Monday I dropped by Pro Camera Service to check on some photography gear I'm selling on consignment. Pro Camera was gone!

My first thought was not of my gear, but the Hungarian Folk Dance photo was gone! Its been a Thousand Oaks icon for over 25 years.

Pro Camera was on there in 1982 when I started working at the Thousand Oaks News Chronicle. They fixed all our camera gear. They were located a short couple blocks away on Thousand Oaks Blvd. And there was the historic Hungarian Folk Dance photo.

During my many visits, I often heard the snickering of kids viewing the Hungarian Folk Dance photo, while busy parents tried to get their broken cameras repaired. It would be missed.

Around 1985, Pro Camera moved to their permanent location off Hillcrest - that is until recently. In their place was Precision Business Machines, who until about two months ago was located on Thousand Oaks Blvd. The gentleman behind the counter pulled out a business card for Pro Camera. They are back on Thousand Oaks Blvd. Now I am really confused. So off to 710 Thousand Oaks Blvd, and there was Pro Camera Service!

And better yet, the Bare Butt Hungarian Folk Dance photo was there (in photo above on right.) And yes, they owed me some money for a sold camera. Monday was a good day.

Robert Lachman, at his blog www.photographyandthemac.com, is asking for photos of old tech items now worth less than a cup of coffee. Well I drink diet coke. But ten years ago I was the volunteer tech support for about 100 computers at my kids elementary school. Do you remember paying up to fifty dollars for SCSI cables and SCSI stuff? I do. Well money was tight then and I discovered Ebay.com. I bought mountains of SCSI and other cables for what seemed ten cents on the dollar! Well today, I doubt the SCSI cable pictured here is worth ten cents!.

My search of "Alfred Eisenstaedt Marilyn Monroe" brought up this three frame strip of black and white Plus X film that included edge notches and grease pencil "Xs" from the photo editing process. Photos by Alfred Eisenstaedt /Life

On Tuesday, November 18, 2008, Google and Time Inc. placed the first 20% of Time Inc.'s vast photo collection online. The collection includes images from Life Magazine. By early 2009 the ten million images will be completely online available for search through Google. Link to articles at Photography and the Mac.

Only a very small percentage of the Life Magazine images were published. What this means is tons of OUTTAKES!

Time to begin Monday morning quarterbacking, i mean photo editing. Here is the Google/Life site: Try searches like "Alfred Eisenstaedt Marilyn Monroe" or "Eugene Smith Country Doctor." Now you can second guess the original photo edits and see if you agree! On a serious note, this will actually be a great learning tool for young photographers and photo editors. We now can see many of the images that did not make the final edit.

Last night I pulled out my copy of "Great Photographic Essays from Life." I searched W Eugene Smith's Country Doctor and Spanish Village. There are currently many outtakes for Country Doctor, but few for Spanish Village. I also searched several other essays from the 1978 book. Some have outtakes, others none. Hopefully when the full 10 million images are online, more outtakes will appear.

What a great day. A historical election and congrats to President Elect Obama!.

Lost in all the excitement is the case of FCC vs Fox TV. As reported here the Supreme Court today - after 30 years - is looking into the FCC ban on certain words that are not allowed in broadcasting. For background information I recommend this YouTube video:



WARNING! YOU CAN ONLY WATCH THIS VIDEO AFTER 10PM AND WITH NO CHILDREN PRESENT.

Thank-you George Carlin (1937-2008).

My old friend Craig Aydelott sent me this Australian government interview regarding an oil tanker accident. At first it appears real, but it's not.



The actual incident occurred on July 21 1991. The Greek tanker Kirki lost its bow off the coast of Western Australia. Link to official report. From the quality of the YouTube video, looks like a 1991 skit on an Australian version of Saturday Nite Live.

Just way too funny.

Every week the This Week in Photography podcast recommends a unique website. This week's website, also a podcast, is the History of Photography by Jeff Curto. The site is at http://photohistory.jeffcurto.com/. The podcasts are the class lectures by Jeff Curto given in his class at College of Dupage.



