The Nik Summit event speakers.
Robert Beck
Sports Illustrated
Friday, May 14, 7:45 pm
Shooting the
Sports Illustrated Way
Robert Beck
"In October of 1986 I went to Hawaii to shoot the Ironman Triathlon for a small sports stock agency with nothing but my camera gear and an airline ticket. I slept on a friend's floor the first night after hitchhiking into town from the airport. There were no hotel rooms available. No rental cars. I checked in with the media center the day before the event and found out Sports Illustrated had "hired" me to shoot the race. I came out of the assignment with a double truck table of contents picture for SI which eventually became one of Life Magazine's Pictures of the Decade. Over twenty years later I am still shooting sports–now as a staffer for Sports Illustrated."
Prior to that fateful day, I had honed my photographic skills while holding down a secondary teaching position in Los Angeles. When not in the classroom I was teaching myself how to make good pictures. I spent most of my time photographing surfers from land and from the water. I eventually worked my way into a Senior Staff position at Surfer Magazine. I worked for that publication for seven years before I branched out into other sports.
While my first big break at SI was shooting the Ironman Triathlon, a major part of my early years with them was spent covering ice hockey. Wayne Gretzky had been traded to Los Angeles and the NHL expanded into the western market with teams in Anaheim, Denver, Phoenix and San Jose. About the time Gretzky was traded from the Kings SI began a Golf Plus edition of their magazine. I jumped from one crooked stick to another and began shooting a lot of golf...Up to 25 tournaments a year. Then Tiger Woods exploded onto the scene and the golf world went nuts.
I've been lucky enough to have covered Tiger's last amateur championship, his first PGA Tour win, his 2008 U.S. Open victory and everything in between. I have also covered a couple of Olympics along with a few World Series, Super Bowls, and NBA Championships.
Joe McNally
Joe McNally is an internationally acclaimed American photographer and long-time photojournalist. From 1994 until 1998, he was LIFE magazine's staff photographer, the first one in 23 years. His most well known series is the "Faces of Ground Zero, Portraits of the Heroes of September 11th", a collection of 246 giant Polaroid portraits shot in Moby C Studio near Ground Zero in a three-week period shortly after 9/11. A large group of these historic, compelling life-size (9' x 4') photos were exhibited in seven cities in 2002, seen by almost a million people. The exhibit and the book, printed by LIFE, helped raise approximately $2 million for the 9/11 relief effort. This collection is considered by many museum and art professionals to be the most significant artistic endeavor to evolve to date from the 9/11 tragedy.
Some of McNally's other renowned photographic series include, "The Future of Flying", a 32-page cover story for National Geographic, published in December 2003, commemorating the centennial observance of the Wright Brothers' flight. Joe is a 20 year contributor to National Geographic, and this story was the first all digital shoot for the magazine. This issue was a National Magazine Award Finalist, and one of the magazine's most popular covers. He has shot cover stories for Sports Illustrated, Time, Newsweek, Geo, Fortune, New York, Business Week, LIFE, and Men's Journal, among others.
McNally's advertising, marketing and promotional work includes FedEx, Nikon, Sony, Land's End, General Electric, MetLife, Bogen, Adidas, Kelby Media Group, Wildlife Conservation Society, and American Ballet Theatre.
In 2008, McNally published his critically acclaimed, award winning book, The Moment It Clicks, which has been touted as, "one foot on the coffee table and one foot in the classroom".
In 2009, McNally published his newest, much anticipated book, The Hotshoe Diaries. Just like its predecessor, it immediately cracked Amazon's top ten list of best sellers, within the first week of publication.
Joe McNally is known internationally for his ability to produce technically and logistically complex assignments with expert use of color and light. As part of his teaching activities, he conducts numerous workshops around the world.
"World-renowned as one of the best and most published"
Rick Sammon
Canon Explorer of Light Rick Sammon has published 36 books, including Exploring the Light and Digital Photography Secrets. His book, Flying Flowers won the coveted Golden Light Award, and his book Hide and See Under the Sea won the Ben Franklin Award. Rick, who has photographed in almost 100 countries around the world, gives more than two-dozen photography workshops (including private workshops) and presentations around the world each year. Rick is the co-founder of the Digital Photography Experience, an on-line learning center.
