Pdn Photoplus International Conference & Expo
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- January 1, 2012
- Rob Reed
NEW YORK, NY -- Lights! Camera! …..more cameras! The PDN PhotoPlus International Conference & Expo (as seen in Photo 1) is the most dynamic industry event for professional photographers and image-makers around the world. Descending on Manhattan's Javits Center from October 27th-29th were the big names of the business like Canon, Fuji, Nikon, Leica, Pentax and Kodak, as well as dozens of others, demonstrating their most advanced hi-tech products in flashy style.
The Nikon 1 camera boasts a high response autofocus, and many camera fans did indeed focus on the fashion models presenting the product (as seen in Photo 2). The lesser viewed IQ180 camera made by Phase One, however, is one of the most impressive cameras on the market. It will set you back $44,000, but an 80-megapixel camera will let you blow an image up to billboard size with no loss of quality.
Camera bags abound, each with unique capabilities for unique conditions. Tripods ten feet tall and shoulder-mounted stabilizers offered solutions for any tricky shot. Need an instant studio, anywhere? Expandable Photo Studio has the inflatable solution starting at $2,000. Large and small format printers, digital imaging software and studio lighting products rounded out the offerings.
Wedding & Portrait Photographers International teamed up with PDN PhotoPlus this year to create WPPI NYC, a trade show featuring products and services catered specifically to wedding and portrait photography, a growing field. To take a tutorial or check out the products like studio backdrops or hi-tech wedding albums, this was the destination.
If the showrooms got dizzying, having a seat in one of over 115 educational seminars was the way to learn about all aspects of the business, lectures on everything from lighting to licensing, social media marketing to fine art photography. In a seminar called "Your Picture is FABULOUS," fine art and fashion photography tastemakers discussed what they liked and why. Caroline Wolf, director of W Magazine, Yossi Milo, owner of Yossi Milo Gallery, Kelly Penford, director of photography at Jed Root fashion agency, and Amani Olu, founder of Humble Arts Foundation, gave an insider's perspective on career-winning image-making. In "Creating Longevity: A Conversation with Four Living Masters," commercial photography legends Douglas Kirkland, Duane Michals, Jay Maisel and Mary Ellen Mark talked about their long, lucrative careers and how to go about creating your own.
Think you've got what it takes to be the next legend behind the lens? If so, you'd be like the many eager attendees who presented their work to established professionals at the nearby Portfolio Reviews hosted by the Palm Spring Photo Festival. Seated along rows of numbered chairs, anxious amateurs waited their turn to show their best and do some networking along the way.
Whatever your angle on cameras, the PDN PhotoPlus International Conference & Expo is the right place to see and learn where the industry is going.
