Pixiq

Opening day at Photoshop World means the opening ceremonies. Every year Scott Kelby and company comes up with the most original, fun event opening ceremony ever. It's always a must see. Every one I’ve been to has been killer. This year it’s theme is “Project Photoshop” (ala Project Runway), done as a reality show send up with “designers” coming up with the best "Photoshop" Theme dress. And this one doesn’t disappoint. Starts with a video like the show with Julianne Kost as the hostess of the show and David (always in a jacket and tie) Ziser as the fashion guru. Not a stretch for for ever dapper David. After a hilarious video that had everyone with belly laughs, the “winner” was announced and they had a live fashion show, models, runway, the whole 9 yards.

After that, John Loiacono "Johnny L.", the Adobe VP, came out and did another fashion bit, on a real contest Adobe ran. They got down to the 5 finalists, printed the designs on scarves and had the models show them. The audience then used their cell phones to dial into a number and vote for their choice. Cool! Before the vote there was my favorite and one of the funniest moments of the opening. Johnny L. announce a late contestant and said they ran out of models to show it, until they got someone from back stage to fill in. Photoshop Guru extraordinary, Jeff Schewe, a mountain of a man, most apt to be on a motorcycle in Sturgis than modeling on a runway, came out and strutted his stuff. The photo of it is in the gallery. It’s amazing I got any shots of Jeff, as I was laughing so hard. Epson want the file to make a blowup.

Bryan O'Neil Hughes, senior Adobe product manager came out and showed some neat stuff Adobe was working on including a future lens and perspective control that blew the room away. Took a fisheye shot and straightened a building by drawing on the curves he wanted to be straight. Sounds simple, but when you see it, your jaw drops.

There was also a balloon drop which looked great, until Scott announced there were coupons in some of the balloons good for free stuff. No a good idea. It took 10 minutes of the audience frantically popping balloons. The noise stopped the show. Scott was funny coving the time and announced late the balloon drop was a first for NAPP and would be the last they would ever have. I doubt it. It was pure entertainment for all of us.

The opening ended on time at 10:30 and everyone went off to classes. I had two industry meetings and then showed up to do portfolio reviews in the early afternoon. Helene Glassman organizes the reviews and does a wonderful job scheduling and juggling the portfolio reviews, matching attendees with instructors that can review and help them. Done with my scheduled reviews at mid afternoon, I went to the trade show and talked with a bunch of friends. Back to my room to finish up and tonight I’ll be out to dinner with the Coloratti of Xrite. They have some great new products coming out.

There is a party at BB Kings with Scott Kelby’s band, but tonight for me, just dinner and hopefully an early night, as I have to be up at 6 to get ready for the first of my 3 classes to giveThursday. I'm exhausted, but a good exhaustion.