One onOne with Mike Wong

I just saw this over at the Photoshop World site. They have a new program for anybody who is attending Photoshop World solo. It's called Dinner with a Stranger and I think it's a great idea. Here's how it works:

At the Photoshop World registration desk, there will be a sign-up sheet with the names of some great nearby local restaurants. Add your name to that list, and then grab a red pin that reads "I'm a stranger."

Then later that night (the first night of the conference), you pin it on, and head for the restaurant. When you get there, you'll find a number of other people who are wearing the same pin, and you'll be joining these other "solo flyers" for a fun dinner and great conversation in a dining room reserved just for Photoshop World "strangers."

Posted by Mike Wong at 10:13 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

If you are planning on attending Photoshop World in Las Vegas in September, now is the time to register. NAPP and Non-NAPP members save $100 if you register to attend BEFORE August 1, 2008. If I'm not mistaken, the Orlando Photoshop World in April sold out, so don't delay!

Posted by Mike Wong at 8:25 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

I'm happy to report that as of yesterday, June 18, 2008, the Plug-In Suite 4 boxes started shipping out to all of you have pre-ordered this collection of Photoshop plugins. Thank you very much for your patience while we finished this up.

For those of you interested in buying this, you now have the option to download it and not just have it shipped to you like before. Anybody outside of the U.S. will especially appreciate this to avoid the duty taxes that got assessed.

Posted by Mike Wong at 3:11 PM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

Rick Sammon has an upcoming free webcast on the O'Reilly network to teach you the 10 Key Ingredients for Cookin' Digital Pictures. Here are the details from the O'Reilly website.

In this live webcast, world-renowned photographer Rick Sammon will share his top digital photography tips, including his "10 Key Ingredients for Cookin' Digital Photographs." He'll also discuss his favorite photo philosophies, including: The Camera Looks Both Ways; In Picturing the Subject We Are Also Picturing a Part of Ourselves." You'll get to see Rick's favorite people, landscape and wildlife images from around the world. Some Photoshop talk, too!

Attendance is limited, so register now. We'll send you a reminder before the webcast. And please feel free to share this invitation with others.

Date: Thursday, June 26 at 10am PDT (17:00 GMT)

Cost: Free

Duration: 45 minutes

Meeting link: oreilly.com/go/webcast-pictures

Teleconference dial-in:
(select the number that is closest to your location)

East Coast US: +1 617 231-0350 and pin 8136507

West Coast US: +1 213-455-0500 and pin 8136507


Questions? Please send email to webcast@oreilly.com

Posted by Mike Wong at 2:51 PM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

Asuka Book has begun their "Show Us Your Best" contest for 2008. All books ordered between June 1, 2008 and August 1, 2008 are automatically entered to win a huge number of prizes including PhotoTools Professional Edition and the new Plug-In Suite 4. There are many more prizes as well and you can see a complete listing by visiting the Asuka Book Contest Page.

Good luck!

Posted by Mike Wong at 10:30 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

Software Cinema has a 15% discount going on some training DVDs by Julieanne Kost and the late Dean Collins.

Use the coupon code SCW508 and you'll save 15% on either or both titles. I personally have not seen either title, but have heard good things about the Best of Dean Collins DVD. I've seen Julieanne train in person at a conference and she is a great teacher so I would assume that this title is of similar quality.

The sale ends May 22, 2008. Click either box shot above for more details on each title.

Posted by Mike Wong at 10:30 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

Alice Miller has written a nice article over at TakeGreatPictures.com for brides and grooms to be to help them pick out a wedding photographer.

The article includes some nice images and features interviews with Grant Oakes and Falcon.

You can read the article here.

Posted by Mike Wong at 11:45 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

This is pretty cool, maybe only to me, but the onOne Software forums just had member 1001 sign up. If you're not aware of the forums, be sure to check them out. There are over 1000 (couldn't resist) users of onOne Software Photoshop plugins talking about the plug-ins and helping each other out.

Posted by Mike Wong at 12:40 PM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

Well, after my longest vacation ever, I'm back in the office. I wish I were in Orlando for Photoshop World, but it just wasn't meant to be for me this year. There's always the Las Vegas show in September...

