I am back in Norway, sitting by the river behind our house, letting all my impressions of the last week in Cologne at Photokina splash over me like the waterfall several hundred meters downstream from here. It's interesting to watch. I see impressions -- lots of expensive booths, new equipment, and slick presentations -- but they all blur together.  What is crystal clear, sharp and in focus, are my encounters with people at the show and our discussions of the equipment, the gadgets, and the technology at the show.  And my interaction with a very special group of people.

Checking out the new Leica S2 37 MP Medium Format Camera

I've always thought of myself as a gadget kind of guy.  My father was a scientist who worked at the LIvermore Labs, the major nuclear weapons research center.  I can get as excited as the next nerd about a new camera, or sensor technology.  (In fact when Thomas Knoll created Camera Raw, I nearly drooled with excitement about the possibilities presented by working with the Raw unadulterated data from a digital camera.  Fascination with a file format? Now that takes real nerd.)  But I have another side, and I am beginning to fully appreciate and understand it.  

It is people who turn me on to the technology and excite my interest. It was Ansel Adams who put digital technologies on the radar for me in 1981.  It was Michael Rogers, the Practical Futurist, who turned me on to computers in 1984. Dr. Rudy Burger, the creator of PhotoMac, the first 24-bit color processing application for the Mac, turned me on to the complexities of imaging software and color science.  If I ever fully make the leap into video, it'll come from the push of digital pioneer Fred Shippey.  I am not trying to drop names, here.  Please.  I am just saying that so much of the way I learn is through people.  And Photokina is no different.

As I thumb through all the business cards I collected I realize how much I like the people in this business.  I don't speak for everyone, but the ones I know really love photography and are passionate about it in some way, either as a tool maker or tool user.  Ok, all of you who I ran into whose names would fill several screens, you are very cool!  Thanks for a wonderful show.  See you next time.

PS.  I'll be based here in Norway for the year, with many trips to shows in the US and to lead workshops. We have sublet our house in San Francisco to a Swiss family and we've taken over the home my father and grandfather were born in.  We have the girls in a local school to learn Norwegian (half their heritage) and I'm working on a project aptly called "A Year on a River in Norway."  Because Lightroom is a key tool for my project, I definitely plan to share my work with you here as it progresses. See you soon.