Thanks a ton HCE!!!

[Abel]

I just wanted to say thanks to Mike and Larry over at HCE for hooking me up on the Alaskan Cruise with a ton of extra equipment.

The longest lens I currently own is a 70-200 f2.8 and I knew that would just not cut it shooting wildlife. Having known that Mike & Larry came through in a big way…

Houston Camera Exchange, their Canon Rep, Wimberley, Gitzo and Lowepro all set me up with:

Canon 1D Mark III
Canon 500mm f4L
Wiberley Head
Gitzo Series 5 Tripod
Lowepro Vertex 200AW Back Pack

At many points during the trip, the only thing that was actually “mine” that I was shooting with was the 2gig SD card in the camera!!! Go Figure. Hehee.

I had a blast on the cruise and the equipment definitely made the trip much more enjoyable for me… Thanks again guys… You Rock!

BTW, the Mark III is awesome… I so need to get one! I guess that was HCE’s master plan the whole time! Doh! Hehee.

[Camera Exchange]

Our pleasure Abel, glad you had a good time and your images are fantastic.

Congrats again on the major win!

I will let you know when your Mk III and 500 f/4 get here.

Later,
Mike

Originally Posted by Abel

I just wanted to say thanks to Mike and Larry over at HCE for hooking me up on the Alaskan Cruise with a ton of extra equipment.

The longest lens I currently own is a 70-200 f2.8 and I knew that would just not cut it shooting wildlife. Having known that Mike & Larry came through in a big way…

Houston Camera Exchange, their Canon Rep, Wimberley, Gitzo and Lowepro all set me up with:

Canon 1D Mark III
Canon 500mm f4L
Wiberley Head
Gitzo Series 5 Tripod
Lowepro Vertex 200AW Back Pack

At many points during the trip, the only thing that was actually “mine” that I was shooting with was the 2gig SD card in the camera!!! Go Figure. Hehee.

I had a blast on the cruise and the equipment definitely made the trip much more enjoyable for me… Thanks again guys… You Rock!

BTW, the Mark III is awesome… I so need to get one! I guess that was HCE’s master plan the whole time! Doh! Hehee.

[Cruising Through Life]

Originally Posted by Abel

I just wanted to say thanks to Mike and Larry over at HCE for hooking me up on the Alaskan Cruise with a ton of extra equipment.

The longest lens I currently own is a 70-200 f2.8 and I knew that would just not cut it shooting wildlife. Having known that Mike & Larry came through in a big way…

Houston Camera Exchange, their Canon Rep, Wimberley, Gitzo and Lowepro all set me up with:

Canon 1D Mark III
Canon 500mm f4L
Wiberley Head
Gitzo Series 5 Tripod
Lowepro Vertex 200AW Back Pack

At many points during the trip, the only thing that was actually “mine” that I was shooting with was the 2gig SD card in the camera!!! Go Figure. Hehee.

I had a blast on the cruise and the equipment definitely made the trip much more enjoyable for me… Thanks again guys… You Rock!

BTW, the Mark III is awesome… I so need to get one! I guess that was HCE’s master plan the whole time! Doh! Hehee.

I would like to add our"Thanks" here at CTL for all the work Larry, Mike, and Abel did to assist us in making this event a success. Thank you again and congratulations to Lisa for showing Abel how to take a prize winning photograph! BTW Abel, did you really take that picture of the eagle or did Lisa do it?

Oh yeah - wtg Canon shooters - 5 out of the top 6 winners - not too shabby!

Thanks again and we will see you in Hawaii next August!

Sean

[Abel]

Hey there Sean... You and Kim did an awesome job with the cruise, Lisa and I had a blast!

The top three finishers were TPF Members and Houston based... not too shabby.

Kim mentioned she wanted me to get a photo of you guys and things were so crazy near the end of the trip we didn't get to make it happen... my bad. Mike has a photo of you guys together so he'll hook you up I'm sure!

We are both so glad we made the trip with you guys... We met so many great people (including yourselves) that it was definitely much better than going on a cruise and not knowing anyone.

Thanks again.

Also, we haven't officially announced Lisa's win here on the site but I plan to make the announcement in a bit... hehee. Let the razzing begin...

[AndrewCCM]

Abel,

Where you actually "ABEL" to get any sharp images out of that Mark III?

Just kidding.. I love mine... By reading all the forums, you'd think that there hasn't been one nice image shot with the thing.

Must be nice to be the King.. My longest lens is a 70-200 as well.. I am headed to Cabo for a shoot Thurs-Sun.. No hook up for me...

[LoungeLizard]

...I just want to know...how many bags did they let you borrow?

[lhdvies]

Canon 1D Mark III
Canon 500mm f4L
Wiberley Head
Gitzo Series 5 Tripod
Lowepro Vertex 200AW Back Pack

What? No lenscoat? LOL Glad you Lisa had such a great time Abel! If my situation had been different I would have been there. Congrats again!!

[Camera Exchange]

Sean / Kim,

I have to second Abel's comments. You guys worked your tails off to make sure that everyone was happy and took something away from this event (regardless of their expertise). Plenty of instruction and plenty of "hands on" and "one on one" time with the excellent instructors (you even talked Abel into teaching a short course on the Canon flash system).

Overall, excellent job! We look forward to the next cruise. We will also notify everyone when we have the cruise participant image gallery available.

Please make sure you thank Kim for me!

Regards,
Mike

Originally Posted by Abel

Hey there Sean... You and Kim did an awesome job with the cruise, Lisa and I had a blast!

The top three finishers were TPF Members and Houston based... not too shabby.