Anyway, I wanted to share one of my favorite shots from my vacation with everybody. I took this on my second to last night in Kauai. This is the view of the sunset from the beach across the street from where I was staying. I used my Canon 20D with my 70-200 f/4 L lens sitting on my brand new Gitzo 1540 tripod that I just got - which I love by the way.

I stuck around for about 10 minutes after the sun had just passed the horizon and everybody else (including my familiy) had gone in because the sunset was "over". I learned my lesson the hard way in Bali, Indonesia about 10 years ago that you should always stick around and see what kind of light you'll get AFTER the sun passes the horizon.

I've got a lot more photos to go through so I'll post some more here in the next week or so.

Posted by Mike Wong at 12:07 PM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

I'm on the road again...though not for work or a trade show like WPPI where most of the onOne team are right now. No this time, I'm actually going on vacation and I'll be in Hawaii for 2 weeks with my family.

I'm hoping to have some time to post here or there, but we'll see. It is a vacation after all. I recently got a new Gitzo tripod so I'm excited to try it out and try my hand at some HDR photos.

I should also mention that we announced a new product today, FocalPoint 1.0. It's a very cool new plug-in and I think everybody is going to like it. Check out the link to the product page or to the press release for more information.

Posted by Mike Wong at 11:13 PM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

Photoshop World 2008 Orlando is just weeks away and this is going to be a great show. Not only is this going to be our biggest booth, but we've got some great speakers stopping by for some intimate presentations in our expanded theatre. Scheduled to appear are Jack Davis, Jim DiVitale, Laurie Excell and Helene Glassman. In addition, two members of our European office will be on site to give you a demo "Olde English" style. You won't want to miss it.

Also, for the first time, we will be co-sponsoring a new Bonus Class at Photoshop World. On Wednesday, April 2, 2008 from 5:00 to 7:15pm in room S310 E-F, you can come see Nik Software, onOne Softare and Strata Software show you how you can maximize the power of Photoshop with plug-ins. Jim DiVitale will be the host and moderator. Please stop by this end of the day session to see some great product demonstrations.

Posted by Mike Wong at 1:35 PM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

For regular readers of this blog, you will have already noticed that we've changed things up a bit here. This afternoon, we have very quietly launched a new web site at www.ononesoftware.com. We've been working on this for a couple of months and we finally pulled the wraps off and have pushed the site live.

I'm really excited about this. We've made everything easier to find, removed those annoying flash based menus that never seem to work on any number of browsers, added a new search function to the site and we've steam-lined the demo download process as well as the purchase process. We've also added some new pros to our pro corner including Andy Kruczek, Robin Preston and Falcon. It's also easier now to sign up for our enews and to find our webinar schedule that always seemed to be hiding in the past.

I hope you like the new the site as much (or more) than I do.

Posted by Mike Wong at 5:08 PM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

Photoshop World 2008 Orlando is almost upon us and if you missed out on registering before the Early Bird deadline, here's your last chance to save $100 on your registration.

You can get $100 off of your registration fee if you use coupon code PE08-ANUP by March 14, 2008.

To register, visit the Photoshop World Registration page.

Stop by our booth when you get to the show. We've got a great line up of speakers planned...stay tuned for more details!

Posted by Mike Wong at 3:03 PM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

For those submitting entries to the 2008 Art of Photography show, the deadline is nearing.

he Art of Photography Show 2008 is a world-class international exhibition featuring all forms of photographic art -- images shot on film, shot digitally, unaltered shots, alternative process, mixed media, digital manipulations, montages, etc. The Art of Photography Show will be exhibited at the two-level Lyceum Theatre Gallery.

The online entry process is very easy, simply filling out a short registration form and then uploading your digital files. Entry deadline is March 3rd at 11:59 pm (California Time).

If you live in the San Diego area (or maybe you'll be vacationing there), be sure to check out the exhibit which runs April 25 - May 23, 2008.