I downloaded the newest podcast from iTunes last night. Who knew that Stereoscopic photography was all the rage and major form of entertainment in the mid 1800s? As Jeff Curto points out, the stereoscopic photos were mass produced and now are by far the cheapest images available from the 1800s.

Check out this podcast. These are not short podcasts, each lecture is about 90 minutes long.

Urban Dictionary defines Apple Tax as "A term to describe the extra money one pays for buying an Apple product.".....



This week Steve Jobs unveiled the new Macbook, Macbook Air and Macbook Pro notebook computers. These notebooks are beautiful, slimmer, full of new features and start at $1,299, $1,799 and $1,999.

The $1,299 price point gets the 13-in MacBook with 2.0GHz Intel Core 2 Duo, 2gb memory, 160gb hard drive and NVIDIA GeForce 9400 graphics card.

This morning's Fry's ad has a 15-in Sony Vaio with Intel Core 2 Duo Processor T5800, 3gb memory, 250gb hard drive and Intel graphics for $599. Half the price.

Apple's response to lower price laptops was to take the same basic model they have been selling for two years and knock $100 off the price. The white 13-in is now available for $999.

Bob Lachman at Photography and The Mac has a good write up on this whole pricing scheme.



Look close - the new Macbook does NOT have Firewire 400 port.

Also, before buying one of the new notebooks, make sure to sell off your external firewire drives, and older mini-dv camcorders. Apple took out the Firewire 400 ports out of the new notebooks. The new Macbook Pro has a Firewire 800 port but no Firewire 400. Funny, the $999 model still has the Firewire 400 port.

My suggestion: Buy the low end $999 Macbook or check out the Refurbished Mac and Clearance sections of the online Apple Store. There are great buys on the discontinued models. Avoid the Apple Tax!

WARNING: THIS IS A BLATANT PLUG!

This Week in Photography (TWIP) is one of several podcasts I listen to every week. It's a great source of information tips and just laughs.

Well TWIP is having a Link Contest. Everytime someone clicks here or here or in the sidebar column on left, or on my links page, and goes to the TWIP web site, I am entered in their Link Contest and could win a bunch of prizes.

So Please, click the TWIP links on my site.

I thank you.

Just wanted to add a reader comment I found to the "I am a PC" saga.

So “Windows. Life without walls” is the campaign slogan. I can already hear what a Seinfeld not paid by Microsoft would say in his monologue: "If you live a life without walls- why on earth would you need windows?"

reader comment in NYT web site to article on Microsoft ad campaign....— Jan, Mississippi

And now for Part Two - More Macintosh background on the Microsoft ad campaign.

Jerry Seinfeld was paid ten million and appeared with Bill Gates in the first two commercials. Its no secret that Seinfeld and Apple had a past, as in the Think Different campaign of the late 1990s. Also Macintosh computers were often seen in his TV series "Seinfeld."



Frame grab of Jerry Seinfeld in Apple Think Different commercial found on YouTube.

Next up is the ad agency Crispin Porter + Bogusky that won the Microsoft $300 million account. As with the entire advertising business, Crispin Porter + Bogusky used many Apple products. At the Fast Company magazine web site is an excellent article "Can Alex Bogusky help Microsoft Beat Apple?" Link here. The highly successful ad agency admits to using Apple products, but is up to the challenge, using their own staff as "an early focus group for leaning how to persuade Mac lovers to embrace Windows." (quote from story.) The article is a great read. I love the part about a MacBook Air sitting on an executive's desk a month after winning the Microsoft contract. Was it running Windows Vista?

But of further interest to me was two links once found at Apple.com. In 2005 Apple profiled Crispin Porter + Bogusky in a Consumer Profile pdf. The fast growing ad agency had turned to Apple for help with its networking solution. At the time Crispin Porter + Bogusky was 90 percent Windows and 10 percent Mac but "Managing the stability problems of its bulky Windows environment hindered production." The ad agency went with Apple Xsan and Xserve RAID products for a solution," and Apple was more than happy to tell the world.

