Archive for October 2009
My final day of the conference started with a tour of the Expo. I had not really had a chance to visit the various vendor booths since my brief pass through the first day.
Fuji was pushing its Instax instant film products. Rumor has it that Poloroid is getting back in the game.
The Lensbaby booth where the new Lensbaby Composer and other items were available for demo.
MPix Booth looking a little empty.
Sony booth where they had a cool little slot car track in action that attendees could use to test their various camera’s.
I got the opportunity to play with the Leica S2. This body with a 37.5 Megapixel 30x45mm Image Sensor will be available soon for $25K.
After walking the floor I attended the days Keynote by James Nachtwey. Mr. Nachtwey has covered more wars than most. He has covered conflicts and major social issues in more than 30 countries. His images are powerful. Many of the images he showed are from recent work of XDR-TB, a drug-resistant strain of tuberculosis that’s touching off a global medical crisis
After James Nactwey’s presentation I headed to the airport for my return to San Francisco. This post was posted from 35,000 feet via Air Colbert.
Day two of the conference started with Facets of the Night: Conjuring Atmosphere at Night and in Low Light.
Moderator: Jill Waterman
Panelists: Stewart Cohen, Chris Crisman, Chip Forelli, Todd Hido & Gerd Ludwig
Jill Waterman – http://www.newyearphotos.com
Stewart Cohen – http://www.stewartcohen.com
Chris Crisman – http://www.crismanphoto.com
Chip Forelli – http://www.chipforelli.com
Todd Hido – http://www.toddhido.com
Gerd Ludwig – http://www.gerdludwig.com
The panelists showed their work with night photography and the panel was excellent. Chip Forelli and Todd Hido exclusively work with film. Gerd Ludwig, Chris Crisman, and Stewart Cohen are working digitally. Chip Forelli does scan his negatives and performs curve adjustments with his scanned negatives in Photoshop. Their works were all amazing and they were all very different. It was great to see and examine their real-life projects as well as their tips, techniques, and unique approaches. I came out of the session inspired to get out and take some more night shots and expect that I will very soon.
The second session of the day was The Creative Composite by Julieanne Kost.
http://www.jkost.com
Ms. Kost is a Digital Imaging Evangelist for Adobe Systems. Her presentation focused on the creation of a creative composite and she demonstrated a creation from start to finish. I walked away with some useful tips regarding Photoshop CS4. Including working around some known bugs. CS4 will randomly send an attempt to merge images into the abyss. I have experienced this a lot and to see it take place during the demonstration and then see Kost aknowlege the problem and work around it was very useful. Kost did a great job of not only explaining the how but also the why behind the steps that she performs and I will be changing a few of my post processing techniques going forward.
The third and final session of the day was Starting Today, You’re a Brand: Building Your Brand & Your Business.
Moderator: Lynn Martin
Panelists: Ken Carbone, Shama Hyer, Corey Rich & Todd Wasserman
This session started out with Lynn Martin asking for a show of hands of how many people are making a living with Photography and about 25% of the audience raised their hands. The next set of questions asked the audience how many people have online profiles with LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, etc. With these questions the majority of the audience raised their hands. The session was very much a re-visit to an article published in Fast Company magazine August, 2007 – The Brand Called You by Tom Peters. I did not get much out of this session but it was interesting to see and hear how Facebook is very much a requirement for today’s business online identity. All of the panelists showed examples of how their Facebook profiles along with their Twitter accounts and they all stated how Facebook is increasingly responsible for new business.
After the conference I went to the famous Studio 54 to see Carrie Fisher in Wishful Drinking. The show was fantastic. I highly recommend seeing the show if you have the chance.
“If my life wasn’t funny it would just be true, and that is unacceptable.”
— Carrie Fisher
Final day of of the conference is tomorrow and I have two more sessions to attend. I expect my next post will be during my return flight home at 35,000 feet.
A view of the Leica booth.
