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Sure, the training is excellent! But, the best thing about Photoshop World is the people. These people are not only talented, intelligent, and passionate but they’re also one of the nicest groups of people to work with anywhere. You get this feeling everyone here: with the instructors, the staff, and the attendees. The folks at NAPP are an exceptional organization, not just professional, but personal. I told Scott Kelby how impressed I was with this when he welcomed me to my first Photoshop World. His response said it all, “They’re not customers; they’re members.” The sense of community is very strong here.

Find out who all these people are here.
Find out what you missed here.
Watch for upcoming announcement for Photoshop World Boston in spring 2009.

If you attended any of the sessions, let us know what you thought! Comment!

Check out cobloggers coverage of PSW at the links below.

Corey Barker
John Paul Caponigro
RC Concepcion
Dave Cross
Laurie Excell
Martin Evening
Scott Kelby
Matt Koslowski
Deke McClelland
Joe McNally
John Nack
Moose Peterson
Jeff Schewe
Colin Smith
Ben Willmore
David Ziser

Category: Event
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This evening is always one of the highlights of the event for me. We show our images and talk about how and why we made them. Nothing inspires me more than to hear top notch creatives talk about their process and passion. The images each individual makes, the ways they work, and the kinds of words they use to both are unique. That makes the total combination uniquely revealing. Tonight Jim DiVitale, Joe Glyda, Julianne Kost, John Paul Caponigro, Jay Maisel, Joe McNally, Moose Peterson all showed wonderful work and shared invaluable insights. Every time, every individual shows something different. It’s two hours of nonstop visual fireworks and inspiration. It’s a rare moment indeed. My advice? Sieze every chance you can to see and hear what other creatives are doing. Nothing is more inspirational.

If you were there, tell us about it! Comment!

Check out cobloggers coverage of PSW at the links below.

Corey Barker
John Paul Caponigro
RC Concepcion
Dave Cross
Laurie Excell
Martin Evening
Scott Kelby
Matt Koslowski
Deke McClelland
Joe McNally
John Nack
Moose Peterson
Jeff Schewe
Colin Smith
Ben Willmore
David Ziser

Category: Event
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Adobe announced today  that CS Next is coming soon.
What’s Next? John Loiacono highlighted three key concepts that characterize the new release. Timesavers (real speed increases), Integration (transparently with Macromedia products), and Cutting Edge (daring new features).
Sign up for advance notice on upcoming announcements 9-23-08 here.

For me one of the most interesting things at Photoshop World is the keynote address. Adobe always unveils new technology / features that are either soon to be released or might be slated for future release at a later date. You get futurecasting about new possibilities in photography based on what’s actually in development now. It’s these presentations that make me feel like I’m truly in the 21st century.

John Loiacono and John Nack did a great job this morning. Their presentations were so smooth it was almost easy to overlook that what they were showing you were radical new ways of making photographic images. A tsunami seemed like a gentle wave. This may have helped many of us overcome a feeling akin to vertigo as we watched our photographic world change before your eyes.

1    Adobe’s free online service PhotoshopExpress soon to be compatible with mobile devices - store, share, adjust your images online - free … think Facebook meets PS
2    Configurator - a soon to be release utility that lets you customize and share your PS interface
3    ultrahigh resolution (multi-gigabyte) stitches with zooming capabilities - zoom into any part of an image and reveal amazing detail you couldn’t see with the naked eye
4    context sensitive scaling - scale an image without distorting key image areas
5    360 degree stitched panoramas that can be easily retouched or even rendered as a globe
6    paint directly on 3D renderings
7    super-fast preview and rendering of filters

Congratulations to today’s Photoshop Hall of Fame Inductees - John Nack and Martin Evening!

If you were there, tell us about it. Comment!

Check out cobloggers coverage of PSW at the links below.

Corey Barker
John Paul Caponigro
RC Concepcion
Dave Cross
Laurie Excell
Martin Evening
Scott Kelby
Matt Koslowski
Deke McClelland
Joe McNally
John Nack
Moose Peterson
Jeff Schewe
Colin Smith
Ben Willmore
David Ziser

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Everyone had a good time at the Epson Print Academy today. We always do.

