Best Of Show – WPPI 2012

Good Morning Everybody,

I knew it was going to be a late post yesterday but then it turned into a NO post yesterday.  It just wasn't in the stars.  On Tuesday we were out at nine in the morning and finally returned around midnight - a very long day.  Yesterday morning we were out the door early again and been in the trade show day today. In fact I was sitting in the back of Dane Sanders program as I began yesterday's post. With so much going on we never made it back to the hotel till about 9:00 p.m.  By then I was wiped out - no energy for a blog post.

Today is our first day off since we landed in Vegas last Saturday and I mentioned to LaDawn I was going to spend a leisurely day working on the blog and relaxing a bit. That said, let's get right to it.

Most Amazing New Software Demo's At The Show

Here is a quick recap of what’s been happening the last two days. We visited with soooo many vendors over these last 3 days.  I think we must have walked about 20 miles, at least it felt like 25 miles. One of the highlights of the show was catching up with my buddy, Michael Sheasby, the President and CEO of LumaPix, the makers of FotoFusion.  Mike and I first met 8 WPPI's ago just as most of the the world was beginning to embrace the new digital technologies.

Mike and his partner Mike Monroy were demonstrating the first version of LumaPix.  I was blown away and knew they had the winning app for wedding album design.  I made my introduction and we have remained friends ever since with me becoming their biggest evangelist over these many years since.

Anyway, FotoFusion has evolved into the most robust piece of collaging software on the planet earth.  FotoFusion has been sitting at version 4 for a few years but at the show they were showing the soon to be released version 5.  Both LaDawn and I were blown away by the power of the new version. In addition to some powerful new text features, they are also introducing a brand new "Publish To The Cloud" feature! 

You just had to see this feature in action. After Michael quickly designed an album, one press of the "Publish" button sent it to the Cloud where your clients could easily view it on their computer, iPhone, and iPad and also share the link with friends.  The service is free and allows the album to stay "LIVE" for 30 days.  It was WAY cool new feature.  I'm looking forward to getting the link to the BETA, hopefully later today.  I'll give you the details once I've had a chance so I can give the new FotoFusion a spin. I can't wait!

Most Amazing People We Met

At a convention you always meet so many fascinating people.  For me, that's what’s so cool about coming to a show - IT'S THE PEOPLE!  I've said it before and I'll say it again - too many of today's photographers are locked behind their computer screens Facebooking away and are completely "missing the boat" on meeting like minded photographers, making friends in person, and creating relationships, finding inspration that could take their career to brand new heights.

Let me give you a good example.  We were invited to the Peachpit cocktail party - Peachpit is about the best known and most active publisher in the photography, Photoshop space. They published my book Captured By The Light in 2010. Anyway, a few of us were introducing ourselves to each other and eventually this great group came together and we all really enjoyed the conversation and insights we were able to share with each other.

Above is a photo of our group. From left to right; Roberto Valenzuela, an amazing wedding photographer from Beverly Hills.  Roberto is on the Grace Ormond Platinum list and named one of the top wedding photographers in the world by Junebug Weddings.  Check out his work right here.

Next to Roberto is Suzy Clement who wrote the book, Weddings: From Snapshots to Great Shots.  It’s a great book for anyone aspiring to enter the wedding photography field. In the center of the group is Sarah Jane Todd, from Peachpit and the editor we all work with on our projects. 

Next is Khara Plicanic, who wrote Your Camera Loves You: Learn to Love It Back.  Khara and her husband recently completed a cross country bike ride from San Diego to Florida in 65 days, 45 of those days peddling, 3,300 miles and 23 flat tires!  It was an amazing story!  She blogged the entire trip – here is the link right here. What a great experience!

And The Winner Is…

Last night we made it back to join the Awards ceremony in time  to see my buddy, Cliff Mautner win Photographer of The Year.  What a thrill it was for Cliff and all of us that know him.  Hi Fives and Congrats!  Cliff – no one deserves it more!