I could not find the pdf on Apple.com anymore. I was able to obtain a copy from entering Crispin Porter Bugusky Xserve RAID into Google search. The pdf popped up as the first entry at www.macshoptownsville.com but the link seems dead. But when I clicked on View at HTML, the Google cache of the pdf popped up. The 2nd entry in the Google Search is to Apple.com, but that link is dead.

Then these is the missing Apple September 2006 Pro Profile "Crispin Porter + Bogusky: A Crash Course in Taxi Driving" article. With the help of Google I went to the Apple Canada web site and found the remains of a link to the article:



The Apple.com page with link (center) to Crispin Porter + Bogusky pro profile that no longer exists. Page is http://www.apple.com/ca/pro/profiles/.

But thanks again to Google and the internet, the gist of the article is found at places like AppleInsider.com article and MacDailyNews.com article. Crispin Porter + Bogusky used a pile of Apple equipment in a Volkswagen Rabbit campaign titled "Gypsy Cab Project." The original web site http://www.gypsycabproject.com. is no longer on line.

Just before posting this blog entry I found links to the Gypsy Cab Project. Main page. The link "How we did it." is dead - goes to apple.com. Mirror of the original Gypsycabproject.com site.



Crispin Porter + Bogusky ad campaign done with Apple computers and software.

Bottom line: Microsoft is spending $300 million to get Mac lovers like Jerry Seinfeld and Crispin Porter + Bogusky ad agency to switch to Windows. It would have been cheaper to have released a better version of Vista at the start, not allowing Apple an open door to steal market share.

And yes I prefer Macs. I have used Macintosh computers for over 20 years. But i also had A+ certification in Windows 2000 and ME back in 1999. After dealing with Windows ME, I went back to Macs.

Headline is from comment made by Ketto here.

A typical Apple ad that started the Microsoft $300 million ad campaign.



Pity poor Microsoft. Every time the company spends big advertising bucks to promote Windows its runs into credibility problems. Portions of the ads are usually produced on a Mac. The photography/media/advertising/video/content professions are dominated my Apple computers - the direct decedents of an entire desktop publishing industry born from the 1980s Mac computer.

So when the current "I am a PC" Microsoft ad directly attacks Apple Macintosh computers, I was not surprised that at least part of the ads were produced on Macs. Photos posted online were proved to be from a Macintosh using Adobe CS3 software. Link Here.

Microsoft released this comment: "as is common in almost all campaign workflow, agencies and production houses use a wide variety of software and hardware to create, edit and distribute content, including both Macs and PCs." quote found on this Gizmodo story. Then the offending photos had their metadata removed as reported here.

Here is one of the counterattack ads:



This entire made on a Mac flap is nothing new. For example, the Windows 95 Logo was produced by Microsoft in Freehand using a Mac computer. I loved this 2002 list of made on a Mac..

Now that the offending images were scrubbed, I simply went to an image from Microsoft's 2005 "Start Something" campaign and checked its metadata in iPhoto. Sure enough is was produced on a Mac using Adobe Photoshop CS.



The original image is here, on the Microsoft web site.

This blog by Dave Methvin at Information Week is great for further reading.

Part Two to come, time permitting.

While cruising web sites this morning I stumbled across this very retro press release:

New KODAK PROFESSIONAL EKTAR 100 Film Provides Photographers with the World’s Finest-Grain Colour Negative Film.

This release came out last week ( Sept. 9th) but seems to only found legs the last couple of days.

I have been expecting Adobe's CS4 on September 23rd, but a new film? Who knew film was still being developed as a product! (bad intentional pun.)

Time for a flashback. In 1968 a bad ankle sprain left me bedridden. In a moment of pity, my parents bought me a black and white TV. Freed from the family Sunday night ritual of watching Bonanza, I rebelled by going to the 2nd TV and watching the Smothers Brothers.

