Just Got Back From Foto 3

[Eric Biggerstaff]

Just got home from Foto 3 and what fun it was.

Saw many old friends and met many new ones. A shout out to the LF Forum community including Mark Sawyer, Hugo Zang,Wayne Lambert, Chauncey Walden, Al Olsen, Phil Augustin and many more whose names escape me at the moment.

Gordon Hutchings was great and I learned much about pyro developers (he has a new formula of PMK coming out that he announced and it sounds terrific) and John Sexton gave an outstanding presentation on "Inspiration" that everyone should hear. Later, Sexton and Hutchings held a workshop together that was terrific as well. I think John may of been the highlight of the weekend, he just gave an outstanding speech.

Got to see a lot of work from well and not so well known photographers. Karen Kuhen gave a great presentation on her portrait work, she is amazing. David Stocklien was fun and terrific for three hours of cowboy photography and adverstising. I was introduced to some interesting urban landscape work by Jennifer Little, Wayne Lambert displayed his very lovely platinum prints from Mexico and Mark Sawyer showed off the quiet beauty of his still life work.

Also, was able to attend workshops on digital workflow and the new Canon cameras which are areas I do not usually pay much attention too but I am glad I did, I learned a lot!

I also met many vendors and came away with LOTS of free LF film from both Kodak and Fuji! Sweet! The vendors were great, Bostick&Sullivan were there everyday letting anyone who wanted make some platinum prints, Kodak was represented by Scott DiSabato who is a gentleman, Jim Andrecki and the crew from Midwest was there and they were terrific (only wish I had some cash!), Hugo was there with his lovely Chamonix cameras, Curt Palm had is new CompnTemp timer software up and running, HP with some printers, and hell, many many more. It was fun to say the least!

Ran up to have my portfolio reviewed by Gordon Hutchings and then John Sexton. A bigh "THANK YOU" to both of them, that was fun and I learned a lot (now back to the darkroom for some work).

I think there were about 200 - 250 folks in attendance during the conference. Lots of different styles, formats and experience from all across the country. The facilities were first rate and a big thank you to Steve and his assistant Andrea who did a terrific job.

All in all not a bad way to spend a weekend. For those of you who were there, I really enjoyed meeting as many of you as I did and I only wish I could of met more!

[Kirk Keyes]

Make sure you post this on APUG and let them know what they missed.

[keeds]

Please please please don't let this turn in to a I told you so.... It would just be great to hear what people got up to for all those people who didn't go for whatever reason.

[GPS]

Make sure you post this on APUG and let them know what they missed.

Indeed, Apug is the biggest looser here. Thanks a lot for you post, Eric. Hopefully more will come from other attendants.

[keeds]

So GPS did you go? What did you get from the event?

[Eric Biggerstaff]

Kirk,

I don't belong to APUG but if someone else wants to post it for me that would be great. I agree with Keeds, I didn't post this to be an "I told you so" thread or to open up the bashing doors, just wanted to post my experience and say thanks to the many new friends that I made this past weekend.

[clay harmon]

I also attended Foto 3. And I must say I was underwhelmed. For the price that was charged for this conference, the number of really relevant talks was minimal. I agree with you that Sexton, Hutchings and Kuehn are excellent and motivating speakers, and I liked their presentations. I did informal head counts in the presentations, and the best attended talks had around 60-75 people in attendance. And of course, the conference guide easily reached the required number of misspellings.

My overall impression was that it was like a small APIS conference sans the presentation quality.

The presentation quality was quite uneven, with a few of the presentations being excellent resources of information, while others were disorganized and messy. I suppose this would be expected in any conference of this sort.

The trade show really was disheartening to me. The vendors showed up, but I never saw more than a dozen or two people in the area at any one time. I hope that Kodak et al don't take this as any barometer about the health of film based photography. It was great to see Hugo (chamonix) and Bruce(photobackpacker, RPT) there with their new products. Bruce, in particular has a real winner with his new backpack system. I encourage anybody needing a comfortable LF-carrying backpack to check out his system.

Was it worth it? Not in my opinion. At the pre-registration price level, I could buy a lot of film and gas. I am glad some liked it. But for me, is no way I will waste my money on another one.

Just my two cents.

[keeds]

Thanks Eric and Clay for your comments on Foto3. I would like to have gone, but (me) being in the UK made it rather expensive. I certainly do hope that vendors such as Kodak and Fuji don't take it as any guide to the level of interest in film and LF.

[Eric Biggerstaff]

Keeds,

Wish you could of been there as well.

I understand where Clay is coming from, I counted a little over 200 at the Sexton speech and in my largest presentation there were around 60 and the smallest there were around 25. So, some larger and some smaller. By and large, the presentations I went to were well organized but I think the panel discussions could of been a bit better organized by the speakers.

I too would of liked to have seen more people, but to be honest the price of gas and the general state of the economy means many familes are setting different priorities this year so I didn't expect a huge turnout. In fact, had my friend Chauncey Walden not taken his RV up there I would not of been able to afford to go this year, and I live in Denver!

I am pretty much "glass half full" sort of person, so I enjoyed the time and getting to know several people.

[jetcode]

to be honest trade shows bore me and though this show would likely be of interest it is not worth the expense in my opinion, that is, the money is better spent on essentials