At an event where talent and superstars are ubiquitous, there was a clear star of the show today–the one and only Bill Eppridge. In an amazing event held at the PhotoPlus theater hosted by pulitzer prize-winning journalist formerly of CNN Peter Arnett (now teaching in China), 50 years of a storied photojournalism career was honored in stories and images.

For those who don’t know, Bill took many iconic photographs including the pics of the Beatles’ first trip to America and the poignant and iconic photo of a Los Angeles busboy cradling a dying Robert Kennedy in the kitchen of the Ambassador Hotel, just seconds after he was shot.

These legendary photos are the result of a three-day assignment for Life to follow a “little known” band called the Beatles, including their visit to the Ed Sullivan show and another assignment to cover Robert Kennedy’s entire presidential candidacy.

While it was thrilling and spine-tingling to see these photos up close on a huge screen while the two men chatted about the experience like they were in their own living room–a third project captivated me immensely. It was Bill’s compelling photo series of Needle Stick Park.

In 1965, he followed around and lived with a white, middle class couple addicted to shooting up heroin. This experience seemed to really resonate within the silence of the 300 people gathered. The series demonstrated the absolute beauty of photography’s realism and the talent of man who could have only taken such intimate pictures if he were able to blend in or almost become part of the dangerous circle he was capturing.

“You become part of it,” said Bill. “You dress the way they dress, you talk the way they talk…”

Added Arnett: “The best photographers have the ability to blend in.”

We saw the whole stream of 20-plus photographs that told their harrowing story of the love between and man and a woman competing for the love of a fix.- Only about five in the series made it onto Life magazine.

The son of a judge from New Jersey and the daughter of an upper middle class Long Island family, Karen and John, allowed Bill into their lives of petty theft, prostitution, hospitalization and desperation.

It was Bill that talked the couple into doing the shoot-convincing them to do something good for someone else for a change. They did that as well as shatter the stereotype of who a “druggie” was. The photo series was the inspiration for Al Pacino’s first movie “Panic in Needle Park.” Arnett said the series was like a “beautifully written novel.” I’d have to agree. It was visual poetry. One of the most beautiful things I have ever seen.

But one of the scariest.

“His list of assignments are unbelievable in breath and would test any photographer,” said Arnett.

Some of Bill’s mottos include: “They pay you one day’s work for three days–one to worry, one to shoot and one to recover.” “You only get one perfect shot and you need to be ready.” “‘You have to do your research so when you go in you are ready for anything.” “I never want to shoot the same thing twice,” said Bill to his editors at Life.

Another compelling part of the talk was the fact that Bill got so close to Robert Kennedy because he spent so much time on the road with him. He believes that he would have been an amazing president–that he had a talent that was probably more incredible than his brother John.

If you’d like to hear more stories about the Robert Kennedy, Bill has a book out called “A Time it Was.”

In other PhotoPlus news, there are some new guys exhibiting at the expo for the first time. At least one is extremely notable.

Microsoft.

Why are they here?

Well, that is a question that 20-year veteran photographer Jeff Greene, now a technical evangelist for Microsoft can answer. He is part of the company’s Icons of Imaging program.

It seems the company is throwing its hat into the ring to compete against the likes of Adobe, Apple and others by taking charge in marketing the upgrades to Microsoft Pro Photo Tools, Microsoft Expressions Media (2) and Phase One’s Capture One- Media Pro- is an already released product that is an image management/editing/archiving software that’s compatible with Apple/Mac.

Pumping up the marketing by talks like Greene’s I think shows their belief in the product that is billed as NOT being “cool and sexy” like other products are today, but something you will thank your lucky stars about in several years when you’re looking for that photograph that you took today.

“It’s an extra insurance policy,” said Greene.

The strategic partnership with Capture One was due to realization that the Phase One product had “great processing software.” The software has a guided, logical workflow and has a strength in skin tonality.

The pro fashion and commercial photographers loves this,” says Greene. But it is easy enough for a mom to organize her family photos on. It provides lots of areas to embed text.

Greene added that audiences are “wowed” that it takes only 90 seconds for him to load his 4,000 image collection.

Microsoft is offering a special show price of $199. See their web site for more information. Meanwhile, other newbie exhibitors to the show include: Hasselblad and Casio.

