| USEFUL COMMENTS on Sovereign & Majesty FROM CHRISTIAN FOURNIERMy criticisms are not to annoy anybody personally. I just want to point out the problems I have encountered, so we can all work on them and get a smoother running ! Insane running is what caused me to resign. May my rash action be of some use to somebody! On the Sovereign of the seas:-Need more CL-2 pods and QBC-5 chargers: ran out during lounge and lost money. Some QBC-5 are broken and should be replaced immediately. Timer is a drawback. I have used and reused same Sunpack pods for 4 years on Stardancer/Viking Serenade. They do not build up a memory, unlike some other brands. They should be put back on charge immediately after use, whether fully discharged or not, and remain on charge at all times. Pods are warm to the touch when charged. Photogs should only use warm ones to insure maximum charge for shooting. A label with a number should be on each pod to make identification of broken ones easier. All pods and chargers and fresh films should be in the gallery storeroom, instead of the darkroom, for quicker access to them while shooting (all the shooting is much closer to the gallery than to the darkroom) See my report and photo of my CL-2/QB-C 5 rack on Stardancer. -Trimmers: one is out of order, other one needs two feed spools + take up tray. Read instruction book if you do not believe me. Why were they thrown away? Why were they never replaced? Without the feed spools, only a small roll of prints (100 prints) can be trimmed: the heavy and unbalanced rolls drag through and the cutter drive cannot cope, making transport, therefore cutting, erratic, and also huge wear and tear on the motor. The absence of a take up tray: the photog has to remove the prints by hand, one by one, 24 000 times a week. Often the prints get out of order, which makes coding and displaying of duplicates an ordeal. It takes one photog one full night to trim the formal night pics. Plus a lot of frustration and many pics cut in half. What a waste, for a few dollars spare parts! I showed Nick the Durst manual with pics and order numbers. I have use this very same trimmer on the Stardancer/Viking Serenade for 4 years: it performed perfectly and trimming was much faster and much easier. When you trim all night long it matters. Because of the trimmer inability to cut large rolls, Nick ordered the printers to use only small rolls of paper, of 3 rolls of film each. When you print 90 films in one night, you then have to load and unload your Durst 5000 printer 30 times a night!!! None of this makes sense and should be rectified immediately. -Transformer and cables of 2nd cash desk look bad in the middle of the corridor of a classy ship. (See photo enclosed) -Many lenses in poor conditions. Focusing is often off: subject at 6 feet is sharp at 3 feet marking. Creates problems because many FM2 camera finders are dirty and dark and it would be nice not to rely on looking through them to assess sharpness. Seems to be inherent to the 35~70mm Nikkor. The AF 28~70mm Nikkor are much better and still affordable. B&H prices: $139.95 against $254.95 To keep in mind for future ships and replacements. -No photog seem happy: a better organization, a better team management? a thank you/well done every now and then? Nick hasn't got a clue about team management: he only knows reprimands. Brian Fay knows how to pat backs. I can suggest that maybe, every now and then, a photog gets to shoot, print and display his own event. The idea is to see the result of his work, to understand the logistics, shooting and printing problems and to get some pride in doing it well. -Cruise director held gangway: some P.R. is necessary. This guy perhaps does not realize that he is blocking the way: some very diplomatic PR is required. Andrew' s rude attack on the cruise staff is not the best way to deal with this matter. -No cameras were ready for captain's cocktail: 4 photogs were having a drink in the Music Man lounge, waiting for the captain. When he showed up, photogs realized that there were no cameras to shoot with, so they stole mine, ready for the staff Captain in the Finnian lounge: we lost money. -My flashgun was 2 stops over, even though said to have been tested: better maintenance is necessary, all cameras and flashguns should have a clear number on them, and be removed off use immediately when suspect. -Pax blink on St. Thomas gangway, pics should be taken the opposite direction, again the light, but better batteries are needed. -St. Thomas and St. Juan gangway pics are exactly the same. Some dressing up is necessary: arch, banners, flags, balloons.. -A decent looking garbage bin for the gallery sales desk: dirty cardboard boxes do not do on a classy ship.