This special half day version of the Epson Print Academy Track Two for Photoshop World runs lean and fast with fantastic content by Photoshop Hall of Fame Inductees - Andrew Rodney, Jeff Schewe, and John Paul Caponigro.

Rodney         Color Management
Schewe         Image Optimization
Rodney         Printing to an Epson Printer
Schewe         Advanced Black and White
Caponigro    Fine Art Printing - Performance Printing & The Art of Proofing

The handouts (for attendees only) are phenomenal. They’re electronic! So they’re green (no wasted paper), accessible anywhere, portable, with no limit to length, able to accomodate many file types (text, images, actions), and frequently updated. After you attend, you can always get the latest versions.

But wait, there’s more! Bonus prizes are often given to a few lucky attendees, like prints by Schewe, posters and DVDs by Caponigro … sometimes printers are even given away.

If you were there, tell us about it. Comment!

The Epson Print Academy is gearing up for a national tour again.

Stay tuned for important announcements at the end of the month.

Check out upcoming Epson Print Academy dates here.
Check out Schewe’s Photoshop News here.
Check out Rodney’s DigitalDog.net here.
Check out all of our books here.
Check out my free printing downloads here.
Check out my DVDs here.
Check out my workshops here.

Check out cobloggers coverage of PSW at the links below.

Corey Barker
John Paul Caponigro
Dave Cross
Laurie Excell
Martin Evening
Scott Kelby
Matt Koslowski
Deke McClelland
Joe McNally
John Nack
Moose Peterson
Jeff Schewe
Colin Smith
Ben Willmore
David Ziser

Category: Event
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I’ve started an experiment.
Here’s the idea.
1 - Invite movers and shakers at Photoshop World (link) with blogs to make one short post a day during the event highlighting something that excited them that day.
2 - Invite those movers and shakers to invite other movers and shakers to join.
3 - Invite attendees to participate by commenting on the movers and shakers posts and include links to their blogs in their comments. Yes. If you’re at Photoshop World, you’re invited to post and link from your comments on any of the posts from the list of blogs below.

Photoshop World is so jam packed its impossible for any one person to do (or grok) it all. The diversity of experience and perspective collected here should be very exciting. Let’s see how long the list grows.

Look for more Photoshop World highlights at the links below.

Corey Barker
John Paul Caponigro
Dave Cross
Laurie Excell
Martin Evening
Scott Kelby
Matt Koslowski
Deke McClelland
Joe McNally
John Nack
Moose Peterson
Jeff Schewe
Colin Smith
Ben Willmore
David Ziser

Category: Event
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Blurb received over 2,000 entries for their recent Photography.Book.Now contest. Winners will be announced September 10th.

They’ve just added an additional award - the People’s Choice Award - so you have a chance to let the world know who you think is the best of the best. Voting is open through September 10th.

Here’s how it works.

You can vote for one book, and one book only. Just go to the Photography.Book.Now bookstore to see all the work, then click on the voting button under your favorite book. (The button’s big and orange, should be pretty easy to spot.) Want to stack the deck for your top choice? We have some tools to make it easy for you to spread the word. You can download an image to forward along in emails, or grab a People’s Choice voting badge for your website or blog by clicking here to save the file. Once you cast your vote, you can also send a note directly from the bookstore to bring your people right back to your top choice.

The winner of the People’s Choice Award will be announced at the Awards Ceremony in San

Francisco on September 19th. Pick up your tickets here. The prize? They’re keeping that one a secret. Who doesn’t love a little surprise?

Check out my book entry Antarctica here.

If you like it, I’d appreciate your vote!

Category: Contests, books
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Ben Willmore showed up as a guest on Bert Monroy’s Pixel Perfect show to do a two-part installment about High Dynamic Range (HDR) photography. In the first installment of the show he covers the basics of shooting for HDR, merging exposures, and tonemapping. In the second installment of the show, he covers postprocessing HDR merges.

First, view it here.
Then check out Ben’s even more detailed DVD HDR Mastery.

If you’ve watched these installments or Ben’s DVD tell others what you think here.

Comment!

Category: DVDs, Video
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Then take this workshop.

