Day 1 at PhotoPlus and Unrelated Hawk

Day 1 at PhotoPlus and Unrelated Hawk.

 

This Hawk has nothing to do with this post, sort of. So yesterday was the first day of PhotoPlus up here in NYC. When I was boarding the airplane yesterday in Atlanta, I saw my friend and fellow photographer Rob Knight getting on board as well. I asked if he was headed to the show and he said yes. I asked if he was interested in sharing a cab, and again he agreed. Talking with Rob was a nice distraction for me in the cab because it took my attention off of the near 500 collisions we would encounter on the way to the Javit’s Center. Now it takes me a couple of trips to get used to style of driving up here, it reminds me of cars trying to merge at the drive thru at Bojangles if the Cajun Filet biscuits were 5 cents for a morning. I also realized they put a little tv screen in the back seat to cover up all the honking that goes on. I think if your horn is broken up here, you could be in serious trouble.

 

I checked in at the Javit’s Center and got my name badges, then started to wander. I saw lots of old friends up here so far. I talked with a lot of photographers, who are super interested in all the cool gear available. I saw and/or talked with photographers that were here for the networking, meeting folks and some hoping to get sponsors for their businesses. That is always kind of funny to watch. I know from experience of being here before, it is amazing how some folks will just come to the show to convince the manufacturers they “need” to send them free gear. Its part of the business, I know, I have sponsors, but some folks are pretty ruthless in their attempts.

 

I got to hang out with some great folks at the Tamron Booth, it is the one time of the year I can see all of them at once. What a great group of folks, I am honored to call them my friends. Same with the folks at the Sirui Booth. The photo industry is small enough where everyone almost knows everyone, much like my hometown of Jasper. One huge highlight of hanging out in the Tamron Booth was seeing and playing with the new Tamron 100-400mm Di VC lens. What a great lens! I did a few images to test it shooting fairly far away and was really impressed with the sharpness! It will be hitting the streets soon and at $799 it will be a huge hit!

 

My presentation at the Tamron Booth was a lot of fun and I had a crowd of “standing room only” folks, not because there were hundreds of people but because there were no chairs! Seriously though, they were super, very interactive with my presentation and had lots of great questions. Ken Hubbard, from Tamron, and I left shortly after the presentation to head over to the Lincoln Center for my presentation to the Sierra Photo NY group. The area of the Lincoln Center we were in was where the Julliard and NY Opera folks meet. I didn’t know what to expect but I was very pleasantly surprised so many folks from the big city came to hear a country boy talk about photography. Again, lots of great questions, they laughed at my jokes (don’t judge them for that), and we went out to a great little diner after the presentation. Just a fantastic group and I look forward to seeing many of them again in the next few days as well as the future.

 

Back to the Hawk, it is a 6 month old Red-tailed Hawk from the picnic last week. I haven’t had the opportunity to get the camera out here yet so I had to post something! I added a few new birds to my life list so far, the Blue Light Warbler and the Red Light Warbler, both make the sound similar to sirens. Both are active during daylight and at night. My favorite so far is the Yellow Cab Horned Warbler, which makes the sound of a car horn. You hear a lot more than you see. 😉

 

I will say this, I really like the people of NYC, they are friendly, helpful and honest. I asked directions from several folks and it amazed me at how they would go out of their way to help. Very much like my hometown, just several million more folks here.

 

I won’t give all the details on the image, I’ve rambled enough, but it was made with the Tamron 150-600mm Di VC USD lens on a Nikon D-800E and a Sirui EP204S monopod. #WithMyTamron, #TamronUSA, #TamronLensesUSA, #TamronImageMaster, #Sirui, #SiruiUSA, #SiruiProfessional