Friday News Wrap-up (and a “Scott Thinks It’s Hot” Award Winner!)
Hi everybody. I’ve been in Vegas all this week, first for some business, then I took a few days off with my wife and some friends to just hang out and see some shows (saw Cirque du Soleil’s “Love” show Wed. night, featuring the music of The Beatles and it was just unbelievable!!! My favorite Cirque show ever!). Now, I’m back, and here’s whaz up:
- I’ve been working with Nik Software’s brand new Viveza plug-in for Photoshop, which brings the U-point technology used in Nikon’s popular Capture NX to Photoshop, and I have to say; it’s freakin’ incredible! In fact, so much so, that it’s getting my “Scott Thinks It’s Hot” award, given only to absolutely kick-butt products! The plug-in has a great user interface, pretty snappy performance, and it’s so fast and easy to use, that it’s going to become a part of my regular workflow. If you haven’t seen it yet, check out their video clip which shows it in action (click here); and you’ll totally get it, (and why it will change the way you do selective editing forever). Kudos to the gang at Nik Software for bringing Viveza to Photoshop. I’m psyched!!!
- I saw a comment posted on my blog this past week from Adobe’s Vice President of Product Development, Dave Story, in response to my post called “Adobe’s Listening.” Here’s what Dave wrote:
-
Adobe is definitely listening, and not just to Lightroom requests. It’s absolutely common for me to require my team members to spend 10-20% of their time out in the community. Not just product managers, but software engineers and software quality engineers…everyone.
I really don’t understand why every software company doesn’t do this. It is harder, and it is definitely difficult not to be able to accomplish everything our customers want, but it’s critical if we are going to meet our customers’ needs.
One thing I will say, is that it takes some thick skin to read all the criticisms of our “beloved babies” that we poured so much sweat and tears into…but in the end it is all worth it to see what our customers create (in part) using our tools.
I say this all the time — Adobe has the best customers in the world!
Cheers,
Dave Story
VP Product Development
Creative Solutions, Adobe Systems - Dave is confirming something we already knew—that Adobe is listening to us, their customers, more than ever, but it’s still awfully nice to hear it direct from the horse’s mouth (so to speak).
- We’ve posted our first online class from Digital Video Guru (and Photoshop World Instructor) Richard Harrington, and it’s one a lot of people have been asking for: Getting Started with Apple Motion. Here’s the link to Rich’s new online class over at KelbyTraining.com. Note: We’ve got a lot more classes coming from Rich very soon, so stayed tuned! (That’s TV talk. I thought Rich would appreciate that type of jargon). ;-)
- If you’re in the Waipahu, Hawaii area (you lucky dog!), then you’ll want to catch a free seminar this Sunday, Feb. 17th, from 3:00 to 5:00 pm with Photoshop “WOW” books author Jack Davis. All you have to do is RSVP to 808-877-7022. For more info visit the Institute of Visual Arts site (link).
- The monthly newsletter of celebrated landscape photographer Stephen Johnson is now available online. Click here to check it out.
- Want to see some beautiful photography to take you into the weekend? Then check out the winners of PDN’s “World in Focus” travel photography contest. They’ve posted an online gallery of the winners right here.
- I had my day made on Thursday afternoon, when I looked in my email in-box and there was a very nice email from Clement Mok. Apparently, a number of my readers had sent him the link to my story from Monday, and he dropped me a line, and was as gracious as ever. What a class act!
- You’ve heard me mention the popular “Flying With Fish” blog (run by photographer Steven Frischling, who has dedicated his blog to helping photographers navigate the increasingly tricky task of traveling with pro-quality photo gear. Well, he’s now offering a series of one-day workshops called the “One Day No Jet Lag Photo Quick Course Seminar & Workshop” which are “designed to educate photographers on a wide range of skills and tools to make life on the road easier.” The next ones are coming up soon: March 15th in the Baltimore/Washington area, and then on March 16th in Manhattan (he just wrapped up his workshop in Hong Kong this past week). Check out the day’s schedule (it sounds surprisingly cool), right here, for all the details.
That’s what’s going on today. Have a great weekend everybody, and I’ll see you on Monday (which could be “Manic Monday” or “Mondo Monday” or “Manheim Monday” depending on how late I write the post). Have a good one!