Find books I recommend here.

If you’ve taken this workshop tell others what you think here.

Comment!

Category: Workshops
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Then get this download.

Find books I recommend here.

If you’ve viewed this download tell others what you think here.

Comment!

Category: Video
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Then get this DVD.

Find books I recommend here.

If you’ve viewed this DVD tell others what you think here.

Comment!

Category: DVDs, Exercises
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Then move to this book.

Find books I recommend here.

If you’ve read this book tell others what you think here.

Comment!

Category: books
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Start with this book.

Find more books I recommend here.

If you’ve read this book tell others what you think here.

Comment!

Category: books
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Sil Arena (Pixsylated) offers 10 tips for making the most of Photoshop World.

1. Rest up before you go
2. Plan each day and then be ready to change your plan
3. Wear comfortable shoes
4. Get to your sessions very early
5. Forget about taking notes
6. Carry water, food & clothing
7. Bring a backpack or messenger bag
8. Make new friends & rendezvous with old ones
9. Bring a fat wallet or a big credit card
10. Leave your ego at home

Get full details on each item and Bonus tips and Extra Credit at Pysylated.

For instance, did you know that in addition to the regularly scheduled seminars, special sessions and interviews are scheduled on the trade show floor?

Download Dave Cross’ PDF on what he plans to attend. Then make your own!
Check out all the sessions here.

Past seminars I’ve attended that rock include …
T    10:45-11:45    Jack Davis         Automating Everything - ACR & Actions
T    6:15-7:15        Deke McClelland        The Art of Sharpening

F    10:45-11:45    Jeff Schewe        Real World CS3 Camera Raw

F    12-1               Ben Willmore      High Dynamic Range Imagery
S    2:15-3:15        Jeff Schewe        Lightroom to Photoshop to Lightroom

Photoshop World Las Vegas starts September 4-6.
Find out more here.

I’m presenting …
W    1-5        Epson Print Academy Precon
(Rodney, Schewe, Caponigro)
F    7-9        The Art of Photoshop
(Caponigro, DiVitale, Glyda, Maisel, McNally, Peterson)
S    11-12    Painting With Light - 21st Century Dodging and Burning
S    1-2        The Power of Color

Which sessions have you attended and liked?

Which sessions are you most looking forward too?

Comment here!

Category: Seminar
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The Luscher Color Test was devised by psychologict Max Luscher in 1969. It’s effectiveness has been known in advertising and industry (automotive and fashion) for years. Now you can gain some pracitalc insight into color psychology with this well-known color test - online.

It’s uncanny what this test can reveal (consistently), but remember it’s just a starting point. What’s far more revealing is your unique living relationship with color, which is revealed over time and in a variety of contexts under many influences. Awareness is the key. Use this as food for thought for developing insight into your relationship with color.

Take the test here.

What did the test reveal for you?

Comment here!

Read my articles on color at Apple here.

Check out my free color downloads here.

Check out my Color Management DVDs here.

Sign up for Insights to get preview discounts on my forthcoming DVD The Power of Color.

Learn about color and color management in my workshops here.


Category: Color
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1 out of 255 women and 1 out of 12 men have some form of color vision deficiency.
How well do you see color?
Find out!
It’s quick and free!
X-Rite has taken the Farnsworth-Munsell color test online.
Take it here!

How well did you do?
Comment here!

Read my articles on color at Apple here.

Check out my Color Management DVDs here.

Learn about color and color management in my workshops here.

Category: Color
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“Excuse me sir. Could you help me get lost in Iceland?”

And we loved every minute of it.

If you want to get lost in Iceland, go with the pros; go with Focus On Nature.

We covered some territory and put in some long hours. And yet we feel we’ve only just begun to experience Iceland. Columnar basalt seashores, geothermal hotsprings, volcanic craters, lava beds, glaciers, glacial lagoons, black beaches strewn with ice, waterfalls, wide river deltas, lush river valleys, high deserts … but wait there’s more! But we’re out of time. We’ll have to wait - until next year.

Focus On Nature has been a great experience. Fantastic landscape! Great people!

Find out more about Focus on Nature here.
Get Priority Status for all 2009 workshops now by emailing einar@focusonnature.is.

