Hanging out with friends Ariel Zambelich, Ben Fredman and Brandon Kruse @ a Thai temple in Tampa.

About 2 or 3 years ago, after receiving a recommendation from a friend (thanks Ben Fredman!) I joined an email list-serv called A Photo A Day, which was started by Melissa Lyttle, a photojournalist at the St. Petersburg Times. A Photo A Day, or APAD as the members affectionally refer to it as, started a years ago as a small email group and although still relatively small today, has somewhere between 2000-2500 members, I believe. The rules are simple. Each member can post 1 photo per day to the group, sometimes accompanied by a caption, or background info and the rest of the members can share their thoughts about the image, what works, what doesn’t , etc. Although the backgrounds of the majority of the members leans towards the photojournalism side, there are wedding photographers, commercial shooters, and corporate photographers on APAD. Its a great place to get feedback on an image you are unsure about, or just connect with like-minded photographers. I may not be as active in the group as I used to be, or would like to be, however I owe a great deal to APAD for providing me with an amazing venue for feedback, knowledge and more importantly, friends. My formal education is not in photography or the arts, so APAD and other groups/workshops/experiences like APAD have proven to be priceless in terms of education, fraternity, inspiration, etc.

Geekfest is another story. Geekfest is APAD’s annual gathering which has taken place for several years now in different cities across the US; Portland, Austin, Chicago, and most recently in Melissa’s home base of St. Pete. I attended last year and had a great time. There are a lot of different photo workshops, conferences and seminars which have their pluses and minuses, but Geekfest is a great weekend of fun that packs a handful of incredible speakers into relatively small and intimate setting. Compared to some of the more commercialized conferences that might make you shell out closer to $1000 to hear the lectures/speakers, Melissa charges attendees only $100, which is a small price to pay given the cost to run the workshop Im sure.

However, to me, the speakers and lectures are secondary to the commradarie, friendship and good times that I walk away from the weekend having gained. I have met several amazing individuals via APAD so getting to catch up with old friends and meeting new ones is my most valued part of Geekfest and regardless of the amazing speakers, I plan on attending in the future because of this.

A sampling of the amazing books/DVD's from Brad Moore and Kelby Media Group! Thanks guys!

A few weeks prior to leaving for St. Pete I received an email from Brad Moore, who works for Kelby Media Group / NAPP (National Association of Photoshop Professionals) under Scott Kelby. He informed me that the NAPP/Kelby headquarters were just a few miles away from St. Pete and extended an invitation to give me a personal tour of the facilities. Thankfully I took Brad up on his offer and after landing in St. Pete prior to Geekfest, Brad and I had an awesome lunch (see iphone photos below) great conversation and I had an awesome time touring the NAPP facilities. What looked rather unassuming on the outside, quickly gave way to a colorful world of everything Adobe on the inside. The workspaces were brightly painted and outfitted with personal touches, huge monitors a vibe that cannot be described. There were no 10 year old Gateways here, it looked like everyone had a decked out machine with lots of huge monitors, Wacom’s printers, and everything else you would need to have fun and be creative…efficiently. Having watched several episodes of Photoshop TV, taking a tour of their lovely studio space was pretty awesome as well. Before ending the tour, Brad took me to the warehouse, where they house all the different books that Kelby Media Group publishes. I was then given amazing books and DVD’s on the house. Special thanks to my new friend Brad Moore and Kelby Media Group for their hospitality and their donation of books and DVD’s to the Geekfest crew as well. If you are a photographer or retoucher or just a casual Adobe/Photoshop user, I’d highly recommend becoming a NAPP user. They are stand-up guys and the benefits are awesome!

The actual events at Geekfest were pretty amazing too. Thursday night we had a huge BBQ and party at Melissa’s house and as people filtered in from their flights, we spent the entire night catching up, reuniting with old friends and meeting new ones. Friday night we had an awesome event at a local coffee shop. Two local spoken word poets joined us and were invited to freestyle as a projected slideshow of images from those present were shown. Some of the amazing prose coming completely unrehearsed from the poets was amazing. They would literally see a photo for the first time and instantly dive into a freestyle piece about the image. Funny, sad, deep, or awkward, the experience was definitely one I look forward to at future Geekfests. It was like combining Def Poetry with a photo critique. Amazing!

