Seminar/Workshop Announcements: Kevin Ames Workflow tour and PhotoPlus seminars
I’ve know Kevin Ames for many years and consider him both a friend, and a great instructor. His years of experience using Photoshop for his commercial and personal work, along with his straightforward teaching style combine to make his events worth attending. I attended one of his day-long Blue Pixel seminars last year in Washington, D.C. and thought that he offered a lot of good advice about Photoshop and overall workflow.
Kevin Ames
Blue Pixel Pro Digital Workflow Tour
Kevin is currently traveling across the USA on the Blue Pixel Pro Digital Workflow Tour. Seven cities have already been completed on this tour, and the following nine cities remain:
San Diego, CA 11/12/06
Seattle, WA 11/19/06
Phoenix, AZ 12/03/06
Miami, FL 12/10/06
Chicago, IL 01/07/07
Los Angeles, CA 01/14/07
Baltimore, MD 01/28/07
San Jose, CA 02/04/07
New York, NY 02/11/07
For more information or to register, visit www.bluepixel.net/proworkflow.
Kevin Ames at the PhotoPlus Expo 2006
Kevin Ames will also host three hands-on workshops for digital photographers of all levels at PhotoPlus Conference & Expo 2006, being held at the Jacob Javits Center in New York City November 2-4, 2006.
Each session is two-hours, and the seminar descriptions are listed below:
Lighting without Lights: This session reveals the secrets of Photoshop’s new Merge to HDR feature. Attendees will learn the photographic techniques that make lighting without lights possible, as well as the ins and outs of working in High Dynamic Range. Thursday, November 2, 1-3 p.m.
Understanding and Using Lighting for Digital Photographers: This dynamic session explains and demonstrates how to light a professional model. Attendees will discover how to recognize and understand the qualities of light and how to control contrast. Saturday, November 4, 1-3 p.m.
Using Apple’s Aperture with Photoshop CS2: This session will show attendees the latest in RAW pre-production image processing featuring Aperture, Apple’s new pro photographic software. Ames shows that prepping your RAW files on a Mac just got a whole lot easier! Saturday, November 4, 3:45-5:45 p.m.
“By hosting these workshops along with Blue Pixel’s Pro Digital Workflow seminar series around the country, I am giving digital photographers a chance to learn and enhance their own techniques,†said Ames….I hope to illustrate how to apply these techniques creatively to get the visualized images of the mind’s eye out into the world for others to see and enjoy.”
For more information or to register, visit www.photoplusexpo.com
Kevin is also the author of a number of outstanding books related to Photoshop and Digital Photography, which you can find here.
News: A look at the Epson Stylus Pro 3800 and Epson Print Academy Dates Added
Epson America, Inc. recently announced the Epson Stylus Pro 3800 inkjet printer. I had an opportunity to see the printer in New York City, along with an impressive gallery of images printed on the Stylus Pro 3800 from Epson Stylus Pros, a group of very talented photographers whose work is often seen hanging in Epson’s booth at trade shows. This printer is a major breakthrough with regard to image quality, printer weight and overall footprint. The printer uses a new dithering algorithm that produces very small dots. I recommend seeing actual prints to see how prints compare to previous Epson printers, or printers from Canon, HP or other companies. Here are a few specs worth mentioning:
>Weight: 43.2 pounds; Dimensions: 27.0 x 15.0 x 10.0 inches
>5.5 minute print speed for a 16×20 inch print in high–speed (bi-directional) mode at 1440 dpi.&
>8-color UltraChrome K3 pigment inks in 80ml pressurized carts, with a wide color gamut and expected print longevity of 100-200 years or longer (based on initial testing by wilhelm-research.com)
>Automatic switching between Matte and Photo Black inks, with minimal ink usage when making the switch (1.5 to 4.5ml total, depending upon whether the change is from Photo to Matte Black or vice-versa)
>Monochrome printing with the Epson Advanced Black and White mode (and three black inks) produces very even-toned prints, with the ability to adjust toning dramatically in the driver
>A top-loading high capacity feeder can hold up to 120 sheets, from 4×6 to 17×22 inches; a second top-loading manual sheet feeder is optimized for fine-art papers; and a front straight-through manual sheet feeder allows for single sheet loading of media up to 1.5mm
>Two standard connectivity options: USB 2.0 and Ethernet
For more information, visit Epson’s website.
Expected to start shipping November, 2006
Price: $1295. Visit Amazon.com for a good tech overview or to order the Epson Stylus Pro 3800.
Epson also recently announced an expanded schedule for the Epson Print Academy. They’ve added three new cities: Phoenix, Salt Lake City and Atlanta and they are returning to Los Angeles and New York. Both the Track One and Track Two programs will feature the Stylus Pro 3800 printer. I wrote a comprehensive review of my experience at the New York Epson Print Academy for The Imaging Buffet here.
