What an incredible journey!

This story started in February, after Photo Pro Expo in Kentucky. As an avid follower of Scott Kelby’s weekly photography show “The Grid”, I tend to participate in his giveaways at the end of the show. It was one of this times, that my pal and International Ambassador of Love, Nancy Massé told me that I was last week’s winner of the Photoshop World Conference & Expo 2012, that was going to be celebrated in Washington, DC! I’ve heard and read many times people saying that they never won anything. Well, guess what? I had REALLY never ever won a darn thing! Ever. Nunca. That’s Spanish by the way. Anyway, so Novelle (that’s my wife’s name. Isn’t cool?) and I started to jump and scream and almost fell over one of our cats. We made plans to stay at the Washington Plaza Hotel (which is very nice and affordable [for the location...], at five blocks from the Convention Center), and decided to take the car and save some money on airplane fares.

We left Cincinnati around 7pm on Thursday 23rd, stopped in a motel for a few hours of sleep, and arrived to DC around noon. The convention center was open of course, and there were some folks attending pre-conference classes. We checked in at the hotel, and went to the Center to register and get my badge. At this point it’s worth mentioning that Novelle didn’t get a pass as well, she was just coming along with me since she hadn’t been in DC before.

So, it’s 1.30pm and we decided to visit the world famous “Washington Mall” (which in case you don’t know, is NOT a shopping mall, but a large center plaza were all the monuments, museums, and official buildings get together and have a beer). Anyway, we knew we were like 7 blocks from the mall, but heck, Novelle loves to hike, and although I’m the complete opposite, I wasn’t going to miss this chance to shoot DC. So, we grabbed our cameras, a couple paper maps (I don’t have an iPhone. I have an Android. People is idiot enough to lack the vision of producing apps not only for iPhone but for Android as well. So no “Washington DC Maps” app for me [if you are not 30 years old or older, you might not know it, but before GPS systems in smartphones, had a huge piece of paper with roads drawn in it. Google the words "Paper map" and you'll see what I'm talking about].) and on we went!

Oh, dear Lord…. Little we knew that Spring was not only going to give us allergies, but bring enough heat to make Novelle sick. We made it to the Capitol building and the Sun was blasting over our heads. And of course, we didn’t bring any water with us. So, we decided to go back on 7th St were all the restaurants are. We were starving, and I wanted to try something new, but not weird (beef and potatoes guy here). So, Novelle suggested that we try a burger joint called “Fuddruckers”, and lured me by saying that it was kinda like Subway, in the sense that you order a burger and you choose the toppings. So we went.



The place is located in the corner of 7th St NW and H St NW (734 7th Street Northwest, Washington, DC 20001). It’s a tiny place, with some tables and a few booths. You enter, and the menu gives you different choices of burgers and some pre made toppings, size (from a 1/3 lb to 2lbs) and you choose if you want the combo with fries and soda. I ordered one called The Works (Smokehouse bacon, American cheese and grilled mushrooms), with wedge-cut fries and a Root Beer (I always get VERY happy if the soda fountain has Root beer ). Novelle chose a Hot Dogzilla with chili and cheese, and of course, she couldn’t finish it .



They advertise the place as (ahem..) “World’s Greatest Hamburgers.” I have to agree.

They cook everything, from the burger buns, the patty ground beef, they prepare their own sauces to fresh from the garden toppings as sun-ripened tomatoes, hand-leafed lettuce, sliced onions, dill pickles, pico de gallo, Fudds cheese sauce, etc. It really is a whole different experience. If you haven’t give em a try!

With full and happy bellies we proceeded with our walk. We wanted to do the Air & Space Museum, but between being tired and moving slow, and the fact that they close at 5pm, we decided that we couldn’t visit everything in DC in only 5 hours. So we walked to the Washington Monument/Memorial/[insert proper name here] which we thought was closed for repairs and covered with scaffolding after the big earthquake. But to our surprise, it wasn’t! It was there, standing tall and proud. We also have an Obelisk in Argentina. So when Novelle asked me who has the biggest one… I had to swallow my pride and say “Americans do… >“.





