So, your going to attend the Horizon Summit this weekend (Feb. 23-24) and are wondering what you need. Here are a few essentials I have always found I carry whenever I go to a photography conference or event. For those not going yet, you still can join in the fun. Horizon Summit Registration.
Dress comfortably.
Backpack or carry all. Something small should work fine just to fit your extra stuff.
Hand sanitizer. A small bottle goes a long way, and you will no doubt spend the day shaking hands as you meet new people. These types of events are not only for gathering information, but also networking.
A small snack. The Horizon Summit does have a box lunch for those that purchased, but sometimes that mid morning or afternoon snack is a must.
A notebook. Lots of classes and lots of info. Take as many notes as you can and make sure you actually review them later… No, their will not be a test at the end.
Business Cards. This can work as a networking event too, bring your business cards to trade with other photographers. Who knows, you might just find your new shooting partner… if you could just remember what his name was.
Camera. If your attending the Glamour Photo Shoot, you will want your big camera. Otherwise a small point-n-shoot or your cell phone camera will work just fine.
Portfolio. Their are portfolio reviews if you sign up for them in advance. Bring your portfolio in print or digital format, 20 – 40 images. Try and avoid the need for an internet connection to view your work. Lots of people trying to get online at once slows things down, and you get more from an instructor that doesn’t need to wait for your work to load.
For those not sure yet about attending the Horizon Summit, here are a few quick things you will be missing out on.
14 instructors
30 classes
A live model shoot (must register in advance)
Portfolio Reviews (must register in advance)
Don’t forget the chance to meet and greet with other photographers and some of the best people in the industry.
So, why is it we take photos? Unless we are doing it to make money, promote something, then for the most part, we are taking them to remember. We do it to remember that day at the pool, or the big game, or that special moment with a loved one. We do it to remember the places we have been, the people we have seen, and the things we have done.
Sadly with all the photos, gone are the days of photo albums. Sure, the occasional photo book might get made, but what we end up with are massive amounts of photo files filling up our computers.
I have those too, though I have started a massive edit project. For the past year, I have been dwindling my numbers. When I started, I had close to 20,000 images. That was after all of my early edits where I removed some photos right after every shoot. I switched from film in late 2006. Since then I know I have taken around 35,000 digital photos. I have removed tons of “junk” photos that I kept for that “one day.” Through these edits I have found that “one day” will never improve some of these images, so they make their way to the digital trash can.
One of the great things about this process is seeing some images I have forgotten about; like the Image above from Peggys Cove, Nova Scotia. My wife and I spent a few hours here on our Honeymoon. It was a very cool location, with an iconic lighthouse, and a tiny fishing village. The image brought back the feeling of the cool summer air way up north with the breeze blowing in from the water. I remembered the waves crashing on the rocks, and the hundreds of tourists standing everywhere around the Lighthouse. I had photos of the lighthouse, but in my edits, decided to delete them. Why? Too many tourists. This image however, this is what reminds me of Peggys Cove. The old quite fishing village, with the small boats. The calm water of the bay. A very quiet and peaceful place.
One day I will return to photograph the lighthouse. Just not during peak tourist season.
Ok, so it seems that Photo Edit Friday seems to work best on Saturday lately.
The Program – Adobe Photoshop (Version I currently use is Photoshop CS6)
The Objective – Saving time with custom Actions.
Often times I find myself doing repeat motions in photoshop. I typically do this when it comes to saving for specific use, on a blog, in a presentation, etc. This usually includes changing the resolution, adjusting the size, changing the color space, saving as a copy, closing the window, and doing that all over again. I found myself having to do this recently for a client who needed some low resolutions images for a powerpoint presentation. Instead of doing all of the changes manually, I created an action on the first image so that I could save myself button clicks and time.
Here are the basic steps I used.
First I created a new action Folder and a New Action, giving each a name as I created them.
Next I hit record on the Action panel, to begin recording the steps I was taking to create the Action. In this case, changing to DPI to 72, changing the color space to sRGB, saving as a copy (you can use Actions to save to a specific folder), and telling Photoshop to close the window when it was finished. I saved as a copy so it did not overwrite my original psd file. Once finished. I hit the stop button.
Once everything was done, I opened up the next 30 or so images, and for each one, hit the play button.
If you like using hotkeys to move around the program faster, you can assign a hotkey when you create the action.
So, when you find yourself doing the same thing over and over… and over again in Photoshop, it might be time to create an action to speed things up.