My Home Sweet Home » Photoshop World

It’s Almost Photoshop World Time!

Dawn — Fri, 25 Feb 2011 16:46:19 +0000

My pass for Photoshop World arrived in the mail yesterday for March 30-April 1 in Orlando. Today—Friday, February 25—is the last day to register and receive the $100 Early Bird Discount. I would love to see you there.

Photoshop World is a creative high. I always walk away motivated, inspired, and with fresh editing and workflow tips that revolutionize my whole photography process.

The classes are varied and relevant, and taught by industry leaders. During the course of the conference you can learn lighting tips from Joe McNally; Lightroom from Matt Kloskowski or Julianne Kost; portrait retouching from Scott Kelby; how to make an online portfolio from RC Concepcion; concert photography from Alan Hess.

For a photography junkie, it just doesn’t get any better than this.

It’s my personal wish to see more camera-toting blogging mamas like myself there. If you can’t make it this time, Photoshop World happens twice per year, once on the east coast and once on the west coast. The west coast locations is usually Las Vegas.

If you join NAPP (see the NAPP tab in my navigation bar for reasons why you should), be sure and enter my promo code—DAWN—for a $10 discount and a free bonus offer, which is currently Scott Kelby’s Photo Recipes Live DVD/book combo. Once you’re a member, you can start racking up benefits when others join through your referral link. Refer eleven new members and earn your Photoshop World pass for free.

Are you going to Photoshop World? Do you want to go?

It’s Almost Photoshop World Time! is a post from: My Home Sweet Home
© 2012 My Home Sweet Home | All rights reserved

What I Did this Week While I Wasn’t at Photoshop World

Dawn — Sat, 04 Sep 2010 18:40:22 +0000

Photoshop World was Tuesday-Friday this week in Las Vegas, and while I would have loved to have been there, I had a great week at home.

Wednesday I took head shots for a lovely young actress.

Thursday night two of my kids and I went to a Latin party. If you’ve ever thought I’m a little nerdy, this might confirm it. We hung out and watched videos about the Latin language. I took six pages of notes and a screen shot.

Friday was my seventh child’s seventh birthday! On each child’s birthday, if at all possible, I take them out for lunch. Chili’s is always a favorite and that’s where we went.

Are they just born knowing that tilt of the head?

We’ll call this, “Wait, it’s my sister’s birthday and she’s getting all the attention!”

I cut everyone else in my household’s hair, so I’ve never felt too bad about paying to get mine done until this year. In an effort to save, I haven’t gone to get my hair cut since last December. A good friend, another stay-at-home mom, has done it for me a couple of times, whenever we’ve had the opportunity.

After Google image searching “haircuts,” I saved this to my phone before we left for the birthday lunch.

Although well aware that no mere mortal could make me look like that, I thought the style was realistically possible for my hair.

On a whim, I called a salon that I hadn’t visited in over a year and a half and where I knew my former stylist no longer worked. Could they work me in? Yes, if I could be there in 30 minutes!

I was pleasantly surprised to find that while the salon had been a little snooty, it’s now a more relaxed and enjoyable place to be. I really liked the girl who cut my hair and will probably go there again.

I don’t know about you, but after a haircut I like to get a picture to remind me how it was styled at the salon, although it’s usually difficult to replicate by yourself. My husband snapped some pictures for me while I gave lots of instruction on where to stand, focus, etc. After that Jasmine Star wedding photography course at Creative Live last weekend, I harbor a secret agenda of transforming him into my own personal JD (Jasmine’s husband and second shooter). I’ll let you know when you can book us to shoot your wedding. ;-)

The good news is, I got a new headshot! Woo hoo!

It’s cropped in the sidebar enough to disguise the fact that my roots needed a touch up, which I took care of this morning. ;-)

My daughter snapped some pictures of my husband and me; we’ll celebrate our 25th anniversary next month. I am beyond thrilled to have them and to have been blessed with such a man to call my own. I’m convinced there’s not another anywhere who would put up with me.

What have you done this week?

I’m crossing my fingers to be at Photoshop World in Orlando next spring!