The show began Thursday as people were travelling into the city by bus, train and plane.

As soon as I boarded the LIRR line and took my seat on the train, the conversation about photography began. Two women sitting across from me discussed their photos the entire hour it took to get into the city. Mostly they debated on which works better for them–Bibble or Aperture.

The brisk cold hit my face as I walked out into the sunlight in the 30 degree weather for my 10 minute walk to the Jacob Javits Center. I was thinking–this is my third or fourth PhotoPlus–and it never gets old.

The conversation about photography never ends like how the technology for it is always evolving.

These challenges are what make the craft so exciting. Evidence of this is embodied by a more intimate show like PhotoPlus–where you can easily listen to the conversations people are having without being distracted by too much information–and where the focus is not always on what’s new (as a lot of products are introduced a month before at photokina) but what photographers are doing with the new products.

Greg Gorman talked about his love affair with the Canon EoS 5D Mark II. He uses it especially for his personal work. He used it on a recent project for Homeland Security-travelling around the country shooting images of “ordinary people.”

Hanson Fong recently discovered Canon’s EoS 50D for his wedding work. After decades if shooting weddings he passionately shared with an audience of more than 100 his intimate secrets to shooting weddings.

The most important?

“Making the bride look good. It’s all about the bride.” Fong explained that the secret to this is positioning–having the bride stand a few inches behind the groom to appear smaller and shooting at various angles.

“The secret to posing is creating uneven height,” he told the crowd.

The beauty of the Canon workflow said Fong is the ability to take pictures at a wedding and showcase them at the reception.

Meanwhile, the conversation at Nikon was all about the new D3-a camera so advanced, especially for shooting action like sports-that it is causing some non-Nikon pros to make the switch. At the booth, a D3 was displayed cut in half, exposing all the insides. People were standing around in awe of the guts. Shooters were then able to try out the D3 at various stations with varying lenses.

Recently, I interviewed Ron Wyatt who covered the Olympics for Kodak with the D3. He was amazed at the results he got with it shooting historical moments in China.

Lighting magician Joe McNally was sharing his tips at the Nikon booth.

A passionate Matthew Jordan Smith praised the new Sony A900. “It’s sharp, quick and light,” he said. His ability to be able to depend on his equipment allows him to focus full-heartedly on his of celebrity photography and magazine work. He lit up as he shared his insights with the other shooters.

“I always do research before a celebrity shoot,” he said. “I always have the right drinks, know what they like to listen to, maybe light candles and give all the (female) celebrity clients flowers at the end of the shoot. Every time she walks out, she is carrying flowers. This never gets old.”

Smith relayed a story of the great talent Aretha Franklin.

“I was told she was difficult to shoot, so I sent her yellow roses-her favorite- before the shoot.” This small act, he explained, set the stage for the whole job. She arrived and commented on the gift. “We talked about food the whole time.”

She was so happy with Smith, she even began singing at the shoot. The shooter was stunned when she recently called him to run by a name for her new album. “She called to ask me what I think.” As soon as Smith hung up with the singer he called his mother in awe of what just happened.

“That is what happens when you create an atmosphere,” said Smith. “You are creating trust. They trust you with their image.”

Software is a big draw at the show this year and the competition between like companies is heating up. In this economy shooters, now more than ever, are looking for more bang for their buck. Imagenomic will release a photoshop/aperture plug-in Portraiture 2 in mid-November as they complete the compatibility with the newly launched Photoshop CS4. Their biggest competition is Anthropics’ Portrait Professional– recently released.

The founder and CEO has big plans for the company. “Down the road we will stay compatible with the big guys, but not be dependent on them,” he said. The upgrade works wonders on skin retouching and is stuffed with wonderful “workflow centric” new tools like the default latitude option and the ability to save settings in presets of groups as well as the ability to add notes to the prints.

It’s a free upgrade or $170-$200 depending on the version.

At an evening Adobe event at NYC’s Daniel’s Restaurant, the new launch of CS4 and Lightroom 2.0 were the big topics. One of Adobe’s Photoshop technology guru’s explained that never before has the Photoshop conversation been hotter at a show-”Probably because we just released it before PhotoPlus,” he said.

People want to know how all the cool new features can affect their workflow, he said.

