Greetings From Dublin

Reporting in from Dublin Ireland, as we are getting ready to start a weeklong tour across the country with friends from PPA and Texas School. Helene and I came in a few days earlier that the rest of the group as my good friend photographer Ronnie Norton of Dublin arranged for me to do an all day Photoshop program sponsored by Adobe and hosted by local companies from the UK and Ireland. It was hoped that we could get around 75 attendees to come in for a day class, and we ended up with over 250 for a great day of Photoshop and digital photography workflow training. Thank you Ronnie and thank you Adobe for making this happen! We had a great time, as the Irish photographers are always great to be with as all of the people here. It had been many years since I have done a program here and it is just one of the most beautiful countries you can visit. (The beer not half bad either) We had Ireland venders DML and GMS there as well as Adobe, Canon, and OnOne Software reps coming in from the UK to talk to the attendees on the breaks. The overall response was just fantastic as they are more than ready for the next installment of training in the near future. Afterwards we ended with a couple of pints of Guinness and a good chinwag with some of the local photographers. (a new term I learned)….

Coming in early before the tour, Helene and I had a nice time for a few days relaxing and shopping as we stayed in the Westbury Hotel in the heart of Dublin. On our first night here, we caught a performance of RiverDance in a small local theater and enjoyed visiting the local pubs, shops, and restaurants. Today we met up with the other photographers coming in for the week and went on an afternoon tour of the sights of Dublin including St Patrick’s Cathedral and Trinity College to view the Book of Kells, a ninth century Gospel manuscript transcribed by midlevel monks. At night we all went to dinner and show of local Irish music and dancing at The Abby Tavern outside Dublin located along a picturesque fishing harbor. The Tavern nestles against the ancient ruins of Howth Abby, which dates back to the 11^th century.

I will be posting a bunch of photos next week when as we stop in different towns along the countryside of Ireland so stay tuned for more….

New Images From Seattle Visit

        Working on some new fine art images. While in Seattle recently, I shot several details of the side of the building of the Museum of Science Fiction. These are some of the composites from this series. Click on the image to enlarge the view....   Enjoy!....

Back From Alaska

            If you have never been to Alaska, you must try to plan a trip there someday. Helene and I are back from our cruise that took us from Seattle to Ketchikan, Juneau, Skagway, and Victoria. We had a great time with all our friends from Camera Craftsmen of America. Here are a few pictures from the trip to see.                                         

Finding the “Goodies” in Photoshop CS4

       As we move from earlier versions of Photoshop to new ones, we learn new tools and techniques to build on what we already know. Photoshop CS4 and CS4 Extended are no exception. Eventually, some of the older tools and filters will fade away as they make way for the newer streamlined workflows and effects. As we learn and get comfortable with the newer tools and interface, you my find that you sometimes miss the way you did a task in the past. I first noticed it in CS4 when I would stitch images together, I noticed there was a dialog box we had in earlier versions that was not there anymore that allowed individual control of the elements being stitched. I liked that extra step for complex compositing of images. After talking to the folks at Adobe, I found out that it was there and could be put back in…. It was there on my install disc all along with a bunch of other cool stuff that puts some the PS CS3 bells and whistles back into your PS CS4.       These plug-ins can be found on your PS CS4 install disk in the English folder. Inside of that folder is a “Goodies” folder containing lots of fun stuff to put back in your PS CS4. Besides the Photomerge extension, there is the older version of the Photo Web Gallery. I like the new procedure through the Adobe Bridge CS4, but I also like the older Photoshop version of Web Gallery as well. In the Goodies folder you have the older Web gallery can install and access from both the Tools/Photoshop Menu in Bridge CS4, or the File/Automate Menu in Photoshop CS4.       Other items you can install include the Extract Filter, the Pattern Maker and the Contact Sheet Plug-in. If you don’t have the install disc due to the original software being a downloaded version, you can find them on the Adobe Software Download site as well. You can’t just drag the whole thing into the PS CS4 Plug-in folder. There is an important read me file that comes with the plug-ins it that will tell you where to put each file. You really have to follow it to a letter. Directions are easy to follow for each plug-in. A few minutes of drag and drop files and you are ready to go….