Midnight Madness

Day 2 of Photoshop World ends with Midnight Madness, which actually starts at 10. this is a fun event where you learn, well, nothing about Photoshop. Except for how to play tricks with people in the Photoshop menus.

A large crowd waits to get in the doors of Midnight Madness

Participants play games like Rock, Paper, Scissors for great prizes

Guru award winner Rocky Montez-Carr and Don Jacob enjoy the traditional Midnight Madness Krispy Kreme donuts

On to the last day of Photoshop World!

The Art of Photography Panel

One of the big highlights of Photoshop World day 2 is the Art of Photography panel. Hosted by the talented Jim DiVitale, the evening is full of the images and stories of some of the photo industry’s best photographers. Jim started out the evening by showing his wonderful images and celebrating 40 (!) years in the photo industry!

Julieanne Kost showed us her first composites (you know that is embarrassing for anyone, let alone showing it to a packed room) to demonstrate that everyone has to start somewhere.

Julieanne ended her presentation with the following words of wisdom:

• If you don’t have anything nice to say don’t say it at all
• Praise in public and air any criticism in private
• Never cast disparaging remarks on another person’s art- don’t let other people change what you have to say
• Your capacity for greatness is immeasurable

Dave Black showed us some of his amazing sports images and told us the background stories behind them. Dave always pulls at the heart strings, and this year he showed us his images of figure skater Michelle Kwan. His relationship with her beginning from her age of 12 was a beautiful thing to see through his images.

Joe Glyda is a huge proponent of the self assignment, and showed us his panel self assignment of the Hoover Dam. He showed us a lot of dam great images!

Bill Fortney started his presentation off with his own personal wake up call that changed his life. Talk about pulling at the heart strings! he followed his story with his beautiful imagery and left all attendees with something to think about.

Joe McNally showed us his imagery over 40 years as a photographer (apparently 40 was the lucky number this evening). His images showed the retrospective of his work- and answered a question that he had post: is the life of a photographer worth it? Joe’s images that evoke so many emotions are the definite answer of “Hell yes!”.

Always the last presentation is that of Moose Peterson. His stunning images that show the grandeur of nature need no words – it is completely inspiring to sit back, listen to the beautiful music he pairs with his presentation and be amazed.

 

The Art of Photography panel

Photoshop World Day 2

Where can you see a live Ferrari shoot, learn about the squinch, and see a Guru award winner’s techniques all in one day? The answer is Photoshop World Day 2!

The day started off and running early- and there were plenty of sessions to attend in classes and on the Expo floor.

Classes were in full swing, with Tim Wallace bringing in a red Ferrari to do a live car photo shoot. Peter Hurley had a great portraiture session for headshots. moose Peterson inspired as always about shooting landscape with passion, and showed his own spectacular images.

On the Expo floor, the Wacom booth was abuzz with demos by Patrick LaMontagne, Scott Valentine and Bert Monroy.

Patrick LaMontagne shows his techniques for sketching and painting images like his Guru award winning “One in Every Family” at the Wacom booth.

Scott Valentine demonstrated several techniques, including a piece that he wrote an upcoming article for in Photoshop User Magazine.

The afternoon sessions had even more great lighting and retouching sessions. Overall it was a great Day 2 – and the evening is full with the Art of Photography panel and Midnight Madness!

Photoshop World After Hours Party

Photoshop isn’t all about technical sessions and cramming information in your brain. The After Hours Party allows both attendees and instructors to let loose and have a good time. This year’s party was held at Gameworks – which was a fun place to act like little kids and play video games. Between bowling, air hockey and Photoshop World instructors racing each other – there was plenty of fun to choose from!

Battle of the PSW instructors!

Attendees race each other

Brent Peterson plays air hockey

Kevin Stohlmeyer takes a lap race

Photoshop World Day 1 Recap

After the keynote, the day started off running! between sessions, the expo floor, demo sessions on the Expo floor and the After Hours party- day 1 was a full day!

Scott Valentine presents at the Peachpit booth on the Expo floor.

Jake Peterson demos Adobe Camera raw at the Adobe booth.

Canon offered camera cleaning and print services free of charge to attendees.

Portfolio Reviews

Photoshop World gives attendees the opportunity to have their portfolios reviewed by some of the best photographers in the industry. This is a fantastic opportunity to get out of your comfort zone (trust me – it’s uncomfortable) and get honest and open critiques of your work. The sessions last about 20 minutes, and are full of helpful information. I have participated in the reviews for the past few years and have learned so much each time. It is scary and uncomfortable to do, but you are glad you did it once it’s over. Personally, I have learned so much about myself and my photography in those short sessions.

