From face recognition to image stabilization, from GPS to Foveon sensors, what happened over these past few days in Vegas definitely won’t stay in Vegas (sorry, I couldn’t resist).

Consumer products are getting more personalized, pro products more refined and accessories more cool. GE ran out of promo pieces quickly because, they say, all the competition already sunk their teeth into its materials to digest on the plane ride home. With six sleek consumer snappers in sexy colors, two pro-oriented prototypes from the X-Series set to be released, and a toaster-size quick printer; they truly believe they are entering a market that is as unsaturated as soy butter.

Canon reps are jazzed about the deal on the table to build a new headquaterers in Long Island that will have a campus-like setting not unlike the one built for a very popular software company in Redmond, Wa. Canon’s “Explorers of Light program” was buzzing around the showroom floor with huge, panoramaic cavases as demonstrations. Parish Kohanim (check out his business cards), Greg Gorman and Eddie Tapp are among the artists involved. Center stage at the Nikon booth photog. Tony Corbell passionately peddled Nik Capture NX software, heralding, in particular, its automatic Color Booster feature. He explained how it worked wonders with overcast photos from a recent trip to London.

Samsung’s photo bridge, designed for as a place for shooters to try out the new GX-10 on the show floor, was a very popular booth, especially with humans of the male persuasion. I couldn’t resist seeing why all the men were hundled together shooting with their own cameras. Checking it out, I saw a young woman, apparently naked but completely covered in body paint to simulate a tiger. And while the men may not have been using the Samsung model to shoot her, I’m pretty sure they won’t forget that booth. Other creative methods used to summon the crowds over include Ink Open’s , maker of cartridge refilling systems, ”Karaoke Idol” stage, complete with people brave enough to sing right on the show floor. One exhibitor had a Tina Turner impersonator rushing through the halls, followed by a swarm of mock paparazzi-but you had to follow her to see who the mock-singer was representing. Perhaps a flaw in approach.

A booth tour at Sony revealed Wi-Fi and streaming capabilites with the G-1 line, green infrared and an ability to shoot at 1/4,000th of a sec with the H-9 NightShot, although you won’t be able to shoot at 1/4,000 of a sec at night. Sony says what makes this a favorite, is that it is the perfect marriage of a point-and-shoot with a DSLR which makes it a good choice for a pro who wants to travel lightly. A trend this year seems to be the portable printers. While packaged for the consumer, they certainly are a good option for a pro who wants a client to view proofs and for portablity. If fact, with a car voltage converter, Sony’s DPP-FP90 can print in the middle of a wildlife preserve a hundred miles from civilization. A good choice for professionals who shoot sports is the pro UP-DR150, it prints in 7 seconds, and delivers 4×6 quality prints. Execs say it’s already being used by photo pros to shoot the golf pros on the green. 

The fact that accessories are important in fashion has seemed to crossover to the photo market, as accessories were all the rage. Cute photo bags for women looked that looked more like designer purses were omnipresent. Crumpler’s trendy specialty bags were showcased in their traditional cardboard Pet Shop. In addition, MFuel had its Power Banks displayed, which uses a single, high-capacity Lithium ion battery to fuel all personal multimedia content on-the-go, including a cell phone, blackberry, ipod, laptop and cell phone. A fun accessory that had a debut on The Today Show was the Quik Pod. This cute accessory is an extendable, handheld tripod and is being trumpeted as the world’s first. It can convert easily from tabletop to handheld and weights the same as a pair of sunglasses. Through a distibution deal with LifePics, PixFusion debuted photo-personalized videos. It allows consumers to order an audio and photo-personalized cartoon adventure DVD. And then, for clean freaks and neurotics like me, there was the new Visible Dust camera cleaning product for pros, the Artic Butterfly SD 800. All in all, a great show. People are so passionate about the exhibitors that I saw people taking home every bag, from every vendor, but not filling them. When I asked one man what he was doing with them, he said that he’ll hang them on the walls of his studio when he returns home to Jamaica tomorrow.

Another gorgeous day in the city that never sleeps. I have a new-found jealousy for westerners. They’ve got the weather, the desert’s mysterious vibe of energy that seems to flow through them and they can see Cirque de Soleil, Elton John and party at the Palms all in one week. 

