http://www.cnmf.org/mm5/merchant.mvc?Sc ... kshopPhoto
It was a very enjoyable day and a half, during which I learned a little and enjoyed myself a lot. It was limited to 100 attendees, and the price of $30 for an event that incuded two meals and admission to the park (from 5:30 AM to 10:00 PM instead of the normal 9 AM to 5:00 PM hours ! ) insured that they turned away a number of people. Tamron, Bogen, and Gitzo equipment was available for free loan to attendees - generally for an hour at a time, but occasionally for longer.
The only other person there that I spotted with an Alpha camera was a guy with an A100. Most of the other people had a Canikon DSLR, although about 5 percent seemed to be shooting with a high-end P&S such as a Canon G series. Interestingly enough, the professional who was providing instruction uses a Fuji DLSR except when he has a loaner from Nikon. (He did say that he is very tempted by one of the Nikons and may end up buying one. I think that he said it was the D700, but I do not want to swear to that.)
Tamron was one of the sponsors of the event, and they brought a large assortment of lenses - but only in Canon or Nikon mount.
I was talking to one of the Tamron reps, and in the course of the conversation he mentioned that he has a good friend who is a manager in Sony's camera division. I suggested that he encourage his friend to get Sony involved in events such as this, to better reach the market for Alpha cameras. He said that his friend has commented that he often finds dealing with Sony management frustrating, as they seem locked into the mindset that they are a consumer electronics company, and that the traditional marketing approach for consumer electronics is the approach they should take for the Alpha cameras.Slightly off topic - if you are ever in the San Diego area and enjoy landscape photgraphy, I encourage you to visit Cabrillo National Monument. It has some nice aspects for both landscape and macro photography, some stunning views over San Diego harbor and the city of San Diego, and the US Park Service has a very nice facility there that provides a lot of info about the natural history of the area and the human history of the area.
FWIW, attached is an image shot with the aid of a flash about 12 minutes after the nominal sunrise. (A heavy marine layer suppressed most of the light and it really was fairly dark. If you look closely at the bottom left of the image you will see city lights from across the harbor entrance.) This shot is of the monument part of Cabrillo National Monument, which is a small percentage of the worthwhile scenery there.
With best wishes,
- Tom -