What I Did this Week While I Wasn’t at Photoshop World is a post from: My Home Sweet Home
© 2012 My Home Sweet Home | All rights reserved

Zack Arias Rocked My Photoshop World

Dawn — Sat, 03 Apr 2010 21:28:35 +0000

Last week in Orlando was Zack Arias’s first appearance as a Photoshop World instructor. I knew a little about Zack: he lives here in Atlanta; I’d watched his guest post video on Scott Kelby’s blog and related to the winter photography funk; a few months ago my husband printed his white background studio setup to hopefully create for me one day in our unfinished basement.

What I didn’t know was the impact he would have on me at Photoshop World.

You know that feeling you get when someone is speaking and it really moves you? That heavy, misty feeling in your head that says you just might start crying if any more of your inner wires get tripped, your fears and insecurities laid bare? It didn’t take long for that sensation to hit me; not a particularly comfortable feeling in a room full of people, sitting there between a couple of my NAPP buddies.

Here was this wildly successful photographer who seemed to be a lot like me on the inside.

I walked out of that room a serious Zack Arias fan. Not just me: he was the hit of Photoshop World Orlando.

He’s real. He’s honest. He’s encouraging. He’s a battery charger. I was trying to explain it to my husband, and he said, “He made you feel like you could do it.” Exactly.

One of my favorite quotes (and this isn’t word for word) was this: It’s not about being a rock star photographer. It’s about serving people. (Obviously this has nothing to do with shooting rock stars, which technically does make you a rock star photographer. It’s about the “photographer as rock star” mentality.)

There’s a lot of buzz in the photography world about fees, and how underpricing your work is detrimental to photographers as a whole. Zack told the audience that if you’re just trying to feed your family, do what you need to do and let everyone else take care of themselves. Don’t worry about taking down the industry.

I had the chance to speak with Zack a couple of times. He’s very down to earth and likable, like someone that would be fun to hang out with. If you can hear him speak, don’t miss it.

Zack Links:

Related Posts:

This post brought to you by my Photoshop World sponsors, Red River Paper and Artistic Photo Canvas.

Zack Arias Rocked My Photoshop World is a post from: My Home Sweet Home
© 2012 My Home Sweet Home | All rights reserved

Photoshop World Orlando 2010 in Photos Recap

Dawn — Fri, 02 Apr 2010 19:01:28 +0000

These photos are from Photoshop World Orlando last week.

Here I am with my buddies Alan Hess of Shot Live Photo and Lew Bedell from Artistic Photo Canvas. I consider Alan my personal mentor; he puts up with an endless stream of questions from me, which he probably never anticipated when influencing me to buy the same camera as he has. I carry his concert shooting setting tips on my phone now to spare him the Twitter DMs. He really is a rock star photographer.

Lew helped sponsor me for Photoshop World by letting me evangelize about his awesome company at their booth on Thursday afternoon. What a great bunch to hang out with!

Alan gave away this canvas from APC, signed by Scott Kelby, of a shot from Photoshop World 2009 in Las Vegas. It was from his pre-conference workshop on concert photography. I didn’t win. :-(

Alan surprised everyone by also giving away the canvas that you see above my buddy A.J.‘s head. It’s of Billy Idol (I told you Alan was a rock star photographer). An older man won it; I suspect he didn’t even know Billy Idol. If I’d won this one, my husband would have probably hung it in the living room. After all, we are children of the 80s.

Here’s the same cast of characters, still hanging out with APC:

Here’s Terry White doing a lighting class on the expo hall floor at the Manfrotto booth. I think we have the same camera, too. I seriously want to borrow some lenses from these guys. :-)

A.J. attempting to roll an Oreo down his face and into his mouth, part of Vanelli’s crowd-pleasing pre-Midnight Madness antics:

Na na na na na na na na… it’s Batman Vanelli himself!

Matt Kloskowski teaching a Lightroom class:

Here is Scott Kelby receiving an award from Peachpit Press for being the #1 computer/technology writer in the world for the 20th straight year (actually it’s six). Scott about lost it when Peachpit said that instead of choosing a congratulatory gift for him, they would buy him his next lens. It was kind of cool to see that someone that you might assume would have everything actually has a wish list. :-)

For more Photoshop World action, check out the PSW Flickr stream!