Rick also hosts five shows on kelbytraining.com. Rick, who has been nominated for the Photoshop Hall of Fame, is considered one of today's top digital-imaging experts, cutting through lots of Photoshop "speak," making it fun, easy and rewarding to work and play in the digital darkroom. When asked about his photo specialty, Rick says, "My specialty is not specializing."
www.ricksammon.com and www.dpexperience.com
Friday and Saturday, May 14 & 15, Morning
"Best-known for his lighting and workflow workshops"
Tony Corbell
In his high energy career, Tony has photographed three U.S. presidents, 185 World Leaders, 65 Nigerian Heads of State, about 600 brides and grooms, a couple of NASA astronauts and lots of famous, and not so famous, faces since he began in 1979. He has spoken at over 450 seminars and workshops nationally and internationally. He is the recipient of the highest honor from the Wedding and Portrait Photographers International with their Lifetime Achievement Award and achieved the status of Photographic Craftsman from the Professional Photographers of America. In 2005, Tony received the "Photographer of the Year" Award from the International Photographic Council of the United Nations at a ceremony in New York City, and the PPA National Award from the Professional Photographers of California. Tony was also invited to join the prestigious Camera Craftsmen Of America in 2007, one of only 40 members worldwide. In 2007-09, Tony spoke to over 9,000 photographers in over 40 cities including London, Glasgow, Dublin, Toronto, Mexico City, Sydney, Germany and many more U.S. cities discussing lighting and image editing.
Tony has always been active as a student and a teacher of photographic education
and his Basic Studio Lighting book from publisher AmPhoto has been
popular worldwide and is the basis for numerous photographic college lighting
courses. His new Location Lighting DVD produced by Software Cinema has received
great reviews and is available on-line. He has written articles in every
major photographic magazine in the US, Japan, the UK and China. He is currently
one of a select few Approved Photographic Instructors from the Professional
Photographers of America–and he's the biggest Beatles fan alive. www.corbellproductions.com
Friday and Saturday, May 14 & 15, Morning
"Fine-art and Nature photographer extraordinaire"
Tony Sweet
After 20 years as a professional jazz artist, Tony changed careers and directed his creative juices towards nature photography. The improvisational, spontaneous, and abstract nature of jazz are also integral elements of nature photography. Tony's work is published worldwide in various mediums, and is represented by The Getty Picture Agency. His images are used by Nikon, Nik Software, Singh Ray, and others for national ad campaigns.
Tony and Susan conduct Visual Artistry photography location workshops throughout the United States and Canada. Tony’s articles and images are featured in Shutterbug and Rangefinder magazines, and he is a contributor to Nikonnet.com. He is a staff writer for Nikon World magazine. And has authored four books on the art of photography: Fine Art Nature Photography (’02), Fine Art Flower Photography (’05), and Fine Art Nature Photography: Water, Ice, Fog (’07), and Fine Art Digital Nature Photography (’09).
Tony maintains an active speaking schedule, addressing professional photography organizations, universities, seminars, and teaching workshops, and is an instructor on betterphoto.com. His discussion topics range from traditional photographic skills to advanced digital techniques.
Honors: Nikon Legend Behind the Lens, charter member of Team Nik, Lensbaby Guru, and Bogen Mentor. www.betterphoto.com, www.nikonnet.com and www.lensbabies.com
Friday and Saturday, May 14 & 15, Morning
"Maestro of beauty and fine-art photography"
Douglas Dubler
Douglas Dubler is a fashion, beauty and fine art photographer who seamlessly joins craft and creativity to produce some of the most memorable images in editorial, advertising and fine art photography. His early training in Fine and Liberal Arts at Boston University enriched him with an articulate sense of form, color, and composition.
Dubler's professional photographic career began in the late '60's in California and the Virgin Islands where he photographed underwater life. He made the transition to studio photography in the early '70's where he worked for Kodak, Coca-Cola, Rolex, Proctor & Gamble, BMW, Eastern Airlines, Waterford, Johnson & Johnson, and Hasselblad. Later in the decade, he began to specialize in fashion and beauty photography, working with major motion picture studios and earning awards from Communication Arts, Art Directors Club, and Clio among others.
Over the years, he has worked closely with Fuji, Panasonic, Olympus, Epson and Nikon. The ability to meld technology with creative imagery has firmly established Douglas Dubler as an innovator and artist and will continue to create a constant demand for his iconographic beauty and fine art images.
"Naturalist and Nature photographer extraordinaire"
Rob Sheppard
Rob Sheppard is a naturalist and nature photographer and videographer who says his favorite location is the one he is in at any time. Presently, he is spending a lot of time in the chaparral of Southern California and says that the chaparral is one of the wildest and least photographed ecosystems in the country. He is the author/photographer of over 30 books, as well as a well-known speaker and workshop leader.
