Grab Shots: Expo Exposed

Think Tank Photo video Photo Plus Expo, the mega photo show in New York, was last weekend. I uusually don’t have much interest in these events — I don’t need any more reasons to separate me and my money — but after reading and seeing these reports from the show I might have to make it to one. Here’s a wrap-up:

* Think Tank video: Photographer Kurt Rogers,  one of the founders of Think Tank Photo and and ex-newspaper colleague of mine, assembled a video of the action at Think Tank’s booth. That’s Kurt’s wife and co-founder Deanne Fitzmaurice, left, who won a Pulitizer while shooting for the S.F. Chronicle.

 * Kelby’s Take: Scott Kelby provides  a big wrap on the show, highlighting the buzz (video on DSLRs, what was missing (Adobe) and New York food (Keen’s Chophouse — “amazing steaks and atmosphere.” Only one low spot: A workshop in which “the instructor didn’t teach anything—he just showed slides and talked about himself (and how much smarter he was than the art directors, and the clients, and well…everybody).”

* Video Reports: John Harrington of Photo Business News walks the floor and does on-camera interviews with Think Tank, Photoshelter, Orbis and more. Here are his reports from Day 1 and Day 2.

Grab Shots: Grit, Wisdom & Laughs

Spent the last couple of days making the leap from PC to Mac. While setting up the browsers, I did some link cleaning. Some are worth sharing — a true grab bag:

Scoltt Kelby* Get Gritty: Scott Kelby tells us how to get that “cool, gritty look.”

* Find Some Release: A page of model releases from the National Press Photographers Association.

* List of Lists: This buy has made a list of 87 photo sites he consider great.

* Talking about Seeing: Pixchannel has interviews with great photographers — like Eddie Adams and Ruth Bernhard — on why they do what they do.

* Obama Rama: The New York Times as a zippy compilation of readers’ photos of the Obama inaugural (told you I was doing some deep cleaning!).

* Foiled Again: David Hobby, aka The Strobist, tells us how to use aluminum foil for shiny table top photos.

* For Laughs: Get your eyes out of the histogram and onto xkcd, a web comic. Here’s a panel about photography.

Grab Shots: Annie Hocks Her Work

*Pawn My Photos: Annie Leibovitz has hocked all “copyrights … photographic negatives … contract rights” to work (past and future) as well as several pieces of real estate in exchange for a $15.5 million loan from a company called Art Capital Group, essentially an art pawn shop for the well-to-do. In other words, as the New York Times put it today, “one of the world’s most successful photographers essentially pawned every snap of the shutter she had made or will make until the loans are paid off.”

* Shooting Annie: Seattle photographer John Keatley talks with Feature Shoot about photographing Leibovitz: “I didn’t want to over think it, or get too worked up so far in advance. So I took a vacation to Mexico!”

* Making a Difference: Zack Arias produces a video for Scott Kelby in which he explores how to make his mark on “this massive matter of visual pollution we serve up every day.”

* Hot Shoe Diaries: That’s the title of Joe McNally’s new book on shooting with speedlights. Good stuff for those of use who don’t know everything. Pre-order it here.

* May I Shoot? No! Mary Ellen Mark talks about photographing Marlon Brando on the set of The Missouri Breaks. Brando’s rule, she tells LA Weekly, “was that set photographers must always ask permission before shooting him. Every time. And the answer was always no.” (Via A Photo Editor.)