Meadowlark Photo Expo

I attended the Meadowlark Photography expo last weekend. It was considerably larger than I had anticipated, and there was quite a bit going on -- too much to fit all of it in.

The juried photo gallery was spectacular. Kudos to the photographers who contributed; I only wish that we could have seen larger versions of some of them.

The show sponsors included Nikon, Canon, Tamron, REI, and even Carl Zeiss. Due to time limits, I wasn't able to try out the Zeiss 25mm Distagon, but I think I'll be getting one for my Nikon FM3a as my wide-angle lens for that format. It can focus close enough (under 6cm) to double as a macro lens, and it's hard to go wrong with Zeiss for image quality. I did have a chance to try out the 200-500mm Tamron zoom when I did the hawk photoegraphy session with the Raptor Conservancy of Virginia. I will be picking up the film tonight, and hopefully there will be some images worth posting from that shoot. I was not able to make it for the owl session, because there simply wasn't enough time.

The bird handlers deserve a lot of gratitude for standing out in the cold for so long, telling us about the birds and trying to get them to pose for us.

For me the highlights of the show were the presentations by Chuck Veach and Tony Sweet. Their enthusiasm is infectous, and their photography is amazing.