Price of oil and Photography

[oaktree]

Anyone cutting back on or changing strategy for photography because of the price of oil/gasoline?

I've been lusting for a 400/5.6L, but started thinking that I should wait (aside from the fact that its out-of-stock almost everywhere). Our trip to Hawaii during October might be postponed. Rumor is that roundtrip airfare to Hawaii is going up to the $1000 range!

Or will you just adapt and shoot closer to home, be satisfied with the lenses you have, use your CF card over and over and over again?

Started thinking of this after I just spent over $55 for gas at $4.10 per gallon.

[BearSummer]

pah, its £1.15 / litre here
1L=.2642 us gallons
1 gallon= 3.785L
1 gallon = 3.785*£1.15 = £4.35 = $8.37

I'll say no more on this

BearSummer

[oaktree]

pah, its £1.15 / litre here
1L=.2642 us gallons
1 gallon= 3.785L
1 gallon = 3.785*£1.15 = £4.35 = $8.37

I'll say no more on this

BearSummer

Yikes! We Americans should all feel lucky (but I know most of us don't feel that way). We might all have to start driving the Smart car.:)

[Quad]

I don't think the mods like this topic. When food starts to do the gasoline type rises then people will have something to cut back about. Thin will be out and fat will be chic, wide angle lenses will be very popular in the fashion shooters bag.

Now how long before the thread is locked, place your bets fast.

[rachelsne]

I am ENglish living in America....

dont forget Americans earn less so to them price of gass is expensive, the way to look at is if you earn £20 an hour for a job in ENgland you will get $20 an hour in the US so gas prices ar relevant to earnings.
one of the main problem is the rapid increase we are facing here in the US

[ilmk]

pah, its £1.15 / litre here
1L=.2642 us gallons
1 gallon= 3.785L
1 gallon = 3.785*£1.15 = £4.35 = $8.37

I'll say no more on this

BearSummer

Yep... averaging about 1.30/litre here
4.5L to the American gallon = 5.85 CAD/L
5.85 CAD = 5.74 USD

We've had it lucky here on the western side for a long time. I'd hate to pay the 8.37. eek!!

[oaktree]

Actually, for those who are paying close to $10/gal (or equivalent), how do you handle your oil/gas needs and still have "extra" for your photography (or other) hobby? Smaller cars, more public transportation, smaller/more insulated houses,??

[BearSummer]

we just live closer together, in the us the average population/sq mile is 30, in the uk its 728...

how do we cope, we bitch and moan about it and the govt just adds a few more taxes until we shut up, I seem to remember that roughly half of the price of petrol is made up from taxes.

Politics, a combination of two words
Poly - meaning many
tics - blood sucking insects

How else are they supposed to vote for their own pay raises.
Make your local MP work for a change, dont re-elect them.

Just dont get me started

BearSummer

[oaktree]

Politics, a combination of two words
Poly - meaning many
tics - blood sucking insects

BearSummer

:lol:

[eddarr]

And the countdown begins for this thread to get closed. Anyone want to guess the date and time?

[Kevin]

And the countdown begins for this thread to get closed. Anyone want to guess the date and time?
I'm guessing 3 minutes if we don't stick to answering the Op's question.

[oaktree]

And the countdown begins for this thread to get closed. Anyone want to guess the date and time?

Before someone mentions religion and immediately get this closed, one more thing: I guess we Americans will adapt and cope with any rise in oil prices. We may not like it, but we are not going to give up on what we enjoy doing. If the British can continue with their photography with $8.37/gal gasoline, we surely can. :)

[Ballen Photo]

And the countdown begins for this thread to get closed. Anyone want to guess the date and time?
Depends on You guys. ;)
-Bruce

[eddarr]

I guess that was a pretty smart*** comment on my part. My apologies. But you have to admit this same thread has been closed quickly several times lately. It's hard to have this conversation without it being political. It's impossible to have this conversation with out it being social.

The reality is that we cope or we don't. Either you have the money that you don't care what about the price. You have enough money to continue to put gas in your car but try to drive less. Or you have to start using public transportation to get your kid to football practice.

