On the final day of PhotoPlus 2008 I attended two discussions. The first discussion was Creative Portrait Lighting by photographer Bobbi Lane. Bobbie Lane showed examples of her work and then proceeded to a live demonstration of Portrait Lighting. She demonstrated an extensive amount of various lighting scenarios using various lighting equipment. Her ability to flow from one scenario to another was awesome and the images she created before our eyes caused the audience to applaud.

After lunch I attended my final discussion, Lighting for Commercial Productions by photographer F. Scott Schafer. Mr. Schafer displayed many of his works and went into detail regarding the various stages of process in regard to his projects. His average photo shoot production cost averages $100,000. Several of his shots that he went into detail about exceeded $500K in set creation alone. One particular set creation involved ten days of construction on a very large scale. I was amazed to see the final result after learning how much physical set creation went into it. I think the way Mr. Schafer produces his work has about 2 years left. Everything will be done digitally in that time. Why create a $500K set when it can all be done in CGI for $5K and in half the time? He has never owned a camera in his 14 year career and rents all his gear on a per project need. Considering the scale of his projects it is very understandable that he rents his gear for each production, but to be a professional photographer and not own a camera seems absurd to me. From my perspective that would be like a professional musician that does not own the instrument that they play. Obviously no personal photography projects are being pursued by Mr. Schafer. His work is well known and most have seen some of it. I like his photography, but I as far as the process I see a dead end for Mr. Scott
Schafer regarding photography in the near future.

My first time visiting PhotoPlus was a success. The sessions I attended were all good. I defiantly walked away with some useful information and gained quite a bit of perspective from those who are doing photography full time. The great range of experiences shared by the professional photographers in only three days will have an impact on my upcoming work. I’m looking forward to see what comes of it.

Last night after trying out my new lens in Times Square I stopped at Caroline’ on Broadway and got to see Paul Mooney perform some comedy. It was a small crowd of 50 or less so Paul was making eye contact with the entire audience. It was a better then expected show. I exceeded the two drink minimum so this morning was little rough going.

Starting at 9am I attended a 3 hour session, Lighting for Digital Photography by photographer Tony Corbell. Mr. Corbell discused how many of his recent images have come together. An overall good discusion on Lighting for Photography. There is a theme at PhotoPlus 2008 and that has to do with the extremely well performing high ISO’s of the new cameras from Canon and Nikon. Everyone is excited about opening up their lens all the way and photographing in super low light situations. The message I continue to hear is about quality of light, not quantity. Images that I have seen displayed during the conference that were created using ISO’s in excess of 3200 look fantastic. 1600 is the new 400. There are new and exciting possibilities with these new cameras.

After lunch I atteneded a 2 hour session, Hot Sun, Cool Images by photographer Cliff Mautner. Mr. Mautner discussed how to survive and in fact thrive photographing in the worst of light. He demonstrated some excellent captures in the harshest of lighting conditions. I walked away with some very useful tips. I now want to practice shooting into the sun.

The final discussion of the day for me was another 2 hour session, Creating the Light by photographer Bob Davis. Mr. Davis performed a very similar routine as Joe McNally did during my first discussion the day prior. However, unlike Joe McNally who has assistants buzzing around him, Bob Davis is a one man show. His demonstrations used Canon 580 EX flashes mounted on light stands. He demonstrated how to get great light with the use of very portable diffusers, gels, and snoot options. He involved the entire room in over an hour of photography, creating various lighting options, while demonstrating the ability to manage it at the same time. It was great to see equipment that I possess being demonstrated in such a way. I am inspired and have some ideas I will soon try.

JetBlue canceled my original departing flight so I need to depart a little earlier then expected tomorrow. I was going to attend three more sessions but I will only have time for two.

First day of PhotoPlus Expo 2008. I attended two discussions. The first two hour session was on location lighting using hotshoe flashes by Joe McNally. He performed some lighting solutions with a live model. Most setups used one or two flashes. I was hoping he would perhaps get more into elaborate setups since he has published many works using in excess of 10 flashes. However, he demonstrated much more traditional portrait scenerios. The second two hour session was on the subject of Lighting & The Dramatic Portrait by Michael Grecco. Grecco projected his works and discussed how they were accomplished and also demonstrated how he has grown into his current style. Grecco wants to be known as ‘the Jacques Cousteau of the freaks in the world’ and made it very clear that he will be exploring sub-cultures in future works.

I walked the tradeshow a bit exploring the various vendors and put some product info in my bag to review. I did watch a fair amount of propaganda at the Canon booth. In fact I took the B&H shuttle from the conference to the B&H store and purchased a 16mm-35mm 2.8 lens. I hope to play with it in Times Square tonight.