PhotoshopWorld Pre-Con Day

Today is the day! PhotoshopWorld Pre-Con Day has come and gone.

My Day

This morning I woke at about 9am and went to the Pool area and stayed in the Lazy River. the Lazy river is a river that has a current that takes you floating away. This is the best feature of the Mandalay Bay.

Shoot, Design, Print Pre-Con

This class was just OK. The time allowed to shoot the model was not enough, so my shots were not so good.

Chili's

For Dinner we went to Chili's and had a big meal cause we had not eaten lunch.

Overall it was a good day, the Pre-Con was disappointing.

PhotoshopWorld Day One

I am here in Vegas and am excited to go to my pre-con tomorrow. Here is what took place today.

Flight from Salt Lake City to Las Vegas.

Our Delta flight left this morning at 11 am. the best part of the flight what the in-flight entertainment. Our aircraft was a Boeing 737-800 and had a little TV on the chair in front of me.

I will NEVER fly in any other aircraft if I can help it. The Flight was pretty smooth, and only lasted about a hour.

Arrival In Vegas

After we arrived In Vegas we went to our baggage claim and waited for, what seemed to be forever, before our bag came and then took a rent-a-car shuttle to the McCarran Rent-A-Car Center.

After getting the car, we drove to the Town Square Apple Store. After browsing through the isles and looking at the new iPod Touch, I remembered that my earbuds where starting to fall apart. I went back to the car and got the earbuds and brought them in to and Apple Rep. and she gave me a brand new set of earbuds. the cost: 0, Zero, Goose egg, nada, etc. aka FREE!!! That is what I call great Customer Service.

Wal-Mart

If you have read my previous post regarding what to do for food in Vegas, if not than read it here. After the Apple Store we went to Wal-Mart and purchased stuff for Breakfast, Lunch and same Dinners. This is what I do to spend less in Vegas.

The Hotel Check-in

After giving the car to the valet, went to the registration desk and checked-in and got our room assignment. At this point it was about 3pm, 3 hours after we picked up our baggage in the airport terminal. We were so exhausted.

The rest of the day, we just relaxed and litsened to an audiobook. And now it is 11pm and I am off to bed

See you tomorrow!

PhotoshopWorld Traveling

Ok so I have all my stuff packed, I think. I leave tonight to go to the nearest non-puddle-jumper airport, which is Salt Lake City. I leave tomorrow at 11 am and arrive in Vegas at 11:23am. I am flying a Boeing 737-800 with a full cabin.

CU there!

Also follow me on Twitter where I will be doing some live upates during the Keynote an the rest of the conference.

PhotoshopWorld Blog

OK so I have not posted here for a while but I will be posting next week at PhotoshopWorld. I also could be posting on Twitter: @cjotte

This week the PhotoshopWorld blog began posting posts from actual attendees of PhotoshopWorld.

I read a few and there are very good, check them out here

Apple's Music Events to kick off

(Credit: Stephen Shankland/CNET)

Today at 10am Pacific, Apple will begin their annual Music Event titled "It's Only Rock and Roll, but we like it". Apple is expected to launch the new iPod line in time for the Holiday shopping season.

My Expectations: Apple will release the new iPod line, including a built in camera, for the iPod Touch, Classic and the Nano. I hope the they will also release a new updated version of the Apple TV Software to include Netflix's Watch Instantly feature. There will be no tablet or any new computer updates.

There are many websites that are live blogging the event today, Including:

• Macworld
• TUAW- My Pick
• MacRumors via Twitter
• Cnet

Tune in this week, Same Apple Time, Same Apple Channel!

PhotoshopWorld Info - Part 4: Hotel and Travel

OK, so you have decided to got to PhotoshopWorld, good for you! I think you will learn alot.

Now that you have made the decision to go now you are wondering how to get there, where to stay, and how to get around.

NOTE: this post may have some similar items that my other PhotoshopWorld travel post has

How to get there - Fly or Drive?

This could be a no-brainer if you live a long way from Vegas, but if you live close enough to drive you may have a decision on your hands.

The Pro-Cons of Driving

Pro-Cost Effective: this option can save you some money depending on where you live. for example, here are some estimated costs to drive to Vegas.

Key:

Gas: $2.58/gal

Car MPG: 25 MPG

Traveling at 70MPH

Los Angeles - 265 miles - $27.35 - 3 hours

Chicago - 1,752 miles - $180.81 - 25 hours

Orlando - 2,433 miles - $321.64 - 35 hours

Dallas - 1,360 miles - $140.35 - 19 hours

New York - 2,565 miles - $264.71 - 36 hours

Salt Lake City - 426 miles - $43.96 - 6 hours

Seattle - 1,265 miles - $130.55 - 18 hours

Con-Time consuming: this can take up to 8x as long to get there than taking a flight

The Pro-Cons of Flying

Pro-Time Saving: This can save you tons of time over driving. to get to Vegas from the above cities it can take as little as 45 minutes all the way to 4 hours - A big time saver over driving.

