Written by John Rettie and originally posted on PDN
(Rangefinder magazine’s Technical Editor John Rettie just spent a few days roaming the floor of the trade show at the 2012 WPPI Convention, which opened on Sunday and continues through Thursday at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas. Here’s his report on some of the interesting photo gear on display at the show.)
The annual Wedding and Portrait Photographers International (WPPI) Convention and Trade Show in Las Vegas continues to grow in size and importance. For many photographers, it has become the “must attend” event for wedding and portrait shooters from all over the world.
Nikon Mania
Although there were no major new camera announcements at WPPI these last few days, it was the first opportunity for photographers outside of Japan to get their hands on the much talked about 36.3-megapixel, full frame Nikon D800 pro digital SLR.
Not surprisingly, given that Nikon is aiming this camera at wedding and portrait photographers as much as anyone, Nikon’s booth was inundated with Nikon users immediately after the doors opened to visitors.
Canon, Nikon and Sony all had well known photographers such as Jerry Ghionis, Cliff Mautner and Brian Smith at their booths, pulling in the crowds as they presented their photo techniques.
Lighting It Up
While the major camera manufacturers might steal the limelight at these shows, it’s often the small companies with new gizmos that attract as much interest and there was no shortage of new accessories and services being shown for the first time. These are some of the ones that caught my eye.
Lighting is naturally an important element in portrait photography and it was amazing how much new portable lighting gear was being shown at WPPI. Thanks to LED, it’s becoming increasingly easy to develop lightweight portable lighting units that can deliver sufficient light, of the right quality, for lighting weddings and portraits.
.jpg "lighting")
Last year Jerry Ghionis, one of the most popular speakers at WPPI, demonstrated a portable light that he had been using. Upon reflection, it was obvious he was teasing, as this year he’s turned it into a product that’s now on sale. Ghionis had models walking around the show carrying these handled Icelights, which look more like a lightsaber from Star Wars, so photographers could snap pictures on the move. (www.icelight.com)
Lowel demonstrated a prototype of an upcoming product the GL-1, which looks more like a large electric drill. The gunlight, as it is also called, is used for painting light over a small area and the light pattern can be changed in size. Full details will soon become available on a special website: www.thegunlight.com.
Rotolight has been available in Britain for some time but is only now becoming available in the US through RTS Inc. It has an array of LED lights in a circle that can be placed on camera and even placed around a hot shoe mounted mic. It includes a set of gels for changing the color and white balance. (www.RTSphoto.com)
Get a Grip
Ever wanted to put an iPhone on top of your camera so you can shoot video at the same time or perhaps take some still images for immediate transmission to Facebook or a client. Now, rather than having to hold the iPhone, you can just use the simple DaisyGrip, which attaches to the hot shoe on a DSLR and can hold up to one pound in weight. For child photographers it could be used to hold a stuffed animal to help get the child in the right mood. (www.daisygrip.com)
.jpg "grip")
If you hate photographing a red carpet at an event, here’s a unit that can take the photographer out of the picture, so to speak. The Outdoor Photo Booth is a self contained unit that assembles in minutes. It includes a Canon DSLR, a flash unit, touch screen monitor and printer. A person or group that wants to be photographed can pose using the monitor to preview their image. They press a button and the picture is snapped in three seconds. (www.openairphotobooth.com)
Visitors to Launch Pad, held on the afternoon before the trade show opened, had the opportunity to get a sneak preview at several products from individual entrepreneurs who were not quite ready to spring for the cost of a booth. These included CameraMator, a company that’s almost ready to introduce another new app for remotely controlling a DSLR on a laptop, iPad or iPhone. In the demonstration, captured images were displayed very rapidly on an iPad. It will also be possible for someone to view images remotely through an Internet connection. (www.cameramator.com)
Photo Clothing, Video Albums, Online Portfolios and More
If men need pockets in their pants when shooting they have cargo pants or vests they can wear. One can imagine most female photographers would not be seen dead in this sort of wear, especially when photographing a wedding. Now Julie Watts has come to the fair sex’s rescue with photopantz.