Friday, I began my day with a morning session, “Marketing Ideas Exchange” moderated by William McCurry of McCurry Associates. What was interesting, was how many of the dealers/retailers’ ideas translated to promotions a pro shooter could offer to his or her clients. Here are some of the best presented: offering free prints (no strings attached) when customers purchase a camera, which can be presented via punch card or coffee card look alike; offer one day a week discounts, such as a Free-Friday; have people get on photo kiosks by offering the first 30 prints free, this gets them to use the kiosks; present customers with specialty-made mouse pads with your company logo and information, to cut costs make it yourself by using a copy machine and a heat press; create a slogan that can be used on the radio or on print promos; and offer discount cards to  community-based locations, such as the PTA and schools. At the forum, the owner of a small company in Barbados said a monthly competition with a camera prize, significantly added to their customer base by asking the customers who completed the entrance form add the email addresses of three other people. This caused their email list to inflate, jumping from 3,000 names to 10,000 names. Other retailers mail out color newsletters, offer kids $25 to stuff mailboxes with flyers and offer events with give-aways such as a “Girls Night Out” event offered by a store in Australia. While at the talk, I met the self-acclaimed “oldest photo retail operator” 80-something Fred Ernst.  Meanwhile, at an afternoon press conference, a small, but growing company, Albumprinter, popular in Europe, is banking on interest in America. The maker of desktop photo book solutions announced an alliance with Lightening Source, the on-demand-based book manufacturer, to publish personalized soft and hard-cover albums. I thought they would make a great option as a photographer’s portfolio. My favorite was the personalized day planners.

Later in the day, Photo Trade News (PTN) honored its Dealer of the Year, Bedford Camera & Video, out of Little Rock, Arkansas, with a reception at the Vegas Hilton Hotel. It wasn’t hard to see why the photo retail chain  is successful after watching a DVD presented of its catchy TV commercials shown and the humility, spirit and leadership of their CEO, Stan Bedford, who gave a moving and inspirational speech before about 100 people. We appreciate Olympus letting us try out their newest digital recorder model to podcast the event. Later, at an Apple-friendly Aperture event it looked like Adobe’s similar product, Lightroom 1.0, could have a run for its money or maybe earn a good friend.-a.s. 

When “The Today Show” said that Las Vegas was their “Pick City” of the day, I knew it’d be a wonderful day in the convention center. In fact, since the doors flew open there has been a renewed sense of energy and hope that rivals years of old. Manufacturers are touting incredible new technology and refining bells and whistles. They seem determined to stay on the cutting edge and continue to offer new products to a customer base that will continue to grow. And technology has gotten more “cool” than ever as those who make and offer products want to make the lives of those who use them easier— so we can have more time to take pictures, to take care of our kids, to focus on our jobs, to travel and enjoy life without being chained to a computer monitor for half our lives.

PMA estimates that photo imaging is an $83 billion worldwide industry. This was reflected in the fact that this 83rd annual convention is host to 600 exhibitors, 400 speakers and 250 educational sessions. Although the audited attendance figures won’t be available until a month after the show, buzz is that attendance is up from last year.

Thursday there were three “official” press conferences: DIMA Shoot-Out winners were announced, KIS/Photo-Me and Lowepro made announcements of their own. Actor Danny Glover was on the scene today to speak at the spouse’s luncheon, but I have yet to meet anyone who saw him. [If you did please let us know].

As soon as I hit the show floor, I was struck by the crowd at booth Sigma and learned that the much-anticipated SD14 camera, touted as being “faithful to the colors of nature” with Foveon X3 technology was ready to roll. You couldn’t miss a very bright newcomer GE, which introduced its very first line of digital cameras by its new General Imaging branch, that includes eight cameras and a printer. It seems like they are part of the “in” crowd already and are definitely NOT eating lunch alone while the cool kids laugh and giggle. GE’s emergence seems to be taken seriously by all the “popular” kids, if you will. This year some regulars, such as Apple and Adobe, have chosen not to have booths but are available to media in technology suites.

