Day two started really early for me. I had to get the three images from the concert pre conference work shop over to the convention center so that the crew running the keynote presentation could get the images into the presentation at the right spot and make sure it was all running right. This meant getting up at 6am and getting over to the convention center by 6:50am or so. You would think that the keynote area would be deserted at that time of the morning but there were video and production people everywhere and models and hair and makeup and Adobe people and a general feeling of excitement. I got the images to the right guy (the very talented E. Kuna) and made sure the images looked good on the big screen.

While this was going on, the rehearsals for the keynote was in full swing. I m not going to talk much about the actual keynote since the show will go on in Las Vegas later this year. Needless to say, these folks work really hard making sure that everything goes off the way it is supposed to.

The keynote was great… Lot of great laughs and tons of information including some sneak peeks from Adobe about whats coming in the future. You can see some news HERE.

After the keynote I had to head back to the hotel to deal with my email problems. More on that at another time but needless to say, having to deal with Internet Service Providers instead of sitting in some of the classes I wanted to attend was a very frustrating experience but I was able to get it all sorted out and headed back over to the convention center in time to check out the expo floor before it opened to the attendees since I was going to do something that I had never done at Photoshop World before; I was going to review portfolios.

I’ll talk more about the expo floor and the cool companies that were there in a later post, right now I want to talk about the portfolio review and what a great opportunity it is for the conference attendees and what a great opportunity it was for me. If you go to www.photoshopworld.com you can sign up for a portfolio review HERE and you should. Here is the description right from the website:

As a Photoshop World conference attendee, you’ll have a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to get one-on-one instructive feedback as your photography or design portfolio is reviewed by some of the most highly acclaimed professional photographers in the industry today.

Not only will they review your work, but you’ll learn important photography and design portfolio tips, including which images are hitting home runs, which need to sit on the sidelines, which should open, and finally which should close the portfolio. World-class photographers like Jim DiVitale, Helene Glassman, Moose Peterson, Eddie Tapp, Jack Reznicki and David Ziser have shared their invaluable real-life professional knowledge in the past!

Photography and design portfolio reviews are free to full conference attendees, but time slots are very limited and reservations in advance are required.

I have to say that this was a really fulfilling experience for me. I saw some great photography and I really hope that my comments and suggestions will help those photographers I spoke to. To those photographers… please keep taking photographs…

By the time I was done with the portfolio reviews, I needed to get ready for a dinner. All I will say about the dinner is that there was a belly dancer again and I saw more people dancing on tables than I ever wanted to. Great people and conversation and while last year I sat and discussed the world with Zack Arias, this time around I got to sit and talk with the very talented Nicole Young. Then it was time for the after hours party at B.B. Kings.

This is a great event with the entertainment  provided by Big Electric Cat. I know I’m a concert photographer and this was a concert but with everyone in the audience packing a DSLR, I decided to look for some different angles and shots.

It was a really fun night being out but it was great to be able to have a nice long conversation with my wife on the walk back to the hotel in the light drizzle (on the phone… she didn’t make it out this time) … That light drizzle turned into a major storm, but that’s a story for the next blog post…