Observations of a Facebook Photographer in the Making

Tee · May 26, 2012

So, I'm in NYC and was hoping to make the holy trip to B&H only to find it's closed for the weekend. My buddy needed some stuff so we headed over to JR's. I decide to see if the elusive 85 1.8G is there and I proceed to witness a young lady who thinks she knows what she's talking about and a patient salesman who's trying to explain what a prime lens is.

She wanted a prime lens. The salesman pulls out a standard 50mm 1.8 and shows it to her. She said a prime is supposed to be more expensive so he pulls out the 1.4. She looks at it and says, "This isn't a prime lens. It's not labeled Prime Lens. I's supposed to be a fast lens and there's no speed rating on this." He explains what a prime lens is and she asks why it says 1.4 then. He then tries to talk about aperture. She says, "I need a prime lens that makes the background go away and makes octagons in the picture" and he tries to explain depth of field. Because he had a foreign accent, she's not believing him and asks him if he understands what she's saying and then asks who else she can talk to that knows more about lenses. I'm in disbelief and not sure whether to laugh or walk away. Normally I just keep my mouth shut but I quietly leaned over and told her everything he was saying was spot on and she perhaps is a little confused on her photography terms. She says, "Doesn't anyone know anything about lenses in this place?". Another dude chimes in that we were correct and she was wrong. With that I said in a loud enough voice to the salesman, "You have great patience. It must suck trying to explain this day in and day out" and with that my buddy and I head out laughing.