It’s difficulty to tell from the photograph but these smart looking pants have plenty of pockets and pouches for holding stuff, such as a cell phone, cards, and even jelly beans, as Watts suggested as she modeled the pants to a receptive audience of photographers. In an enterprising setup she even had a changing tent on her booth at Launch Pad, so women photographers could try them on for size and buy on the spot. (www.photopantz.com)
Wedding albums and services provided by photo labs are obviously an extremely important part of any show for anyone attending WPPI. Among the many traditional albums of all shapes and designs we found a new one. The Video Book Company, as its name suggests produces one that includes a video screen. They take a regular album and carefully cut out sections of the pages and insert an Android tablet with small speakers in the pages.
The album can then be placed on a special stand that incorporates a wireless charging device to power the album. Considering the amount of money brides spend on wedding photography the added cost of burying an Android tablet in a high end album is probably not as extravagant as it sounds at first blush. (www.thevideobookcompany.com)
As you’d expect, there were numerous companies promoting services to build website and online portfolios. However, one company in particular made a big splash with a unique large square box. Squarespace has been in business for over eight years as an alternative content management system to WordPress. It is about to launch an entirely revamped version that it has designed with photographers in mind.
Visitors who stepped inside the cube were able to see how easy it is to create portfolio websites that only require one hi-res image to be uploaded. Squarespace then automatically resizes and redraws screens to match whatever size screen is being used. One can set a focal point on an image and that will always stays in the same place even when viewed on an iPhone or on a 27-inch monitor. Squarespace does not use Flash, so websites are correctly displayed on any platform. (www.squarespace.com)
Until now SmugMug Pro has used Bay Photo and ezprints as its affiliated photo labs. At the show SmugMugPro announced it’s added WHCC, one of the most popular full-service labs with wedding photographers to its list of partners.
Speaking of WHCC, it made news at the show as Canon announced it will be the first customer to purchase a Canon DreamLabo 5000 Printer, which was easily the largest and most expensive piece of equipment on display at WPPI.
The DreamLabo 5000 features automatic double-sided printing, which is especially convenient when printing photo albums and on-demand two-sided documents. It requires only 72 seconds to print a 20-page A4 size photo album. Canon says the DreamLabo 5000 production inkjet printer will offer the retail photo printing and high-end print-on-demand (POD) markets optimal performance and productivity.
This year’s WPPI Trade Show appears to be a hit, with individual photographers spending anywhere from a few dollars on props to those splashing out on new cameras to a major lab spending hundreds of thousands of dollars on a major printing press.
2,042 comments
survey money machines says:
February 7, 2013 at 10:58 am (UTC -4)
survey money machines…
[...]below you?ll come across the link to some web pages that we assume you ought to visit[...]…
buy fan facebook says:
February 7, 2013 at 1:20 pm (UTC -4)
buy fan facebook…
Thanks for your publiction. Another item is that to be a photographer entails not only issues in catching award-winning photographs but also hardships in getting the best camera suited to your needs and most especially problems in maintaining the stand…
chiropractor says:
February 7, 2013 at 2:22 pm (UTC -4)
chiropractor…
[...]Sites of interest we have a link to[...]…
Revere Cab says:
February 7, 2013 at 5:31 pm (UTC -4)
Revere Cab…
[...]although web sites we backlink to beneath are considerably not associated to ours, we really feel they’re really worth a go via, so possess a look[...]…
Vimax says:
February 7, 2013 at 5:42 pm (UTC -4)
Vimax…
Fantastic goods from you, man. I’ve understand your stuff previous to and you are just too fantastic. I really like what you’ve acquired here, certainly like what you are stating and the way in which you say it. You make it enjoyable and you still ca…
online shopping store says:
February 7, 2013 at 7:10 pm (UTC -4)
Title…
[...]Here are some of the websites we suggest for our visitors[...]…
créer une facture says:
February 7, 2013 at 8:46 pm (UTC -4)
créer une facture…
[...]very few websites that come about to be comprehensive beneath, from our point of view are undoubtedly nicely really worth checking out[...]…
