We (Nikon) had a 140 seat theater there as well as a small showcase full of gear for attendees to look at and ask questions about. We also had a great lineup of speakers such as Joe McNally (above), Moose Peterson, Jay Maisel and Tony Corbell. Each one did a great job with their presentations and everyone who was there learned a great deal and had a lot of fun. Below is a picture of two of the nicest people you could ever meet... Bill Fortney (left) and Moose Peterson (right). These two are a couple of characters! ;-) Click on their names above for some great stuff!

One of the highlights of the week is the after hours party hosted by Scott Kelby’s band, Big Electric Cat. It was a great time at the House of Blues right there in Mandalay Bay. Scott is the guy on the keyboards and that is Scott’s wife, Kalebra, on vocals. Most of the rest of the band are actually NAPP people so they are Photoshop gurus by day and a great, rockin’ cover band by night! They are a very talented group for a band that only plays once a year they are very tight.

I was having fun with my new Nikon D90 camera that does a great job in low light and it also does full 720p HD video clips as well. The files sizes are quite huge so I have to get a handle on doing some video editing before I can share some D90 movies with you... I’ll work on that one.

I thought it was quite humorous when Josh Bradley, Moose’s assistant, asked to borrow my Nikon D700 to shoot pictures at the party... he’s a Canon shooter! Josh is a great guy and very talented. Check out his blog for some great party pics...

Besides going out to buy some velrco to hang some images in the booth I didn’t leave the Mandalay Bay Hotel for almost five days! That’s how excited I was to be in Vegas this week! One thing that did surprise me was a restaurant that was recommended to me by my friend, Kris, called RM Seafood. Coveniently it’s located right across from the House of Blues in the hotel and I have to say that it may just be my new, favorite restaurant in Vegas! It was fantastic... and it wasn’t nearly as expensive as some nice restaurants can be. Bonus! Some of you may find this a total surprise but what made me smile first was the fact that they have a BEER MENU! Instead of hearing the typical... Bud, Bud Light, Miller Lite, Coors Light... (pause)... Corona, Heineken... (longer pause)... um, let me check and see what else there is... we actually had a server that described stuff I have never heard of in great detail! And, as an extra added bonus... the food was great, too! :-) She was also kind enough to supply the three of us (Michael, Sara and I) with small glasses so we could share and do our own tasting. Our server thought that was pretty cool! I will definitely visit this place again!

I really liked all of the above but particularly enjoyed the Duval, Franziskaner and the Japanese Sweet Stout... which was really great with Sushi. (The Cinco de Mayo roll which had shrimp tempura, tuna, jalepenos and hot chili sauce! Fantastic!)

So, I’m on a plane now to go to the Reno Air Races in Nevada... You may have read the posts that I did about the Reno Pylon Racing School back in June, well this is the full blown air race and air show as well. There are going to be about 300,000 in attendance and approximately 500 photographers there from around the world! It’ll be busy! Joining me will be Bill Fortney and Moose Peterson as well as Mark Kettenhofen from Nikon. This is shaping up to be a very successful event for us.

Check back in the next couple of days for some airplane pics! Then from there I leave on vacation with Michelle for a cruise to Alaska! Whew... trying to pack all of this in such a short time frame has been challenging! Hopefully we’ll get some internet access on the boat to update some entries from there. We’ve never been on a cruise or to Alaska so this will be very exciting!

Thanks for stopping by! Until next time...