Posted by Mike Wong at 4:30 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

Whew, it's been a long day. Just landed in Amsterdam. Almost to Birmingham for Focus on Imaging 2008 - just 2 more hours in the airport (my gate is D46 as seen in the above photo) and then time for some sleep before I run through my demos.

I'm really looking forward to doing the Lightroom and Photoshop workflow in the Adobe Booth this week. I've got two, one hour speaking slots so it should be fun.

Speaking of Lightroom, be sure to head over to Matt Kloskowski's Lightroom Killer Tips blog and read his latest tip about Option/Alt keys and the recovery slider.

Posted by Mike Wong at 5:07 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

I've been very bad about posting the past couple of weeks. We're in the process of doing a complete redesign of our site - which I've been very involved in and extremely excited about. We've gone through our site with a critical eye trying to get everything more consistent, easier to read, easier to find things, making something that took 4 steps and condense it down into 2 and so on. The end result is that our site will be easier for you to use and to find the things you need and want to find.

Also, I've been busy getting ready to head over the United Kingdom (I leave on Thursday) for the annual Focus On Imaging photography show in Birmingham (just north of London by a couple of hours). Our London office has been busy preparing for the show and in the process has scheduled some time for me to speak in a number of booths (they call them stands over there actually) including the Adobe stand where I'll be talking about incorporating Lightroom and Photoshop CS3 into your workflow.

Also, I've had a few requests lately for some more frames for the Print module in Lightroom. This time, I've been asked to create some realistic frames that you might see hanging on a wall in a gallery or someone's home. There's lots of content for me to use from PhotoFrame Professional Edition, so I'm hoping to get that done soon. Check back in a week or so.

Posted by Mike Wong at 11:50 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

If you're going to Photoshop World in Orlando in April and haven't registered yet, you still have a few days, 10 in fact, to save $100 on your registration.

Don't delay. And when you get to the conference, please be sure to stop booth 219, the onOne booth, to see us demo our latest plug-ins. We're also going to be giving away at least one very cool prize and are in the process of lining up some great presenters that you won't want to miss.

Posted by Mike Wong at 11:11 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

Well, here we are in the waning hours of January 2008 and there's no beta of Liquid Resize like we said we would in our press release dated 1/17/08. There's not a whole lot to say other than we don't have anything that we can post for you to download, so please be patient. We'll get it to you as soon as we can.

Thanks for understanding.

Posted by Mike Wong at 6:31 PM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

I was reading Scott Kelby's blog this morning and saw the news that Photoshop User TV will be going on "Real TV" starting next Tuesday night on the Fox Business News Channel.

(Photo from Scott's Blog)

Congratulations Scott, Matt and Dave!

My favorite part of Scott's blog entry is this:

"I don't want you to think for one moment that just because we're on real TV now, that the show will get any better..."

Here's a link to the whole entry which includes a link to the Fox Business Channel site.

Posted by Mike Wong at 10:07 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

You may have seen our press announcement yesterday about our acquisition of the Liquid Resize technology developed by Austrian developer Sabet Ramin which as in turn based on the paper issued at Siggraph 2007.

I've gotten a few emails and phone calls since then asking what impact this will have on Genuine Fractals. The short answer is that this won't have an impact on Genuine Fractals.

Here's the longer answer...

The two technologies, while both involve resizing, are quite different.

Genuine Fractals is designed for those who want to increase the size of a file to get a higher resolution file for printing purposes and to maintain the aspect ratio of the original file.

The technology in Liquid Resize, on the other hand is meant for when you want to resize a digital image and change the aspect ratio of the image, but not distort the image. I'll post some examples of Liquid Resize in the next couple of days, but in the meantime, I hope this answers the question for most people.

Posted by Mike Wong at 3:04 PM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

If you or anybody you know would like a free pass for the WPPI tradeshow (March 17-19, 2008) at the Paris Hotel in Las Vegas, NV, drop me a line and I'll send you some. I've got a whole stack here that Rangefinder Magazine just sent me.

UPDATE: Rather than mailing out passes that you have to redeem, I now have a PDF pass that you can download here or by clicking the graphic below.

Once you have the pass, you can go online to http://www.wppionline.com and register online and use the code that is in the PDF.