Of course I became a Pat Paulsen for President fan.

So today on the 40th anniversary of his his hysterical, I mean historical, run for President, its time to enter his hat again into the ring. Only one small problem. Pat Paulsen passed away in 1997.

But that has not stopped his fans at http://www.paulsen.com from pushing his run for President. In March they announced a four way tie for the Pat Paulsen "08 Slogan Contest:

Lou Warne from Green Lane, PA “Resurrect and Elect!”

Bill Martin from Bainbridge Island, WA “Dead Man Running”

Bill McClellan from Nashua, NH, “Thinking Inside the Box”

Joel Goodman from Saratoga Springs, NY “Never Say Die!”

Every candidate has their bio film. Here's Pats:



A further search on the web found these two campaign quotes:

“All the problems we face in the United States today can be traced to an unenlightened immigration policy on the part of the American Indian”
Pat Paulsen

"If elected, I will win!."
Pat Paulsen

(http://thinkexist.com/quotes/pat_paulsen/)

Photo by Sergei Mikhailovich Prokudin-Gorskii of Austrian Prisoners of War Near a Barrack, 1915. The original three exposure glass plate left, was digitized and combined by the Library of Congress staff into a final image, right.

At its core color photos are are nothing but the composite result of three grayscale images each exposed through a Red, Green or Blue filter. Color film is three grayscale emulsion layers. Digital color is three grayscale channels.

Before color film, each of these grayscale images had to be shot separately through a corresponding filter. Then the grayscale image was usually projected back through its corresponding filter - three projectors combined to create color.

All this boring discourse is only my attempt to introduce you to a very interesting website by the Library of Congress on the pre-world war on photography by Sergei Mikhailovich Prokudin-Gorskii.

"The Empire That Was Russia: The Prokudin-Gorskii Photographic Record Recreated"

Sergei Mikhailovich Prokudin-Gorskii used a view camera to make three exposures on a glass plate. He then use a three projector stack to project the glass plate back into color. Prokudin-Gorski completed two photographic surveys of the Russian Empire with the support of Tsar Nicholas II in 1909-12 and 1915. He had to leave Russia in 1918 finally settling in France. The library of Congress purchased his collection of glass plates in 1948 from his heirs.

Check out this website.

Today's news from Apple: Steve Jobs looks great, colorful new line of iPod Nanos, iTouch cheaper, and Apple and NBC kiss and make up.

Los Angeles Times story.


The new iPod Nano line includes nine different models. Since I am a child of the 60s, this image looks like the color scheme from some Fillmore West concert poster. Don't believe me, type in "psychedelic concert posters" into Google image search and have a few flashbacks.

Its a good move by Apple to refresh the iPod and iTouch lines before the holidays. This should spur sales. At least the iPod Nanos will make great Xmas tree decorations.

Back in July, I briefly mentioned a photoshop manipulated photo of missile launches by Iran. A fourth missile had been added. Link to NPR story.

Well this famous photo has created quite a following of new versions on the internet. These are my two favorites:


Boing Boing’s contest entry. (boingboing.net, submitted by THEBLUEONE)


Credit: Colorado Doug and GOPyouth, snappedshot.com. (http://blog.wired.com/defense/2008/07/attack-of-the-p. html)

I came across these and other examples at the following posts: "Photography as a Weapon" NYTimes; and "Attack of the Photoshoped Missiles (updated)" Wired.

Next week I am Vegas bound. Yea, baby, can't wait for four days of all out - sitting in a class!

Actually I love Photoshop World. This is my kind of conference - learning new cool stuff. This will be my fifth National Association of Photoshop Professionals Photoshop World conference. After 35 years of photography related conferences, the only ones I found superior was the old National Press Photographers Association Electronic Times workshops in the early 90s. It was at the 1991 Electronic Times workshop I first got my hands on Photoshop - version 1.0.

Yes I belong to both the NPPA and NAPP. Now that's confusing when writing membership checks.