Related posts:

This post brought to you by my Photoshop World sponsors, Red River Paper and Artistic Photo Canvas.

Photoshop World Orlando 2010 in Photos Recap is a post from: My Home Sweet Home
© 2012 My Home Sweet Home | All rights reserved

Photoshop World Orlando: Joe McNally’s Big Light from Small Flashes

Dawn — Mon, 29 Mar 2010 17:24:34 +0000

My external flash and I have a love/hate relationship: love it when it works properly, hate it when I don’t get the desired results. Fortunately, I’ve got sense enough to realize that I am the problem, not the light. If I’d use and study it more it would be less intimidating, more predictable with less guess work. I love Zack Arias‘s quote that it’s “just a piece of plastic and four batteries.”

If you attend Photoshop World, you want to either meet Joe McNally, attend one of Joe McNally’s classes, or just be Joe McNally. There is no other Joe (except Joe from MPix, but that’s another story).

Bright and early last Thursday morning I attended “Big Light from Small Flashes.” The class was packed; I actually sat in the center aisle.

The biggest piece of info I walked away with (and for goodness sake, somebody correct me if I remembered this wrong) is this: adjust aperture to compensate for flash, shutter speed for ambient light. I immediately had a chance to test it while shooting candids at our Father/Daughter Dance on Saturday night.

The gym was dimly lit, but my flash was triggering the flash on the camera of the photographer shooting the official portraits, so I switched to low aperture, high ISO, no flash for the beginning of the evening. Once I was able to use flash, I had to increase the aperture to keep from blowing out the highlights. I just kept tweaking aperture and shutter speed, trying to achieve the desired results from flash and ambient light. I would rather play a learning game than a guessing game any day.

By the end of the evening, I wanted to trade my SB-600 for an SB-800 with a diffuser, but that’s yet another story.

Here are some more shots of Joe wowing the crowd at Photoshop World:

This post brought to you by my Photoshop World sponsors, Red River Paper and Artistic Photo Canvas.

Photoshop World Orlando: Joe McNally’s Big Light from Small Flashes is a post from: My Home Sweet Home
© 2012 My Home Sweet Home | All rights reserved

Photoshop World Whrrled

Dawn — Sat, 27 Mar 2010 08:03:06 +0000

I just returned home from my third Photoshop World, this time in Orlando. Although there was no time for blogging, I did Whrrl different parts of the event from my phone. These are the slideshows. Look for more Photoshop World posts to come!

More check-ins at Expo Hall at Photoshop World

More check-ins at Bb Kings Blues Club

More check-ins at Orlando Orange County Convention & Visitors Bureau Incorporated

This post brought to you by my Photoshop World sponsors, Red River Paper and Artistic Photo Canvas.

Photoshop World Whrrled is a post from: My Home Sweet Home
© 2012 My Home Sweet Home | All rights reserved

Thoughts on Sponsors, and a Thank You to Mine

Dawn — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 14:38:18 +0000

As more blog conferences and other opportunities present themselves to bloggers, sponsorship has become one of the hottest trending topics in social media. Twitter parties with the #getasponsor hashtag and Get a Sponsor website have sprung up to help women discover how to approach and work with companies to the benefit of both parties.

Truly, it’s a win/win situation: bloggers can provide the social network outreach and real, first-hand reviews of products or services for the companies, and the companies can provide those products and the funding to get us to conferences where we can expand our networks (start or deepen friendships with other bloggers within the community), thereby increasing our outreach and exposure for the brands who help get us there. Win/win.

I recommend approaching companies whose products you already use or are genuinely passionate about, a good fit for you, your blog, your readers.

Don’t be afraid to think outside the box. Although my blog focuses primarily on photography, homeschooling, parenting, and family life, I approached Spanx for sponsorship to BlissDom. That affiliation was a perfect fit (no pun intended) for a woman who’s birthed eight children attending a blog conference where all the women are trying to look their most fabulous.

What I don’t recommend is taking it personally if a company refuses you, or never answers your request at all. I didn’t receive responses from three companies that I contacted about Photoshop World sponsorship. Two were companies with which I’ve worked with and have a good relationship.

