The Orange County Convention Center in Orlando, Florida (photo taken w/ iPhone 4)

For the past two days I’ve been hanging out at Photoshop World in (sunny?) Orlando, Florida! As usual, these events are so much fun. PSW has classes on Photoshop, photography, design, digital painting … and then there’s the expo with even more classes and booths. If you’re into digital art then this is something you should really check out.

Here are a few more photos from the first full day (Wednesday) and a few from this morning (and be sure to head over to Scott Kelby’s blog with more info and photos!):

Scott Kelby at the opening ceremony.

Rob Sylvan giving a presentation at the Peachpit booth on the expo floor.

Photographers at the Westcott Booth.

RC chased down this woman to sign her book at the Peachpit booth. :)

Balloon drop at the opening ceremony.

Larry and RC filming an episode of D-Town at the Tweetup on Tuesday night.

Felix rockin’ the bass at the after-hours party.

Photographed with an iPhone 4 & Camera+ app was used for editing

Last week was pretty packed … lots of driving, photography, Photoshop and socializing. It was fun, but quite exhausting. The majority of my time was spent in Las Vegas at Photoshop World (I absolutely love that event!). The photo above is at the keynote ceremony … I used my iPhone for most of my shots since I didn’t really feel like lugging around my 7D (I had planned to but forgot my nifty-fifty at home and the 24-105 was more than I wanted to carry around).

Anyways, things are getting back to normal and I’ll be working, shooting and writing as usual starting again this week. :)

Canon 7D, Canon 24-105mm f/4L IS lens, 2 sec at f/22, ISO 100

I just got back from a weekend of camping, and tomorrow I’ll be on the road again for Photoshop World. Be sure to check out the Photoshop World Blog for some of my posts—I’ll also be doing a recap on it next week right here on my blog, too. See you back here next week! :)

This year, along with the normal crazy fun of Photoshop World (Las Vegas edition) I will be one of the official bloggers as well. Yay! So … if you want to follow along with all the fun then be sure to head on over to the PSW blog and check it out. I’ll probably be pretty silent here at NicolesyBlog.com until the end of next week—I’ve got a lot on my plate and lots of traveling (road trip, w00t!) … but I’ll still be hanging out on Twitter so head on over if you want to see what’s happening in my world.

And, btw, I’m giving a short presentation at the Peachpit booth on Wednesday at the PSW Expo at 2 pm (details here). Since I’m typically more comfortable giving Photoshop demonstrations then this will definitely be interesting (no promises, lol!) … so feel free to stop on by and say hi! :)

Last week I had the pleasure of attending “Photoshop World” in Las Vegas, NV. I was only there for the Expo, but somehow those fellers over at Kelby Media Group were still able to exceed my expectations (I can only imagine what it would have been like if I was able to attend the conference as well!).

Julieanne Kost gives a demonstration at the B&H Theater in the Photoshop World Expo

I watched a few of the training sessions at the B&H booth during the expo; Corey Barker and Julianne Kost are really amazing teachers! Overall the Expo was insane. The iStockphoto booth had people decorating Munny dolls … some of them took several hours at the booth perfecting their designs. I visited several other booths, but one that really sticks out in my mind is MetalMural.com. You have GOT to check these out … I now know what I’m going to use for my printing service when I’m ready to start decorating my walls. :)

The crowd of iStock party attendees show off their Munny Dolls to the camera

Friday night was the big iStockphoto “Dollhouse Party”. This was the party to be at if you were at Photoshop World this year. We were required to decorate a Munny doll as our ticket to the exclusive party, and bussed out to a “secret location” (which was a crazy beautiful mansion). There were fire-dancers, a contortionist, DJ, open bar (for real!), and iStock even gave out more than $2k worth of cash and prizes to the best decorated Munny dolls. I can’t wait to see what they have in store for next year. (Check out this video of the party put together by RC and his awesome video crew from NAPP!)

Canon 7D, Lensbaby Composer, Double Glass Optic, 1/20 sec at f/2.0

I will definitely be going to Photoshop next year. Even if it’s just to catch up with some old friends and new acquaintances, it’s totally worth the trip. Plus it gives me an excuse to photograph the awesome lights of Vegas with my Lensbaby. ;)

I attended my very first Photoshop World this past weekend and had an amazing time!  Here’s a quick rundown of my experience:

Keynote
It started out as being a hilarious spoof on Star Trek: TNG … I couldn’t stop laughing!  These guys have a great sense of humor and wonderful attitude.  John Loiacono also gave us a sneak-peek at Adobe Photoshop CS-”next”.  There will also be an official Adobe announcement (hmm, wonder what that might be?) on September 23rd … all I can say is “I can’t wait!!!”

Classes
Holy guacamole, do you learn a ton at this event.  I did my best to follow Matt Kloskowski’s advice on avoiding classes on topics you probably already know a lot about, and even snuck out of one of his classes on Lightroom for beginners!   Ultimately, my absolute favorite Photoshop class was “Earth, Wind and Fire” with Corey Barker (the image above was made from techniques learned in that class).  I really appreciate his style of teaching, and also love the fact that I learn something new every time he does a tutorial or lesson, since it’s so far from what I do every day within Photoshop.  My favorite photography classes were two classes led by Joe McNally — wow, is that guy amazing or what!  Such a great sense of humor, and, of course, a stellar photographer.  I came out of his “Shooting for Major Magazines” class feeling extremely inspired (even teary-eyed inspired … ok, I know, corny but true!).  Next time I attend PSW I am definitely going to a pre-con photography workshop with him!

Expo
This was a creative professional’s dream expo!  I did my best to just browse so I didn’t actually buy anything, but I did get to see some of the top-of-the-line equipment and software.  If you are in the area of Photoshop World, you need to check this out!  (Especially if you are planning on buying anything … they usually have some good discounts to NAPP members and everyone in general on the last day of the expo.)

Party!
I was lucky enough to snag a pro-pass, and along with it I got to go to the coveted After-Hours party held at the House of Blues in the Mandalay Bay.  The band “Big Electric Cat” was great!  I brought my D200 and Ray Flash with me and got some really cool shots.  I even had the chance to meet and shake hands with Scott Kelby. :)

People
This is definitely one of the best reasons to attend Photoshop World, ranked right up there with the classes.  I met so many people and learned a lot by just doing some one-on-one chatting.  I also had a chance to meet and hang out with a bunch of the iStock crew, most of them coming all the way from Calgary.  Thanks again to Rob, Kelly, Adam, Megan, Dave and Kevin for being such awesome peeps and spending time with me!

Advice
So, for those of you who are thinking that Photoshop World looks like it might be a fun time, believe me when I tell you that it is!  Here are a few things that I discovered personally that are some tips to keep in mind:

- Go to classes that teach things you know very little or nothing about.  (Well, at least stick to the software you know, like don’t go to an Illustrator class if you’ve never used it before.)

- Wear comfortable shoes!  (People told me this over and over, and I did follow their advice.  They weren’t kidding … you really get to do a lot of walking!)

- And most important of all – have fun!  These guys really do make it easy to have a good time, and the uplifting positive attitude of all the instructors and NAPP staff is probably what makes this event so wonderful.  It’s really a great thing to see so many people together at one time (participants included) who obviously just love their jobs!  It makes me feel like I’ve picked the right path for a career ( … now I just need a job!) ;)

To read more about Photoshop World and some upcoming Photoshop news, visit Scott Kelby’s blog (link).