Con-Cost is more - To take a flight to Vegas can go from $60-$350 depending on where you live. The PhotoshopWorld website has a widget form AirlineWatchDog that tells the cheapest rate to Vegas from a big list of cities.

Where to Stay

There are a giant list of Hotels to stay at in Vegas. The Conference is being held at the Mandalay Bay Hotel Convention Center.

The Mandalay Bay

Located on the South end of the Strip

The hotel can be (ok, it is) expensive but if you book through the PhotoshopWorld website the cost per night is $137 per night, compared to $180 per night. The best thing about staying at the Mandalay Bay is that the instructors and staff from the conference are staying at that hotel.

The Luxor

Located 1 block north of the Mandalay Bay

The Luxor is a Egyptian themed hotel that is a great place to find something to eat cheap. The hotal offers a large food court and numerous restaurants. The Luxor is a little less expensive than the Mandalay Bay. with rooms starting at $50 for the weekdays and $150 for the Weekend. I you stay Sept. 29 - Oct 4, you only have to pay for 1 weekend night stay.

Other hotel include

• The Excalibur
• Tropicana
• New York, New York
• and about a billion other hotels

When to go?

You want to arrive before the day the conference begins. If you are planning on attending a Pre-con session than arrive the day before as well. The Conference Registration begins on Wednesday, for Pre-con attendees, and Thursday morning for all others.

If you arrive before conference you can take advantage of more of the amenities of the Mandalay Bay (or whichever hotel you choose). The Mandalay Bay offers a great 11 acre pool area, and aquarium that have over a dozen species of Sharks.

Stay as long as you schedule permits. But do not leave anytime during the conference, you might miss something good.

To rent a car or not to rent a car, that is the question!

Well it just depends on what other things you want to do.

Taxi

Taxi's are convenient but can be expensive. it cost about $20 to get from the airport to a Strip Hotel like the Mandalay or the Luxor. Off Strip hotel? taxi is about $25-$30.

Rent a Car

One of the great services from McCarran airport is an off property Rent Car Center. When you leave the terminal to get a car you board a shuttle bus to the center where all the Rental car place are housed in one spot. You pick up and return you car here.

To rent a car is about $40-$50 per day from Budget. I think it is worth the cost because you can go wherever and whenever you want.

PhotoshopWorld Trip Tip - Rent a Car

OK, here is a great tip. Today I went to check my Budget Rent a Car reservation and all was cool.

But, just out of curiosity I looked into what the cost to Rent a Car would be now. I was shocked to see that I could save about 40 bucks! thats major savings.

So I canceled the other reservation and booked the new one. I was able to do this because I did not have to give a credit card number when I reserved the car.

So if you have booked a car while in Vegas for PhotoshopWorld look in to see if the prices have changed. as long as you have not gave them you credit card number than you should be able to cancel your reservation.

Good luck!

Snow Leopard: The Aftermath!

OK, I will admit that I should not have upgraded to Snow Leopard so quickly, but in my defense I ordered the at 7am on Monday morning. I was Tired.

Ok, here is what I have done to upgraded to Snow Leopard and why I am downgrading to leopard.

First Install

When I first installed Snow Leopard on Friday night I didi a direct install over leopard. and did not wipe the Hard Drive.

For the most part the installation was a little faster and was great beacause it restarted after the installation was complete. so when I came back to my computer it was already booted in to Snow Leopard.

the problems

Photoshop kept crashing whenever I saved a document, be it a PSD or and JPG. and it would crash if it was just sitting there.

That was the biggest headache that I ran into and that is not a small thing to Graphic Designer like me.

The Second Install

OK, so I made the decision to reinstall Snow Leopard doing an erase and install.

The trick is to find the Utilities menu and go to Disk Utility. When I did the first install I could not find the Utilities menu to save my life.

When doing this install I found the Utilities menu and opened Disk Utility and erased the Macintosh HD. I was very surprised to find that it took five minutes to erase a 500gb disk.

the problems

After the install finished I noticed the screen is really pixelated and the fonts are very choppy. it is almost like the display is displaying a 1300x1000 resolution image in a 1920x1200 resolution image. It is really pixelated.

Anyway, I think I might have lost a font in the translation when clearing the disk.

So now I am going to downgrade to leopard and hopefully Apple will release a update and I might upgrade then.