Below is the expanded schedule:
October 28: Phoenix
November 11: Salt Lake City
December 2: Atlanta
January 20: Los Angeles/Orange County
January 28: New York City
For more information or to sign up, visit the Epson Print Academy website.
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Review: The Podcast & Portable Media Expo
Just over a week ago, thousands of podcasters, video podcasters, netcasters, vidcasters, vloggers, bloggers and many others descended upon the Ontario Convention Center in Ontario California to attend the 2nd annual Podcast & Portable Media Expo.
And I was there to witness the event. In a word, it was fantastic and I’m very happy to share this collection of images and links to the people and places mentioned below each image. If you have additional caption info or comments, please send them to me at images@andrewdarlow.com, or feel free to leave comments below (all photographs below © Andrew Darlow).
At the entrance of the Ontario Convention Center, where the Expo was held.
Saturday 9/30 Keynote by Andrew Baron, founder and producer of Rocketboom
Robert Scoble doing the Saturday “Unkeynote” on the show floor in Podango’s booth.
Robert Scoble and Lee Gibbons, Podango’s CEO in Podango’s booth. You can find the audio from Podango’s entire Unconference from the show floor here.
Jake Ludington’s 9/30 session: Turning Passion into Profits – Converting Free Subscribers into Paying Customers. Jake has a lot of great info and tutorials on his site, and I recommend his Hollywood Reviews podcast as well.
Jake Ludington interviewing Greg Smith from FeederReader, which, according to the company’s website is “a full-featured RSS Aggregator with podcast listening and watching (“podcasting” or “podcatching”) and enclosure support, running on Windows Mobile.” Jake’s interview can be heard here.
At Samson Audio’s booth, where the company gave away a Samson CO3U Multi-Pattern USB Studio Condenser Microphone every 15 minutes.
The LA Podcasters Live Show on Friday night at the Ontario Marriott. Dan Klass, Lance Anderson, Cush (Pictured Above), Tim Coyne (From The Hollywood Podcast), and the Goodnight Burbank Crew treated a packed room of people to stories, videos and just a jolly good time. The event was sponsored by LA Podcasters and iProng. Frank Conniff (TV’s Frank from Mystery Science Theater 3000) and Moira Quirk (Mo from Nickelodeon’s GUTS & GLOBAL GUTS) also recorded an episode of the Live Radio Adventures Of Dr. Floyd Show.
Storyteller Lance Anderson Friday night at the LA Podcasters Live Show. He told a funny little story involving a celebrity.
Dan Klass played a short video on Friday night that he made at the LA Podcasters Live Show.
In the video, Dan describes his life as an actor and a stay at home dad. It’s very funny, well put together and I believe it was also played for the entire audience before the first Keynote address on 9/30. You can find the video here.
Dan Klass speaking briefly about his video and his view of life in LA (and life in general). If you are not familiar with The Bitterest Pill (one of Dan’s podcasts), I highly recommend checking it out. I also recently finished Dan Klass’ and Michael Geohagen’s co-authored book, Podcast Solutions, and I recommend it highly for those who want to just listen to or make podcasts. I found the Audacity open source audio editor tips especially helpful.
Libsyn.com’s Marty Mulligan just before the clock struck 12. He was then presented a cake for his birthday.
Representatives from podcast spot, a hosting service with unmetered bandwidth. Surprising to me was that one of their service levels (under 25mb/month) is currently free.
I met the Podcast Voice Guys (Joe Klein and Bill Fortune) just outside the Exhibit Hall. They specialize in voiceovers and audio production. Their site has some great sample audio, and they allow you to listen in via Skype while they record your audio.
This photo is of Trucker Tom, from Tom’s Trucker Blog and Podcast. I’ve heard many of Tom’s comments on Adam Curry’s Daily Source Code and it was great to meet and speak with him for a while. I also photographed Tom for a few minutes outside the Convention Center and I can’t wait to print some of the images.
Sam Levin from Inside Mac Radio and Sam Levin Consulting. Sam does a great job reviewing products and software from many different companies on his “Cool Mac Picks” segment of Inside Mac Radio.
On the show floor in front of blip.tv and Podkive.com.
Gary Leland from Podcast Pickle spotted a “Pickle Party” announcement at the Doubletree hotel’s front desk on the way to the Libsyn party. Turns out some fans of the Pickle just decided to have a Pickle Party and Gary wasn’t even aware of it.
Eric Olson from Feedburner in front of a shirt being signed by Feedburner fans.
Rick Klau and Eric Olson from Feedburner in the Feedburner booth. Rick is VP of Business Development at Feedburner and did a session at the Expo entitled: How To Create and Optimize Your RSS Feed for Maximum Effectiveness.
Jason Van Orden during his session: Promoting Your Podcast: Cost-Effective Strategies for Building Your Audience. I purchased Jason’s book at the show and believe that it can help many podcasters build their audience and make more money from their shows and websites. Jason’s site also has a lot of great comments about the Expo, with an overview of some of the tips he picked up from a number of the speakers.
