Buy Cheap Buy Twice!
Whether it's a Breadboard, Broom or Photographer
Buy cheap buy twice is a phrase I tend to live by. The older I get, the more this becomes a fact and my point gets proven. The cheap cr*p I buy gets binned or sold on eBay fairly quickly. Most of the more expensive, higher quality products are still being used a decade or more after buying, including a lot of camera gear.
Can you relate to this?
Breadboards and Broomsticks
We recently visited a wonderful country craft fair in the New Forest in Dorset where all local crafty people were displaying their wares. Things such as local produce, paintings, clothes, candles as well as the usual eateries.
I was drawn to a stall where this guy had a whole range of handcrafted utensils and tools for the house, the kitchen in particular. Now I had been looking for a wooden breadboard for a long time as I absolutely hate the plastic ones we currently use. I think wood is not only more aesthetically pleasing but possibly healthier too.
My wife and I argued over this and she believed plastic to be healthier as a cutting board as it supposedly kills bacteria etc. I have always believed the opposite to be true. Plastic is cr*p for the kitchen and because it is generally harder than wood, it will dull a knife much quicker too.
So Who Was Right?
Anyway, here is a quick article that discusses the whole wood vs plastic when chopping and cutting food…you make up your own mind: Culinary Arts – Cutting Boards
…and here is a quick excerpt:
“No one was more surprised by this than Dean O. Cliver and Nese 0. Ak, two microbiolgists at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. They began studying cutting boards in hopes of identifying decontamination techniques that might render wood as safe as plastic.
But the pair quickly found that within three minutes of inoculating wooden boards with cultures of common food-poisoning agents - up to 10,000 cells of Salmonella, Listeria, or Escherichia cali – 99.9 percent of the bacteria were unrecoverable and presumed dead. Under similar conditions, none of the bugs placed on plastic died.
Indeed, when the researchers maintained plastic boards overnight at high humidity and room temperature, microbe populations grew; the researchers recovered no live bacteria from wood the next morning.”
The board I bought cost me £18 (as opposed to the £2 plastic version) and is made of thick, solid and very heavy Olive Tree wood...beautiful (and check out these Laguiole forks too…nice). Yes, it needs oiling with the extra virgin olive oil that we use but this only makes the wood even more appealing and longer lasting…plus it looks better in the kitchen. I haven’t had food poisoning yet either.
What’s Your Point?
Oh Wedding Photographer, Shall I Compare Thee to a Lump of Wood?
This whole saga got me thinking about quality and craftsmanship and also reminded me of an episode of Only Fools and Horses where Trigger mentioned that he had owned his broom for over 25 years. He then went on to add that in that time, it had needed 10 new handles and around 12 new brushes…hilarious!
This all applies to photography and the value it holds, especially wedding photography.
You see, many people don’t see the value of a professional photographer now that digital photography and DSLR’s are so accessible to anyone. What they don’t see is the years of practice, learning and passion that goes into a professional’s work. That cannot be bought.
Buy Cheap Buy Twice!
I have over the past couple of years, had to correct other (amateur) photographers wedding photos for disgruntled clients that thought by paying less, they would get better value for money on their wedding photography…wrong!
This is why I was more than happy to pay extra for a simple wooden chopping board, lovingly crafted with high quality materials by a talented man. I was paying for real quality that would last…
Update 11th May 2022
I'm still using it after many years...