Well, the floor was bit less crowded today, but the seminars, keynote, and booth presentations were pretty well filled.
PhotoPlus Expo 2009 was coming to a close.
Business still seemed brisk as people were people all of the items they may have been checking out the previous coupla days.

We also made some last stops and shot a few more videos for you, and were able to make sure we didn’t miss anything. Which of course, we’ll soon realize that we did.

The biggest attraction for us today were the speakers and presenters.

James Nachtwey, one of the worlds truly gifted photojournalists, presented the keynote, and kept the audience riveted with the powerful images of his career.
He spoke of the responsibilities of the photographers and the way that he used the medium to show people things they never saw. But should.
And he moved the room with an hour long presentation of primarily black and white images of war, famine, genocide, and devastation.
He received a well deserved standing ovation, and even a hug.

One of his compadres also showed up, Steve McCurry.

Continue Reading »

Been another day at the Javits Center and have doing a huge amount of video taping of the new products to get you a front row seat for all of the new photo goods we could get to.
Honestly, they are some long days, the dogs are barking so we’ll be posting some pics for right now. Then we’ll follow up with some vids on all the gear.

At one of our faves, ICP, we had the pleasure to meet Anne Bowerman and Dave Bias of Polapremium. their dedication to the polaroid product is phenomenal and we’ll see if we can get them to talk about some of the future plans for the classic, instant film.

Some folks just wanted to use the expo to let people know what they wanted. I guess that’s doing social media the old school way.
Or just a little bizarre. Your call.

The Olympus PEN with optional viewfinder.

We watched one of the judges for the Let’s Do Lunch photo contest, work his magic on the crowd at the Olympus Booth. He’s an Olympus Visionary and he gave a solid tour of the new Olympus Pen, to the crowd. Yes, that is one of his food photography books, and is one of the reasons he’s a judge for the contest. The best part was when we went out for snack he shot his meal and used a napkin to soften the shadows from the PEN on board flash. Sweet!
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Beautiful day in NYC and we heard it was in the 70s! Nice.
Of course we were inside all day at the Javits center checking out some of the newest gear.
And we weren’t alone.
By the size of the crowd at PhotoPlus Expo, and the lines at any dealers booth that was selling, and not just displaying products, it was busier than we’ve seen it on a weekday in years!

Plus we were shooting a ton of video for you, so that’ll be getting posted shortly and you’ll get a closer look at the gear.

It started with Vincent Laforet, giving a seminar on DSLR cinematography.
Very impressive as he was really laying out some truths that many photogs haven’t considered. One of the main items is that to truly use the DSLR for solid videography, you be tripling the size and budget, not to mention the manpower to get there.
More on that in days to come.

There were at least 3 ways to hang a camera from your body displayed:

(yes, we know that’s only 2, but you get the idea, right?)

Gary Fong showed of his latest offering including the collapsible sphere.

We saw some stackable light stands from Manfrotto. Impressive space savers. Continue Reading »

And we mean it.
Adobe Lightroom is releasing their latest public Beta version, 3, and they want to know what you’d like.
They are calling this a medium-rare version, as they’d like to give the folks that use this program a bit of time to be heard and get the tools they really want in the latest version when it goes live and released for real.
Here are some of the improvements are in there already, that we kinda dig.

*Seamless integration with online services such as Flickr. You will now be able to upload to a site, have comments made by a client, have those comments show up in your program and continue the dialog, adding and/or changing images.
Now some of you may think that having a client (or even family members) send you comments online is not a great thing but it will streamline your workflow, and make family gatherings a bit easier.
Honestly, this one is huge for us. We’ve been tired of doing post in one program, downloading it, uploading into another, and then posting. Whew.
Plus you will be able to create a slideshow with music in HD to show off your work in the best (ahem) light.

Another cool built in feature is the improved Noise Reduction, built right in. Yes, we all go to Noise Ninja and it does a photo good, but Adobe wants to be the best in class.
Here is a look with a comparison screen:
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Photographer Thomas Allen prefers to see things just as he likes, not as he finds them.
Of course he gets some help from classically illustrated pulp novels.
It’s unique process, as he lives far from a city in Michigan, scouring through online book stores to see where the proper visual elements may come from.
He then buys the original paperback, and makes the magic with a large format camera, a sharp knife, and light.

Floored (Self Portrait)
2009
24 x 20 inch Chromogenic print

We’ve been watching his work for years, and was happy to meet the artist in person at his recent show at the Foley Gallery, his agent/champion for awhile now.
The self portrait above, show slightly new direction with a POV. We can now enter into image and become part of the action. reaction, and scenario.

Of course Mr. Allen knows that it’s really his world. We’re just get to visit in.

And this week we have a copy of his book, “Uncovered” for you. To make it a very special giveaway it is a signed copy. Continue Reading »