OK - back to Photoshop World. The conference starts next Wednesday and runs through Saturday. You can still sign up at www.photoshopworld.com. If you are already signed up - check out blog post by Sly Arena called "10 Tips for your first Photoshop World." Sly's blog is perfect advice for both first timers and alumni.

But I disagree with number 5 - taking notes. The Books is great source of material, but Photoshop World instructors love to add additional tips and material l that is not included in the book.

Its a good idea to quickly review the book at the start of each class, and then take notes on the additional stuff. After Photoshop World, I type up the notes to supplement the book - great way to review the material.

So next week its back to school for Scott.

Los Angeles Times photo editor Bob Carey left the paper on Friday. For me, this was a big loss. In 1990 he started hiring me as a freelance photographer with the Ventura Edition. I would work for Carey a day or two a week, then for Perry Riddle, photo editor of the Valley Edition, for another day or two. That's how I got started at the Los Angeles Times.

The LA Now blog did a great goodbye to Bob Carey - link - . Bob -we will all miss you and I personally want to thank you for opening doors for me. - Literally. On my 2nd day freelancing for the Ventura Edition I was working late in the darkroom. When leaving I found myself locked into the building. Everyone else had left. Bob had a great laugh, then drove 25 miles to the Ventura Office to let me out. And he hired me again!

Thanks Bob!

Sunday my mom and I visited the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library. I had never seen the Air Force One Exhibit. Of course all the Cold War exhibits reminded me of the fighting in Georgia. Some of the reports say the Russians are setting up checkpoints deep inside Georgia. Is this going to be the new Checkpoint Charlie?

Well Air Force One is worth the visit. But while the Presidential Library allows non-flash photography, no photos are allowed inside Air Force One. The only photo I got was of mom and I waving goodbye for our short walkthrough trip on the famous jet. Such is life.

Mom never voted for President Reagan, but after our tour told several library volunteers how impressed she was with the library. She loved seeing history come alive.


Checkpoint Charlie exhibit at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library.

So far the crazy Olympic Opening Ceremonies stories stand at three:

1 - Windows Blue Screen of death projected on stadium ceiling. Yes that familiar blue screen. Here is the best story with photos:

Blue Screen of Death Strikes Bird's Nest During Opening Ceremonies Torch Lighting

2 - Lin Miaoke lip-synched "Ode to the Motherland" because the real singer, Yang Peiyi, had crooked teeth.

China banned child singer with crooked teeth from singing at opening ceremony

3 - My favorite story - fake fireworks. The opening fireworks sequence of giant footsteps proceeding across Beijing actually happened, but what was shown on worldwide TV was a 55-second computer graphics version that took a year to prepare. It was easier to use fake footage than a fleet of TV camera carrying helicopters.

Opening Ceremony's firework footprints faked

And of course, in working up this blog entry, I found another crazy item: While there was no wind and the air stiffling hot, "the Chinese and Olympic flags blew dramatically." Special devices had been added to the flagpoles. LA Times Olympics blog.


Oh, the fireworks photo is real, taken by me in 2001 and handheld.

My life is spent in the car going to and fro, fro and to. Its wasted time. Ten minutes of KNX gives me the headlines and traffic, but still have an hour to kill. I tried burning CDs of music, even having the full 17 minutes of In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida by the Iron Butterfly on disk. My commute to downtown LA would vary from 3 In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida plays on a good traffic day to 5 plays on a terrible traffic day.

But after of two years of music, it was time to find better use of driving time. So in 2005 I made the jump to an iPod soon after Apple added podcasts to iTunes.

My two favorite podcasts:

#1 - This Week in Tech (TWIT) with Leo Laporte. From day one in 2005 has been my #1. Leo is my tech hero - he always manages to buy great Apple gear a week before a new model is released. I also relate to TWIT regular John C. Dvorak of "I get no spam" and the Cranky Geeks podcast.