Posted by Mike Wong at 2:59 PM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

I just got an updated list of the dates and places for Stephen Johnson's workshops for January through June 2008. Here's a list. Be sure to sign up soon if you're interested as they will fill up quickly.

Death Valley in Winter
January 24-27, 2008

Fine-Art Digital Printing Hands-On
February 23-26, 2008

Highway One and the San Mateo Coast (+ Pt. Lobos)
March 15-16 (17), 2008

Professional Image Editing
March 27-30, 2008

San Francisco Digitally (+Alcatraz)
April 5-6 (7), 2008

Mendocino and the North Coast
May 4-5, 2008

Digital Black and White Photography Hands-on
May 15-18, 2008

Ireland’s Spectacular West Coast
June 20-30, 2008

Posted by Mike Wong at 10:32 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

Fresh off of the Imaging USA show last week in Tampa (by the way, thanks to everybody who stopped by our booth!) I'm down at Macworld Expo 2008 this week for a couple of days presenting in the Xtrain booth teaching a couple of Photoshop classes.

When I wasn't teaching, I tried to spend some time over in the Apple booth checking out the new MacBook Air and the Apple TV. To me, I think the Apple TV is the more appealing of the two. Don't get me wrong, the MacBook Air is pretty amazing - I can't believe they got everything they did into that small of a space, and the display is fantastic (Steve Jobs isn't kidding when he said they didn't compromise on that). But for my use, I think the MacBook Pro that I have works great. Sure, I travel, more than some and less than others, but for a few hundred dollars more, I get more computer with a MacBook Pro.

For the Apple TV, this is the version that is truly appealing to me. Being able to sit on my couch and renting a movie and have it start quickly is pretty cool. The demos at the show today were pretty compelling - especially on the Pioneer plasma TVs they had. So for $229 for the Apple TV and about $180 for the Airport Extreme, that seems pretty cool since it also gives you what might be the best way to watch other movies/tv shows/pictures and listen to iTunes music on your Mac in your house. I think I've gotta get this.

Posted by Mike Wong at 9:04 PM | Permalink

Dan Harlacher, the senior product manager here at onOne Software just sent me an email as we're all gearing up to go to Tampa this weekend for Imaging USA (stop by and see us in booth 639 if you're at the show).

The Department of Transportation has recently updated some restrictions on flying with Li-Ion batteries. You can read the story over at dpreview.com here.

Posted by Mike Wong at 10:29 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

I just got Tim Grey's DDQ email and in there, Tim mentioned that he'll be speaking at the upcoming Columbia Northwest Council of Camera Clubs' Annual Convention that takes place October 12-14, 2007 in Gresham (just east of Portland) at the Mt. Hood Community College.

They've got a nice campus there (my younger brother used to perform in music competitions out there in high school) so if you're in the area add this event to your calendar. You'll be treated to a nice campus setting and some good speakers including Tim.

Learn more about the Columbia Northwest Council of Camera Clubs.

Posted by Mike Wong at 11:20 PM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

I just got an email from our friends over at Software Cinema. They have a 50% off Clearance Sale going on for their training titles for Photoshop CS (not CS3), InDesign CS and Illustrator CS. Note, these are not the CS2 or CS3 versions of your favorite Adobe apps, but from talking to many of you, I know that not everybody has upgraded to CS3.

Even if you have upgraded to Photoshop CS3, I suspect that some of these titles will still prove to be worth the discounted price. Fundamental techniques in retouching, masking, commercial advertising, displacement mapping and photo illustration are still valid regardless of which version of Photoshop the instructor is using.

And if you're only interested in CS3 stuff, they do have some limited time promos on their site that are worth looking at.

Posted by Mike Wong at 9:56 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

I am having some very odd problems with my blog today. It's not letting me add as much content as I wanted to on my last entry, so I'll do a second post here, but apologize for the extra post.

Diane M. was our lucky winner in our iPhone give away contest last week. Diane was sitting right in the front row and after calling out 4 other numbers of people who didn't show up, Diane's number was called and she was declared the winner. It was great seeing how genuinely excited she was to win. See for yourself...

