Vegas / WPPI...2008 (finally the last post...)

ok, trade show, here's the love you deserve.
if the last two posts bored you to death, this post is definitely for you whether you are a photographer or a client (you can find out about some new equipment and products). Charlie always talks about "keep it simple". Unfortunately I was born with the "Keep it complicated" mentality. So 400 vendors representing about 40 options for every aspect of this business was right up my alley.

First of all, it was awesome to own the piece of equipment that was all the rage of the convention. Yes, I am a Nikon guy and about 6 weeks ago picked up a D3 (a review). So I got to check out all the new lenses at the Nikon booth and it was fun to answer all kinds of questions from everyone while hanging around. Shooting at 6400 ISO virtually clean is no doubt amazing, but the images at 400 ISO are as amazing as anything I have ever seen also. I think my favorite part though is shooting full frame. Or is it shooting at 9fps. I don't know. ha!

anyway here are a couple images from the last month with this new bad boy.

The man himself...

The following images are all Straight out of the camera (except of course the branding, I haven't figured out how to make the camera do that yet.) No sharpening, no nothin'.
ISOs are listed below each image.

ISO 200

ISO 200

ISO 320
To see some finished photos of this shoot...click here

ISO 1250

ISO 3200

ISO 6400


I am starting a D3 dedicated blog soon so stay tuned if your interested.

I did hang out at the Pictage booth a while and got to know the folks there. I met Jamie Collier, my pro consultant. It was cool getting to know you Jamie being that people like you can sure make my life a whole lot easier. (BTW, I am starting the OKC Pictage User Group soon. Chris Humphrey is gonna rock it in Tulsa. Check back every minute to find out when it will be. ) I have to give a mention to my buddy at Pictage, Monty Jessop. Here is one of those guys that the client never sees and probably many photographers never know about but is so valuable. He is the print quality control specialist and makes sure all the prints look their best. I have spent so many hours on the phone with him over the last year working on different projects so it was awesome to meet him in person.
Pictage also had a mini-conference before the big daddy and they are always awesome at getting the rock stars of our business in to speak. I loved hearing from Jason Keifer and Gary Fong about the beginning days of Pictage. It makes you realize how in demand an idea was like this company and the massive effort (a.k.a. growing pains) it took to innovate a whole new type of business in the digital photography era.

My other main goal at the show was to expand my album offerings. I haven't made any decisions yet, but I can tell you that between Queensberry, La-Vie and Cypress, you will have the best options available. I already use Leather Craftsmen who have a beautiful product and a great company (great to meet Dan Hammel while there!). They just released a new product that is exactly what I was looking for. I will be ordering a sample as soon as it is available.) I will say Dena from Cypress was everything I hope for in an owner of an handmade album company. The people and approach behind the product is super important to me. If you are in the biz and have any experiences to share on working with these companies, do share.

So after I sort it all out and add 1 new album company, it will be super simple for you to see the options in studio.

Let's see what else...Oh, of major importance, I may have found some album design software (thanks Chris) that will provide for great designs while significantly speeding up the process. Of great interest to many of you I am sure (I Know! I Know!).

As Josh mentioned on Facebook, I picked up a ShootSac for him. I have been using one since Hawaii last year and love it. And Charlie, I am comfortable in my manhood, even it I do wear a man purse at weddings. HA! (I prefer to think of it as a holster for my weapons!)

But dude! Apple was not there! What is up with that? Aperture 2.0 is awesome. Oh, well, if you are interested, the boys over at the Apple Store in OKC are going to have me over for a ProSeries demo of it soon. When it gets all worked out, I will of course post here.