A couple of weeks ago I had the good fortune to make it out to a little bit of WPPI (Wedding & Portrait Photographers International) at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas. It was a great show this year and I had the chance to catch up with some other New England photographers while I was out there. Here’s Matt with a mini magnetic accordion photo book from CPQ Professional Photo Lab.
There were some amazing custom painted backdrops and classy looking props by Barbour Backdrops. These were seriously gorgeous hand painted canvases that don’t have a hint of that old school cheesy look that painted backdrops can have sometimes.
Just look at the texture on this backdrop!
Barbour’s posing stools were pretty trick as well, sporting two different style sides and Interchangeable covers.
Drop it Modern was also showcasing some funky fabric based drops.
Our all-time favorite album maker, Finao, was spread over some serious sq. footage on the show floor. They had a huge Moroccan influenced booth lounge set-up with what had to be 100 albums laid about couches, scoop chairs, coffee tables and ottomans. The place was packed all day. It was great to see some of the really out there cover material options in the flesh. I left with lots of cool ideas for future MKD sample books.
We also had the pleasure of meeting Rebecca Shostak (left) and Meghan Aileen (right) of The Shoppe – Design for Photographers. The have some awesome brushes, templates, actions, elements, and branding packages on their site. It’s all great stuff for the graphically design challenged. For instance, check out this branding package.
Here I am standing on the trade show floor in an alley. LOL.
I finally got a chance to suit up in a Steadicam Flyer LE while I was at the show. It’s just the right combination of being robust enough to fly some heavier rigs, but not approach the price of a new 3-Series BMW. Steve Ostrander from Tiffen was a great help and more than happy to talk shop about the ins and outs while I really got a feel for the rig. What an awesome piece of equipment.
When we weren’t on the show floor we managed to eat in some great restaurants and check out some cool spots.
This is a mini Lenin statue (fake bird droppings and all) from outside the Red Square Restaraunt at the Mandalay Bay.
Interior decoration? Russian Soviet propaganda posters and red lights, obviously! Plus, being a Russian facsimile, they boast a HUGE vodka selection and an ice bar to keep it all cool. The food was excellent even though no one was adventurous as the three of us ordered the same thing, the Roquefort Filet.
From there we checked out the Foundation Room at the top of the Mandalay. The interior decor was very cool, and very dark. It was a good test for the D700’s 6400 ISO and the new Nikon 16-35 f/4 AF-S VR on loan from LensProToGo. I wondered how this combination would fare in such a dark space, especially only being an f/4 but man the VR did a great job. The exposure ended up being 1/4 of a second and these look great at 100%.
This was the view of the strip from the Foundation Room terrace. This is tack sharp hand held at a 1/10th of a second @ 25mm.
All in all it was a good trip. It wasn’t the same without Kate there but maybe next year we can both make it out for a few days. Signing off!
-Mike
Looks like it was a lot of fun! I’m so jealous…you three look like you had a great time!
Wow great pics with the 16-35!