Think Tank Photo Expands Popular Retrospective® Photography Shoulder Bag Collection with New Color and New Size 

Santa Rosa, Calif. – Think Tank Photo has just released enhancements to its popular Retrospective camera shoulder bag line.  All of its existing Retrospective bags—the Retrospective 5, Retrospective 5 Leather, Retrospective 7, Retrospective 7 Leather, Retrospective 10, Retrospective 20, Retrospective 30, and Retrospective 30 Leather—are available in a new colorway, Sandstone.  In addition, a new size, the Retrospective 6, is now available in Sandstone, Black, and Pinestone.  The Retrospective 6 caters to DSLR users who want to fit more lenses and to Mirrorless users who want to fit two small lenses front to back.

WHAT FITS

The Retrospective 6 fits a DSLR or gripped DSLR with short lens attached, one to two additional lenses and an 8” tablet or flash in the front pocket, or one to two Mirrorless bodies with lenses attached, one to four extra lenses and an 8” tablet or flash in the front pocket

Examples:

• Canon 5D MIII with 50mm f/1.2 attached, a 16-35mm f/4 detached, a 85mm f/1.2 and an iPad Mini
• Nikon D4s with 14-24mm f/2.8 attached, a 24-70mm f/2.8, a SB-900 flash, and a Lumiquest Softbox III
• Sony a7mII with 16-35mm f/4 attached, 24-70mm f/4, 35mm f/2.8, 55mm f/1.8 and a flash

MATERIALS

Exterior:  Durable water-repellant (DWR) coating; polyurethane coating; sand-washed 100% cotton canvas (Pinestone and Sandstone); 1100D polyspun polyester (Black); YKK® RC Fuse (abrasion-resistant) zippers; antique nickel-plated metal hardware; nylon webbing, and 3-ply bonded nylon thread.

Photographers Can Fit Lighting Equipment and Large Light Modifiers in One Rolling Bag with Think Tank Photo’s New Production Manager 50

Santa Rosa, Calif. – Think Tank Photo has released the largest rolling photography equipment case on the market, the Production Manager 50.  Designed to hold an immense amount of gear, including lighting equipment and large light modifiers, one photographer will now be able to transport what it used to take up to at least two assistants.  It is easy to move, carry, work out of, and stack among other gear.

This large rolling bag features stabilizing, wide-set, shock-absorbing wheels that roll smoothly and hold up under the toughest conditions, the ability to lock the main compartment and secure the bag with the included lock and cable, and a fully customizable interior with dividers to protect small and large lighting equipment including c-stands and large modifiers.

“Pro photographers usually travel by car or van to where they are going to shoot,” said Doug Murdoch, Think Tank’s CEO and Lead Designer. “Once a shoot is completed the set needs to be torn down and moved to the next location. Often times, there can be a time crunch where all the gear has to be loaded quickly. Carrying these bags up and down stairs and over rough terraincan be very cumbersome and often takes two people.  The Production Manager 50 makes this time-sensitive, cumbersome process easier and quicker.”

KEY ADDITIONAL FEATURES

Jim Stroup, photographer at Virgina Tech is this year's winner of the UPAA Kelby Creative Award. Kelby sponsors this award that recognizes exceptional work utiliziting Adobe Photoshop. This is the second year for this competition. The winner receives a pass to attend Photoshop world in Las Vegas.

When asked about the winning photo Jim had this to say, "This photo was done as a possible cover for our university magazine. The cover article was on our research to provide clean water and food for the growing world population. The white background was the designer’s choice. It’s not really a stream of water hitting the apple. I dropped an apple upside down into a fish tank, taking advantage of that Nikon D4’s 11 frames per second and the high speed flash recycling of the Paul C. Buff Einstein studio strobes. I inverted the photo and added the top right splash from another photo. The continents were pulled off the internet and then wrapped around the apple with the warp tool. The continents were then deleted using the mask tool and embossed and a drop shadow added. The peeled apple, which was shot once I was sure I had the splash elements, was layered below the splash layer. To make it a little more believable, I wanted part of the splash to wash over part of one of the continents, with the transparency of the water altering the color of the peeled section of the continent. This was hand done in Photoshop by adding the peel back to the apple and then using hue adjustments to give that part a different look.