Kim mentioned she wanted me to get a photo of you guys and things were so crazy near the end of the trip we didn't get to make it happen... my bad. Mike has a photo of you guys together so he'll hook you up I'm sure!

We are both so glad we made the trip with you guys... We met so many great people (including yourselves) that it was definitely much better than going on a cruise and not knowing anyone.

Thanks again.

Also, we haven't officially announced Lisa's win here on the site but I plan to make the announcement in a bit... hehee. Let the razzing begin...

[RGWeber]

I would like to throw in my thanks to all who made this a great experience.

Sean and Kim, thanks for all the hard work in getting this put together. You arranged for some awesome teachers and set up some great classes. I am looking forward to the next trip you put together. Hope to be able to join you on it.

Larry and Mike of Houston Camera Exchange for not only assisting several of us in getting wonderful photos but also packing all the top of the line gear to and from the boat for us to use. I know a lot people got an opportunity to try out the equipment first hand. Thanks for the support of HCE, this is why I buy local.

Vince, Dave, Moose, Laurie, Scott and Paula. I appreciated the "one on one" help and took away several great learnings that have definately improved my photos. We enjoyed the social aspect of meeting all of you as well. A special thanks to Scott and Nikon for bringing the Nikon equipment for all to try out and use. Thanks for the presentation on the capabilities of the D3 and allowing us to play with one. It is quite the camera and I can't wait for mine to arrive. I look forward to shooting with you in the future.

Juliette with Lowepro for providing the great prizes. I now know from personal experience these are top of the line bags and will not hesitate to pack my equipment in them anytime.

Abel and Texas Photo Forum for promoting the event. Keep up the good work. Hope Lisa lets you use the Mark III when she gets it so maybe you can win top photo one day. Congrats to both of you on first and second place.

And to all the participants from all around the country who made this a great trip. We enjoyed meeting everyone and look forward to keeping in touch. I am looking forward to seeing everyones photos show up on TPF and HCE.

Regards,

Rick

[Camera Exchange]

Originally Posted by LoungeLizard

...I just want to know...how many bags did they let you borrow?

In total???

Between both Abel and Lisa... let's see, there was the... heck, pretty much all of them!

[Abel]

hahaa... only one thank you very much.

the new vertex line is very nice indeed... ive been stuck on think tank for awhile now and the Vertex 200 by Lowepro may just just filled the gap between my Glass Taxi and the Airport International. Its a bit larger back back that is very well laid out.

[Abel]

I think I caught a cold the last day at some point and man have I been exhausted.... ugh.

While on the trip I think I was the unofficial Canon Representative. I don't remember how many people asked about the Mark III that HCE loaned to me but I was very quick to give them the complete tour of the camera.

Since I currently shoot with a Mark IIN there were a few others that also shot the same camera and were asking what the main differences were. That's when I gave them the complete run down of the camera. I think it really helped that I had experience with the Mark IIN since I knew what were the cool improvements on the MarkIII.

The only thing I couldnt figure out was how to do the Live Preview. One funny thing is that I spent awhile trying to figure it out but to no avail... then we go walking to our room and somehow someway the camera's Live Preview was envoked and working!!! Go Figure!!! Hehee. Still could never figure it out.

I think the thing that really impressed the shooters I spoke to was the overall weight of the camera because of the new smaller battery. A few of them said that was worth the upgrade in itself.

Also, Moose was giving a hands on Nikon wireless flash class one day, he was allowing the Nikon shooters to use his Nikon Wireless Transmitter so that they can fire off the wireless flash located near our subject/model.

Moose mentioned that he wasnt sure how to do the same effect on a Canon since there were about 6 Canon shooters in the flash class and about 20+ Nikon guys. So as it turns out once Moose finished with the Nikon portion, he handed the class over to me for the Canon guys.

I showed the guys how to use their own 580EX flashes as a commander only and how to set the flash so that the flash head is turned off and only the slave flash fires. This is something that Mike Fulton taught me not long ago (thanks Mike!) and everyone in our little impromptu flash class was amazed since they had no clue their flash could do that....

I'm still very new to wireless flash so this little experience was a little weird since I am not used to being on the teaching side of things... hehee.

[Cruising Through Life]

OK - so Kim has sort of talked me into it - what do we need to look at as a "basic" starter package for a camera - obviously higher grade than the P&S camera we have...

edit - Help us Obi-Wan Kenobee - You're our only hope...

[Camera Exchange]

Sean,

I am going to let the rest of the forum help you figure this one out. I have my suggestions, of course, but I would be a little biased considering my own personal preferences.

Of course you can PM me and I will be happy to give you my completely biased opinion.

Whatever you decide, make sure you look me up and I will give you the best TPF/CTL deal I can.

Thanks again for a great time! Now let the camera wars begin!

Regards,
Mike

Originally Posted by Cruising Through Life

OK - so Kim has sort of talked me into it - what do we need to look at as a "basic" starter package for a camera - obviously higher grade than the P&S camera we have...

edit - Help us Obi-Wan Kenobee - You're our only hope...

[Camera Exchange]

Where's Fulton... I thought this post would set off a Canon -vs- Nikon war. You guys are slacking!

Originally Posted by Camera Exchange

Sean,

I am going to let the rest of the forum help you figure this one out. I have my suggestions, of course, but I would be a little biased considering my own personal preferences.

Of course you can PM me and I will be happy to give you my completely biased opinion.

Whatever you decide, make sure you look me up and I will give you the best TPF/CTL deal I can.

Thanks again for a great time! Now let the camera wars begin!

Regards,
Mike