#2 - The Daily Giz Wiz, with Leo Larporte and MAD Magazine writer Dick DeBartolo. Giz Wiz is a 15-20 minute daily podcast always based on a different Tech item. Its two minutes reviewing a tech product and 13 minutes of banter based on my type of humor - bad puns. How can you go wrong!

The Leo Laporte Podcast Network LLPN has about 15 different programs. I also listen to MacBreak Weekly and This Week in Photography (TWIP). Outside of Leo's world I download Photo Talk Radio; Photoshop User TV; and Jim Cramer's Wall Street Confidential.

One podcast I have to mention: Roz Rows The Pacific. Its a Leo podcast with Roz Savage as she rows across the Pacific Ocean. Its not one of my regulars - time constraints - but illustrates todays technology. Podcasts can be done anywhere and by anyone.

Oh - it took 2 In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida plays to write this blog entry.

With headlines like "Microsoft sets sights on providing an Apple-like experience" today on several websites like AppleInsider, i could not help but be confused.

During the last week Apple's new "MobileMe" launch has been a complete mess - nicknamed by many blogs as "MobileMess." Its buggy, slow and often just does not work.

Funny this MobileMess reminds me of countless Microsoft launches like Vista, Zune etc. Now that Apple has lowered the bar, Microsoft chief executive Steve Ballmer realized it would be easy to equal the new "Apple-like experience."

Shot this photo on Tuesday of the Los Angeles Skyline at dusk.


Did you see the photoshop job done by Iran's Sepah News agency? The original photo was of three missiles launched with a fourth still sitting on its launch vehicle. Someone forgot to press the button - so the launch vehicle was removed and a fourth missile added to the photo. Link to NPR story.

Meanwhile an old college buddy, Alan Halfhill, sent me a link to a NASA photo of water on Mars!!!

On the recent Photoshop User podcast was a 20 minute interview with Intellectual Property Attorney Edward Greenberg that should be required listening by every photojournalist.

Part One:



Part Two:



Photoshop User is produced by the National Association of Photoshop Professionals (NAPP), the group that is also putting on Photoshop World that I recently blogged about. The clips are also found at www.ScottKelby.com.

Recently my cousin Wes Landers sent me this video. Way too funny!



Shit happens.

Photoshop World is the twice-a-year educational conference put on by the National Association of Photoshop Professionals (NAPP). Each spring the bi-coastal conference is on the Atlantic, in the fall sort of near the Pacific - Las Vegas. It used to be the reverse, but one spring a hurricane blew everyone out of Florida.



Robert Lachman, an LA Times co-worker, and I have been discussing going to Photoshop World. Recently on his blog www.photographyandthemac.com, he wrote ten reasons maybe not attend this year. In rebuttal, here is his ten reasons and my ten (in bold.)

01. I don't use layers to burn and dodge. Seems like a lot of trouble to make an additional layer.
I figure Photoshop has burn and dodge tools, why not use them? I know this method is destructive to the image. Hey, I try not to goof it up the first time. Am I really going to go back to the photo and make adjustments? Who has the time? Always move forward.

1 - Write an action to build dodge and burn layer. OK, I often have only seconds to work on a photo, so I use dodge and burn quite often.

02. The price of the hotel: The Mandalay Bay Resort. Have you seen the beautiful pool. $189 a night weekday, $229 a night weekends.

2 - Go off strip. Three nights in old Vegas hotels run about $125 bucks total.

03. I don't have any good ideas for the Scott Kelby's poll on what should be added to the newest versions of Photoshop and Lightroom.

3 - I did the poll.

04. I don't use curves to make adjustments on my photos. Never have. Never will. There's all these cool curves, graphs and points to click on. You start clicking curving and the photo gets worse. I spent a day at a NAPP seminar with Ben Wilmore. He did a great job, spending two hours explaining curves to 900 people in the room. He even had great visuals going on. I thought I learned it along with everyone else in the the room but, when I got home, I couldn't make it work. It's the levels adjustment for me. A few quick slider adjustments and then it's on to the next photo.

