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Here is Day 3 of Imaging USA, including portfolio review, an aerial photo booth, the 8x12' Sharpie mural by Jai, and the Lifetime Achievement Award given to Greg Gorman.
The aerial photobooth. Pretty cool idea from Leah and Mark
Jai's PPA masterpiece
Greg Gorman was given the Lifetime Achievement Award at the Award and Degree Ceremony Tuesday night. Check out his website (specifically the celebrities) to see the incredible work he's done. You've likely seen it before. :)
Imaging USA Day 1 was a ton of fun, and Day two continued on with the same emotions. Day two was where I realized what a historic organization PPA is. To give perspective, I asked an employee "so, how many of these events have there been?" The answer I got was "I dunno- maybe 120 or so?" I knew PPA has been around, but I had no idea they celebrated their 50th anniversary as an organization in 1930! You can read more about PPA's history here, including some amazing stories that range from World War I Signal Corps photographers becoming honorary PPA members to George Eastman introducing the first Kodak camera and film system to convention goers in 1888. Once again, I was so happy to be a part of this historic organization and convention.
In addition to classes and the expo, PPA students were taking certification exams.
Dane Sanders giving away prizes after his class.
The Muñoz Brothers taught a very exciting and humorous live shooting class
Including posing tips...
The official PPA mascot for the event- Flash- heading downstairs to the Expo.
David Bergman showing the Nikon booth area how to snap great event and sport photos.
Photographing the volunteers proves to be quite humorous. They were barking questions as me from below. "What's your f-stop!? What camera setting are you using?!" When I would tell them my answer, they would always reply "NO! That's wrong!!!" :)
Lindsey Adler teaching a small group of PPA students.
Michael Barton came away with a few awards at the Grand Imaging Awards ceremony, including photographer of the year.
This character also won an award for best image with his shot of the final shuttle launch. I was amazed at how he took this photo. Because NASA won't let anyone around for miles, he set up his tripod a few miles inside the "danger zone" the day before the launch. He set the camera up on a sound trigger and hoped for the best. The next day, he went to find his camera had captured a number of images, including this winning shot!
Last August I was approached by the marketing director for the Professional Photographers of America (PPA). She had seen some of the work I did at Social Media Day at Terminal West last summer. She said she really like my event work and that they were unimpressed by last year's event photographer at their yearly Imaging USA event. I was extremely flattered to be chosen as the photographer to photograph photographers. :) It was last Sunday through Tuesday at the Georgia World Congress Center. It was a ton of fun, albeit a little crazy with over 10,500 photographers in attendance!
Though they had pre-classes Thursday through Saturday, Sunday was opening day of the Expo. I had my lovely assistant, Curt, with me for part of the day. He was a great mule on the Expo floor carrying my gear and also gave me the idea to borrow a monopod from Manfrotto to get some of the "aerial" shots of the floor. People did look at my pretty crazy hoisting my rig 7 feet in the air, but it captured a few neat shots. First up, I have a few shots from one of the most popular speakers, Jerry Ghionis:
My favorite shot of the weekend. Can you tell who the excited audience volunteer is in this photo?
As people gathered on the 3rd floor for the Expo opening and ribbon cutting ceremony, my event contact, Sarah Ackerman, snapped this photo from above and posted it to Twitter. With all the hustle and bustle of the #IUSA13 tag, the photo was at one point trending on Twitter. :)
After the ribbon cutting:
My mule assistant heading down to the Expo with me.
From time to time I get general solicitations from various photography-related groups. Usually it's to sign up for a mailing list, join a club, or buy something. Recently I was contacted by the Society of Professional Mexican Photographers asking if I could write an article on children photography. After some research found out that the SMFP (they spell photo with an "f"- much easier) seems to be the Mexican version of the Professional Photographers of America- an organization that I am a member of. Initially I was skeptical due to the broken English email, but I realized that the vast majority of my blog posts are in broken English as well. I was happy to write the article and send a few pictures along and I just found out it was put in their online newsletter with the potential for me to have additional opportunities for their Latin American distributed print magazine. I don't fancy myself a writer (see blog entries 1 through 156), but it helped that the limit was 300 words for the article. Once I was rolling on it, the only hard part was keeping it to 300 words! I realize I should do more of these when the opportunity presents itself. You may ask why a Mexican magazine? My answer is that I have no idea... but I'm not going to complain if it furthers my international exposure. :) Here is the article as it appears on their website. I wrote the article in American English and they translated it to Mexican Spanish. The full English version is further below. Enjoy!
Here is the content in the original language. I tried to avoid $100 words so it would translate a little better. That's my story, and I'm sticking to it. :)
"Taking photos of children can be a challenge at times. We’ve all been there when a mother has asked us to photograph an unhappy, shy, or otherwise difficult child. Here are some ways to get the photos you want while helping the child become more comfortable with you and your camera.
The first thing I concentrate on is finding a good location. If the child is very young, it can often be wise to take photos at the family’s home. This way, the child will be more comfortable with his or her surroundings and doesn’t have to venture far to be comfortable. Generally, I like to shoot outdoors with children (except for newborn babies). It gives them the freedom to wander around and explore. Your job is to follow them (on your hands and knees if you have to!) to catch that perfect smile and natural pose. The idea is to let them have fun on their own and you catch the moments that happen. There will be many disappointing photos, but the good ones are GREAT because they are natural- no posing!
Always make sure to tell the parents to dress the child in comfortable clothes and no busy patterns. Try to avoid the color white if you think the child could get dirty. Ask the parents to bring along rewards for the children in case they get upset. That way you can say, “if you stand over here, mommy will give you some juice!” Just be sure that these rewards (candy, snacks, juice) aren’t messy and could discolor teeth or get on clothes.
I generally shoot in natural light with no flash. This allows the child and I to move around a backyard or playground and give them the space they need. If the child is being good and will sit and pose, I’ll have the parent hold a reflector to supplement lighting if necessary. I typically shoot with the Canon 5d Mark II and a variety of lenses. My most used lens is the 24-70mm because it will give me a good range of close up shots for faces and smiles as well as wide angle to get playground items or helping family members. Depending on the lighting, I generally shoot between ISO 100 and 400. The idea is to shoot what will give you a high enough shutter speed in case the child is fast moving!
The bottom line is to get outside, play around, and have fun! You’re bound to get good photos if you and your subject are having fun!"