The coolest new feature: the abilty to expand and compress a photo by choosing the visual noise you want to remove-like the wall or the floor-giving the shooter the ability to have everything they do want in a photograph. The practical applications?

Well, that’s all part of the conversation.

Stayed tuned for more blog updates from PhotoPlus 2008!

So by now you’re probably a master at texting on your fancy cell-phone QWERTY keyboard, and a pro at downloading ringtones. You’ve also surely taken more than a few pictures with that handy in-phone camera of your kids, your friends, your dog. And while your “Albums” file probably doesn’t have a lot of pictures that rival those you’ve taken with your real digicam, perhaps there are a couple that show some artistic promise, a strange technological aesthetic that can only be achievable in the heat of the moment (when you don’t have your real camera with you and have to rely on the ol’ horn).

Well, now all those who have clicked and captured on the go can get their change to show off their skills to the world with a unique new exhibit being held by the Brandt Gallery in Cleveland, OH. The “At The Cellular Level — Cell Phone Photography as Art” showcase, scheduled to open next month, will be comprised of cell-phone photography from both everyday amateurs and (supposedly) professionals. Interested parties simply have to download images from their phone and send them to cellphonephotoshow @ yahoo.com, or e-mail them directly from their phone.

I anticipate most of the submissions will be from the amateur side, closet imagers who will test their creativity without having to outlay any money for new equipment. I’d like to think most people who own cell phones already have one with a built-in camera, though I sheepishly admit that I just updated my own dial-up dinosaur at the Sprint store over the summer (I was basically laughed out of the store when they saw how old my phone was).

I don’t think many professionals, on the other hand, will be entirely pleased with the quality of their captures, at least compared to what they’re used to getting on a daily basis in the studio or on location. However, there may be some pros who view this as yet another unique visual medium with its own requisite challenges; others may be drawn to the raw, on-the-fly nature that cell-phone photography necessitates.

it should be interesting, at any rate, to witness what comes out of this exhibit. I can’t ever see a pro trading in his or her Canon or Nikon for a Samsung or Nokia, but we could have a new creative outlet on our hands in its own right.

So I’ve been doing alot of driving back and forth from my home in Arlington, Virginia to my folks hometown in Lancaster, Pa. The reason is, unfortunately, because my mom was in the hospital and later, at home, but recuperating. On one of the trips when she was first in the hospital, it was the beginning of September.

Just two hours north and more provincial, in Pennsylvania the leaves were already changing color, the nights were brisk, and the air smelled like burning leaves. This first trip was pretty draining, my mom had invasive surgery and was still in ICU when I had to leave for home.

In the car driving home, I felt unstable, unbalanced and unwell. So I began the first leg of the journey home with just enough gas so I’d have to stop about 1/2 into the trip. I got off at an exit with a name I’ve never paid attention to before that day–something like Shrewsbury, Pa.–it was near a Kmart.

It was dusk when I got out of the car. I filled up and ran into the attached convenience store for some cheese puffs for some organized emotional eating. It was when I went to get back in the car with the cheese puff bag that I noticed something extraordinary. Around the back of this gas station sat a farm vacant except for thousands of harvested corn husks sitting still on the cold ground. Next to that was a single, spectacular tree that looked like a fireworks display in all autumn’s glory. It stood proud but silent. No wind blew. It was quiet. No soul in sight. The sun was setting on the whole scene. It was just about the most beautiful thing I had ever witnessed. I didn’t have any proper camera with me, but I had to capture this view.

I took out my cell phone and began snapping away behind the gas station until day turned into night. After the whole photographing process was over, a strange thing happened. I felt better and complete again. It didn’t matter that the images were taken on a hot pink motorola camera phone with an At&t wireless plan. (Even though the photos came out pretty good.) The creative act of photography had the immense power to lift me from my depressed state to one of hope and pleasure.

That scene is something my own mother would have appreciated and stopped for. That was the “her” in “me.” I felt like it was going to be OK. And a month later, it really was.

One of the photos still serves as my phone’s desktop picture.

With all the problems going in today’s world, do me a favor. Try to stop and notice the views behind the 7-11 store or the view on your drive to the bank or the gas station. Carry a camera in your back seat or trunk. It just might make you feel better.