COLOR CHALLENGE - Black

I was chatting to @galenkp earlier about peoples constant need to consume and the waste by product, I like many things in life but every time I make a purchase it has a impact on our planets resources. For this reason I try to get the longest life possible out of my products, no need for a new phone every year, my motorcycle has plenty of life left in it and my ten year old camera still takes pretty good photos. Today's images are of my favorite toys that I couldn't live without. First out of the starting blocks is the only item I purchased new but at 10 years old i'm getting good service from it, the lens was second hand though. Picture taken using my iphone 5s still in daily use I plan to change it when they bring out the iphone 98 :)

Canon 60d EOS.

Next my underwater camera housing, spending a lot of time in a dive shop I get to see many return divers who year after year upgrade their equipment in the hope of better photo's, sadly many of these have more money than sense, what they actually need to do is learn how to use the gear they already own. This housing was purchased second hand in the UK, only used on a single two week holiday by the seller, the original retail price would have been five times what I payed, I shall get years of use out of it.

Nauticam housing.

I love music and bluetooth speakers are a fantastic product, tunes on the move what could be better. I was given this speaker by a friend as a broken customer return, all that was wrong was the socket for the charger was slightly out of line, two minutes fiddling and problem solved six years on still booming out the tunes.

Neet media boom box.

Of all these are one of my best bargains AKG are regarded as one of the best headphone manufacturers in the world, as part of a consignment ordered from Austria these were in the box but were not ordered, doing the honest thing I contacted the company who said it would be too much hassle to deal with returning them and said I could keep them. What sort of world are we living in? these retailed at the time for £290 the cost to return would have been £17? Great for me but so wasteful on the part of the company.

AKG limited edition headphones.

So I guess the point i'm trying to make is get the most out of what you have, stop chasing the latest and greatest so often you are throwing your hard earned cash at a product you don't really need. And in the case of the headphones wastefulness like this doesn't always pay off, AKG have been struggling of late and are in the process of being taken over by Samsung maybe the result of being complacent, I'm not suggesting one set of headphones broke the bank but it reflects the throw away society we now live in, value everything!