Category: Destination, Workshops
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Here are the winners of the day for the current Focus On Nature / Iceland workshop.
Left to right, top to bottom Jim Graham, Andree Laliberte, Ginette Vachon, Barbara Myriam.

Check out more of this week’s Focus on Nature participants with the links above.

Category: Workshops
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Play

August 22, 2008 | 2 Comments

Note to self. Play more.

Category: Creativity, Workshops
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What do you do after two 18 plus hour days?
Sleep in.
Review the work done in the past days.
Go to the Blue Lagoon for a massage and soak.
Attend a lecture in Reykjavik.
Have a great dinner at Vox.
Life is good.

Category: Workshops
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Focus On Nature’s creator Einar Erlandson enlisted professional photographer Gudmundur Ingolfsson to help guide us on location in Iceland. Gudmundur is a veteran photographer. His passion for photography started when he was a young boy. He started learning English by reading photographic magazines. So what do you talk about for two 16 hour days while driving through the stunningly varied and complex landscape of Iceland? Susan Sontag and Roland Barthes. Eliot Porter, and Joel Sternfield. View cameras and CCDs. Climate change and vulcanology. Jim Jarmusch and Aki Kourismaki. Vivaldi and Dave Brubeck. You know light conversation. The funny thing is we were always laughing. Gudmundur’s drove us in his modified desert exploration vehicle, an old orange rig high enough to go across rivers and rugged enough to go over volcano beds lying between glaciers. We never would have gone to the places we went without his able guidance. When local’s share their experiences you learn, experience and share more. My advice? Get to know the locals. And have fun doing it! You might make great friends.

Find out about Gudmundur Ingolfsson here.
Find out more about Focus on Nature here.
Get Priority Status for all 2009 workshops now by emailing einar@focusonnature.is.

Category: People, Workshops
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Tonight I present my work and discuss my creative process at 7 pm.
Hosted by Focus On Nature and Canon, the lecture is free and open to the public.

If you’re in Rekjavik, stop by.

Find out more here.

Category: Lecture
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Here are the winners of the day for the current Focus On Nature / Iceland workshop.
Left to right, top to bottom Jim Graham, Andree Laliberte, Ginette Vachon, Barbara Myriam.

Check out more of this week’s Focus on Nature participants with the links above.

Category: Workshops
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Here are the winners of the day for the current Focus On Nature / Iceland workshop.
Left to right, top to bottom Jim Graham, Andree Laliberte, Ginette Vachon, Barbara Myriam.

Check out more of this week’s Focus on Nature participants with the links above.

Category: Workshops
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How do you help people make more authentic work? The most important thing to do is to find out where they are now and what they need most. How do you find this out? Look at their work. Listen to them speak. Watch them work. You can do the same for someone else.

You can do all of this for yourself. Look, speak, listen. Look at yourself looking. Listen to yourself speaking. Listen to yourself listening. Make notes. Do this without judgement. Just become more aware of yourself and your process. Simply becoming more aware of your process, both external and internal, helps you make more authentic work. You discover your voice. Make time and space for your voice. It’s extremely rewarding.

Find out more about Focus on Nature here.
Get Priority Status for all 2009 workshops now by emailing einar@focusonnature.is.

Category: Creativity, Workshops
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Here are the winners of the day for the current Focus On Nature / Iceland workshop.
Left to right, top to bottom Jim Graham, Andree Laliberte, Ginette Vachon, Barbara Myriam.

Check out more of this week’s Focus on Nature participants with the links above.

Category: Workshops
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Images (left to right, top to bottom) - Jim Graham, Andree Laliberte, Ginette Vachon, Barbara Myriam.

This week’s workshop participants are all longtime alumni of my workshops. It’s a small intimate group - Ginette Vachon (Swiss based veteran world travel photographer), Andree Laliberte (Canadian installation artist), Barbara DeAngelu (Columbian mystic and Photoshop beta tester), and Jim Graham (Maryland based Pulitzer nominated photojournalist). They know each other before they arrived, either directly or from online exchanges.

