Thanks for an Amazing Festival (and dates for next year too!)

Thanks to everyone involved with the 1st annual California Photo Festival.  Attendees, instructors, volunteers, sponsors, and staff were amazing.  We had attendees from around the country and around the world!  There were, of course, some issues and we are still documenting what went right and what went wrong.  Thanks for telling us all of your likes and dislikes.  Overall, the feedback from the attendees has been fantastic.  It was incredible to take what we do at Light (world class instructors, intensive learning, individual attention, small class sizes, and more) and make it happen on a larger scale.

Check out the work from our attendees at the California Photo Fest group page, 

Cali Photo Fest Flickr!

All of the podcasts we recorded during the week will be up on the Digital Photo Experience soon.  Check it out at  DPE

We are looking forward to next year and will hold the festival from 12-16 October, 2011.  We are incredibly excited to have already started the planning process for the 2nd annual!  We shifted back a few weeks in order to deconflict with Photoshop World and PMA and to coordinate with the Paso Robles Harvest Fest.  We have received firm commitments from most of this year's instructors and sponsors and have requests from new photographers and digital artists who want to be involved!  We fully expect the festival to grow and become a tremendous experience for photographers from around the world.

Thank you again for being a part of the California Photo Fest and joining the Light family.

Moving away from the festival, expect additions to the Light 2010 schedule and the full Light 2011 schedule very soon.

Here is a Morro Bay sunset in reverse order from latest to earliest we shot during our festival afterglow.

​About 30 min after sunset.  7 shot stitched pano.

​About 30 min after sunset.  7 shot stitched pano.

​About 15 min after sunset.  7 shot stitched pano.

​About 15 min after sunset.  7 shot stitched pano.

​Sunset.  7 shot stitched pano.

​Sunset.  7 shot stitched pano.


The Ultimate Pano - Gimbal Head

The ultimate panorama and gimbal head is shipping very soon.  The PG-02 from Really Right Stuff is awesome.  I had the opportunity to test the PG-02 prototype during my yacht-based photo tour to Alaska this past spring.

The PG-02 prototype with Canon EOS 7D and EF  800mm f/5.6L

In addition there is a RRS long lens stabilization kit attached. 

As many of you know I do not beat around the bush with most of my opinions and recommendations.  So in a quick few sentences here you go.

Image from PG-02 mounted Canon 1D Mk III with EF 400mm f/2.8L

Image from PG-02 mounted Canon 1D Mk III with EF 400mm f/2.8L

For the long lens action shooters, this is the best gimbal head available.  I compared head to head with the other industry leading options, in the field, with big bodies/long lenses (Canon 1D series and up to the EF 800mm f/5.6L,) shooting high-speed, high track crossing rate action, and from a moving (forward, roll, pitch, and heave) platform.  There is no comparison.  The Really Right Stuff PG-02 is the best.  Well balanced, smooth, and silky the PG-02 was incredible.

For the panorama shooter, the PG-02 is a multi-axis pano head.  Equivalent performance to the Really Right Stuff Omni Pivot Pro Pano Kit.  Shooters can easily locate their no parallax point/entrance pupil and align it with the axes of rotation.  As a pano shooter, this is great gear since it not only performs equal to other RRS pano gear but does triple duty: pano, gimbal, and video.

For the video shooter, the PG-02 is the smoothest, silkiest pan you will experience.  Moreover, the pan glides perfectly regardless of the overall tension on the head.  Whether loose or tight, you will not experience any kind of jerking or sloppy pan.

For audio or additional gear, there is another threaded screw on top of the vertical arm that accepts equipment directly or even another ballhead.  In the field, we mounted another ballhead as well as small, point and shoot cameras to capture action as we worked the main body/lens.

Image from PG-02 with Canon 7D and EF 800mm f/5.6L

As you know, I always give full disclosure.  Really Right Stuff does not pay me to endorse their gear.  I use it because it is the best.

Check out the PG-02 at the following link.

RRS PG-02

I will demonstrate the PG-02 at the California Photo Festival next week.  There are still spots available so join us 

California Photo Fest

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Fiat Lux!