Manfrotto Distribution

Last week I had the honor of spending three days with the folks at Manfrotto Distribution (Formerly known as Bogen Imaging). They invited me out to their corporate annual sales meeting do a mini workshop with their reps and also as a keynote speaker. All in all it was a fantastic three days of talking about gear, photography and camaraderie. Manfrotto distributes a wide array of photo gear including such iconic brands as Gitzo tripods, Elinchrom strobes, Manfrotto Tripods, Avenger light stands and grip gear as well as Lastolite, Gossen, Datacolor, Lite Panels and many other fine brands. I have to say thank you specifically to David Fisher and Mark Astmann for bringing me out.

For the mini-workshop, with the Manfrotto reps, we went to the Bathhouse Studios in New York City. This is the Eddie Adam's Studio and it was quite spectacular. Manfrotto had lined up three belly dancers for us to shoot and they were an absolute pleasure to work with. I used a 6x7 foot white Hilite background for the images you see here, along with Elinchrom Ranger RX Speed and Ranger Quadra strobes. We had everything under the sun it felt like at the workshop - octabanks, beauty dishes, reflectors, every Elinchrom strobe they make, Lite Panels (very cool), light meters, Spyder 3 calibration equipment and well, you get the point. It was an orgy of gear. Of course as you might expect, I will have some new equipment reviews in the next few issues of the newsletter. Stay tuned for more on that.

Manfrotto also brought out Stacy Pearsall, a combat photographer, as well and it was a blast swapping stories with her. I must say this was the first time my stories seemed "casual". Stacy has been through a lot and served on three tours in Iraq, being injured twice as a combat photographer. And her images are stunning. Check out her website if you have some time.