Last year, it seems that fall and the changing of the colors went by too quickly to be appreciated. This year, though, weeks after the leaves started changing, the beautiful colors still remain. It’s given us a chance to go out and enjoy the area.

Burg Katz

Burg Gutenfels

Hopefully, we’ll be able to enjoy the wonderful colors of fall for a bit longer before winter sets in. Hope you can, too, wherever you are.

As Dumbledore says in the Harry Potter movies, “Another year, gone”. And so it is with Photokina.

The last day brought out the people eager to buy the products, the last minute sample grabbers and the last chance to see the naked painted ladies. And, although I am blessed with a wonderful husband who believes in my photographic abilities and begrudges me nothing that I need or want, this year our pocketbook came home fairly intact. I did find my way back to the Jill-e bags and came home with a medium sized “purse”. Whether it will hold all that I want it to remains to be seen. But, I have to admit that it has a nicer, more feminine look than my 20+ others.

The next Photokina, Sept. 28 - Oct. 3, 2010, has already been added to my calendar. As in past Photokina’s, it’ll no doubt be exciting and full of surprises. I’m looking forward to it already.

With every Photokina, it seems that companies focus on a new product. Four years ago, it was mat cutters. There were at least a dozen companies carrying their special can’t-be-done-with-the-others cutter. Two years ago, when I was looking for a mat cutter, there was only one company with mat cutters (they were selling a couple of boxed Logan cutters). But, there were plenty of companies carrying digital frames and micro-fiber lens cleaning cloths that pop out of their own little clip-to-your-camera-bag pouch. This year, the micro-fiber cloths weren’t to be seen and the digital frames were scarce. This year it was the canvas gallery wraps.

While the “kitsch” comes and goes, there are several things that are constant with every Photokina: paper and darkroom products. With every Photokina, it seems that I come home with more paper samples than ever before. This year is no different. I did, however, notice more companies carrying darkroom supplies. Given the popularity of digital, I expected to see only the usual display of darkroom equipment by Kaiser. It was a surprise to see at least half a dozen companies carrying everything from developer to enlargers. Maybe there’s hope for us dinosaurs who can’t bring ourselves to switch completely to digital.

Today, thanks to an alternate route, we were able to bypass the many kilometers jam that we were in yesterday. Our first stop was the Buyer’s Lounge for a bit of breakfast before joining the crowds.

The first thing that struck me was the lack of people. Granted, it is the weekday but in Photokina’s past, it was always packed during the week. We had no problem with having to push our way through the halls this time. The up side to this was that it took us less time to navigate through the many buildings.

One of the vendors that I had on my list to visit was one touting gallery wraps. He did, indeed, feature everything from the canvas to the machine to stretch it. By the end of the day, I was surprised at just how many vendors there were featuring gallery wraps. It’s the first instance I’ve seen them here in Germany, although I know that they’re wildly popular in the States.

We proceeded to the hall that featured the watertight cases and photo bags (my weakness). I have heard of the Jill-e photo “purses”, but this was the first time I had seen them. I must say that it was love at first sight! They have three sizes (the largest being on rollers for travel). The smaller ones, while in nicer colors (the yellow was my favorite), were a bit too small for all that I want to carry. I have my sights set on a medium case and asked if they would be selling them at the end of the show. After a hopeful “maybe”, I put them on my list to visit on Sunday.

There are less book stands this time, with one featuring all German language photo books, on featuring all English language ones and one featuring a mixture of both. I got out rather cheap this time, buying one book in English and one in German.

What we have found more of this year is photo exhibitions. There are twenty listed - from aspiring amateurs to seasoned professionals. We checked out some today of the German photo clubs. Some of the photos, I must say, seemed to me to be no more than snapshots, while others were wonderfully composed and processed. We found a sign at one exhibition that stated that the photo that should have been there had been disqualified when it was discovered that it had been too manipulated to be included.

