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!
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:
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
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 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
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.
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 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!
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!
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 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!
Photoshop World Las Vegas is finally here! I will be blogging and tweetingthroughout the week from the conference and the various events. If you cannot make the conference and would like to watch the Keynote that kicks off Photoshop World, check it out here at 9 am PST on Wednesday September 3.
Stay tuned for updates!
August 12 has been set aside as World Elephant Day, to bring the world together to help these beautiful giant creatures that are seriously endangered.
I was lucky enough to have a great experiences last year with two female Asian elephants, Sujatha and Little Mac, at the Santa Barbara Zoo. You can read about my amazing day as a zookeeper - the day was so awesome I had to post it into Part 1 and Part 2 to share my full experience.
Getting up close and personal with these creatures was a highlight, and it boggles my mind that there are less than 40,000 of these animals in the wild.
After washing these ladies (which was quite an experience in and of itself), I was able to create this portrait (of course after they found some dirt to play in):
One of two female Asian elephants at the Santa Barbara Zoo.
Santa Barbara, CA
August 2013
For the past few years, I have attended Santa Paula's annual Citrus Classic Balloon Festival to take in the beautiful sights and sounds of hot air balloons. This past weekend was the weekend to grab my camera and make some images of the festival.
While I love the beautiful colors of the balloons when night falls and the balloons start to "glow", I love watching the set up of these massive balloons. The work and human power that goes into making the balloons light up the night sky is pretty amazing. Crews set up the balloons, handlers hold the balloons to keep them from taking a premature flight, and pilots work the controls to make this a beautiful and memorable event.
Crews roll out balloons on the ground before blowing fans into them to inflate them.
Crew members hold open the balloon so that air can get into the material.
A hot air balloon pilot blows heat into the balloon.
A young attendee is mesmerized by the balloons.
An attendee looks at his camera phone to review his pictures.
As a Geographic Information Systems (GIS) professional, I had the opportunity to attend the Esri International User Conference this year. Of course I brought along my camera, and the wonderful site GISLounge.com published my photo essay on the blog. Click here to see the photos and read the article.
The ESRI logo fills the San Diego Convention Center
The game "Where in the World" tests attendees knowledge of geography through aerial imagery.
After months and months of having a broken camera phone (among other mobile phone issues that ended up with a replacement) I finally got my smart phone camera-less-ness taken care of. it is tough to be a photographer and without the ability to quickly whip out my device and make some images. I have used a few apps in the past to edit/enhance my smartphone pictures, and have found iPhoneography to be as much about convenience as it is a challenge to create interesting images.
I have recently found and started to have fun with creating triptychs from my iPhone photos. I use the apps Frametastic and PicFrame to create a triptych effect, Typic+ to add words, and then post to Instagram:
Do you have any camera phone editing apps that you like to use for unique frames? What do you use to add words/designs for fun photos? Let me know in the comments section!
Six months ago today, I stared into these eyes as he waddled up to me and snuggled me on the beach of South Georgia Island. That afternoon, I visited the largest King Penguin colony in South Georgia, and it was just magical.
December 26, 2013 was definitely a magical and memorable day.
Thank you for allowing me to share my experiences with you.
Juvenile Elephant Seal
South Georgia Island. December 2013.
I am so very excited to be part of a new exhibit in the First Floor Gallery at the City of Santa Clarita City Hall. There are many talented artists of a variety of mediums included in this exhibit, and I am honored to be included among them.
I knew about this exhibit early on, and knew that I would want to submit something special to show a piece of Antarctica. Of course I had a few thousand images to choose from, and it was a tough decision what about the Antarctic I wanted to represent.
I finally settled on the image-- but then needed to find the appropriate medium. I knew that because of the subject matter, I wanted to feeling of "cold" to come through, in a beautiful way. I decided to use Mpix professional services for this image printed on metal, and I was overjoyed with the results.
Kristina next to "Antarctic Ice Sculpture"
I call this image "Antarctic Ice Sculpture".
If you are in the area, stop by to see this piece, as well as several other artists on exhibit until October 2014.
Just over six months ago, I was fortunate to visit the Antarctic and sub-Antarctic region. This was an amazing trip that made me appreciate Earth's beauty, the amazing way that ecosystems work together, and made me realize that people need to know that places like this exist.
I have been slowly posting pictures to the blog, website and social media. But I have also been putting together a small presentation to educate others about this amazing place and the creatures that call it home. Last week I was able to give this presentation along with one of my travel buddies.
I found it to be really rewarding to be able to share my experience with other people, and to educate and inspire those who had never even thought about the Antarctic as a travel destination to want to travel there.
Here are a few of the images that I showed during last week's presentation:
Thanks to Jill Levenhagen for the collage template!
My dad has taught me a lot of things that will stick with me throughout my life, but perhaps the best thing he could have taught me is to see through a lens. As an avid photographer his whole life (like converting a portion of his parents' garage into a darkroom as a teenager), he always encouraged me to pick up a camera and experiment. As you can see, this started at an early age:
Taking "pictures" of my maternal and paternal grandfathers, while my paternal grandmother, aunt and mom look on. This camera probably had no film in it.
As I have grown up, he has always encouraged me to see things a little differently, and was always willing to give up his camera to me if I saw something I just had to capture.
When I could afford my own DSLR, we both gained a camera buddy. It is really great to be in a beautiful place and to be able to create images with my dad. it's amazing how we will be in the same spot, but see things differently.
Cedar Breaks National Monument, Utah. August 2011
Photo by Joanna Jacob
Cedar Breaks National Monument, Utah. August 2011
Photo by Joanna Jacob
My dad is my #1 fan, and is always excited to see what images I have created. He was willing to sit through every single image that I created in the Antarctic in order to help me flag the best ones. And when I have an editing question (Which way do you like this cropped? Like this or like this?) he is always ready and willing with his opinion.
Thanks dad for giving me the gift of seeing the world a little bit differently through a lens, and for willingly giving your camera up to me on our family trips all of those years.
Happy Father's Day! I love you!
Getty Villa, 2011
The United Nations has been recognizing June 8th as World Oceans Day, a day to help people "celebrate and honor the ocean, which links us all".
I am pretty lucky to live on the West Coast of the Pacific Ocean. I benefit from the wonderful temperatures that the ocean provides (even though living in "the valley" gets pretty warm). I usually vacation somewhere along the Pacific Ocean- either up the coast, down the coast, or an island in the middle.
I had a chance to cross oceans and make it down into the Southern Ocean and the Antarctic Sound. While I think the ocean in general is amazing and historical (people have been crossing them for centuries and have some terrifying stories), there was something about the Southern Ocean that was especially magical. It's pristine beauty was just stunning-- and to see penguins on ice floes while cruising down the Antarctic sound was just an amazing experience.