Posted by Mike Wong at 12:05 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

I just got off the phone with Jim DiVitale and he has graciously offered to provide two of his fine art prints for us to give away to two lucky winners at Photoshop World next week. The prints are going to be 16x20 inches and though I haven't seen them yet, I'm sure they'll be amazing like the rest of Jim's work.

Be sure to stop by our booth (#515) on Thursday next week to see how you can win one of these prints.

Posted by Mike Wong at 2:14 PM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

I posted earlier about sessions at Photoshop World Fall 2007 that you don't want to miss on Day 1 of the conference and now here are my Day 2 selections for sessions you won't want to miss.

If you enjoy still life photography or if you make a living at it, you won't want to miss Jim DiVitale's session at 9:30 in the Digital Photography Live Studio Track. The session is called "Still Life Photography Shoot Live" and I can guarantee you that Jim will teach and show you something you didn't know before. I was in Atlanta once last year and stopped by Jim's studio and he gave me an improptu Photoshop class and taught me a ton...but I digress.

If Still Life isn't your thing, go over to the Creativity Track and catch Joe McNally's session on "Shooting for Major Magazines". Joe has a resume second to none and the portfolio to back it up so I'm sure he'll be showing a bunch of his work so this will be a hard one to miss.

At the 11:00 am session block, I would do anything I could to be in Helene Glassman's "Lighting for Digital Portraiture" class. Few things will improve your photography like proper lighting and Helene is one of the best on the subject. To prove it, Helene has been living minutes away from The Brooks Institute of Photography for over 20 years since she graduated from there and has maintained a successful studio even with hundreds of new graduates to compete with each year.

You get a 2 hour break for lunch, so if I were you - here comes a shameless plug, sorry - I'd stop by the onOne Software booth (#515) at 1:00 after you eat. We're giving away an iPhone to one lucky attendee. Stop by our booth on day 1 for details on how to win.

At 2:30pm, I'd make my way over to a new session this year called "Lightroom Power Session" with Chris Orwig. Chris is a new Photoshop World instructor this year and is an amazing photographer - so you'll get to see some great stuff in his demo I'm sure - and a wonderful teacher, not to mention a great guy. Be sure to see him there if you can. If you miss him there, he's got several sessions on the Tech Expo theatre and in the Peach Pit booth.

In the 4pm session, you'll have to choose between Jay Maisel's new "Light, Gesture and Color" and Rick Sammon's "Working Hard at Having Fun in Digital Photography". Jay and Rick have opposite teaching styles so you'll most likely want to pick the session that you think you'll enjoy the most. I suspect Rick will be full of energy and will get the class invovled while Jay tends to be a little more subdued and presents in more of a lecture style. Both sessions will be great I'm sure, just pick the one you think you'll like best.

At 5:15 I'd either go back to the Lightroom track and see Tim Grey's session on "Photographic Workflow in Lightroom" - though if you saw Matt Kloskowski's session at 9:00 on workflow you might be covered. I think I might have to go see Joe Glyda's session on "How to Light for Shooting Food". I'm not a food photographer and I don't plan on becoming one, but Joe is an amazing presenter who is hilarious as well so I would go to this for the sheer entertainment value. Joe has been the top guy at Kraft foods in the creative department for something like 15 years (or more) so you know he's had to figure out some cool and creative ways to stay fresh there.

At 7:00 pm, you will not, I repeat, will not want to miss the "The Art of Digital Photography" presentation. There's no instruction, just a bunch of great slideshows by Jay Maisel, Vincent Versace, John Paul Caponigro, Jim DiVitale, Joe McNally, Moose Peterson and Joe Glyda. Don't miss it.

That's a very busy day 2 but well worth it. I'll post my day 3 recommendations next.

Posted by Mike Wong at 6:41 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

Photoshop World 2007 Las Vegas is coming up very quickly and we're finalizing our plans for our new and improved booth. We're also firming up some schedules to have some wonderful and truly amazing Photoshop instructors speak in the onOne Software booth (#515). This is going to be a great opportunity to see some of the Photoshop World Dream Team instructors in a small and intimate setting as opposed to sitting in the back of a room with 2,000 other attendees. So be sure to check back here and stop by our booth to get the final schedule.