-Some till keys should be updated: night gangways, Labadee do not exist any more, etc... It looks bad on pax receipts. -All exposure settings should be clearly synchronized between photogs before each event, specially with photogs using different cameras & flash guns (Nikon F4, SB 24, Olympus..). Densities for same kind of shot (couple, no background, for instance) varied from -8 to +9 in printing the 89 rolls of dining room. A clear chart on the darkroom wall, a small chart for every photog to carry in his pocket. -Cartridge loader for new film processor on N. Empress?? Would be good for a Cameretz 120 long roll, to save time and money on long portrait shoots. -Pax receipts should have pax cabin on them, like at the bar, gift shop and Majesty. Due to the large amount of transactions in the gallery, this is not a joke and should be negotiated with the computer purser. -Pirate pictures could be shot closer. Who likes the emergency exit signs/door hinges/fire door release knobs in the photos on a classy ship? -Photogs should be rotated for dinners & walk outs & pirates: pax see the same photog 3 times in one evening (2 dinner shots + one walk out) and the same one again for the pirate (the following day) and again for the second session in the dining room (two days later). This aggravates the already heavy feeling of "Too Many Pictures". -???too many pics, specially when pax are not keen spenders: (this matter is not obvious and a marketing survey is necessary) headshots are hidden behind "couples" in the gallery, therefore a waste. Some pics only get shown one day. Pax cannot keep track of all the pics: they do not have the time to look through all pics every day. Too many copies of same pics: Pax must get the impression that prints have no value and are a rip off for $5.95. Prints of same neg at two different densities: only one should be posted, the best one. When pax are good spenders: the more you shoot, the more you sell. Not true with "bad" pax. Less pics, therefore more time for quality and less strain on photogs and machinery, might bring more money. Pax end up just choosing between pics, or randomly look for some of their pics on the wall (not making any effort to find the pics since they cannot keep track of how many were shot) and not spending more. Constant shape up of the display is very important. -Portraits are shot hand held, looking through the camera: I shoot portraits with the camera on a tripod. With a little practice, you build up dexterity and can shoot extremely fast, specially using Bogen/MANFROTTO tripod 055 and a zoom lens: all you have to adjust is a little up and down and right to left and it takes no time at all, contrariwise to what many photogs might say. The advantages are enormous: the photog smile to the pax, they smile back at you, you take the picture, you know exactly what the picture will look like because you can see the flash hitting the subjects, you can see their smiles, their last minute change of expression, their eyes closed, the flash that did not fire. So you do not need to shoot twice the same pose, therefore saving time, film, and paper and precious space in gallery. Pax rarely buy the two identical copies. Pax do not get the feeling that prints are cheap and easily mass produced. On the Stardancer/Viking Serenade I was shooting portraits the same way as we shoot walk-ins on Sovereign and Majesty: I got every body in line for the captain's handshakes. I had to go very fast. Only one pic per couple, but a very high % of sales and less work and hassle. I was making $18000 per week with 1200 pax, and only 3 photogs. Using a tripod would also make it easier to switch to a bulk loading camera, which makes obsolete the loading of 80 rolls a night, out of the boxes, in the camera backs, out of the camera backs, in special "coffins" loaders, taped to leader cards. -????Reprints might be too much work for the revenue they bring: should be cancelled on 3/4 day cruise. (Same for key chains). A cash register key to monitor the revenue from reprints would be useful for a while. After two month we would know for sure. -Too much separation between jobs: the #3 do not get a chance to print, etc... The #2 does not know the paperwork.... -No room on this ship for new shots: I got moaned at for doing extra balcony shots during doors. -$$$$ lost because of broken Mamya, sync leads and modelling lights: A good 20 rolls of portraits were shot without flash by the #3. I had to shoot my portraits in the dark (modelling lights): looked cheap to the pax and made focusing very difficult. Better maintenance is necessary. -Dining room tables should be clearly assigned before shooting: too much confusion: we look like amateurs, discussing and pointing in the dining room, we miss tables, we waste time and money. We should use a Maitre 'D 's dinning room map to assign tables to each photog, once and for all and for beginning and end of week, different