At the Expo session: For Musicians Only: Promoting Your Music with Podcasting. From left to right are Corey Denis from IODA, C.C. Chapman from Accident Hash, Managing the Grey, U-Turn Cafe and the Podsafe Music Network, and Ali Partovi from GarageBand.com.
Ben “Bendrix” Williams from Digital Media Tips N Tricks (and many other shows) reviewing his session notes (see below for the title of his presentation).
Ben Williams answering questions during his talk on video blogging and podcasting.
Kris Smith from Palegroove Studios at his session: Leveraging Your Knowledge as a Successful Podcasting Consultant. Kris has a nice overview of his experiences from the show on his blog.
Yes, those are Apple iPods, Sony PSPs, chargers and related accessories. Where are the Fig Newtons?
At the session: Monetize with Ads and Sponsorship: Use An Advertising Service or Sell Your Own? The panelists were Frank Barnako, Barnako.com; Mark McCrery, Podtrac; Murgesh Navar, PodBridge; Todd Cochrane, RawVoice; Jonathan Cobb, Kiptronic; Greg Galant, Radio Tail; and Jay Selman, Grape Radio.
Doug Kaye from IT Conversations and GigaVox Media at his session: The Secret Lives of MP3 Files.
The LA Podcasters Booth (above and below), sponsored by iProng, was packed whenever I walked by. For a full description of who was there, plus links to the audio from all the shows recorded, including this one called the “Reality Podcasting Panel,” visit the LA Podcasters site.
A number of podcast-related companies from Japan came together and had a booth at the show. To see all the companies who participated in the booth, visit this page and look for the words (Japan booth) next to the company names.
An iPod Mini in a box with nuts and bolts in the ShieldZone booth, prior to a “torture test.”
Phillip Chipping, President and Founder of ShieldZone (left) and Sterling Campbell (right) in the ShieldZone booth. Both gentlemen demonstrated very effectively how strong their clear protective film can withstand abuse from scratches. No iPods were harmed in the tests, even after two days of intense shaking. However, they left some areas of the iPods intentionally uncovered, and those areas showed the kind of damage that would occur if the film had not been applied.
Michael Geoghegan, CEO and Doug Kaye, CTO of GigaVox Media in their booth on the show floor.
Doug Kaye being interviewed in the GigaVox Media booth.
Doug Kaye showcasing the new Levelator (TM) software. It works by leveling out uneven volume levels in audio recordings. And it’s free. You can find it here (Mac or Windows). Jake Ludington has a review of the software here.
Robert Scoble being interviewed by Leesa Barnes on the show floor. Leesa’s interview with Robert Scoble, Tim Bourquin and Ron Moore can be found on her excellent blog, which is filled with tips and information about business and podcasting: It’s called podonomics.com.
There’s Mr. Scoble again (shouldn’t you be blogging, Robert?) Above, Robert Scoble makes a few comments during the session entitled Podcasting Power: Creating Killer Podcasts For Innovative Company Branding with John Furrier, Robert Scoble and Jennifer Jones of Podtech.net, Bill Kircos of Intel, and Jeff Nolan of SAP.
John Furrier, CEO & Founder of PodTech speaking with an Expo attendee after the Podcasting Power session.
Ben Williams doing a video interview on the show floor.
Tim Bourquin, Founder of The Podcast Expo being interviewed after the show by Ken Ray of Mac OS Ken. The interview can be found on Ken’s podcast (10/02 edition).
The amount of books on blogging, podcasting and audio production was staggering. This is just a small section of a huge table filled with books.
Andrew Baron and Joanne Colan from Rocketboom.
Alex Lindsay, Kenji Kato, John Foster and Scott Bourne at the 9/30 session on the show floor. The group covered production methods and technology that’s used for shows such as TWIT, MacBreak, MacBreak Weekly and The iLifeZone.
Tim Bourquin and Andrew Baron in the lobby of the convention center.
Franklin McMahon (left) from Media Artist Secrets (one of my favorite podcasts and highly recommended), Karla and Karen from the video podcast Rumor Girls (soon to be added to my growing playlist), and Chris Marquardt from Tips from the Top Floor, another great show for anyone interested in making better photos. Here’s a link to Franklin McMahon’ s main site.
The RawVoice team, with Founder and CEO Todd Cochrane (fourth from the left) in the Blubrry booth. The Blubrry site looks impressive and I look forward to seeing how it evolves.
That’s me with the one and only Rock and Roll Geek, Michael Butler.
And there I am with the man who likes to “Hang (and blog) Loose,” Robert Scoble. Note to myself: turn off the spot focusing option when you ask a friendly person to take a photo with your camera, or the background will be the only thing in focus (unless you add a third person)! I did my best in Photoshop to fix it.
On the show floor with Andrew Baron and Joanne Colan from Rocketboom.
Hope to see you there next year!
All photographs above © Andrew Darlow, all rights reserved. To request images for use in blogs, podcasts and other media, send e-mail to Andrew Darlow at images@andrewdarlow.com.