And you know what, everyone attending this year’s WPPI was a winner one way or another.  It was a great convention with great talent, unbelievable programs, and a fabulous trade show.  We all will take home many wonderful memories from this year’s WPPI!  Hope to see you again next year!

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Hey gang, that’s it for me today.  We have most of the day and are planning a little R&R.  How about I see you tomorrow for a short post before the weekend.

Hope to see you then,  David

Frenzied Friday–Heading Out To WPPI Tomorrow

Good Afternoon Everybody,

I’m just checking in to let you know we’ll be attending WPPI Convention in Las Vegas all next week.  WPPI is one of the best photography conventions in the US to attend, after PhotoPro Expo of course ;~)

They have the largest trade show ever this year and are expecting in excess of 12,000 attendees!  Yep, it’s one “monster” show.  I suspect I’ll see several of our DPT readers in Las Vegas, so be sure to say Hi.

WHY?  LaDawn and I will be looking for the top speakers at the show and inviting them to do a series of webcasts for us at DPT this year.  I expect this will be one super BIG highlight of DigitalProTalk.com for 2013.

Here are a few of the speakers who programs we will try to attend.

Zach and Jody Gray – Two of my favorite young photographers.

Jason Groupp – The Speedlight  world record holder

The Boudoir Divas – Shaking up the photography scene

Dave and Quin Cheung – Two of my favorite young and happening wedding photographers

Jeremy Cowart – of Help-Portrait fame

Clay Blackmore – A good friend and one of the top wedding photographers in the world.

Jeff Medford and Ross Hockrow – Experts in Fusion projects

Bill McIntosh and Leslie McIntosh – Bill is one of the legends in this profession.

Scott Robert Lim – One of the top wedding photographers from California

Neil Van Niekirk – Master of the on-camera flash.

Hey gang, that’s my TOP 10 list.  Wish me luck – it’s going to be an exciting year at DigitalProTalk.com.  I sure hope you will spread the word!

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Time to finish packing the bags.  Have a great weekend everyone and I see you in Vegas baby!

-David

Quick Hit Monday: WPPI; Power Of Passion; I Have A Famous Daughter; and More!

Good Morning Everybody,

I can’t believe it – sunshine!! Yep, sunshine and moderately warm temperatures finally hit the Mid-West.. It was really good news to hear the weather man report that we have more on the way this week.  Hope the weather is nice in your part of the world.

Hey gang, we’ve got a busy week shaping up so let’s get right to Quick Hit Monday.  Here we go…

Heading To WPPI This Thursday

That’s right, LaDawn and I jump on a jet and head to Las Vegas this coming Thursday.  We’re getting in early for a couple of reasons. One reason is to see Jerry Ghionis and Sandy Puc’s kick off program at the Hampton Inn Tropicana on Saturday [link].  I’ve heard about their new seminar series and wanted to see it first hand – it should be a kick.  If you’re planning to attend, come on up and say HI.

We’ll hang for few days before the WPPI convention kicks off on Sunday.  Look for me at the Westcott booth and the Manfroto booth doing a few lighting demos.  This is always a great show and we’re looking forward to being with the other 15,000 photographers hanging in Vegas next week – see you there!

Animoto Makes My Daughter Elizabeth Famous!

Well, almost famous. I don’t know if you have taken the opportunity to try Animoto yet – I’ve been using it for years – but the new “rendering engine”, now 10x faster, is producing videos that look great!  You will love the higher resolution videos – sumptuous!  All the latest info right here.

Anyway, Animoto got a little press from the big guns at CNET [link] and my daughter Elizabeth is pictured in the feature. Elizabeth has been working with Animoto for several months, you may have met her at the Imaging USA show in San Antonio, TX this past January.  Anyway, very cool for a dad.

Captured By The Light Continues To Get RAVE Reviews

I just received a note about my book “Captured By The Light” from Rob Acocella at DigiMortalPhoto [link]. 