For now, here's a list of Photoshop Gurus who are scheduled to appear in the onOne Software booth at Photoshop World 2007 Las Vegas.

Jack Davis
Jim DiVitale
Laurie Excell
Helene Glassman
Vincent Versace

Posted by Mike Wong at 12:10 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

The podcast for the interview I did on Photo Talk Radio last weekend is now live. If you're interested, please visit their site and have a listen.

Posted by Mike Wong at 12:35 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

If you plan on attending Photoshop World in Las Vegas next month, be sure to register by this Friday, August 3. You'll save $100 so be sure to sign up now.

Online registration at www.photoshopworld.com or call toll-free at 800-738-8513, Monday-Friday, 8:30am-7:00pm EST.

Posted by Mike Wong at 12:30 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

I just finished up with my first LIVE radio interview with Howard Lipin and Mike Garcia over at Photo Talk Radio.

In the past, internet radio interviews that I've done were always recorded and turned into podcasts, but this was my first one that was live. I'm glad I didn't tell the guys in the office or my family as I'm sure they would have called in and heckled me.

Thanks again to Howard and Mike for having me on this morning!

Posted by Mike Wong at 8:52 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

I'm driving up the trusty (but incredibly boring, no curves, could drive it blindfolded) I-5 later today for the Microsoft Pro Photo Summit 2007 event on the Microsoft campus on July 11 & 12.

I went to the event last year and had a good time and found it very interesting to listen to many different photographers share their views on the business side of photography ranging from needing/wanting better workflows to how video might impact the still photography business. This year's agenda looks just as promising and I'm looking forward to the event.

I'm also excited because I get to show off Mask Pro's color decontamination technology during the technology showcase on July 11. But don't blink or you might miss it! I've only been given 3 minutes to present as there are 9 others who will be showing other products so it's got to be short and sweet.

I'll post a 12 minute version of the demo I'm going to do on the site later today.

Posted by Mike Wong at 9:15 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

Day 2 and the final day of the Adobe CS3 Creative License Conference here in NYC. After another great day of talking with many attendees and running into some friends unexpectedly, I sat in on a couple of the Pro Photo sessions this afternoon. One of the best things about coming to these conferences is the chance to see some great presentations and today was no exception.

I caught the end of Bryan O'Neill Hughes' Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 201 session. I sat in on a couple of web seminars but this is the first time I've seen Bryan demo in person and was very impressed.

Next up was Adam Pratt. I've known Adam for years and always enjoy his presentation style which is always filled with great enthusiasm and humor to keep the audience engaged. Adam's first preso was about how photographers can use Adobe Acrobat 8 to show photos for client review and in the process I learned about 10 new things that I didn't know before. Way too much for me to even try to touch in this post. But if you ever get a chance to see one of his demos or a web based seminar, be sure to catch it.

The next demo he did involved some newer Adobe apps, specifically Encore CS3 and Soundbooth CS3. I thought Encore was just a DVD authoring app, which it is, but it is also so much more. Not only can you author DVDs including Blu-Ray DVDs (which lends even more evidence that I think Blu-Ray will win out over HD DVD, but I digress) but you can also export your "DVD" out to a Flash movie. You'll get all of the necessary output files including the html and any necessary scripts all packaged up nice and neat in a very lightweight file size. I've used Apple's DVD Studio Pro before, but this looks so much easier and more intuitive. Granted I haven't used it yet, but it looked every bit as powerful as DVDSP but easier. Even easier than iDVD. We'll see. I'll have to get myself a copy asap.

Posted by Mike Wong at 7:34 PM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

It's a sweltering Day 2 at the Adobe CS3 Creative License tour here in New York. Forecast is for a sauna-like 92 degrees with high humidity. Portland on the other hand is in for a beautiful 84 degree day. But enough about the weather.