After I did a brief pass of the Expo I attended my second session, Twelve Things to Improve Your Digital Photography by Steven Johnson. I can’t remember all 12 things but a lot of the information presented was old hat but many in the same session had trouble understanding what was being discussed. Mr. Johnson emphasized shooting in RAW, converting to DNG, working in 16bit, and calibrating your monitor. The part that I got the most from was the topic of the light bulbs to purchase/use when working on your work, checking a print compared to what you see on the monitor, and presenting in a gallery. Mr. Johnson mentioned how he had worked very hard on a print for a gallery showing only to find the print when displayed at the gallery having a pink hue do to the cooler bulbs the gallery was using. He fixed the pink hue by replacing the light with one having the correct white point around 6500K “Daylight”.
The last session for the day was Your Picture Isn’t Real: Staged Photographs. Moderator: Bill Hunt. Panleists: Mia Fineman, David Levinthal, Lori Nix & Paulo Ventura. This session focused on increased opportunities for work, and provided me a better understanding of the marketplace. The panelists showed many examples of their work and discussed ways in which professionals might help develop their careers. It was a good opportunity to see these professionals in action and discover and appreciate their enthusiasm. I was reminded of a photographer who I follow on Flickr that does this exclusively. Snailbooty.
Bill Hunt, dealer www.hastedhuntkraeutler.com
Paulo Ventura, artist www.pauloventura.com
Lori Nix, artist www.lornix.com
Mia Fineman, curator, “Reality Check”, Metropolitan Museum of Art www.metmuseum.org
B&H buses them in directly from the expo.
I visited B&H to investigate the Panasonic GF1 and got my chance to play with the camera. I really like it but unfortunately the pancake lens that really makes this camera interesting is not yet available via B&H. Without the pancake lens to see and try I find it a bit difficult to compare it to the Olympus E-P1. If I had to make a purchase today I would go with the Olympus simply because it has a 17mm pancake lens available. I have visited B&H many times and this was the first time that I didn’t walk out with a new toy. My search continues.
The first conference that I attended this morning was Working Digitally in Low Light by Gerd Ludwig. The first half of the presentation showed a series of images that Mr. Ludwig has taken in his career in low light situations using film. In 2004 Mr. Ludwig made the transition to digital. The second half of the presentation showed images that Mr. Ludwig has taken since moving to digital. The message was clear. Digital with usable high ISO’s provide photographic opportunity that did not exist with film.
After my first conference session I quickly visited the EXPO before attending my second conference. The first booth that I visited was Olympus. I have my eye on the EP-1.
One of the biggest questions I have regarding my next possible purchase is to EP-1 or to GF1. Panasonic did not attend PDN PHOTOPLUS 2009 so I will be visiting B&H after today’s conference sessions to investigate the Panasonic GF1.
My next visit was at the Canon booth.
Another camera that I have my eye on is the Canon S90. I was very happy with my previously owned Canon S70 am happy to see Canon bringing back this series. The S90 has an excellent profile. I could easily keep this camera in my pocket. The 3.0″ LCD is a very nice feature for a camera with such a small profile. I also like the fact that Canon did not try and cram more megapixels and is maintaining a nice sweet spot of 10 Megapixels. The demo that Canon had on display did not have a card to take a photograph with so when I visit B&H later today I will test the camera’s high ISO abilities.
SIGMA APO 200-500mm F2.8/400-1000mm EX DG – MONSTER.
I am off to attend two more conferences for the day and plan to post again after my trip to B&H.
I will be attending the pdn PHOT PLUS EXPO and conference this week in NYC. This will be the second year in a row that I have attended and very much looking forward to my return. I will be covering the event and the sessions that I will be attending.
I will be attending the following conference sessions.
- 12 Things to Improve Your Digital Photography
- Your Picture isn’t Real: The Art of Staged Photography
- The Creative Composite
- Starting Today, You’re a Brand: Building Your Brand & Your Business
- The Many Uses of White Seamless: Achieving Multiple Looks from Simple Backgrounds
- Photojournalism: What’s Next in Storytelling
- Working Digitally in Low Light
- Facets of the Night: Conjuring Atmosphere at Night and in Low Light
- Adapting & Thriving in the Current Market
Stay tuned.