He was the long-time editor of the prestigious Outdoor Photographer magazine and helped start PCPhoto (Digital Photo). Presently he is editor-at-large for Outdoor Photographer. He does workshops around the country with Great American Photography Workshops, plus he does workshops at Light Photographic Workshops.
As author/photographer, Sheppard has written hundreds of articles about photography and nature, plus books ranging from guides to photography such as the Magic of Digital Nature Photography and the National Geographic Field Guide to Digital Photography to books about Photoshop and Lightroom including Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 2 for Digital Photographers Only and Top Tips Simplified: Adobe Photoshop Elements 7.
"Brilliant award-winning wildlife and nature work"
Laurie Shupp
Like so many of her contemporaries, Laurie is passionate about photography and her work with animals and nature. "Photography brings me up close and personal to nature and to that quiet place that I crave in my normally busy world. It is a very spiritual experience that I hope to be able to convey in my images." Laurie's educational background is a BA with an emphasis in Graphic Design. She has worked for numerous software companies from Art Asset Management to Technical Support. Recently Laurie was an Honored Photographer for the Windland Smith Rice International Awards (Natures Best Photography magazine), 1st place at the San Diego Fair in the Animal/Nature division, Artist of the Month (Plug-In Experience), 1st place on Betterphoto and received the Nik Software 2009 Customer Focus Award.
As the Operational Manager at Nik Software, Laurie often gets the opportunity to talk to many customers and oversee the Customer Service, Technical Support and Shipping Departments. She also teaches some of Nik's Educational Webinars specializing in Wildlife photography. Laurie says, "In my spare time you can find me behind the camera taking photos at the San Diego Zoo, Wild Animal Park, Balboa Park and other areas in and around San Diego." www.imagesbylaurie.com
Friday and Saturday, May 14 & 15, Morning
"Renowned retoucher, trainer, and speaker"
Janice Wendt
As Education and Training Manager at Nik Software, Janice is a vital educational link between the company and partners in the channel, often in demand as a speaker at such events as Imaging USA, Santa Fe Workshops, West Coast School, Long Island Workshop, among others. She spends much of her time creating new educational materials that cover the digital capture process, digital workflow and offering practical views of retouching that featuring alternative, time saving techniques for both the professional and beginning photographer.
Over the last several years, she has become one of the industry's most respected and leading retouch and image enhancement artists, often "training the trainers" on numerous techniques related to digital imaging. Janice is an experienced commercial and portrait photographer with over 30 years of experience covering a wide range of specialties including designing B&W photographic paper, Inkjet papers and lead creative designer. Her photographic and retouching work can be found in leading photographic magazines.
"Internationally acclaimed fine art and natural light photographer,
Smithsonian Laureate and best-selling author"
Vincent Versace
Vincent Versace is a recipient of the Computerworld Smithsonian Award in Media Arts & Entertainment, the Shellenberg fine art award, a six time nominee to the Photoshop Hall of Fame and is the author of the best selling book, Welcome to Oz: A Cinematic Approach to Digital Still Photography with Photoshop which was chosen as Shutterbug Magazine’s best how to book of the year. His work is part of the permanent collection of the Smithsonian Institution’s Museum of American History.
Vincent is the photographer of Immediate Assistants Medical Rescue Go Team. He is a member of the Epson Stylus Pros, a Nikon Legend Behind the Lens, an Xrite Colorotti, Lexar Elite Photographer, an American Photo Magazine Mentor Trek and Master Class instructor and a member of the National Association of Photoshop Professionals Instructor Dream Team teaching regularly at Photoshop World and the Maine Photographic and Palm Beach Photographic Workshops.
Vincent was the original host of the Epson Print Academy. Articles about his work in conjunction with digital workflows have appeared in American Photo, Popular Photography, Shutterbug, Outdoor Photographer, Pro Digital Imaging, PDN, What Digital camera, Petersen’s Photographic, PC Camera, Studio Design and Photography Professional Photographer and Digital Imaging magazines.
SEE WHY IT’S MORE
SHOOT WITH THE WORLD’S TOP PROS 
GET INSPIRED BY INDUSTRY LEADERS 
MEET THE LEADING PHOTOGRAPHERS 
LEARN RETOUCHING SKILLS FROM THE EXPERTS 