tables, as previously mentioned. -Camera and flash settings for shoots changed daily!!!!!, even between dining room sittings !!! without clear orders for every one: chaos. (half way through my dining room shooting, the #2 came to tell me that apertures had just been changes!!! Consistency is the only way to achieve good results in our business. Also you would think that after a few years, the exposures would have been settled for good. What a mess up for something so simple. -Emulsion numbers and filter packs are not understood: all photographic paper manufacturers now print on their paper boxes a filter combination for optimum results in their reference printers (example: 35R 40B 30G). Different batches of paper, with different batch numbers, would still print at the same filtration on our machines if they have the same filtration reference. This makes life easier, specially as Konica seems to supply Sea Cruise with often the same filtration: 35R 35B 35G. Also differences in film batch numbers are not relevant any more for our purposes, providing that the films have been stored in the same conditions. Nobody seems to know this on Sovereign and Majesty, adding more worries and storage problems for nothing. -Mixing instructions (very important matter) should be clearly written down, as customized to our tanks sizes, mixer size, supplier sizes, and posted on the wall. New photog Sue mixed film dev (very important!) wrongly. I had to empty the dev rep tank and redo. Changes in Konica C41 chemistry have brought new mixing instructions and printed information near processor tanks have had to be altered, but was done with a now faded marker pen and should be redone very clearly and strongly: this is not a joke. Instructions for Trebla chemicals for paper are in gallons, but the Durst chemical mixer only has markings in litres. Only Andy Novies knows what marks to use. This weekly and very important procedure should be standardized for good and instructions clearly printed on the darkroom walls. (See my mixing info on Viking Serenade, in my book). -No training of the new: I had to train the new dancer at the gallery while shooting my 25 rolls of portraits. There was no decent training of new photogs. See samples of very poor pics that were displayed in the gallery. Even a one day training in Miami prior to embarking could improve the pics drastically and reduce the strain on new and old photogs on board. I used to be a Math teacher, I am a good teacher and would gladly do the teaching for Sea Cruise. Andy Novies, #2, said that his training for the Konica D&P machine was: "press -3". Majesty:-Power settings for flash during first dining room shoot (Tuesday): 1/16th for heads, 1/8 for couples. During 2nd dining room shoot (Friday) couples: 1/16th, tables of 4: 1/8th, tables of 5 or more: 1/4 power. Where is the logic? The precious consistency invaluable in photography? New photog Gina wanted to resign because she realized the organization was a joke. I think that because of improper use of printer modes (VXFF instead of LC2) printers can only cope with negs that do not vary in densities. Sunpack flashguns on auto create large variations, so do manual flash when distance flash to subject varies and different operators use different settings or same operators forget to change power settings from heads to couples. It is a lost battle to try to get all frames with the same exposures. A better approach is to learn how to use the slope on Durst LC2 mode, which is exactly what it is design for: compensate for neg density variations. -Schedules done poorly: all 3 tills to be manned all evening, but only 2 photogs from 8 to 11.00 PM. (see enclosed schedule) Brian should spend a little more time at his job. Not all jobs are written down on the schedule (for instance who delivers the reprints to pax cabins on the last night?): so you get the: "it's not my job" answer every time. The "team work" is now "everyone for himself". -No breakdown in wages: Paul Wilkinson gets his wage -his supercharge spending -his uniform spending -god knows what, in an envelope with only the total written on it, so he has no proof of uniform payments, etc.. -Paul Wilkinson got his wage on Saturday for previous week's work ending Sunday. Since the banking is done on Wednesdays in Cayman, what is the hold up for? This is unfair to the photos who want to send money home from Barclays Bank in Cayman or buy photo gear in Cayman. -New photogs should receive a minimum training while they wait doing nothing in Miami prior to joining a ship. Since they receive no instructions from the #1s before shooting, we have to display very disgraceful photos in public (see samples) -The new gangway shot in Ocho Rios is very ugly (only scaffoldings showing!!!!!!! see enclosed sample) and very unsafe (300 pax on this