Congratulations to Jim and thank you to KelbyOne for sponsoring the competition.

For the second time University of Michigan's Senior Photographer Eric Bronson captured the University Photographers' Association of America's highest award, Photographer of the Year. Contributing to this award was Eric's first place finish overall in the Monthly Image Competition. Combined with placing 5 prints in the Annual Print Competition secured the Photographer of the Year award.

Eric received the POY at the conclusion of the Annual Symposium held this year at the University of Michigan June 8-12, in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Winning this highest honor at his university was particular gratifying for Eric and the rest of Michigan Photography staff who were in attendance and cheered quite loudly when his name was announced.

"The quality and diversity of work that Eric produced was exceptional." said Glenn Carpenter President of the UPAA. This is the 5th time that a Michigan photographer has won the POY award from UPAA. The importance that the university places on photography and the mission of telling the story of the University of Michigan is evident.

Canon USA sponsored the POY competition and donated a DSLR camera to the winner. Canon's support of higher education has been remarkable. Along with the award, Canon also sponsored one of the keynote speakers, David Hume Kennerly, who spoke at the Ford Presidential Library on Wednesday evening.

Congratulations to Eric and Michigan Photography.

The Boys at Baylor are at it again with a webcast through Extensis. They'll be sharing their wireless workflow to deliver photos for social media during sporting events. The webcast is on Tuesday January 27th at 2 pm Eastern. Register for it at Extensis.com. 

Here is the release from Extensis:

John Alley, former director of University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee Photo Services and longtime UPAA member and award winner, passed away on February 25, 2014.  He was a member of the Milwaukee St. Andrew's Society, and at their Kirking of the Tartan ceremony on May 6th, the organization had a display of John's career.  Their tribute to John is below:

In memory of

John Alley

As a boy of 9 growing up in a small town in Michigan, John Alley picked up his mother’s Kodak folding camera. It began a long and storied life in making pictures. “This was his awakening into photography,” said Jim Mullaly, a friend of 20 years. “I remember him telling me, ‘The next thing you know, people were becoming interested in my photography.’” Alley never got rid of his mother’s camera. It was among a collection of old “box” cameras Alley assembled in a career spanning more than 70 years and across multiple continents. “John not only had cameras, he was a camera.,” said Bob Pecher, co-owner of B&L Photo Labs in Milwaukee and a friend for 30 years. “He had that one intrinsic ability that all photographers should have- the ability to see things in his head, to see light in his head, and be able to translate it. He would walk around looking at things, as you would through a camera, making up images in his mind that he would then come back and put down on film,” Pecher said of Alley, who worked in photographic services at the University of Wisconsin- Milwaukee for more than a decade. Alley, who had been in failing health with diabetes and other ailments, died Feb 25 at Columbia- St. Mary’s Ozaukee. He was 81.

Explored the world

Check out this profile of John H. White from ChicagoMag.com.

Arlington National Cemetery - Photo by Dave Black

Lightpainting - Light Up Your World

The April 2014 Winners are in, Check them out at the Monthly Image Competition Page.

By Jaslyn Gilbert/Radford University

While many of our students at Radford University in Radford, Virginia were heading home or off to warm weather destinations for spring break, a group of 12 undergraduate students, two high school students, and three faculty braved bone-rattling temperatures and shivery Arctic winds in Barrow, Alaska—the northernmost city in the United States—to conduct scientific research. As multimedia producer for RU, I received funding to document the trip, less than two months before takeoff, with a mission to send videos and photos of this experiential research learning opportunity back to the university daily to post on a website (www.radford.edu/alaska) dedicated to the trip.

The approximately 5,000-mile journey from RU to Barrow took nearly 30 hours, with a number of airport layovers, lending the travel to a quick timelapse video.

Alaska: A 5,000 Mile Journey from Radford University on Vimeo.

The purpose of the trip was for students to explore the correlation between the surface temperature of the Arctic Sea ice and its thickness. This meant that a vast majority of the video footage and photos would be on the ice in some pretty extreme cold temperatures.

The Monthly Image Competition is heating up with the March winners that were just announced. Head on over to the MIC Page to see the top photos.