PMA (the Photo Marketing Association) is one of the largest photography trade shows in the world, exceeded only by Photokina, held in Europe. In late January, I headed out to Las Vegas for a whirlwind tour of this tradeshow to look for new products for the NatureScapes store. Squeezing hundreds of vendor booths and a few hundred thousand square feet of trade show space into 36 hours created a frantic sense of urgency, but Super Bowl weekend loomed, and with it Las Vegas' busiest weekend of the year. I had to get in, work the show, and get out before hotel rates escalated to insane levels.
PMA is a true mix of people—attendees from all over the world, from serious business people to gawking equipment geeks. Vendor booths range from the fabulous huge pavilions of Canon, Nikon and Sony to the crowded, small booths of photo accessory companies. The large pavilions were the eye candy of the show, but the real business for NSN was in the bustling bazaar of the accessory booths.
Not to say that the big companies didn't have interesting stuff for the nature photographer. I did get to handle the new Canon 800mm lens. I was surprised that it was not that bulky—in fact I thought it was the 600 when I was looking at it from afar. On the other end of the bulk spectrum, the new Sigma 200-500 f2.8 EX was a beast!
Despite the allure of the new large manufacturers' toys, I had to reduce my drooling time and get to work. Heading back to the accessory booths, I waded through a maze of photo backdrops, large play blocks for studio kid photos, scrapbook photo software, t-shirt photo printers, photo puzzle makers, and even a “baby clamp” to keep a squirming toddler still for a glamour photo.
I finally saw my first piece of camo material. Not in a booth, but on a lens that Scott Elowitz of LensCoat was carrying. Scott has a bunch of new products coming out that expand on his LensCoat line. By the time you read this article the NSN store should have Camera BodyBags, FlashKeepers, and my favorite: the BeamerKeeper. Now we can all finally get rid of the torn plastic bag we are using to store our Better Beamers!
Sifting through the accessory booths did reveal some treasures that you should see appear in the NSN store in the very near future. Delkin has some great stuff like multiple card downloaders in addition to their Express Card Readers. Photographic Solutions introduced a killer product with their individually wrapped, pre-moistened Sensor Swabs—a great way to carry sensor cleaners without aggravating the airport TSA staff. Alpine Innovations has a unique microfiber cloth that comes in 18% gray and is packaged for the field.
I was also on the hunt for a great ballhead that we can stock in the NSN store. I visited the Novoflex booth and the Acratech booth. Both companies have well engineered products. I informed these companies that any product that they may want to sell in our store would first have to pass through our own E. J. Peiker, who would give it the engineer torture test. Samples are on the way, so stay tuned.
One meeting that I was looking forward to was with Think Tank. Think Tank has superior products that are tailored to photographers in the field. I'm happy to say that Think Tank has once again come up with incredibly high quality products that are targeted to our type of photography. The new Hydrophobia rain cover is spot on for nature photographers. The Hydrophobia is well thought out—you can tell that the designers were actual working photographers, and the design shows it. Is the Hydrophobia expensive? Yes. Is it worth it? Definitely.
Think Tank has also come up with the “Skin System” which is a version of their belt system without the rigid padding . . . quite a plus for packing gear in your suitcase for future field use. In addition, Think Tank has created a few boxed sets of complete belt systems at a nice discount. All in all, Think Tank has some of the best stuff that we carry.
When faced with the short amount of time I had, I wouldn't normally have stopped at a software demonstration booth. However, the demo from NIK Software stopped me dead in my tracks. The power and the flexibility of NIK Software is arresting, especially with their new product, Viveza. If you think of the best parts of LightRoom's tone curve editing put on steroids, you've got Viveza. Viveza won PMA's Best of Show, and promises to be an incredible tool for all photographers.
I had a great meeting with Gitzo as well. We're going to explore some of their Kata backpacks and, at the risk of violating a Non-Disclosure Agreement, look for a killer ball head from Gitzo this summer.
With a red-eye plane flight looming, I had to scoot to the airport after what seemed too short a time on the PMA floor. The bustling supercharged business atmosphere of the floor seemed in direct opposition to the measured patience that nature photographers must possess. Then again, there were some jewels in all that sensory overload, some of which you will see in the NSN store in the coming months. Just like a typical shoot in nature, you've got to find the one serene bird among all the noisy background and we've got some good ones coming up at the NSN store.
Chris Klapheke resides in Louisville, KY and manages the NSN store. He is an accomplished and talented photographer and enjoys traveling and photographing the nature he finds. To see some of Chris' work visit: http://www.cklapheke.com