I sat in on the Cut & Paste competition last night at the end of the conference. Two teams of two designers are put on the clock using Photoshop and a Wacom Cintiq and are challenged to come up with their best design. The whole time, there is a live DJ serving up club-like music and an MC walking the floor soliciting feedback from the audience. It was pretty cool and it was really amazing to see how talented the designers were and what they were able to come up with in such a short amount of time.

Here's a picture of the Waldorf=Astoria hotel where the event is taking place, though at times I think I'm in Versailles.

Canon 20D, 24-105 mm f/4 L IS, 1/6 sec at f / 4.0, ISO 200

Posted by Mike Wong at 4:49 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

I subscribe to the Design Tools Monthly newsletter that Jay Nelson puts together each month and just received an email that he sent to his subscriber base about installing CS3 on a Mac OS X computer. Since I recently installed the Adobe Creative Suite 3 Design Premium edition I was interested in reading what Jay had to say and I'm glad I did.

Here's what Jay wrote:

"The Adobe Creative Suite 3 installer for Version Cue CS3 Server disables
your Mac's firewall so that it can configure new outgoing network ports, but
it does not reactivate the firewall when it is finished -- potentially
leaving your Mac open to malicious attacks.

Version Cue CS3 Server is included with Adobe Creative Suite 3 Design
Premium, Design Standard, Web Premium and Web Standard. It is installed by
default as part of the full Creative Suite 3 installation.

To re-enable the Mac OS X built-in firewall, do this:

1. Choose Apple menu> System Preferences.
2. Click the Sharing Preference Pane.
3. Click the Firewall tab.
4. Click the Start button to turn your firewall on. (If the button says
Stop, your firewall is already running.)

Enabling your Mac's built-in firewall is an easy way to help prevent
unauthorized people from acccessing your computer through your local network
or through the Internet. If you don't already have your Mac's firewall
turned on, this is a great opportunity to activate it.

We don't know if Adobe is planning to change the Creative Suite 3 installer,
but they are offering the same advice we are: Check your firewall settings
yourself.

You can view Adobe's CS3 installer security advisory at
http://www.adobe.com/support/security/bulletins/apsb07-11.html"

Thanks for the notification Jay!

Posted by Mike Wong at 7:41 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

Noted author and trainer Jay Nelson has recently posted a story entitled How Quark Finally Got It Right.

If you are one of many QuarkXPress users who have been frustrated in years past by your less-than-positive experiences with Quark, you should definitely read this article. Jay admits upfront that he was not happy with them but now feels that Quark got enough of it right to renew his faith in the company and the product.

Jay is also the editor of Design Tools Monthly.

Posted by Mike Wong at 9:33 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

I saw this post on the Lunacore site this morning. Pretty amazing work. Of course, I was expecting to see Bert Monroy's work on there and I wasn't disappointed. The fun side note is that I won (in an end-of-seminar drawing) a signed copy of Bert's "Oakland" illustration at a Photoshop Seminars event here in Portland last year.

Posted by Mike Wong at 9:00 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

Anybody out there going to Photoshop World in Las Vegas next month? If so, please stop by our booth (410) and say hello. We've got some great stuff planned for the show including a new T-Shirt that we'll be giving away so be sure to come by and get yours.

Posted by Mike Wong at 12:41 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

Time flies, that's for sure. It's already been 2 weeks since Photoshop World East and I'm now just getting a second to post a recap.

What a great show, lots of great Photoshop instruction. We were very fortunate to have some great presenters in our booth inlcuding Jim DiVitale, Rick Sammon and Myke Ninness.

If you didn't get a chance to attend, here are some pictures of our booth.

Here's Brian and Patrick minutes before the show.

Here's Rick Sammon presenting to a full crowd.

Our president, Craig, answering questions.

Posted by Mike Wong at 8:53 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

Whew. I'm finally back in town. After a whirlwind trip to Orlando for PMA and then off to the United Kingdom for the Focus On Imaging show, I'm finally back in Portland. I've been lucky enough to travel all over the world, but there's nothing like coming home to Portland. Though I suspect everybody feels that way about their home town. Anyway...

My time in Orlando was short but sweet. Had a great time meeting some very cool people. One of the highlights was doing a video with Rick Sammon. Check his website at http://www.ricksamm