We cope, we make choices and we make sacrifices. Some will say that it is good because it will make everyone more fuel/environmentally aware. People will stop driving SUV's and other gas hogs. But didn't we go through this in the early 80's? As Americans we laughed at those crappy little cars called Toyota and Datsun. Then we ran out of gas....crap that 4 cylinder looks a lot better than the 454 I have been pushing around.

I have to drive a full sized truck for the work that I do, I have to be able to carry a full load and tow a trailer. But I am switching to diesel and that will be converted to run on used oil.

[slappy sam]

I can get 43mpg highway in my civic... so what its not a powerful car but it cost me 5k and gets great gas mileage, and is really reliable. Theres gonna come a point (my opinion is when gas hits about $10/gallon) where people will really start to change the way they think about travelling. Carpooling more, buying more efficient and smaller cars, etc.

Fine with me, it gets on my nerves when people buy hummers so that if they get in a crash they won't get hurt (or touched) but the other person will most likely get their car totaled and possibly get seriously injured.

Also, more related to the question, it does affect my just going out and shooting a random place... like a half hour away. Instead of hitting up the larger more exciting photographic places that are 30-60 min away, I've begun searching more for places that are only 10-15 min away.

[BeccaNH]

I just got back from a 2 week cross-country road trip. The most I payed for gas the entire time was 4.19 in Moab, Utah. I was expecting gas to be much more expensive, but it wasn't as bad as I had anticipated. I'm glad I went early in the summer, though. I think it's going to get worse before it gets better.

[Tom W]

Politics, a combination of two words
Poly - meaning many
tics - blood sucking insects


:D

It's hard to not get a little political about this subject when the only thing stopping US citizens from accessing the trillions of barrels of known domestic oil reserves is the gang of public servants in Washington, DC that profess to be our leaders. (those same leaders that recently grilled the executives of "big oil" whose big sin was earning a few cents per gallon while they themselves, the govenment, stole 30-60 cents per gallon in hidden taxes).

Anyway, given the situation, people will cope at least until the anger builds high enough to respond more vigorously. Unfortunately, coping means fewer vacations, and less opportunities to enjoy and photograph those parts of this great land that are physically remote. We simply will drive less, we'll buy smaller cars when the old one wears out, we'll consolidate trips, we'll stay closer to home.

On the bright side, roads will be less crowded, as they were 20 years ago, and the few trips that we do take will be less stressful as a result.

[argyle]

:D

It's hard to not get a little political about this subject when the only thing stopping US citizens from accessing the trillions of barrels of known domestic oil reserves is the gang of public servants in Washington, DC that profess to be our leaders. (those same leaders that recently grilled the executives of "big oil" whose big sin was earning a few cents per gallon while they themselves, the govenment, stole 30-60 cents per gallon in hidden taxes).

Anyway, given the situation, people will cope at least until the anger builds high enough to respond more vigorously. Unfortunately, coping means fewer vacations, and less opportunities to enjoy and photograph those parts of this great land that are physically remote. We simply will drive less, we'll buy smaller cars when the old one wears out, we'll consolidate trips, we'll stay closer to home.

On the bright side, roads will be less crowded, as they were 20 years ago, and the few trips that we do take will be less stressful as a result.

Agree 1000%.

Depending on how serious of a shooter folks are (hobby, or hoping to move to something more serious), there's always the option of setting up an S-corporation or something similar. Photo trips, as long as they are for business purposes (such as building up your stock portfolio), are tax deductible. The same goes for buying new gear. There's also the IRS mileage reimbursement to consider (somewhere in the neighborhood of $0.50 per mile).

Now for the disclaimer: Don't anyone construe this as tax advice, as I'm not a tax attorney by any means. But if anyone plans to pursue this hobby in a much more serious vein, there are legal methods by which you can offset some of the expenses, and that includes transportation.

[Ballen Photo]

It's hard to not get a little political about this subject when the only thing stopping US citizens from accessing the trillions of barrels of known domestic oil reserves is the gang of public servants in Washington, DC that profess to be our leaders.
And this is why this thread will now be closed. Can't say you weren't warned though, as politics are forbidden on this forum. :confused:
-Bruce