frail aluminum construction). Even attempting it is absurd. -Their is a clear drawing (pinned in the Sovereign darkroom) of how to stick tape on the empty film cores for film loading (see neg of it). There are no problems of end of films on the Sovereign. On the Majesty, many end of film frames are lost because the adhesive tape is too long, creating frustration amongst pax and loosing us money, and damaging the cameras pressure plates and the neg processor cutters (see repairs this Sunday 18th April: neg cutter and pressure plates). -Looking at this above mentioned simple core tape business: it needs better synchronizing between ships. The Sovereign has a great tender shot on Cococay. Unknown on the Majesty. Perhaps a supervisor that would sail and work on all ships, picking up the good & bad bits and enforcing the good stuff to all ships. All these tips should also be discussed amongst management staff, written down and posted in all darkrooms. I am prepared to do this for you and enforce everything that I mention in this report. Even on a temporary basis, as a consultant, like I did for portraits for Cruiseship Pics. -I did not have a darkroom key during my entire week on the Majesty. It created a lot of useless hassle for me and my room mate (whom I borrowed a key from) to get into the darkroom, specially with all the overnight printing involved. Brian should have spare sets of keys. -We experimented this past week with head shots in the dining room on the Majesty. I told Brian that we would need a key for "heads" on the cash registers. There are many keys that are unused (masquerade for instance) so it is not a problem. But Brian did not do it. I thought that the idea of making an experiment was to monitor the results so we could see if it sells well or not. -I think that % of pics sold per pics taken should appear on the paperwork, so we could visualize what is profitable or not. PDRs per event only reflect the revenue generated, not the salability of an event. -Why hire expensive Durst Technicians flown in from UK to calibrate the printers if only fix settings are used??????? Why not buy the machines without the electronics and save a lot of money? -From what I saw and also from the answers I got to my direct questions to Brian Fay's present and past assistants it results that Brian Fay never: -shoot 35mm. He only shoots the easy parts of portraits -print -maintain or clean the darkroom -train new staff -sell, display, reorganize at the gallery -count negs or stores -carries any stores, bags, repairs I do wonder what he does to deserve his wage and how he gets away with doing so little. He is a very good smooth talker and manages to get every one on his side. Earl said that Brian looks very concerned, when in the office, about revenue and quality. Good acting! On the ship Brian has a "devil may care attitude". Brian has a sun tan, he is well fed and get proper sleep very night (no dark circles under his eyes). He is very sociable, has time to read the news and entertain the big wigs on board. -The #2 Mike Barclays addresses his colleagues as dogs. Myself and the new photog Gina were shocked by this. The other photogs, all less than 4 weeks at Sea Cruise, seemed indifferent. -It needs a decent charging rack for CL-2 pods. There are chargers in 4 different places, some very awkwardly accessible, even one on the film processor, too easy to fall off, ready to get chemical splashes, in the way of films to be processed. Batteries for 24 000 shots per week is no joking matter and a bit of care is important. Some Quantum chargers are used for the Sunpack CL-2s: these deteriorate the CL-2s. -All cameras and flashguns and CL-2 pods should have a clear number, to help identify the defective ones: see problem on Majesty with broken pressure plate. -I was told at Sea Cruise office that even if I wrote a report about what I saw, it would not create any changes. -On the Majesty, I shot embarkation (and started training the new photog Gina), boat drill and sail away. The general comment was that I put every one to shame because I got twice as many rolls as everybody else. When I first started printing on the Majesty, Sunday 11th April, decks and boat drill negs, Mike Barclays, The #2, who had just printed embarkation, told me that "on this ship, which has the best prints of all ships, only FXFF is used, and LC2 is not calibrated." The deck shots always vary from -8 to +6 densities because of different camera settings by each photog, of shade and sunshine, of backlit and frontlit. Variations in neg densities, and in color temperature of the scene, create variations of color casts in the prints. It is impossible and stupid to print such negs on FXFF. (I am a science university graduate and I have 13 years experience in color printing.) The only sensible compromise is to