Tomorrow, we visit the lighting systems, including my favorite Dedolights. It was that stand that caused us the most problems (or just cost us the most!) at the last Photokina, with us buying a set of four Dedolights and accessories. They were worth the 1500 euro we paid for them, as were the four others that I have bought since then.

After a stop at the Buyer’s Lounge for a hot tea, we hit the road for home.

Armed with my list of vendors that I wanted to see, we set off for Köln. The first thing we noticed was the traffic. In years past, the traffic was so well managed that jams were unheard of. This year, though, was not the case. Not knowing what to expect, we sat in a jam for almost an hour. We spent that time planning an alternate route for the remaining days of the fair to avoid the problem.

Once we got there, parking was well managed, as it always has been. Buses were lined up to take us to the main entrance. Since we bought our tickets online, and printed them ourselves, we were able to bypass the long lines at the counters. We were on our way!

First stop: the International Buyer’s Lounge for breakfast. Since we purchased our tickets under our company names, we qualified for this wonderful perk (free breakfast, lunch, massages, fair catalogs, internet access, to name a few benefits). Afterwards, we plotted our strategy.

The top of my list was to visit Fujifilm and ask about the rumors that the S5 Pro would be the last professional DSLR that they would be carrying. Not so, insisted the Fuji reps that I talked to. The S5 Pro has only been on the market for a year and a half, which is why they’ve not released a new DSLR, they told me. I noticed that they were aggressively marketing the S5 Pro, which gives me hope that the rumors are false. After seeing the prices here in Germany drop pre-Photokina, I snapped one up for 700 euro.

We visited Nikon, whose stands were not that crowded with people. We checked out the latest DSLR and picked up their catalogs on camera bodies and lenses.

We next checked out Canon, although I’m not a Canon user. I wanted to pick up their catalogs - in English - but they charged for them (the only ones that did). No thanks!

We spent quite a bit of time talking to the reps at Bibble Pro about their upcoming release of ver. 5. One of their staff demonstrated the program to us - all I can say is “WOW”! That will be one great piece of software and well worth the price. My favorite feature is being able to have both the original and working files on screen at the same time.

I also spent a bit of time bending the ear of ACDSee’s product manager about past and present problems with ACDSee’s Pro 2.5 program. Hopefully, they can work out the quirks in the new version of the program and address problems other photographers like myself have, such as having the program crash when attempting to render thumbnails on large files (over 100meg).

I promised myself this time to be more selective about picking up catalog materials - they can get quite heavy after you’ve carried them for a while. But, by the time Photokina is over, I predict that my stack will be just as large - if not larger - than the last Photokina.

We ended the day having a hot tea in the Buyer’s Lounge before making the two hour drive home. It was a great first day, with me being able to strike off a number of companies off my list.

The traffic reports talk of kilometers of jams all around Köln as Photokina begins today. From today until Sunday, the world’s largest photography fair will be abuzz with all the latest news. I had hoped to be there today but, due to a scheduling conflict, couldn’t. But, I will be there starting tomorrow with my long list of vendors to see (140 and growing), a backpack for all the information that I’ll be bringing home, and tennis shoes!!

I like going into a festival knowing exactly how I’m going to set up my booth. After all, a set up that works for one show may not for another. Customers are different, their tastes are different, economic factors may be different. What sells in one market may not in another.

To help with this situation, I decided to call upon my long gone days of “playing dolls” and create a visual set up of my booth. I used a 1″ to 1′ scale in Photoshop and created a template of the walls. My framed photos have been scaled to size and can easily be moved around on my “walls”. Tables, print bins and card stands have also been scaled to size.

Now as I prepare for an art festival, I can decide which theme I want to hang, and take a print out of my booth design. After all, there are too many other surprises to contend with.

I don’t normally do a whole lot of post processing with my photos, preferring them to come from the camera, but I was curious as word spread about a new creative plug in for graphics programs, such as Photoshop. It’s name is Topaz Adjust, from Topaz Labs. Among the artistic effects you can choose are exposure, color, noise and detail effects. While I haven’t really taken the time to “get to know” the program, I was able to whip out a couple of examples of what it can do in just five minutes.

