Focus - the aftermath

I visited Focus at the NEC on Sunday and still have mixed feelings about it I guess. It was very useful visiting the show in some ways but in others I didn't feel that it was much different to previous years.

On the plus side I did attend some very interesting talks on Photoshop, ProShow Gold and portrait photography and also got to get my hands on some interesting bits of kit to try out. I also made a few useful contacts which I perhaps wouldn't have made elsewhere.

The lighting for portraits talk given by Mark Cleghorn on the ePhotozine.com stand was very interesting and showed some great examples of working in challenging conditions and details of the set ups used. Jim Mark's talk on celebrity portraiture on The Flash Centre's stand was more of a showcase of his work but again, it was well presented in a fast paced style with good info on how the shots were created.

The downsides for me were that it was really busy after about 11.30 in the morning and for the rest of the day. There also didn't seem to be that much in the way of bargains available but as I wasn't really after anything in particular, that didn't matter too much.

Would I go next year? Not sure to be honest; having now been to the Nikon Expo and SWPP Trade Show, I felt that there was a lot of repetition going on. Still, it was worthwhile for the hints and tips I picked up during the day.