test each film separately and color correct for each, knowing that this will not take into account the variations within each film. So I did that. It was long and painful, specially as Mike blasted off loud and distorted lousy music in the darkroom. I noticed that last week's filtrations were 1.5Y 2M 1.5C. I tried to explain to Mike that using the three complimentary colors Y+M+C was only adding gray to the filter pack, therefore slowing down the printing by making longer exposures and risking blur when the ship rocks, but he said he never heard that before and would not believe me. When I finished printing, my prints looked good and Mike declared then that he himself uses VXFF for all outdoor shots. This makes more sense, but contradicts was he told me earlier on. Did he do it purposely?? I noticed that a very thick (+30 pics) stack of embarkation pics were in the reprint box on the wall in the darkroom, much too light. Sunday very late, I cleaned up the cabin, with my room mate Paul. The cabin was a pig sty: dirty socks full of mildew under the mattress and bed, no room because of things lying everywhere. Paul's stuff was neatly packed in his suitcase: he said he had had no room and no time to unpack. This was his fourth week! It is very rude of the previous photogs to leave dirt, and their own belongings, behind. I personally rent a small storeroom in U-Haul Miami ($10 per month!) so that my extra stuff will not bother any one. We all pay the same rent for the cabins (joke) and have the right to clean it and have room to unpack. So we put all dirt and other belongings in garbage bags and used a trolley to convey it to the darkroom. We got hold of a cabin steward's vacuum and cleaning utensils and sanitized the cabin. I did not get much sleep because Paul, being claustrophobic in a no-porthole cabin insisted on leaving the main light on. On Monday morning, I attended the usual safety briefing. In the afternoon, I shot decks, with life ring. I got 4 full rolls of properly exposed and composed pics while the other two got 2 rolls and 6 frames of garbage (you can check these negs in the Majesty's darkroom). In the evening I shot CCP. During the night I printed for 8 hours all handshakes and lounge and walk-ins (maybe 80 rolls). I got good colors. (I do not understand why we must print overnight, since the gallery does not open until 5.30pm). Mike's portraits were very blue (you can check that). Just after I had changed from tuxedo to darkroom clothes (combat jacket and ear plugs for this ship!) to print, Brian ordered me to change again for he had forgotten to tell me about my portrait to be taken for the gallery board. I refused, because it was his fault and because I would only be here one week. On Tuesday 13th April in Cozumel, I did not get much sleep (noisy neighbours, Paul got in and out for pier shots, phone calls, etc... Tuesday evening: I printed decks, pier and Cozumel sail away. Good colors. I shot dinners (heads and couples at different power settings each) and walkouts. I replenished chemicals and loaded films through processor. At 1am, I called Brian to the darkroom: dinners were impossible to print on FF (fix filtration). New photogs and new power settings, as well as different private lenses for the new head shots created havoc in the densities. Since there is no slope to compensate for the colors variations due to the exposure variations, the tests showed bright yellows and bright blues for same filter pack on FF. Brian said that I always printed too yellow anyway, which was false (please check all my prints on Majesty). I made a test on LC2 and showed Brian that LC2 was totally off and unusable. He agreed and told me to hurry printing those 90 rolls of dinners, as best as I could and he would edit them in the morning, before John Davies shows up. Mike Barclays was present during this conversation and kept his month shut and printed blue cast piano portraits. I was very tired by 3 am. Again why print at night when the gallery only opens at 6pm the following day??? Why wasn't LC2 operational? (It would have taken a long time to recalibrate) Why weren't the camera settings clearly defined and written down beforehand??? How did they get away with such poor organization? Idiots on board and blind in the office. Better resign and keep my sanity and integrity. During the confrontation between John Davies, Brian and myself (exhausted by my last 3 blank nights and missed meals), Brian openly lied to Mr. Davies. Brian stated that I had no reason to create hassle, that all prints done by Mike Barclays were perfect, that he would never edit pics and that he worked all the time. I was overwhelmed by the fact that Mr. Davies believed Brian and too tired to defend myself. CHRISTIAN FOURNIER, 20 APRIL 1993 |
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