Before

After

Before

After

The amount of the effects can be controlled easily by sliding bars located in the menus. In both photos, I decided to go for a more “artsy” look.

My one “beef” with the program is the speed - or should I say, lack of - in applying the filter to your image. But, the creators of the program are listening to the users and are working on ways to speed it up.

There are some nice explanatory videos put out by Topaz Labs on You Tube to help get you started, if you’re like just about everyone else and hate reading manuals.

At $99 (on sale until Sept. 1 for $39), Topaz Adjust looks to be a great alternative to Lucis Art’s new version 6 at $595.

A great way to let your artistic side out to play!

The greatest (photo) show on earth is approaching: Photokina. Every two years, hundreds of thousands of people converge on the Kölnmesse in Köln, Germany, to spend days perusing the latest and greatest in the field of photography.

The show runs for six days - Sept. 23-28. And trust me, if you can, plan to attend all six days. There is so much to take in that, if you want to take your time and not have to rush (and have time to take a lunch break), it will take every day.

A few hints beforehand:

1. Exercise to get yourself ready to do a lot of walking. The Kölnmesse is large and break areas are not a priority there.

2. Don’t bother to bring bags to carry handouts. There will be plenty available there. I still have bags from Photokina six years ago that I use today. They’re practically indestructible.

3. English language books/brochures are available at most stands. However, you may have to ask for them as some keep them behind a counter.

4. And, speaking of brochures and handouts: there are tons of them. From the last Photokina, I brought home over a foot high stack of material. See hint number 1 - after a while, it gets heavy!!

5. There are plenty of food kiosks there for sandwiches, ice cream and such. There are also several sit down restaurants. Personally, we prefer to make sandwiches to bring with us. It not only saves time, but money.

6. The last day of Photokina, many of the vendors sell their wares at a greatly reduced price. Make sure to inquire early to reserve something if you want it. Some of my buys over the years: half off on a Monostat monopod; almost half off on a Peli watertight case; half off on various handpainted backgrounds; and, at the 2006 Photokina, about half off on a set of four Dedolight studio lights (and various accessories).

Many people bring their cameras to Photokina. There is always something to photograph, from the handpainted women to the occasional modeling session. My favorite at the last Photokina was the modeling session of the nude woman on the motorcycle. Not that I am into nude modeling, but I would have loved to have had my camera to take a photo of the men standing ten deep trying to snap a picture with whatever they had with them. Not to mention them hanging off anything they could climb/grab to take a peek.

Yes, I think this Photokina, I WILL bring my camera!

My husband, being an Epson partner, periodically receives their newsletters. In one such newsletter was the announcement that the Epson Kunstbetrieb, located in Düsseldorf, would be holding a workshop for photographers.

I copied several of my photos onto a USB stick and we drove the two hours there. We found the actual workshop to be different than what was mentioned on the newsletter, but we decided to stay. Four workstations were set up where photographers could work on three of their photos, printing the final results on Epson’s large format 9880 and 11880 printers.

The best photos would be assembled for a month long exhibition - entitled “Lichtungen - Reflexionen der Fotografie”.

I received an email from Epson informing me that one of my photos had been chosen for the exhibition. I reviewed the five page contract they sent me and forwarded them the information about myself that they requested.

Since I needed to sign the contract in person, we decided to attend the opening event and arrive early to take care of business beforehand. Afterwards, we took the opportunity to relax at an outside cafe and have some ice cream while we waited for the opening.

As the time approached, we walked towards the entrance and saw the line of people waiting to enter the exhibit.

We stayed for about an hour, watching the people arrive and leave, and viewing the other photos. We also talked with several of the other artists that attended. Like me, they had brought their cameras to record the event. One told a bit of the selection process - there were 300+ photos submitted that 28 were selected from.

We had a glass of champagne, talked to the Epson hosts, then decided to start the two hour drive home.

My photo: