We’re gearing up for Photoshop World in Orlando, Florida at the end of this month, and so I thought I’d share some of my favorite photos from previous Photoshop Worlds to get you pumped up for the show. These were taken by Brad Moore, Alan Hess, Drew Gurian, and Josh Bradley. Oh, and one was taken by RC with my iPhone. :)

Above: This one is from the opening keynote in Boston a few years back, when we had a boxing theme, using the slogan “Photoshop World: The Main Event.” Our stage was a real boxing ring (seen far right), and we seated the keynote crowd “in the round.” It was a knockout (Sorry, I couldn’t help myself).

Above: This is from last year in Vegas. That’s Adobe VP John Loiacono (better known as “Johnny L”) with two fake Secret Service agents who escorted Johnny to the stage after being introduced by President Obama live via Satellite from the White House. Well, it sure looked like the President. (Insider note: that’s PhotoWalkPro’s Jeff Revell on the left).

Above: A shot of Ben Willmore, complete with freshly sculpted mohawk, during one of his classes. Just another reason you should be careful when you attend Burning Man the week before Photoshop World.

Above: This is Vanelli, the Photoshop World official “Mascot, Cuddly Bear, and Killing Machine”  all wrapped into one, with his crew. Yes, he has he own “crew.” I have no idea why. But I’ll tell you this—nobody messes with Vanelli’s crew. Also, notice it’s mostly women. Total coincidence.

Above: This is the crowd giving a standing ovation to Julie Stephenson, the conference director, who totally rocks! Hey, that’s my friend Janine Smith in the front row in the blue shirt. Hi Janine. (She can’t hear me, can she? Rats).

Above: I hate 99.4% of all pictures of me, but for some reason Alan Hess has taken some of my all time favorites, and this is one of them. That’s me playing the Fender Telecaster I got for Christmas that year during the Live Concert Photography Pre-Conference workshop, alongside NAPP’s Creative Director (and excellent bass player) Felix Nelson. That’s my buddy, drummer Scott Stahley, lit up in the back. With light. Not liquor. Well, as far as I know.

Above: It’s “The Photoshop Guys” taping an intro for a live-at-the-show episode of Photoshop User TV. That’s Adam Rohrmann with the camera, known as “The Powerful Overlord of the Steadicam,” but he’s also a talented director, kick-butt video editor, and despite 6 arrests, he’s never been convicted, which I think speaks volumes.

Above: Adobe’s Allison Goffman at the Adobe booth doing that thing she does. The guy with her is either a participant or an Adobe employee who forget to wear his black tradeshow shirt.

Above: This is Joe Glyda and one of the participants during our one-one-one portfolio reviews. I overheard him saying, “This is much better than anything Scott Kelby could do,” which is precisely why Joe was fired from Photoshop World (kidding, Joe’s still here, and will be teaching in Orlando).

Above: Here’s Adobe CEO Shantanu Narayen during the opening Keynote at Photoshop World. The crowd was really psyched to see him in person.

Above: RC during one of his sessions on the conference track. I remember what he was saying when this photo was taken. It was something along the lines of “Why is it when you’re playing Call of Duty: Black Ops, you only get one Claymore. Back in Call of Duty: Modern Warfare, if you had the Scavenger Perk, you could pick up extra claymores off of fallen enemies, but now in Black Ops you can’t.” I’m pretty sure that’s what he was saying.

Above: I love this shot (another Alan Hess shot) of us rehearsing before the keynote doors opened. We’re behind the curtain that’s going to drop in just 30 minutes (Kabuki style), and this is right before we got in costume for our KISS parody. That’s Tony with his back to the camera. me on the left, Felix facing us, Stage Director Rod Harlan with the headset standing in front of us. Jason Scrivner on top of the drum riser with a mini HD cam, and Scott Stahley back there on the drums.

Above: Photographer Jim DiVitale during one of his sessions on lighting for commercial product photography. Jim has been teaching at Photoshop World for 10 years, and the participants love him!

Above: David Ziser and his class shooting a bride during his “Wedding Photography” pre-conference workshop, which has been sold out in advance at every Photoshop World ever (including, this coming one in Orlando).

Above: Here’s a shot from last year’s KISS parody opening keynote extravaganza. We all have custom make-up based on different Photoshop tools, which was what the opening “VH-1 Where Are They Now?” parody video was all about. We even got the original narrator from the TV series to do the narration for our movie. It rocked. Literally. That’s me in the center. Stop snickering.

Above: Johnny L, a few years back, on stage during the opening keynote. Adobe usually gives the crowd a sneak-peek at some upcoming unreleased Photoshop technology, so the crowds at Photoshop World literally see it first!

Above: I always really liked this shot of Dan Margulis, lit by his laptop. Dan is an outspoken authority on color, and the father of modern color correction using Photoshop, but beyond his brilliance as an educator, he’s a very, very nice guy. Unless you’re talking about Curves. Then he’s like “The Emperor.”

Above: This is from our football-halftime show themed opening keynote a couple of years ago. Matt only looks this happy because he didn’t have to sing or dance in the keynote.

Above: NAPP’s Executive Director Larry Becker during the presentation of the Guru Awards competition last year during the opening keynote.

Above: The crowd gets ready for the opening keynote.

Above: Here’s the other shot of me that I can actually tolerate. That’s me and Felix again, also during the Concert Pre-con, but from the previous year (I can tell, because I was playing my white Fender Strat).

Above: You can’t help but do a little chimping during the keynote.

Above: My good friend Terry White on stage during the keynote, showing off some new Adobe technology.

Above: My Blue Strat, the one that lives in my office at work, makes its debut at Vega’s House of Blues, during a set with Big Electric Cat. By the way—I keep the volume on my amp way down at work most of the time, but every once in a while, I do crank it up for like 30-seconds (usually for a Bon Jovi song).

Above: Wes Maggio on stage at the Wacom booth on the Expo floor. Remember, if you can’t attend the full conference, you can still come and check out the Expo. Lots of vendors, demos, and free classes.

Above: The iPhone low light photo quality is sketchy, but this is one of my most memorable shots—meeting Ali Rajabi, an Iranian Photoshop expert and educator, who was able to come to Photoshop World last year, and made friends every where he went. It took a lot of work for him to get to the conference, and he made the most of every minute.

Above: Help Desk guru Peter Bauer, answering Photoshop questions one-on-one at our Help Desk live—-open to all participants during the full conference.

Above: Joe Glyda during his class on lighting food, pointing to a bug. Kidding. The bug part—it was from his class, but it was on lighting bugs. I should stop now.

Above: Anytime you get Matt dancing and singing on stage, it’s bound to be a party. This was our Motown theme, and right before we’re going on stage to sing and dance to a medley of Photoshop hits, Matt looks at me and says, “Dude, how did you get me into this?” Sorry Matt. Now dance!

Above: Westcott stole the show in Vegas with multiple shooting booth set-up where attendees could come up and shoot really cool sets, with professional models, and it had everybody buzzing. They’re doing it again in Orlando, and they’re taking it up a notch. One of the most popular and creative things ever on our show floor. (If you’re coming to Orlando, make sure you bring your camera).

Above: This is me doing a quick shoot in Part 2 of my portrait retouching class last year. I shot the model, and then did the start-to-finish retouch live in the class. This year, I’ve got an all-new retouching class based in part on my new retouching book, which will be released at the show.

More to Come Soon!
There are actually a lot more photos to share, but I realized that this is getting close to the world’s longest blog post, so I’m going to cut it at this point, but I’ll be sure to share a whole bunch more in April, right after the convention.

I hope you get to come to Orlando. I promise you—it will be a career-changing, head-buzzing, fun-filled, Photoshop and photography love fest, and you don’t want to miss it. Here’s the link if you want to join us for the biggest Photoshop event in the world.