It’s easy to internalize that or even let it hurt your feelings (talking from experience here). Don’t. Maybe there’s a company-wide policy about personal sponsorships, or your email got lost in the shuffle. Admittedly, an open refusal is much easier than no answer at all.

Photoshop World Sponsorship Thank Yous!

Later this month I will be attending my third Photoshop World, this time in Orlando. I currently have two sponsors, Red River Paper and Artistic Photo Canvas; both companies’ products grace the walls of my home.

Look for upcoming posts featuring these companies.

I’m seeking additional sponsorship for Photoshop World. Transportation, hotel, and food costs add up on the road! If you would be interested in having me represent you there, please email me via my Contact form.

Thoughts on Sponsors, and a Thank You to Mine is a post from: My Home Sweet Home
© 2012 My Home Sweet Home | All rights reserved

The (Belated) Girls Vegas Photoshop World Survival Guide

Dawn — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 02:16:31 +0000

I’ve read great posts with useful tips for enhancing your Photoshop World Vegas experience, but not necessarily from a woman’s point of view. I want to throw out some extra tips for the sisters for future Vegas Photoshop Worlds.

Hair

Just out of curiosity, I googled “average Atlanta humidity” and discovered that my hair is accustomed to an average of 82% relative humidity in the mornings and 56% relative humidity in the afternoons. (If you’re a guy, stop laughing and go elsewhere—this post is not for you.) If you live in a location with low humidity, don’t worry: you obviously already know how to handle it. Vegas can be very hot—although it was quite comfortable this year—but the humidity can be 0%.

If you’re used to sweltering Southern heat and humidity, this may sound like pure bliss; however, you may discover, as I did last year, that your hair needs a certain degree of humidity to keep from being a mass of static electricity.

I’m Southern. I understand big hair and how it can be created, even beyond what nature personally intended for you. Although I rarely do it, I know how to back-comb. For girls in the South, it’s part of our roots (no pun intended). Here’s a picture of my mom, my sister, and I, circa mid-70s; as you can see, my mom was a master of the back-comb.

You might get by styling your hair and applying heavy hairspray, if you’re fine with your hair being completely immobile (which I’m not). If you have fine hair and want to actually brush it while in Vegas without looking like this, here are my tips based on personal observation at this year’s conference:

No styling products on wet hair: no mouse, gel, etc. Trust me on this.
Styling products are okay on dry hair. Less is more.
You’ll probably need to shampoo every day because you will be around people smoking throughout the hotel, and you’re not going to want to smell like that.
If you brush your hair during the day, it will probably do the static electricity dance unless you spray your brush with hairspray before using.
If you have naturally thick and amazing hair, you might not have to worry about anything but #3.

Shoes

No matter how hot it is outside, it will be freezing inside. Save your sandals for outdoor photo walks, but plan on wearing socks indoors. I would love to say that I was mature enough to wear tennis shoes (that’s sneakers for you Yankees), but we Southern girls have our pride (that’s vanity to you Yankees). Just be smart. You’ll be walking a lot, not to mention standing for at least 15-20 minutes in the morning Starbucks line.

Layers

No, I’m not talking about the magazine. Expect to be cold in classes, but warmer if you are walking or outside. Most days I wore short sleeves with a cardigan that I could take off and tie around my waist. Actually I wore the same cardigan every day, which also happened to be the one I took last year. It might henceforth be banned from my Photoshop World wardrobe.

Short sleeves are best if you go to the After Hours party, because it’s crowded and you’ll want to dance, especially if you’re a child of the eighties like me. Scott Kelby’s band obviously shares my eighties time warp. They even played Midnight Star’s No Parking on the Dance Floor. Seriously!

In summary: make allowances for your hair if you’re accustomed to a humid climate; comfortable shoes and socks are a must; dress in layers because it’s cold inside and warmer outside. Most importantly, if you’re a lover of photography or Photoshop, beg, borrow, or steal your way to Photoshop World. It’s a not-to-be-missed experience!

