elorg.net

I took this photo on a rainy day in San Francisco of Lombard St. last weekend. I took the liberty to take full advantage of the Photoshop CS5 beta to clean it up and remove the majority of the distracting bits (power lines, signs, a few people, etc.). It took a little while and I had to combine different approaches, but I’m really happy with how it turned out.

Before:

After:

I can’t wait for the announcement on Monday. I can legally say now that I was/am a CS5 Photoshop beta tester. I joined late in the program and didn’t have nearly as much time as I would have liked to dedicate to testing, but I’ve been very impressed with the new features.

Here’s a quick example of some possibilities of what you can do. It’s nothing too elaborate, but should be impressive if you know what to look for.

Click on the image for a closer look of the before/during/after. Enjoy!

If you’ve been following my tweets, you know that I just returned from Photoshop World ’09 in Boston.

I – had – a – blast.

I’m SO glad that I attended, and would will absolutely be going again. Hopefully soon! I didn’t realize that NAPP was made up of such a great group of people – both employees, and members. Seriously. I went there on my own, made some friends, learned some stuff, and had a ball. (more…)

I have been debating for months now over whether to attend this year’s Photoshop World. It’s the 10 year anniversary so I’m sure it’s going to be a huge event. There will be 3 days (more if you arrive early or stay longer) of classes, events, giveaways, and the Expo room… With my discounts, it’s all for under $500!

This time it’s semi-local and in my favorite city – Boston. So that just makes me want to go even more My other justifications for going is that it would be a GREAT opportunity to network, I’ll learn a ton, and it’ll give me an excuse for a solid target date to work towards a few things … like finishing up my website design

I won’t have to pay for airfare, so that will help keep the price down. But the other variables… That’s what’s killing me!

Do I find a hotel nearby and pay the extra $$ for the convenience? Or do I borrow a friend’s couch for a few nights and hope that our schedules work out so that he’s home to let me in? If so, then I’ll either need to drive into the city and pay for parking ($$$), or walk to the T stop and commute in. Do I drive up to Boston so I have the freedom of going wherever, whenever, as I see fit – or do I take the train to save on parking while putting my commute to productive use?

My tax refund initially looked pretty promising to cover everything and I was really jazzed about going. Then I received more tax paperwork which made my refund significantly lower, and I started to wonder if I should just stay home and use the money to pay towards debt. I’ll still be able to cover all this – and more comfortably if I wanted to commute into the city and sleep on a friend’s couch.

Ok – that’s it. I think I’ve finally decided. I’ll buy the tickets.

The more I think about Photoshop World, the more that I want to attend this year. Now I need to give myself a month or two to make sure that I still have a job and can afford it… (more…)