Photos from Imaging USA 2012

Imaging USA is over.  We’re home and have had some time to unpack and sift through the photos we took.  We had a great time and thought we’d share a few of Melissa’s images from the show.  Enjoy!

Thanks again to Emily and Allison for joining us at the PWD booth.  And thanks to everyone who came by and said hi.  We hope to see you again at WPPI in a few weeks.

Happy Holidays from PWD

PartnerCon Floor Report – Day 2 (11/8)

PartnerCon continues today, but yesterday was the end of the trade show portion.  Our boxes are packed and ready to head home.  This was a great show, and we’re very happy we could be a part of it again this year. We were able to see our old friends and made lots of new ones.  PartnerCon creates a lot of excitement for its members by providing useful educational sessions along with a vision for the future.  PartnerCon itself concludes today with more great sessions.

The Pictage integration announcement was very well-received, with many Pictagers excited to hear of the connection between PWD and Pictage.  We remain very excited about working closely with Pictage and their members.

PWD co-sponsored a party last night at Float, the pool bar on the 4th floor of the hotel.  The weather was great and everybody had a chance to kick back, relax and share ideas, especially once the drink coupons were done away with.  Everyone seemed to like the open bar.

Thanks to everyone who came by to see us.  It’s been a great couple of days, and we look forward to next year’s PartnerCon.

 

Melissa, Erica Schneider, and Jerry

PartnerCon Floor Report – Day 1 (11/7)

PartnerCon continued with the official kickoff yesterday morning at 9 am.  Jim Collins, Pictage CEO, got everyone’s mojo working by his opening remarks.   He shared with the group Pictage’s commitment to photographers and vision for the future, and reiterated the support that the company has for the industry.

The Hard Rock Hotel is a great place for PartnerCon and for music lovers, with images and memorabilia all over the place.  Hand-written lyrics and notes by Bob Dylan, George Harrison, Paul McCartney, among others gives one a sense of contact with the roots of the music we listen to today.   In much the same way, the photographers attending PartnerCon tell their clients’ stories by posting them online at Pictage, this hotel tells the story of modern music through a vivid display of sensory stimuli – music, visuals and environments.

PartnerCon attendees were able to attend a number of different educational opportunities throughout the day, concluding with an amazing panel discussion on Creating a Client Focused Business.  After a cocktail reception in the vendor exhibits and one more great educational opportunity, Kodak sponsored an evening party at Float, the pool bar.  It seems that a good time was had by all!

More to come.

PartnerCon Floor Report – Arrival

Alan and I both  arrived around 1 pm in San Diego on Sunday for the start of Pictage’s PartnerCon… the annual gathering of Pictage members.  Melissa is on the late flight from Atlanta  so the old guys will be to bed before she gets here.

There are a reported 400+ Pictagers here at the Hard Rock Hotel.  The welcome party began rocking around 7 pm and officially ended at 10 pm.  Rumor has it that there was a large group of photographers seen in the bar after that.  But, it was just a rumor. 

Breakfast is at 8 and Jim Collins, Pictage CEO, kicks it off at 9.  Jim is always inspirational when he speaks so I’ll be sure to be there.  I love him for that.

We are excited to be here.   We just announced on Friday our integration and enhanced relationship with Pictage and have already had a number of folks sign up.  I talked to several moms with children tonight that really need our help to free themselves from the time they spend on selection, correction, retoucing and album/book design so I’m looking forward to a great couple of days!

More tomorrow.

Jerry models with the PWD table display

Digital Holga!

Yes, you read that right: Digital Holga.  It’s a Holga and it’s digital.

For you those of you who aren’t familiar with the Holga camera, the Holga is basically an early 1980′s all plastic 120 film camera.  A Holga’s cheap construction causes  imperfections like vignetting, edge blur, color streaking, light leaks, and all kinds of craziness that make images taken with a Holga camera look unique and, unless you’re not into that kind of thing, totally awesome.

If you’re like me, you love shooting film, you love the minimalism of the controls of most film cameras, and you love the wait-and-see part of not knowing what you’ve got until you get your negatives back.  One of the coolest things about this new digital Holga is that there is no display screen.  Yep, no display.  No chimping.  You can’t see the pictures until you download them to your computer (the camera uses an SD card).  This new digital Holga will have very few buttons and controls.  The user will be able to change shutter speed and ISO settings, as well as change to a Black & White mode, and honestly, that’s pretty much it.  Kind of goes along with the Holga film camera’s sales slogan, “Don’t Think, Just Shoot!”

Retail cost and release date of the digital Holga are yet to be announced.  The digital Holga is still in the prototype stages, and you can read much more about it on designer Saikat Biswas’ website. A new piece of gear this creative and fun could be just the thing to help add even more interesting images to your portfolio or to reinvigorate your creativity.  Let’s hope this camera goes into production soon!

-Josh Lamkin, PWD Editor

The Unfake Wedding of Paige & Frank!

It’s always great to see our clients’ work featured on different sites, and we thank Lona Hall of BluEye Images for sharing the following with us.  Recently, a wedding shot by Lona (and worked on by PWD) was featured on the “The Thirty-Something Bride.” In the article, the newly-wed bride talks about her wedding day and even singles out Lona as her favorite vendor.  Way to go Lona!

Here’s just a sample of the beautiful images from this event.  Click the images below to visit the full blog article which contains many more images.

 

Shooting the Iceland Eruptions with Jim Graham

When we heard that PWD customer and photojournalist Jim Graham visited Iceland during the recent eruptions, we had to get his story.  Below, Jim recounts his visit and shares some pictures of the amazing Icelandic landscapes.

As the world is now well aware, Iceland is a volcanic island.  The islanders expect eruptions and can almost predict them.  Shortly before the end of March I received two emails from friends in Iceland; there was a new eruption.  My friend Raganar had been to the site, bringing back images which were lovely, even seducing. Though I’d made the trip twice to the island over the past two summers, I considered returning once again.  Work was quiet, after all, and I knew I could be home in time for two weddings I was scheduled to shoot at the end of April.  After securing a commitment for a web gallery from USA Today , the financial issues were out of the way, and I made the decision to go. It’s a five hour flight to Keflavik and another forty-five minutes to Reykjavik.  Add to that a seven hour drive to the hotel and a three and a half hour drive over a glacier in a super jeep because weather conditions were too bad for a helicopter flight.  Even worse, I received news at that point the lava flow was subsiding. Still, we headed for the summit and the three cones which had formed.  We drove through high winds, rain, fog and the clouds enshrouding the glacier.  Finally, we broke through the clouds and fog into sunshine and made a turn around a rise to find three German women posing topless for a photo in front of the now dormant volcano.  The driver hit the breaks and turned sharply, messing up my own photo of the…landscape. We spent the rest of the afternoon on the steaming lava field, and I shot well into the evening.  We hoped for some residual glow or maybe even a chance at seeing the northern lights.  Unfortunately, it was too warm and clouds moved in again.  We left the glacier and headed back to the hotel. On Wednesday, I received word of several earthquakes up on the glacier.  Something was happening.  A new fissure opened, emitting smoke and ash.  While the first eruption had been between glaciers, this new one was under one.  This led to a danger of the lowlands below flooding, and, as result, seven hundred people were evacuated from their homes and farms. Sure enough, the volcano melted the ice above, sending torrents down the mountain toward the sea.  The bridge and causeway at Skatefell were breached and some farmland was damaged. Through shear luck I got a seat on one of the the first helicopters out after the flooding and made some of the first images of the smoke and ash cloud currently hampering commercial air travel throughout Northern Europe.