke]

Thank you Danny, I am in hospital at present having just had my old Titanium Trans Tibial Rod adjusted and am full of some interesting drugs at present and watching Artie's second book on disc, I am sure that I will retain none of it after the meds wear off but lovely images just the same.

You have a great weekend as well old mate.

[Jay Gould]

Hello, from La Paz,

All Is Well That Ends Well!

Get Well, Chris

[Christopher C.M. Cooke]

Just in for my bi yearly tightening of the bolts and screws that hold my left leg together which allows the Titanium rod that goes down the Tibia to stop moving around and resting on a nerve.

All done now, should be right for another two years.

From this



To this