college sex says:
February 7, 2013 at 11:26 pm (UTC -4)
college sex…
[...]Wonderful story, reckoned we could combine a handful of unrelated information, nonetheless really really worth taking a appear, whoa did one master about Mid East has got more problerms also [...]…
free foot cam says:
February 8, 2013 at 3:27 am (UTC -4)
free foot cam…
[...]Here are several of the web-sites we recommend for our visitors[...]…
Brisbane Wedding Photographer says:
February 8, 2013 at 5:43 am (UTC -4)
Brisbane Wedding Photographer…
[...]Sites of interest we’ve a link to[...]…
olumlama cümleleri says:
February 8, 2013 at 5:46 am (UTC -4)
olumlama cümleleri…
[...]Every after in a even though we choose blogs that we study. Listed below are the latest web-sites that we opt for [...]…
GoldenCredit says:
February 8, 2013 at 6:59 am (UTC -4)
GoldenCredit…
One thing I’d really like to say is the fact that before obtaining more computer system memory, take a look at the machine within which it will be installed. If your machine is actually running Windows XP, for instance, the actual memory limit is 3.25…
robe de cocktail says:
February 8, 2013 at 7:48 am (UTC -4)
robe de cocktail…
F*ckin tremendous things here. I am very glad to see your post. Thanks a lot and i’m looking forward to contact you. Will you please drop me a mail?…
IPKN Makeup says:
February 8, 2013 at 3:22 pm (UTC -4)
IPKN Makeup…
[...]Wonderful story, reckoned we could combine a couple of unrelated data, nonetheless truly really worth taking a look, whoa did 1 learn about Mid East has got far more problerms also [...]…
Westhaven at Vinings says:
February 8, 2013 at 7:19 pm (UTC -4)
Westhaven at Vinings…
[...]we came across a cool web site which you may possibly love. Take a search if you want[...]…
magazine online braila says:
February 8, 2013 at 10:48 pm (UTC -4)
Title…
[...]the time to study or take a look at the content or web-sites we have linked to beneath the[...]…
Home Based Business Forums says:
February 8, 2013 at 11:32 pm (UTC -4)
Title…
[...]check below, are some absolutely unrelated web-sites to ours, having said that, they are most trustworthy sources that we use[...]…
Mp3 says:
February 9, 2013 at 2:12 am (UTC -4)
Mp3…
Unquestionably believe that which you stated. Your favorite justification appeared to be on the internet the easiest thing to be aware of. I say to you, I definitely get irked while people think about worries that they plainly don’t know about. You ma…
lesbian sex says:
February 9, 2013 at 2:42 am (UTC -4)
lesbian sex…
Someone necessarily assist to make severely posts I would state. This is the first time I frequented your web page and up to now? I surprised with the analysis you made to create this particular post extraordinary. Excellent job!…
2013 business ideas for women says:
February 9, 2013 at 5:25 am (UTC -4)
2013 business ideas for women…
[...]we prefer to honor lots of other world-wide-web web-sites around the web, even when they arent linked to us, by linking to them. Under are some webpages worth checking out[...]…
2013 business ideas for women says:
February 9, 2013 at 5:44 am (UTC -4)
2013 business ideas for women…
[...]usually posts some quite intriguing stuff like this. If youre new to this site[...]…
Indiana Realtors says:
February 9, 2013 at 8:29 am (UTC -4)
Indiana Realtors…
[...]we came across a cool site which you may appreciate. Take a appear should you want[...]…
lingerie says:
February 9, 2013 at 9:12 am (UTC -4)
lingerie…
[...]very couple of web-sites that occur to be comprehensive below, from our point of view are undoubtedly properly worth checking out[...]…
read this says:
February 9, 2013 at 9:54 am (UTC -4)
read this…
[...]just beneath, are various entirely not related internet sites to ours, even so, they are surely worth going over[...]…
married to a sex addict says:
February 9, 2013 at 10:12 am (UTC -4)
married to a sex addict…
[...]one of our visitors just lately recommended the following website[...]…
sports games says:
February 9, 2013 at 1:25 pm (UTC -4)
sports games…
[...]please stop by the web-sites we stick to, like this one particular, because it represents our picks in the web[...]…
where to buy facebook fans says:
February 9, 2013 at 1:58 pm (UTC -4)
where to buy facebook fans…
[...]the time to study or visit the content or web-sites we’ve linked to below the[...]…
garcinia cambogia effets secondaires says:
February 9, 2013 at 3:17 pm (UTC -4)
garcinia cambogia effets secondaires…
[...]the time to read or take a look at the content or websites we have linked to beneath the[...]…
garcinia weight loss says:
February 9, 2013 at 5:18 pm (UTC -4)