However, this year I was an observer and less of a participant. Here are some pictures from the sessions:

The Peterson family checks you in to your session and lets you know who will be reviewing your work.

David Ziser

Bert Monroy

Moose Peterson

Alan Hess

Jack Reznicki

Photoshop World Keynote Recap

Photoshop World started off with a fun and creative keynote video featuring all of our favorite KelbyOne instructors – as pirates!

Scott Kelby kicked off the event, which consisted of Adobe Evangelist Julieanne Kost showing us the newest updates to the Adobe family and Joel Grimes showing his inspiring imagery from Iceland.

A highlight of the keynote is the recognition of those that use Adobe in amazing ways. The awards start off with the induction into the Photoshop Hall of Fame – this year welcomed Russell Williams, principal scientist at Adobe, and Felix Nelson, creative director at Kelby Media Group.

The Guru Awards recognize the creative work of individual users – and it is a treat to see how other people use Adobe. Here is the list of winners and their respective categories:

Artistic – James Wesley Taylor “Fly Away”   

Artistic – James Wesley Taylor “Fly Away”   

Illustration – Brooke Figer “Reflection to Perception”

Photo Montage – Dominik Kokocinski “Apocalypse Berlin”

Photography – Kobi Gulianni “Wild with Elephants”

Restoration – Sheri Harvey “Sweet’s & Gee’s Wedding”

Retouching – Rocky Montez-Carr “Fall Day”

Vincent Versace – Deb Uscilka “Winter Branches”

Best of Show – Patrick LaMontagne “One in Every Family”

For pictures of all of the winners, checkout Kevin’s post here.

Congratulations to all!

Photoshop World Meet Up

The day before the start of Photoshop World is the day for pre-conference in-depth workshops the evening of the Photoshop World Meet Up. This meet-up takes place the night before the start of PSW and after pre-conference workshops, and gives attendees the opportunity to meet other PSW attendees and to mingle with the instructors.

Held at the Eye Candy lounge – an indoor lounge to avoid the Vegas temperatures –  at Mandalay Bay for the past few years, attendees were able to compare notes with other attendees and chat with the week’s instructors.

I love that I am always able to meet people that I have seen at Photoshop Worlds past but never got the chance to talk to, and to chat with the instructors whose classes I’ll be taking during the week.

A packed house for the Photoshop World Meet Up!

The meet up spilled outside of the Eye Candy lounge.

Patrick LaMontagne and Alan Hess.

On to the official start of Photoshop World – the Keynote and Day 1!

Squarespace Workshop

One of the many great things about Photoshop World is the opportunity to learn something around every corner. While pre-conference workshops were in session this afternoon, other vendors hosted free workshops and classes. One such vendor was Squarespace, a company that makes it super easy to host and build a website for us non-developers – which is a major reason I use them currently to host my own site. They held two workshops: one for starting a website, and a more in depth class to delve a little deeper into tweaking sites. I chose to take the latter class, which was really great. I was able to learn more about utilizing Squarespace to make my site a better user experience for myself and my visitors. I look forward to utilizing the tools that I learned this afternoon.

I loved sitting in a classroom of other users, and uncovering a nugget that made all of us say, “Ah ha!”.

Thank you to Squarespace for offering this class and for providing free transportation from the Mandalay Bay!

The Expo Hall at PSW is also a great place for free classes. If you didn’t get a conference pass this year, you can get a free expo pass for Thursday and Friday and still learn something from vendors that host demos.

Photoshop World Kickoff Reception

Photoshop World week has kicked off with a reception hosted by Adobe and the Las Vegas Adobe User Group. This was a fun event to mingle with other Photoshop users, instructors, and even the opportunity to win great prizes. I was lucky enough to win a book The Hidden Power of Adjustment Layers in Adobe Photoshop by the talented Scott Valentine.

Here are a pictures from the evening.

Patrick LaMontagne, Glyn Dewis and Bert Monroy have a conversation.

Kevin Stohlmeyer, Bert Monroy, Scott Valentine and I with my signed copy of Scott’s book 9it’s glowing!). Thanks to Krystal Hosmer of the Las vegas Adobe User Group for the picture and for the great event!

Bert Monroy celebrated his birthday with us! Happy birthday Bert!