Photoshop World: Orlando, FL 2010

I spent last week in Orlando, FL for the Photoshop World conference at the Orange County Convention Center. This was my fourth Photoshop World and they just keep getting better. The only difficult thing about attending Photoshop World is deciding which classes to take. I tend to focus on Lightroom and photography classes, and this time was no exception. I enjoyed Katrin Eismann’s creative Lightroom class, and I picked up some good tips in Scott Kelby’s Lightroom Killer tips class. I was stoked to win a signed print from Jeff Schewe at his Printing from Lightroom class. I have seen Jay Maisel’s “Light, Gesture & Color” presentation a few times already, but it never ceases to inspire me. Joe Mcnally is always as entertaining as he is informative. Joe forgot more about light yesterday than you will ever know. Zack Arias was a new addition to the Photoshop World instructor lineup, and he really knocked it out of the park! His white seamless class taught everyone in attendance something (if not EVERYTHING) about shooting against a seamless background. I wondered how he was going to fit “Everything you need to know to be a professional photographer” into a 1-hour session, but I’ll be darned if he didn’t do it!

The DPE gang. L-R: me, Jeremy Pollack, Alan Hess, Rick Sammon, Juan Pons ...and a Vanelli photobomb in the background 🙂 Photo by Mike Driscoll

Photoshop World is as much about the people as it is about classes. My buddy Mike Driscoll rode down to Orlando with me for his first Photoshop World, and he was duly impressed with the event. We spent a lot of time with my friend and fellow DPE contributor Jeremy Pollack, as well as DPE founders Juan Pons and Rick Sammon. I was glad to finally meet Alan Hess in person after being Twitter buddies for a while now. Alan is a great concert shooter and I plan to attend his concert photography pre-con workshop at my next Photoshop World. I met Brad Moore at the House of Blues (don’t try to take your camera in there!) where he and Alan were shooting the Mat Kearney concert. I got to hang out with my buddy Nancy Masse, who you might know as @NAPP_News on twitter. She told us the best midget story any of us have ever heard 🙂 I met Scott Kelby for the first time and he was as nice as you would expect. I gave him a flyer for our September workshop in Costa Rica… maybe he’ll come 😉

Jay Maisel at the Art of Digital Photography

One of my favorite things about attending the Photoshop World conference each year is getting the chance to meet the folks behind some of my favorite products. I was glad to meet Gary Farber with Hunt’s Photo & Video in Massachusetts. Several friends of mine shop at Hunt’s, and after dealing with Gary I can see why. Lew Bedell with Artistic Photo Canvas was great, and I’m sure I’ll be ordering from them soon. They had beautiful canvas prints on display from my buddies Alan Hess and Jeremy Pollack among others.

I’ve been using Hoodman RAW compact flash cards for a few years now. I bought a couple of new cards from Bob Schmidt at the expo. The latest cards are 675x! These cards are 100% reliable, FAST and made in the USA. I also picked up a new HoodLoupe 3.0 at the show. My old hoodLoupe isn’t big enough to see the whole screen on my D700 or D300s. That seems like a small thing, but it’s pretty annoying.

All in all it was another great experience provided by the National Association of Photoshop Professionals. If you are trying to decide if it’s worth it to join the NAPP or attend Photoshop World- Join and GO! It’s not just about Photoshop, it’s about all sorts of digital imaging, and it’s about the PEOPLE. See you in Vegas!

Related links:

http://dpexperience.com/

http://www.hoodmanusa.com/

http://artisticphotocanvas.com/

http://www.huntsphotoandvideo.com/

http://www.photoshopuser.com/

http://www.scottkelby.com/

http://www.jaymaisel.com/

http://www.joemcnally.com/blog/

http://www.schewephoto.com/

http://alanhessphotography.com/

http://www.zarias.com/

http://www.bradmoore.com/

http://www.photoshopdiva.com/

http://www.fatfrogphotography.com/