Speaking of Adobe, because I know our imaginginfo.com readers love Photoshop, I hung out with the Adobe crew for a succulent dinner at the newest hotel on the Vegas strip, The Wynn. I guess a bit of Vegas’ lady luck must have rubbed off because I was lucky enough to be sandwiched between Lightroom 1.0 mastermind and product manager Tom Hogarty and Adobe spokeswoman extraordinaire Sherry Shen. I discovered that Adobe would be releasing two new products this year, a new version of Photoshop as well as a tweaked version geared for architects. As reporters mingled with the Adobe crew, it was inspiring to see a team so passionate about what they do and so democratic about the promotion of technology and technique for its sake and not as a way to corner the marketplace. As I munched on a crab salad, poached salmon in leek sauce and pineapple sorbet, I learned from Hogarty, former digital consultant to Fashion Photog Steven Maisel that Lightroom lets users import, manage and present large volumes of photos. Adobe conducted a public beta program over the last year with more than 500,000 photographers participating. In the program’s Library mode, an advanced keyword tool helps to comb through large collections and there is a color label ranking system. For some really cool color, if you have time, check out the light show in the outdoor bar area at the Wynn. Way cool.

As technology and creativity continue to align in our business many interesting alliances have popped up such as HP’s alliance with DreamWorks Animation, makers of films like Shrek, and the Indigo line, which include products with “a nice, gooey interface,” according to an HP spokeswoman. Some personalization-based exhibitors that added to the eclectic aurora at PMA included Hasbro Games, Picture My Wine, Kenneth Cole and The Picture Mug Company. The Hasbro product creates full-size personalized photo puzzles.

The most-thrilling part of my day was discovering at the Women’s Roundtable midday session that women are contributing to the business of photography in amazing ways. Coincidently timed with International Women’s Day, the four female speakers (visit womeninimaging.com for more info) seem to be opening the door to an industry roadway that looks a bit different than in the past. One that when customers ask to see the owner of a studio/lab/store, they shouldn’t expect that it will be a man. And the sign you see from the road just may be pink. More later. –a.s.

Can’t say I hit the ground running today, but I am definitely inspired. It’s barely lunchtime and today I’ve hailed a cab in Paris, seen the New York City skyline and flew over the Nevada desert in the middle of the night. Making the mistake of taking an evening flight in winter (father Winter has finally decided to go to work), my 8:30 p.m. flight out of D.C. was delayed due to the one to three inches of snow blanketing the area. The delay ended up being much longer with some strange, rather noisy maintenance thing being done on the aircraft before we took off (was this de-icing, I wondered?). But I grew to feel comfortable in my airbus capsule in the sky. I must say, America West made up for the delays with extras like treats and a free movie. I got to see the film, Casino Royale, for free and the latest charming 007, played by Daniel Craig, allowed me to drift off in a trance-like dreamy state, taking breaks to drink my ginger ale and to give my bags of free pretzels to my snoring neighbor, since I’m allergic to wheat. Like the sweet sound of a mother’s whisper, I awoke to the words of the captain saying we were soon to touchdown in Vegas.

Now I have never been to Vegas, day or night, but I can’t imagine anything as stunning as what I saw. Flying over the area in the pitch black of night reminded me that there are miracles. We flew over the vast expanse of black nothingness. Right in the middle of the void, with not a twinkle of light in sight, sat, rather majestically, this glowing planet-called Las Vegas. Gold, glittery, twinkling (everything it represents on earth) placed in the middle of nowhere. This was one of the most amazing sites of my entire life. As we approached the landing strip, the pilot almost clipped mountains before the shining scene was truly revealed in all its glory. I’ve heard that Vegas is one of the few places that you can see from outer space and that’s probably true. How did they get all that stuff out in the middle of the desert though? This absolutely fascinates me. Are there even roads in the dusty dark? I plan to head out to the desert myself before I leave here.

In the air, I asked myself, why all of us who love photography travelled out to the middle of the desert to attend this show. Sure, some may be thinking ‘well, the casinos silly’, others may think it makes sense economically. I think the real reason is our industry is as exciting as the place itself. A captivating photo has the power to truly light up the desert in the middle of the night. Later today: a recap of events and news.

Five prominent photographers talk about the importance of film in a world of digital imaging. Speakers include: Steve McCurry, Chris Usher and John Sexton. Held at the Helen Hayes Theater in New York City on November 2, 2006. 

 

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