After two days of being overstimulated by dramatic environments (continental rifts, volcanic coastlines, geothermal lagoons, steam vents, and paint pots, moss covered valleys) and working in challenging weather (wind and rain) this group had the wisdom to slow down. Recharge, Regroup. And focus. We reviewed (shared images and feedback) each other’s work. We reviewed the work we’ve done so far in Iceland. We identified what’s working and what’s not. We made an action plan for the coming days with a list of things to watch, things to try, and specific work to concentrate on to ensure that the images we come away with are not only technically good but also advance our individual visions and bodies of work. Now that’s focus. That’s time well spent. In a stimulating environment, few have the discipline to take this time. But taking this time helps you make quantum leaps.

At the end of the day, we went back to one of the first locations more informed and more focussed.

Find out more about Focus on Nature here.
Get Priority Status for all 2009 workshops now by emailing einar@focusonnature.is.

Category: Alumni, Workshops
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Here are the winners of the day for the current Focus On Nature / Iceland workshop.
Left to right, top to bottom Jim Graham, Andree Laliberte, Ginette Vachon, Barbara Myriam.

Check out more of this week’s Focus on Nature participants with the links above.

Category: Workshops, winners of the day
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Focus On Nature’s creator Einar Erlandson enlisted professional photographer Ellert Gretarsson to help guide us on location in Iceland. Ellert recently won the … in the … He’s enchanted with the colors of nature. So, he guided us to his hot spots in Iceland. It rained all day. We got soaked. And came away with gold, and blue, and red, and green … you get the idea. He was able to describe how the colors changed in varying weather and light conditions. It’s clear that Iceland is not only incredibly rich visually but that it’s also highly changeable. It’s going to take more than one trip to Iceland to experience all that Iceland has to offer - maybe a lifetime. When local’s share their experiences you learn, experience and share more. My advice? Get to know the locals. And have fun doing it!

Find out about Ellert Gretarsson here.
Find out more about Focus on Nature here.
Get Priority Status for all 2009 workshops now by emailing einar@focusonnature.is.

Category: People, Uncategorized, Workshops
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Here are the winners of the day for the current Focus On Nature / Iceland workshop.
Left to right, top to bottom Andree Laliberte, Jim Graham, Ginette Vachon, Barbara Myriam.

Check out more of this week’s Focus on Nature participants with the links above.

Category: Workshops, winners of the day
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Good workshop leaders know how to activate collective intelligence.

Access to collective intelligence is one of the most important aspects of workshop experiences. You go to the same locations using the same (or similar tools) and come away with different images. We all see the world differently. When you see the way other people see and what they have to go through to get there, your visual horizons are expanded.

We cordially engage in daily contests. Winning image of the day gets posted here. At the end of the day, we buy a drink for the person with the best image from a particular site or for the day. It’s all in fun and it drives us forward to try harder.

Can’t make it to a workshop right now? You can get some of this type of stimulation and feedback by photographing with friends.

Find out more about Focus on Nature here.
Get Priority Status for all 2009 workshops now by emailing einar@focusonnature.is.

Category: Workshops
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Focus On Nature’s creator Einar Erlandson enlisted professional photographer Ragnar Sigurdsson to help guide us on location in Iceland. A native of Iceland, Ragnar Sigurdsson, is a highly successful stock photographer (Getty, Corbis, Jupiter ) specializing in arctic images for over 25 years. “If it’s cold I’m there.” Where? Siberia, Greenland, Lapland, Canada, Arctic, Antarctic, and of course Iceland. He just got back fromChucotka  Siberia flying in a giant MI8 helicopter.

You should see his ATV. If anyone can get there, Ragnar can. He uses a specially modified military vehicle; 44″ inch tires, heating, stereo, computer holder, GPS, air pump for deflating and inflating his tires, 220W power supply, strobes, and more. Strobes? Yes. One of his signature style is using strobe on in remote locations. (Oh, and his French cognac is excellent.) Life is indeed an adventure made richer by those you share it with.

Find out about Ragnar Sigurdsson’s and Arctic Images here.
Find out more about Focus on Nature here.
Get Priority Status for all 2009 workshops now by emailing einar@focusonnature.is.

Category: People, Workshops
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