Steve Weinrebe's Mode Studio

I am just back from Imaging USA (where I stayed, mistakenly, near the stadium, arriving just before last Sunday’s football game) and the difference between this PPA event and fall’s PhotoPlus (ASMP) event was somewhat remarkable. Maybe it was the Tampa Buc’s loss on Sunday, or the fact that Tampa is one of the sleepiest little cities I’ve been too (about the size of Providence or Wilmington, but with more palm trees than pedestrians), but I’d have to say that the event seemed underutilized. I won’t say under populated, though there was hardly any shuffling for elbow room. At times it felt like fishing in a stocked pond. The ease with which you could, for example, handle the feel of a Nikon D3 or a Canon 1Ds Mark III, or saunter over to watch a notable expert giving a free software or hardware demonstration, was remarkable. Well regarded graphics gurus held court at small vendor booths giving one-on-one help to anyone interested, without a queue of waiting devotees. Other well known instructors held free classes for mere handfuls of students (some of whom looked like they just needed a place to sit).

Absences were worth noting as well, with some major retailers and publishers opting out of attending. One of the largest publishers of digital photography and Adobe books had a booth, but when I stopped by to check it out the booth stood empty except for their name on a placard behind the bare folding table. I tried to find some reporters that were covering the event and was told, “Press booth? We don’t have a press booth.”

I was very happy to make, and renew, some acquaintances, and those moments make any event worthwhile. The character of the show is very much geared towards portrait studios and wedding photographers. The expo seminars, and accompanying photo exhibition, make that bias fairly clear. Still, anyone wanting an up close, hands on opportunity to handle equipment without the long lines of NYC, or hoping for a few minutes with their favorite author, might consider attending this event in the future. Just don’t stay near the stadium unless you are going to the game.

(One side note, in case anyone from PPA reads this: the photography exhibition that accompanies the expo needs serious improvement in the way it is hung. The prints were slung over the dividing drapes cloths-hanger style, 3 prints clipped together, edge-to-edge, vertically without photographer names. Volume seemed to trump quality, I imagine to please the masses of PPA members that paid to enter work. Still I would not want my own work displayed that way, and the overall effect of viewing hundreds of prints slung down from the dividers from triple-tier clips, was more numbing than inspiring.)
Posted by Steve Weinrebe