I am one lucky guy.
Since 2009 I have been part of the Instructor team for Photoshop World, teaching a Concert Photography Pre Con with Scott Diussa for NPS and a Concert Photography class as part of the Photography Track during the conference. This year the Spring Photoshop World was held in Washington DC for the first time (the Fall show will be in Las Vegas) and it was one of the best PhotoshopWorlds ever. That is not to say that the any of the previous conferences were bad, it’s just that they seem to get better each time.
I arrived in Washington DC on Thursday, March 22, in the very early am after taking the redeye flight from San Diego. I was absolutely beat and extremely happy that the hotel allowed me to check in early. I dumped my bags and considered taking a nap but figured if I did that, it would mess up my sleep even more later on, so I headed out the hotel to see some of the sights in DC. I did not take my DSLR but instead, just wanted to concentrate on the walk and sights so I grabbed the little Nikon P7000 and played tourist.
I headed down to the Washington monument, across tot he WWII memorial, then up to the Lincoln memorial. I was a great stroll and it really helped to shake the cobwebs from my head and recover from that redeye flight.
This was my first time in Washington DC and it was really amazing to be standing on the steps of the Lincoln memorial. The only downside was that the reflecting pool is under construction and instead of looking out over the expanse of water, you get to watch a crew of workman repair the area. The sheer number of tours and school outings and tourists make getting a clean shot of the memorial tough especially at 8am. But the sheer history of the area made it well worth the walk.
The next stop on my walking tour was to head over to the Vietnam Veterans Memorial and as luck would have it, there was no one there, for a few minutes, I was totally alone. Then a school tour showed up, but for those few minutes it was quiet, and really powerful standing there in front of the wall of names.
Next stop on my self guided walking tour was to head back over towards the hotel and stop by the White House on the way. There were a ton people hanging out in front taking photos each other. I got close to the fence and took a photo of one of the most famous buildings in the world and the only though that went though my mind was that it looked smaller in real life than it did in the movies.
I made it back to the hotel and collapsed in my room. The combination of the long flight, lack of sleep and walk around the city had done me in. After a really heavy sleep, I got in contact with Scott Diussa to go over our presentation and get a bite to eat. After dinner we made it back to the hotel and within few minutes we had a great group of people sitting around the lobby, having drinks and catching up. Still made it to bed to get a good nights sleep before the Pre Con day.
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