NAPP Member

COMPETITION WINNER - 1 Year NAPP Digital Membership

Thanks to everyone who followed the Twitter page, the Facebook page and for reading this blog and leaving comments. The winner of the 1 year membership, as picked out by my lovely 2 year old daughter Elise, was Bob Bray @bob__b so congratulations Bob.

Bob replied with a bit about himself...
"I've only started with the photography just over a year ago so I've had a lot to learn! I dont do that much in Photoshop other than the basic photo editing, I've played with layers a little but need some tuition of sorts so the subscription would be great to get me going in the world of Photoshop, at the moment I use Elements 8!"
Bob also has a flickr site where he posts his photos http://www.flickr.com/robertbray/

Hopefully I'll have a couple more competitions soon to help promote NAPP UK memberships.

NEWSWIRE MAY 2010

Many thanks to the guys and gals at NAPP for giving me a mention in the new NAPP Newswire (below), hopefully as the months pass we'll have news of some UK discounts for UK / Overseas NAPP members.

"A while ago, it was brought to our attention that a Facebook group called, “NAPP, Please Come to the UK” had popped up with the express intention of getting the Kelby Training LIVE seminars to the UK. (Editor’s note: Just so we’re all clear, our live seminars are not a part of NAPP, they are a part of KelbyTraining, but NAPP members do get a discount on seminars)Well, we listened and we are super excited to announce that KelbyTraining LIVE will be bringing the one and only Joe McNally to the Business Design Centre in Islington, London on Friday, July 23rd for his 1-day seminar, Location Lighting Techniques.
Details and registration for the London event are here.
In addition to the UK seminar, we are also working on reaching out to our current and potential NAPP members with the help of our UK NAPP Evangelist, Dave Clayton. Dave will also be helping us identify potential discount opportunities for UK members. Help him help us by connecting with him on Twitter, his UK NAPP member group on Facebook, and his blog to spread the word about NAPP and Joe McNally's seminar stop."

Cheers
Dave Clayton

Link is here at Scott Kelby's Blog

I used to purchase the Photoshop User magazine from wherever I could get my hands on it but it was usually around £8-10 as an import and I realised that over a year I had already spent the best part of around £80 just on the printed magazine with no additional benefit. The irony being that here I was reading this magazine informing me about all the great benefits of being a NAPP member without actually being one.

The first thing I had to consider was do I really need a printed copy of the magazine. This was going to set me back in the region of £130, depending on the $ v £ rate at the time, for a full international membership.
With no discounts available to UK members I decided to hold off.

Then the digital subscription became available at $99 (£60) for International members so I duly joined and received the magazine in my inbox before the printed version was available. I'm not a big fan of reading magazines on my Mac but all the links in the magazine were live links and that in itself was a great help and I probably visited more links than I would have done otherwise.

I had also bought a few copies of Layers magazine which is a great addition to Photoshop User if you use the full CS suite. Again, a digital subscription became available and so I took one out. This was $50 for 2 years - bargain !

As I got more and more into what NAPP had to offer the more I realised what I still get for my money as a UK member and it wasn't such a bad deal.
There have been numerous offers available for membership renewals or extensions and also special deals on Layers Magazine. The Kelby Media store offers NAPP rates but you can pretty much get the same prices from Amazon UK in most cases.

There are also the Podcasts available over at the new Kelby TV site which are a fantastic resource in addition to all the stuff available on the NAPP member website.

So, what's my point ?

Since joining I have paid for the following:

2 x NAPP memberships @ £60 each
2 x Yearly subscriptions to Layers Magazine @ £35

Total = £155 = £6.45 per month.

In return, by being a member and watching podcasts, taking up a couple of special offers etc I have recieved the following:

24 months NAPP membership + membership packs
(inc 2 x printed magazines + some NAPP freebies)
(At least) 16 issues of Photoshop User magazine in my inbox.
12 issues of Layers Magazine in my inbox

Free DVD of Cory Barker Design Effects CS4
Free DVD of Best of Layers TV v2
Free 'Best of Photoshop User: 11th Year
Free Photoshop CS4 Hot Tips Book
5 extra free months of  NAPP membership on a renewal offer
6 extra free months of Layers magazine on a renewal offer

From winning a Layers TV competition in 2010
12 months free Kelby Training ($180/£120)
12 months extension on my Layers magazine ($30/£20)

I also qualify for the $100 early bird rebate on Photoshop World which I aim to attend in September.

And I've made a ton of new friends and connections through the NAPP community forums and social media sites. PLUS I am in regular communication with NAPP directly and things are finally starting to happen for UK and overseas.

So okay, there may not be a ton of UK discounts (yet!) but I think that by joining for approx £6.50 per month I have had some fantastic benefits from being a NAPP member PLUS I have learnt a TON of new stuff along the way via the full spectrum of resources available to the Photoshop + CS Suite community.

So - is a NAPP membership value for money ? I think so !

The other bonus is that CS5 is released in April/May of this year so the Vegas event will be very much focused on the new features of Photoshop CS5. Larry Becker confirmed on this weeks NAPP News that the NAPP chaps are already working on CS5 tutorials for both Kelby Training (last day today for special signup offer) and the members area of the official NAPP members website.
No doubt there will also be brand new DVDs available from the NAPP store.

The last few months of being a NAPP member have been really enjoyable.
With the social media involvement via Twitter and the Facebook groups set up by Nancy Massé - the NAPP social ninja - it's been more of a global community spirit for members and Photoshop users / photographers.
It's made the both the organisiation and the Photoshop guys more accessable than ever before and that can only be a good thing for both NAPP and its overseas members which I hope will start to become a faster growing community.

I know NAPP always have plenty of plans and surprises in store so I look forward to being a part of this and look forward to meeting all the new friends and contacts I've made through Twitter, Facebook and the forum.

So for now, I need to go and start doing some more work to earn some spends for the Vegas event !

Dave

Details to be advised from NAPP (I have had a date confirmed) as it's not my place to announce the date or location but it is encouraging to see NAPP acknowledge its UK members after an absence of a few years since the last.

NAPP have just wrapped up another successful Photoshop World in Orlando with the next one (and my first after having to cancel on the Orlando trip) in Las Vegas 1-3 September 2010.

Personally I am looking forward to meeting Scott and seeing what a hands on seminar is like. Scott has so much enthusiasm that it will be good to see him teach in the flesh and I'm sure he's going to get an equally enthusiastic welcome from the attending UK members on the day, of which I will be one !

So keep a lookout on www.scottkelby.com and follow @NAPP_News on Twitter for the big announcement !