garcinia weight loss…
[...]here are some hyperlinks to websites that we link to simply because we feel they’re worth visiting[...]…
Dancing Matt at Atlantis the Palm, Dubai says:
February 9, 2013 at 5:36 pm (UTC -4)
Dancing Matt at Atlantis the Palm, Dubai…
I beloved as much as you’ll receive carried out proper here. The caricature is attractive, your authored subject matter stylish. nevertheless, you command get bought an impatience over that you want be turning in the following. in poor health certainl…
Leville iSuites Floor Plans says:
February 9, 2013 at 7:49 pm (UTC -4)
Leville iSuites Floor Plans…
[...]we came across a cool web page that you just may well appreciate. Take a look in case you want[...]…
magneticone says:
February 9, 2013 at 8:16 pm (UTC -4)
magneticone…
[...]usually posts some pretty fascinating stuff like this. If youre new to this site[...]…
Provillus says:
February 9, 2013 at 9:06 pm (UTC -4)
Title…
[...]Wonderful story, reckoned we could combine a few unrelated data, nevertheless definitely really worth taking a look, whoa did one particular understand about Mid East has got extra problerms also [...]…
Trick Photography and Special Effects Review says:
February 9, 2013 at 9:20 pm (UTC -4)
Title…
[...]the time to study or go to the content material or internet sites we have linked to below the[...]…
Triactol says:
February 9, 2013 at 9:42 pm (UTC -4)
Title…
[...]one of our visitors just lately encouraged the following website[...]…
Provillus says:
February 9, 2013 at 11:48 pm (UTC -4)
Title…
[...]Every once inside a although we pick blogs that we study. Listed below would be the most current sites that we pick [...]…
game says:
February 10, 2013 at 4:39 am (UTC -4)
game…
[...]that would be the finish of this article. Here youll uncover some web-sites that we feel you will appreciate, just click the hyperlinks over[...]…
Hair Regrowth says:
February 10, 2013 at 5:32 am (UTC -4)
Title…
[...]usually posts some incredibly exciting stuff like this. If you are new to this site[...]…
using facebook to promote business says:
February 10, 2013 at 8:36 am (UTC -4)
using facebook to promote business…
[...]The information and facts mentioned inside the article are several of the most beneficial available [...]…
Dr Oz Weight Loss says:
February 10, 2013 at 10:08 am (UTC -4)
Title…
[...]Here are several of the web-sites we advise for our visitors[...]…
how long to boil eggs says:
February 10, 2013 at 10:26 am (UTC -4)
how long to boil eggs…
There is clearly a lot to know about this. I consider you made various good points in features also….
nyheter says:
February 10, 2013 at 2:30 pm (UTC -4)
nyheter…
[...]check beneath, are some absolutely unrelated web-sites to ours, having said that, they are most trustworthy sources that we use[...]…
how to use an iPad says:
February 10, 2013 at 2:46 pm (UTC -4)
how to use an iPad…
[...]check beneath, are some entirely unrelated web-sites to ours, on the other hand, they are most trustworthy sources that we use[...]…
Green Coffee Bean Max says:
February 10, 2013 at 2:55 pm (UTC -4)
Title…
[...]very couple of internet sites that transpire to become in depth below, from our point of view are undoubtedly very well really worth checking out[...]…
Ontario Peptides says:
February 10, 2013 at 4:46 pm (UTC -4)
Ontario Peptides…
[...]The data mentioned inside the post are a number of the most beneficial out there [...]…
TAMOXIFEN results says:
February 10, 2013 at 7:00 pm (UTC -4)
TAMOXIFEN results…
[...]Every the moment in a whilst we opt for blogs that we read. Listed beneath are the most up-to-date websites that we choose [...]…
basement contractors says:
February 10, 2013 at 7:28 pm (UTC -4)
basement contractors…
Im not sure where you are getting your info, but great topic. I needs to spend some time learning more or understanding more. Thanks for great information I was looking for this info for my mission….
los angeles fashion photographer says:
February 10, 2013 at 8:52 pm (UTC -4)
los angeles fashion photographer…
[...]Here is a good Weblog You may Find Fascinating that we Encourage You[...]…
GHRP-2 dosage says:
February 10, 2013 at 9:36 pm (UTC -4)
GHRP-2 dosage…
Id should test with you here. Which is not something I normally do! I get pleasure from reading a put up that will make people think. Also, thanks for permitting me to comment!…
the controversies in thyroid diseases says:
February 10, 2013 at 10:21 pm (UTC -4)
Title…
[...]we prefer to honor many other world wide web web-sites around the net, even when they aren’t linked to us, by linking to them. Below are some webpages worth checking out[...]…
« Previous 1 ... 24 25 26 27 28 ... 41 Next »