Too all who are using Snow Leopard I hope you have had a better luck than I have.

There is just not that many features that make a difference in my work flow.

PhotoshopWorld Info - Part 3: Special Events

At PhotoshopWorld there are a number of Special Events that you should attend.

The Opening Keynote

Thursday Oct 1, 9am-10am

The Keynote is the number one item to put on your agenda. It is held the first day of the conference and is where all the attendees of PhotoshopWorld gather to hear the PhotoshopGuys kick off the Expo and the Events. THe keynote is held about 8am or 9am.

The Guru Awards

Thursday Oct 1, Opening Keynote

The Guru awards are the Awards given to people who have entered their artwork in a specific category.

The awards are open to all attendees of PhotoshopWorld and entries can be submitted on the website

The winners will receive a grand prize of great items from the sponsors.

The Photoshop Hall of Fame.

Thursday during the Opening Keynote

Photographers, educators, artists, and Adobe users - these are the people who have pushed Photoshop to new heights. For all their work creating, testing, and teaching others how to use all the latest Photoshop advances, a select few are honored by inducting them into the Photoshop Hall of Fame. Formed by NAPP, the Photoshop Hall of Fame recognizes those individuals whose contributions to the business, education, development, and art of Adobe Photoshop have enduring value.

Portfolio Reviews

Thursday Oct 1 - All Day

As a Photoshop World conference attendee, you'll have a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to get one-on-one instructive feedback as your 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 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.

Portfolio reviews are free to full conference attendees, but time slots are very limited and reservations in advance are required. You will not be assigned a time slot until just before the

conference and you must sign up by 2 weeks before the conference or be added to a wait list.

The Art of Digital Photography

Friday Oct 2 - 7:15pm - 9:15pm

I have not attended this event before so here is the description from the PhotoshopWorld website.

This is a night of pure magic. It's where some of the world's leading digital photographers come together, on one stage, for an evening that you'll be talking about for years. Be right there as these gifted artists put Photoshop aside to focus solely on the creativity and art behind their brilliant photography.This is without a doubt one of the most inspirational, moving, and most talked about sessions in Photoshop World history, and if you've never had a chance to witness the passion, the emotion, the tears, and the laughter that truly amazing photographers can bring through their work, then you've got to be there for this night you'll never forget.

All conference attendees are invited to join some of the world's most celebrated masters, and the true living legends of photography, including Jay Maisel, Julieanne Kost, John Paul Caponigro, Joe McNally, Moose Peterson, Joe Glyda, and Jim DiVitale as they bring their amazing talents together for a night of pure magic. Be there as it unfolds in this special, free, after-hours event.

Dinner with a Stranger

Thursday, October 1st

An important part of the Photoshop World experience is making new friends, and if you're coming to Photoshop World by yourself, we've got a great way to do just that. It's called "Dinner with a Stranger"

PhotoshopWorld After Hours Party

Thursday, October 1st from 8:00-11:00pm

There's no better way to let loose, unwind, and relax after a busy day of learning the latest Photoshop techniques than to join your fellow conference attendees - as well as the Photoshop World instructors - at the Photoshop World After-Hours Party!The House Of Blues inside The

Mandalay Bay Resort & Casino
3950 Las Vegas Blvd.
Las Vegas, NV 89119
(877) 632-7600
House Of Blues Las Vegas

Your party ticket includes a party buffet, two drink tickets, and exciting live entertainment from Scott Kelby's Big Electric Cat band.

Midnight Madness

Friday, October 2nd

Hosted by Scott Kelby, Terry White, Rod Harlan and Larry Becker

Dubbed as the session for "Photoshop freaks who just can't sleep," Photoshop Midnight Madness has become legendary in the world of training conferences. If you're lucky enough to snag a ticket to this late-night Photoshop love fest , you're in for a hilarious night of wild surprises, tons of prizes, howls of laughter, and loads of fun.

This night of no-holds-barred Photoshop mayhem is definitely the hottest ticket at the conference - delivering non-stop music, madness, contests, and partying is hosted by the conference ringmaster himself, Scott Kelby.

Only 200 tickets are given out for Midnight Madness. We’ll be handing out tickets at a location that will announced soon.

a few more Snow Leopard Annoyances

After having Snow Leopard for a while now. It seems that Apple has more that a few kinks to work out. The one thing that has annoyed me then most is the fact that Photoshop keeps crashing.

Adobe stated in a FAQ about Snow Leopard that the CS4 apps are compatible with the latest version of the Mac Operating System. I have heard a lot of reports about Photoshop crashing in the Adobe Forums.

I am considering downgrading to Leopard so I can do work in PS.

Have you upgraded? Any Problems? Write a comment below and express you thoughts.