The opening paragraph quickly caught my eye,  “David Ziser's Captured By The Light,which is easily one of the best, most comprehensive books on wedding photography I've ever read”.

Rob is a first time wedding photographer and found the book extremely helpful for his upcoming shoot.  THANKS Rob for the great shout out!  -David

One Touch Color Correction - Tutorials

One of my long standing favorite color correcting plug in has been Pictocolor’s I-Correct Portrait.  One click of the mouse and the color looks great.  Another feature I’ve always loved about the app is the fact that it let’s me also click on a skin tone – once again, one click and my portrait images are really looking good.

I just got their Valentine’s email – always good deals, BTW – and I picked up something I’ve never previously tried – setting up my own custom colors for one click color correction for types of skin, etc.  Very fast, very cool.  Check it out right here.

Fab Westcott Shootout At WPPI

The first time I saw the Westcott shootout was at last years Photoshop World.  Boy, was it over the top with four beautiful models, fabulous sets, and tons of lights ready to go.  I was blown away by the setup.

Well, the good news is that I hear Westcott is planning the same thing for WPPI next week – I can’t wait. Here’s the link to all the details right here. I’ll be hanging around lending a helping hand so why don’t you come on by?  See ya’ there.

One Last Quick Note On Note cards

Lexjet has always been my “go to” vendors for all things inkjet  and we are into our inkjet printing quite heavy around my studio. 

Anyway, they put out a newsletter each month which is filled with terrific ideas on how to get the best out of your inkjet printing.  More and more folks are jumping on the inkjet printing wagon so you really need to check out what’s happening over at Lexjet.

Here is an interesting and informative article [link] on how my buddy, Clay Blackmore, produced some stunning All Occasion greeting in his studio with some of Lexjet’s newest paper products.

It’s a good read.

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Hey gang, that’s it for me today. I’m putting the finishing touches on my Guest Blog post “ Wedding Photography – The State Of The Union –Part 2” for Scott Kelby and sending it over this afternoon.

Part 1 was published two weeks ago right here.  Part 2 is even more in-depth with lot’s of solutions to the current upheaval in the field of wedding photography.  Look for it on Wednesday.

Have a wonderful hugs and kisses day and I’ll see you tomorrow for another Technique Tuesday.

Adios Everybody,  David

Quick Hit Monday

Good Morning Everybody,

This week I'll be posting from Las Vegas. LaDawn and I are out here for the WPPI Convention. After about 3 hours sleep Saturday night, we were up and packing bright and early for the trip. We got in late yesterday and, I have to admit , I was a bit "fried" - but the batteries are pretty well recharged this morning.

I have to tell you we had a GREAT wedding over the weekend. Great couple, great families and fun guests!! The band played for 4 1/2 hours straight, and I don't think anyone took a minute break from the dance floor . It was truly a kick to shoot it the entire celebration. I tried a few new and pretty cool techniques which I hope to share this week. Stay tuned, I'm pretty stoked with the results we got.

Anyway, this is the biggest convention in the world for portrait and wedding photographers. It's a great show - about 10,000 photographers are expected to attend! I'm hoping to follow the same post schedule as usual this week, but things may change because we are so busy out here with the show, and I'm giving a program myself at 8:15 a.m. tomorrow. But don't fret none now (that's "Kentucky" for don't worry about it) - we will get the whole week in, it just might be jumbled up a bit. I'm also planning to give you some reports from the show too, so it should be a good week. Anyway, let's get to it - with Quick Hit Monday...

Joe Photo Fired As Master of Ceremonies For WPPI Awards Banquet

It's true, indefatigable Joe Photo - yes, that is his real name - has been fired by WPPI as it's MC for the 2008 WPPI convention. Watch the video below to see how Joe reacts ;~)

WPPI holds the best convention on the planet for wedding and portrait photographers in Las Vegas every year. Check it out right here. This is the "not to be missed convention of the year." I'll see you there.