Podcast: 2020 OPTIC Conference Preview, with Lisa Langell and Pete McBride

06/02/2020

We encourage all of our listeners to register for the free digital online edition of the Outdoor Photo/Video Travel Imaging Conference (OPTIC) 2020, hosted by B&H and sponsored by Panasonic, Sony, Nikon, Canon, FUJIFILM, Godox, and many others. As most of you know, the B&H Photography Podcast has regularly attended this annual conference, in New York, and recorded wonderful interviews with the likes of Michael Kenna, Joyce Tenneson, and Ron Magill. This year, the conference will be held online, but still with an incredible lineup of photographers and speakers, including keynote speakers Ami Vitale and Clyde Butcher.

On today’s episode of the podcast, we offer a taste of the photographic insight found at OPTIC. First, we welcome wildlife and bird photographer Lisa Langell, who is also at Tamron and FotoPro Ambassador. With her photo gracing the cover of the current issue of Outdoor Photographer magazine, Langell discusses creating wildlife photography for the home and hotel décor market, about her favorite places in Alaska to photograph bear, and about the personal and interactive way she hosts seminars and webinars. She provides food for thought to those looking for new ways to photograph wildlife.

After a break, we welcome National Geographic photographer and Sony Artisan of Light Pete McBride. McBride speaks of his amazing 750-mile walk across the Grand Canyon, which became a NatGeo story, and also a book and a feature-length documentary. At OPTIC you will get the full story—from “River to Rim”—along with images, but we also spoke with McBride about his long-term work shooting the world’s river systems; we gained some insight into aerial photography; and learned how his Sony a7RII weathered a year in the Grand Canyon—and with which he created not only a magazine story, but a book and a movie with that one camera.

Guests: Lisa Langell and Pete McBride

Photograph © Lisa Langell

Aerial of the last time the Colorado River kissed the sea—during a pulse flow for restoration work. The connection lasted two days in 2014. The delta has been dry since. © Pete McBride

Iceland River Delta © Pete McBride

Black obsidian sand, silvery glacial rivers, and moss green volcanoes make up this vast Icelandic landscape. © Pete McBride

Devprayag, India. Confluence of the Bagirathi and Alakanda rivers—the physical start of the Gagnes River © Pete McBride

“Grand Canyon: From River to Rim” by Pete McBride

Aerial view of the Colorado River winding through the Grand Canyon, Arizona © Pete McBride

A day of traffic, 362 individual helicopter flights, merged into one frame to show what the collective soundscape and average traffic looks like along the western Grand Canyon border © Pete McBride