The Best of WPPI 2023
My Picks for Wedding & Portrait Photographers International's Best of 23 List
Hi friends. I hope this finds you well. I’m just getting back from spending most of the week in Las Vegas for the Wedding & Portrait Photographers International (WPPI) conference. It’s one of the biggest events in the photography community, bringing together some of the most talented people in the world for a few days to create, learn and showcase their stuff.
Part conference, part trade show, various major brands came out to show their latest and greatest, from the usual suspects of Canon, Nikon, Sony and Fujifilm as well as third party companies like Sigma and Tamron, to lighting juggernauts like Westcott.
I found myself throughout the week at The Mirage on the Las Vegas strip, nestled between the behemoth Cesar’s Palace and Treasure Island. There were multiple speakers each day, from all different levels of success. Each gave a different perspective on how to approach both the creative and business aspects of photography.
As cliché as it sounds, the gift of community, being around people who have gone through or are going through similar problems of trying to get to the next level of their craft was soothing. As much as we can use technology to facilitate building connections, being together in real life has so much impact to it.
Speaking of technology, the show floor had TONS of it. Some of my favorites varied from company to company, so I’ll break it down:
Canon showed off their new EOS R8 that is extremely lightweight but packs almost as much power as their recently released EOS R6 II. Outside the lack of a physical joystick for focus control, I had nothing bad to say about it. It would be a fantastic entry point into the EOS R system and reminds me of how game changing the Sony Alpha 7 III was for its price-to-performance a few years ago.
Nikon had a fleet of Z9’s setup to try with what seemed like the whole Z lens lineup. Ergonomically, the Z9 is one of my favorite cameras I’ve handled, leagues above the D7100 I started my career with. But what really caught my attention was a Z6 II rigged with Nikon’s Remote Grip attachment via ARRI locking plates. It gave full recording controls and the essential controls for filming functionality and felt really good in my hands. This is an accessory I’d expect from Canon or Sony considering their professional cinema offerings have similar grips. I hope others borrow this idea and execution because it’s too good not to.
Sony had a few offerings of their latest Alpha cameras and the latest G Master lenses, including the recently announced FE 50mm f/1.4 lens. As someone who routinely uses the Zeiss variant, this felt considerably lighter.
I really love how small the lights from Aputure and Westcott were. The idea of having a small, powerful light with a fairly compact softbox sounds like an absolute dream kit. Ideally, the more you can do with less is better.
There were so many things to play with that there was no time to use it all, but I hope that from what you’ve seen here there’s something that catches your eye. I hope to go again in the future.