Photoshop World 2016

Challenge: Photograph a Photography Convention

It’s one thing to be hired to photograph a convention. It’s quite another to be hired to photograph a photography convention. For the second year in a row, I was hired by KelbyOne Media to document Photoshop World in Las Vegas. Photoshop World draws approximately 1,500+ photographers and illustrators, all to see, hear, and participate in a four full days of education on everything relating to Adobe Photoshop, Lightroom, and Muze, as well as lighting, posing, shooting, and selling great images.

The instructors put on stage are among some of the world’s best, most widely recognized images makers in the industry. Names like Joe McNally, Joel Grimes, Frank Doorhof, Peter Hurley, and Gregory Heisler (Gregory has created over 70 covers for Time Magazine).

There were plenty of hands-on opportunities to work with new lighting techniques and professional models. Russell Preston Brown orchestrated a hands on class, to teach light painting and video using your iPhone, with the help of a few of Las Vegas’ Cirque Du Soleil performers (this was incredible).

Trey Radcliff,  whose YouTube channel has over 70k subscribers and over seven million views, presided over the first annual Photoshop World Film Festival.

Lindsay Adler delighted attendees with fashion oriented lighting setups, demonstrating what has made her NYC photo studio a popular destination for fashion portraits.

There were several Photoshop and Lightroom programs to educate you on the latest software and retouching techniques as well. And the PARTIES! Let’s not forget the PARTIES! Photoshop World is FAMOUS for providing plenty of exciting networking opportunities for members of KelbyOne and Photoshop World attendees.

My challenge in all of this, is to work discretely among my peers, covering an enormous event, knowing that from a safe distance, every set of eyes in the room will focus on me at some point, analyze what I’m doing, and either mumble to themselves “Why the hell is he doing THAT? I would NEVER do it like THAT!”… OR… “Damn! Why didn’t I think of that? I GOTTA look at the back of his camera!”

If I had a dollar for every person who asked me about my Spider Holster, I would’ve had enough to sit at the high roller table in the casino, for at least one night!

The hours are long, but you don’t know it (16-18 per day), and the shot list rips you from one end of the convention (or city) to the other with no time to spare, but because I enjoy what I do and the KelbyOne folks are some of the kindest, hardest working people I’ve ever met, I look forward to this event, and hope to continue the relationship for years to come.

Enjoy just a few of my favorite images from this week…