The Portland Metro Photographic News

a commentary by Tom Hubbard

Above (left) Eric Meola presents his "In Word and Image" lecture at the World Forestry Center on Wednesday night and (right) Lewis Kemper at last weekend's 4C's Convention as the Keynote speaker and instructor for two seminars.

In the last four days, the Portland area photography community has had the opportunity to hear from two world-class photographers.  Both events were sponsored by local photography organizations, but made a reality by the generous (and commercially-driven) support of Canon and its Explorers of Light program.  Such opportunities don't happen by chance.  More importantly, making our community attractive for future visits by today's most prestigious photographers is, in large part, up to us.

That's right.  If you aren't aware of this fact already, there is a huge commercial component to drawing this level of photographic fame to our fair city.  Here's how it works.  Companies like Canon, Nikon, Olympus, Pentax, Epson, Apple and Hewlett Packard retain the services of famous photographers to represent their products at conventions, seminars, workshops and camera stores around the country.  The appearance of these "influencers" is supported financially by the sponsoring manufacturer.  But the pool of noted photographers is small and the marketing budgets of these companies are finite.

Distributing these marketing dollars is strictly a numbers game.

Eric Meola's Wednesday presentation showcased his career and his enthusiam for photography.

If a local sponsoring organization such as Pro Photo Supply, or the 4Cs, can ensure the manufacturer a large customer attendance and the opportunity to face their buying public with their latest hardware and software products, a speaking engagement will be arranged.  The manufacturer's willingness to provide subsequent speakers is dependent upon the attendance and success of the previous seminar or workshop.

That's where we come in.  We are certainly not obligated to buy any of the sponsor's products, but our attendance and support of these manufacturer-financed events is essential to guarantee their continuation in the Portland area.  Lack of attendance is immediately interpreted by corporate accountants as being an unwise investment -- insufficient ROI.

The good news is that these events are something we want to attend because of the fascination we hold for "all things photographic".  We just need to step away from our cameras, computers and Monday Night Football for a couple of motivational hours to ensure their future.

Area schools and private photo educators in our community should promote these events as valuable opportunities for students to experience and be inspired by the works and words of today's most noted photographers.  Students are almost always given free passes or reduced rates to these events, and such activities provide teachers with perfect local "field trips" and a critical real world education for their aspiring students.

Each empty chair at a manufacturer-sponsored lecture, seminar or workshop is a vote cast against the prospect of seeing subsequent sponsored events being organized in our area.