Nashville (ImagingUSA) TR

[afrobigfoot]

This will probably be one of the lamest trip reports ever but here goes.



For those that do not know, ImagingUSA is a yearly convention put on by the PPA (professional photographers of america) usually the first or second weekend of January. It is one of the, if not the largest photography convention and trade shows in the US. This year I believe there were around 13,000 attendees? The main convention last for three days with a couple of dozen speakers teaching different classes through out those three days, they also have preconvention classes but we did not go to Nashville early for that. The classes held at IUSA are led by some of the greatest and most successful photographers in the industry, mainly geared towards wedding and portrait photographers though they also touch on other areas such as landscape, stock, and commercial photography.



Brandi and I first signed up for ImagingUSA on September 12th last year, since then I have been looking forward to this. The convention was held in the ***lord Opryland Motel, we opted to not spend $250+ a night on a room and ended up staying at a Days Inn just half a mile away for four nights for the same cost of one night at the ***lord.



For those that have not been, the ***lord is a fascinating convention center/hotel complete with a river, shops, and restaurants inside. Everyday I told myself that tomorrow I would spend an hour or two just roaming around taking photos of the area but that never happened.



While we were in Nashville we spent an afternoon going downtown to eat lunch at the Hard Rock Cafe and walked around the downtown area, there was NO ONE out there, there are literally sky scrappers but not a single person outside walking around besides cops, construction workers, and us. Does anybody even live or work in Nashville?



The expo/trade show at IUSA is also a great place to meet other vendors in the photography business and try out the latest gear from manufactures such as Canon, Nikon, Sigma, Tamron, Leica, Hasselblad, and dozens of lighting companies, every big name in album design and pro labs were there as well as dozens of other companies that sell various products. One funny thing is that the majority of the people working the expo are Jewish, probably the only time in my life besides last years IUSA that I have been around Jewish people. I spent quite a bit of time trying out various Sigma lenses that I have always been curious about, they were nice and willing to let you mount your lenses on your own camera body where as at the Canon booth and I would assume Nikon, if you wanted to test a lens it had to be on their own body that was tethered to the table.



Video from the drive there.



(should be finished uploading in the AM and able to watch in HD)



A few images from the time we were there.





Only reason I am smiling so big is because I just downed a bottle of Crown. Celebrating one year of being able to drink legally.







Dont know *** this is about.









Brandi shooting me with a fisheye lens at the Sigma booth.







Testing out a Sigma 300mm f/2.8, no clue who that guy is.







Indian infront of some cowboy store















$15 hamburger at the Hard Rock, must admit that I still can not find another restaurant that makes a burger that tastes as good, only burger that is better than this is made by my mom!







Sissy drink.







Our car left black, came home white,







I am glad that there was a rock slide on 40, got to drive right through Newport, TN, looks like there are a lot of photo ops in that area, might be back in that area soon.

[SKISC]

@afrobigfoot 203089 wrote: got to drive right through Newport, TN, looks like there are a lot of photo ops in that area, might be back in that area soon.



Paging Mr. Stinky.



I like that shot of the glass building.

[teledave]

@afrobigfoot 203089 wrote:

Indian infront of some cowboy store







I know exactly where that is. Can't say I've ever kissed the Indian though. Must be a photographer thing.

[Bronco]

Would this happen to be the side of the Opryland building?

[afrobigfoot]

@Bronco Boarder 203150 wrote:Would this happen to be the side of the Opryland building?









No, this is some building in the downtown area, seems like it was across the street from a fort or something.

[afrobigfoot]

@teledave 203094 wrote:I know exactly where that is. Can't say I've ever kissed the Indian though. Must be a photographer thing.



hahaha, I wanted to do something different besides standing next to it