10/19/2007

PhotoPlus Expo in NYC

I had a fantastic time yesterday at the PhotoPlus Expo in NYC. Unfortunately I had to leave early, after just one day, but it was still great to see lots of great friends and spend some quality time with some of our favorite vendors.

Both GraphiStudio and liveBooks were sporting sexy new booths that were much bigger and badder than the booths they had in March at WPPI. It's always exciting to see good companies growing and flourishing.

I started at Graphi first thing in the morning. It was pretty exciting to see the new booth...
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...and almost as exciting to see the line-up of speakers.
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The always cool Joe Buissink
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I thought it was pretty sweet that Joe Buissink, unquestionably one of the best photographers in the universe was opening for me!!!! Then I saw that Bob Davis, another amazing celebrity photographer was speaking immediately after me! That left me thinking, man, I'm among some pretty good company!!! That's when it hit me and I was brought back to reality. For some reason, I remembered when I was in college and NBC had their Thursday night "Must See TV" lineup. It was Friends at 8 pm, Seinfeld at 9 pm, and I could never remember what was on in between them. Can you? They always sandwiched some little new show between the two powerhouses. But hey, that's fine. I'm honored and flattered to share the mic with Joe and Bob any day. And it's even a bigger honor to be able to represent such a fine company!

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The incomparable Bob Davis
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A special thanks to the Graphi staff of Maureen, Michelle, Julie, Becky, Mike, and the guys from Italy. You are all so kind.

Then I spent a few minutes with superstar videographer Ron Dawson of Cinematic Studios. Ron just launched a new podcast called F-Stop Beyond, and so we sat down for a few minutes to talk candidly about family and faith and the challenges of balancing life and running a photography business. Ron is an amazing guy and I can't wait to get to know him and his family more in the future.

Then I ran (literally!) back downstairs to the liveBooks booth to spend a few minutes talking about the Creative Portrait Session that we like to do at weddings. Since I was 20 minutes late there wasn't anyone sitting there waiting, so I got things set up and ready to go and just started talking. A few people stood around and then from out of nowhere, Joe B. came walking up and took a seat. I was disappointed that he didn't take notes, but flattered nonetheless that he stayed as long as he did. LOL! I'm quite certain he was just patronizing me. I guess what goes around comes around. ;-) Fortunately our dear friends Mark and Rachel from LaCour stuck with me so that was nice. I really wanted to make it over to the Leica booth to see Andrew, but it wasn't in the cards.

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Here's our good friend and liveBooks rep, J Sandifer. We first met J when he was with Pictage and I'll never forget when he called to tell us he had left to go to liveBooks. We were so excited because that meant that we'd get to work closely with him again. J is usually a really nice and patient guy, but I'm not sure about his expression in this shot. It was well past lunchtime and I'm thinking he was ready for a break.
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After leaving liveBooks, I raced to the airport and flew to Orlando. It was a great time seeing so many great friends. We're looking forward to seeing many of you again in Tampa in January. Cheers!

3 comments:

emilie said...

So great to chat w/ you for a bit, Garrett! I am so impressed with how much you squeezed in during your trip!

Amy Martin said...

Great to meet you at the livebooks booth! :)

J said...

Thanks for speaking at the booth! Not sure who I was talking to at that point, but you wouldn't believe some of the questions I had in NY.

Such a whirlwind! Looking forward to spending more time with you guys up here in Maine in a few weeks...travel safely.