Saturday and Sunday were hosted at The St Petersburg Times auditorium and featured an array of awesome speakers from a lighting demo from Atlanta photographer Zach Arias to Todd Heisler, Pulitzer Prize winning photographer from the New York Times. All of the speakers were inspiring and down to earth. Sunday morning my good friends Ariel Zambelich, Ben Fredman and Brandon Kruse met up and spent the better part of the morning hanging out and having fun. We had brunch in Tampa at a lovely Thai temple that featured an amazing outdoor eating experience and great Thai food to boot. After coming back to St Pete, we spent a while at a local pub watching all of the NFL games. It was tough to see my Houston Texans fall to the Cowboys, but at least I was in good company.

Testing out the Leica M9! Me on the left taken by Brad Moore and Brad Moore on the right taken by me!

During the workshop on Saturday and Sunday a Leica representative was on location to loan out various Leicas to the attendees. During the day on Saturday I checked out a Leica M9 digital rangefinder for a few hours. Given the mystical cult status of Leica and the $7000 price tag of the M9′s body alone I honestly expected to be blown away by the camera. To sum it up, I was not. The camera itself is gorgeous, sexy and a Leica, however the focusing is absurd and clumsy (even for a rangefinder), the LCD and menu is less than intuitive and their is considerable noise at even ISO 800. Changing the battery and SD card is not very easy either. The files themselves are nothing to write home about. The color range is impressive, but honestly I will take the 5D mark II over the M9 any day. Either way we had fun testing it out.

Here are a few more iPhone photos from the fun weekend…

Lounging at Hobby Airport prior to my flight to Tampa!

My lovely prime rib sandwich somewhere near Oldsmar, Florida.

Thanks to my homegirl Luanne for putting up Ariel and I!

The beautiful blue sky between St Pete and Tampa!

Scattered shoes at the Thai temple in Tampa (<---sweet alliteration)

Pretty blue sky at the Thai temple in Tampa

Friends Rob Hart and Matt Roth having fun Sunday @ Geekfest.

The beautiful screen saver I made for Luanne before I left!

PS: Sorry if this blog seems rather disjointed. Geekfest took place in late September and I drafted the first portion of this post during the first week of October prior to heading overseas on assignment. Better late than never, right?

This is future Todd here writing as I build this new custom WordPress blog. As I migrate over old posts from my old Blogspot blog, the only thing that do not make the move are the comments. I have been grateful to receive many amazing comments from friends, colleagues and complete strangers that have stumbled upon my posts and images over the years so when I see a comment that I really like I am attempting to bring it over to this new blog via a new post. The comment below was in reference to my “CLASS V” post. The link below is to a blog by Gazette journalist Dena Rosenberry who blogged about my blog! HA!

http://gazetteoutthere.blogspot.com/2007/10/floating-back-in-time.html

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Hey Todd, That’s an awesome post! I’m glad it worked out for you on Gore. Gore Canyon, and really any Class V, is not the place for a beginning rafter to be.

On the Upper Gauley in West Virginia, a few steps down from Gore, but Class V nonetheless, first time rafters routinely run the river. Many of them swim Class V Pillow Rock or something a little less forgiving. Injuries are common, but not serious.

The most dangerous thing about rafting Class V without experience is that swims are likely and the rest of the raft team is counting on you to paddle when necessary; and no one knows how a first time paddler (often with strokes that are less than functional) will react when that first giant wave crashes over the boat or the paddler ends up in the water. Your “Deer in Headlights” syndrome is so common that for most Class V raft guides, the stress comes not from the rapids, but having to manage a crew of paddlers who have no business being out there.

That being said, it sounds like you were the exception. And definitely, your trip will be a highlight for the rest of your life.

If I could make a recommendation: get on some more rivers–Class III and IV. Work on your paddling. Learn how to read water and how rivers run and how features are created. Then you can really enjoy the Class V Experience. Some rivers you should consider would be the Cheoah in North Carolina, the Upper Gauley in WV, the New in WV at high water, the Upper Youghiogheny in Maryland, and then, when you feel like you’re really on your game, Cherry Creek in California–which is the ultimate Class V rafting experience. Cherry Creek has 15 Class V rapids in 9 intense miles of whitewater gnarr.

The bug has bitten, Man. Now get out there!

Matt Urdan
Guest Relationship Marketing Manager
Nantahala Outdoor Center
Bryson City, NC 28713
828-488-2175 x191

PUBLICATION OR LOCATION: print mailers/flyers for The Lodge at Bayou Bend restaurant in Houston, Texas.
PUBLICATION DATE: Spring 2007
LINK: N/A
NOTES: Some of my food photography for the upscale restaurant, The Lodge at Bayou Bend (formerly the Rainbow Lodge, now Landry’s owned Brenner’s on the Bayou) was featured on these print mailers to promote the restaurant.