Photoshop World Most Embarrassing Moment: the Joe Pic

Dawn — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 21:13:38 +0000

To be an attendee at a large conference and not be plugged into Twitter is like experiencing the event at a fraction of full value. At Photoshop World, every time I was in my room with the laptop I plugged into a #PSW TweetGrid search to keep track of what was happening throughout the conference as a whole, beyond the scope of only those whom I follow. As an event organizer, you should be living in that TweetGrid (or other such search) before, during, and after the conference.

In my zeal, I retweet frequently during conferences; there’s lots going on and it’s good to share the RT love. Thursday morning I retweeted something about a contest, the primary detail of which involved having your picture made with Joe to enter. In the world of Photoshop World there is only one Joe: McNally.

Later when I ran across him on the Expo Hall floor, I immediately remembered the tweet. I seem to have above average luck with this sort of thing and even though I had no idea what the prize would be, I wanted a chance to win!

Throwing caution to the wind, I approached Joe and explained to him that there was a contest that involved having your picture made with him. The fact that he looked skeptical should have been a major red flag: surely I wouldn’t have been the first to approach him requesting a photo, right? I grabbed an innocent bystander, who took the picture.

Minutes later, I scoured TweetDeck on my iPhone and saw that the contest was from MPix. At their booth, I discovered that I was supposed to have my picture taken with Joe at the MPix booth, not Joe McNally. The guys at MPix had a good laugh with me, and I proceeded to snag the real Joe, get a shot with him from my iPhone, and tweet it in proper contest-entering fashion.

Bright and early the next morning, I was awakened by a DM (direct message on Twitter) asking for my address and telling me I’d won. “Won what?” I asked. An autographed print of the Photoshop Guys!

In the end, I won the prize and got a picture with living legend, Joe McNally. Thanks, Joe.

9 Days of NAPP Day 9: LIVE from Photoshop World!

Dawn — Sat, 03 Oct 2009 17:16:36 +0000

[Can you believe it? We're at number 9 and will soon have winner for our three prizes! See details and comment to win at the bottom of the post.]

For Photoshop addicts, Photoshop World is the epitome of the learning and socializing experience. Not only can you receive first-hand instruction from the world’s top Photoshop professionals, but you can ask them questions, hang out at after-hours events with them, maybe even stalk them on the Expo floor. Not that I would ever do that.

This week’s Photoshop World features a tweet-up; at least four photo walks; an off-site party hosted by iStockphoto; twitter contests and giveaways; and traditional events such as Thursday night’s after-hours party at the House of Blues and Friday night’s limited-seating Midnight Madness event. In addition to the regular classes, there are bonus classes by instructors like Joe McNally and Julianne Kost being given on the Expo floor.

Check out a sampling of the instructor list: Scott Kelby, Joe McNally, Matt Kloskowski, Lesa Snider (love her!), RC Concepcion, Dave Cross, Julianne Kost, Bert Monroy (went to his seminar tour recently and my mind was blown!), Jay Maisel, Moose Peterson, Fay Sirkis, and Alan Hess.

One of the neatest things has been meeting some of my Twitter buddies in real life. Check out the Photoshop World action by searching Twitter hashtag #PSW. Look for Photoshop World summary posts and pics in the days to come, because for some of us: What happens in Vegas gets blogged!

Here are some informative Photoshop World posts by fellow NAPP members:

Top 10 Tips for Photoshop World Vegas
Choosing Classes
Shooting in Las Vegas

How do you win?

Leave a comment for a chance to win one of three prizes here at the end of the “9 Days of NAPP” series! Are you attending Photoshop World now or have you in the past? Would you like to? Do you want to learn more about Photoshop? Spill it in the comments!

There will be three giveaways at the conclusion of the “9 Days of NAPP” post series, with winners selected from the comments on all nine posts: an autographed copy of Photoshop CS4 for Digital Photographers by Scott Kelby, an autographed copy of Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 2 Book for Digital Photographers by Scott Kelby, and the grand prize of a 1-year membership to NAPP!

Contest ends Friday, October 9.

[I want to interject here that without my fabulous Photoshop World sponsors, Red River Paper and AdoramaPix, this post would be written with a noticeable undercurrent of self-pity. As it is, I'm tickled pink to be here at Photoshop World in Las Vegas for a second straight year.]