Obviously, the whole Mall was covered in ants.. I mean.. tourists. So after a while, we decided to check the newly blossomed Cherry Trees nearby. These were amazing, and it was the first time I saw one. So beautiful and soft… I almost took one home to put in bed with me (?).



After that we wandered around the Korean War Memorial/[insert proper name here] where I snapped a few of the statues.




And to finish the day, last but not least Lincoln’s Memorial. Again, infested with tourists [I haven't got my hands on the images yet. Check back tomorrow!]. We wanted to take a few of the White House, but I wasn’t carrying my zoom lens in my camera to shoot from afar. And to visit it you need to have your State’s Governor put your name on a list, at least 6 months before the time you plan to visit it. Next time? Maybe? Will see.



This post went bigger than I anticipated. I apologize for the long reading. There are so many things I want to share with you! Ill be talking about the expo.



I have to say, we weren’t expecting to see the Obelisk at all, since we read it was still closed to the public for repairs. It was a great joy to actually see it in all it’s splendor. The disappointing part was to find that, instead, the Reflecting Pool was under repairs

On the other hand, Lincoln’s Monument was just amazing. I didn’t take many images, since the place was swarming with people, and although I wanted to go back at night, I didn’t get to do it.



And since she is the one dealing with my crazy trips and adventures, as usual, I can’t but at least offer a tiny of her beauty to enhance this post.



There is something you all should know about me: I love critters! We have two cats, Jinx and Zoey (I might refer to them as ‘The Girls”), and we also had a couple male rats, but they passed away a few months ago. I became a tiny famous in photography circles for a HDR (High Dynamic Range, a technique used mostly in landscape and cityscape photography, to capture the full range of light in a scene, where you can extract much more detail than with ordinary photography) image I made of one of my cats, Jinx (is the first image in my portfolio gallery, which you can check here). I also love Squirrels (one day I’ll adopt a few…), and I got to meet this little guy while we were strolling in the Mall. This guy was so used to people that stayed perfectly still for a huge amount of time. I couldn’t help myself, and again, I tried a HDR version.. of a squirrel! :O



Next morning, I got up early for the Opening Keynote, and got myself in line with the rest of the attendees. Brad Moore, Scott Kelby’s assistant and Concert photographer, took some photos for the record. And It wasn’t until I came back home that I saw this…



If you look closely, all the way to the left, you’ll find a long haired handsome (?) man! So we all got in, and.. I wasn’t expecting such a crowd.. Or display. People was going nuts, celebrating, chanting, full of excitement!







With 2012 Presidential election, celebrating PSW12 at the Nation’s Capital, was asking for a politic motif for this ceremony. Candidates like Corey Barker, RC Concepcion, Matt Kloskowski, Pete Collins, Sarah Palin (?) and of course Scott Kelby, showcased some political campaigns that kept the crowd laughing for almost 40 minutes!



Then the real presentation started, when Scott Kelby took the stage and invited some folks from Adobe to present the new features of Adobe Photoshop CS6 and Adobe Lightroom 4. Here is a 40 minutes videos of the Keynote and a few excerpts of the 3 days at Photoshop World 2012


link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=86ymddzRGHY


link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LFACViRZnWg


link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I_r0UHLsc1A


link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w1f6zFMGHZ8

Many other things happened, and for a matter of space I cannot put all of it here. A few highlights were the After Hours Party at Ibiza Club, where Big Electric Cat -Scott Kelby and his wife Kalebra’s band- rocked the night, with photographers like Alan Hess, Scott Diussa, RC Concepcion, Joe McNally, Matt Kloskowski, Pete Collins, Brad Moore, and many others danced, drank and chatted with everyone who attended! The classes with Jeremy Cowart, RC Concepcion, Matt Kloskowski and Scott Kelby where simply put, AMAZING, and I don’t regret a single minute of them.













There’s so much info about PSW12 these days, that I don’t want to bore you with the same stories over and over.



I hope you enjoyed this post I decided to share with you, and hope that you can do the same with family and friends.



Max Kimmich - Please visit my Blog :)