4 - Dump master curve writing - its a per channel art. Attend Dan Margulis classes and read his books.

05. The price of gas. No explanation necessary!

5 - Drive a 4-banger small car with 185,000 miles on it.

06. I use an old Mac G-4 Powerbook with a missing screw. Shouldn't someone who publishes the www.photographyandthemac.com website show up with a shiny new Mac Air?

6 - Buy a used intel macbook on ebay. I am writing on one. Of course, I had to be different. I have a black top, white bottom macbook.

07. The price of the seminar $599. I'm not an NAPP member, so no discount. I didn't go last year, so another no discount. I'm going to have to pay full price. It's a lot to pay for stuff I will probably forget. There's literally too much stuff to learn.

7 - I am an NPPA member, four time photoshop world attendee and will sign up before August 1st early deadline. Saves $250.

08. I'm still using Photoshop CS. It seems fine.

8 - I have Photoshop CS2 and 3, but prefer the original CS. Got that habit from that Adobe pain the ass - Dan Margulis.

09. I don't use Lightroom. I don't use Aperture either. I shoot .jpg instead of Raw. Also, I don't use the histogram to check my photos on the camera.

9 - I shoot raw, use Lightroom Beta, and love writing channel curves in LAB. And I never check histrograms on back of camera.

10. The location: Las Vegas. This means gambling and adult beverages. Ok that's a good thing. No that's a bad thing. No that's a good thing. No that's a bad thing. Ok that's a good thing. Maybe I will go.

10 - The location: What gambling/drinking! You are too freaking busy soaking up photoshop 24/7.

Bottom line is that there is plenty for everyone to learn - no matter what level of photoshop expertise or photoshop version you use.

Oh and who is this Dan Margulis? He was a printing expert long before photoshop and was an early adopter of the software. But he is no Adobe fan boy. He blasted the company for changes in Photoshop version 5 and more recently the buggy version one of Bridge. The main reason I am going to Photoshop World is to attend his sessions.

While I am at it, its time to try making some money with this site. On the sidebar to this web page, I have added two Amazon links to Dan Margulis' most recent books: Photoshop LAB Color and Professional Photoshop. Margulis, in my humble opinion, is the leading expert on Photoshop color correction. His books are the most advance, outside of academia, on the subject. The full titles are Professional Photoshop: The Classic Guide to Color Correction (5th Edition) and Photoshop LAB Color: The Canyon Conundrum and Other Adventures in the Most Powerful Colorspace.

Do not buy these books to learn photoshop. These books assume the reader already knows and uses photoshop. These books concentrate on more advance techniques for handing images and workflow. If I ever teach a college level photoshop course, these will be my required textbooks.

For more information on the NPPA go to their website, www.photoshopuser.com.

Tonight while cruising the internet, I was also listening to Star Wars on TV. As Darth Vader says "Don't underestimate the power of the force."

Tonight I found classic examples of photoshop's evil side.

First is the web site photoshopdisasters.com. The site daily has examples of poorly done photoshop work that appears in major publications, catalogues etc.



Man holding check, except check out the shadow and reflection in car. (http://photoshopdisasters.blogspot.com/)



Dresser seems to be fading away. (http://photoshopdisasters.blogspot.com/)

Thanks goes to This Week in Photography (TWIP) podcast for highlighting this site. Its both shocking to see the poor level of photoshop work and the complete failure of editors allowing this work to be published.

Now on the Fox News. At mediamatters.org is a story today of two photos of New York Times journalist that were run through photoshop.

The lead of the story: "On the July 2 edition of Fox News' Fox & Friends, co-hosts Steve Doocy and Brian Kilmeade labeled New York Times reporter Jacques Steinberg and editor Steven Reddicliffe "attack dogs," claiming that Steinberg's June 28 article on the "ominous trend" in Fox News' ratings was a "hit piece." During the segment, however, Fox News featured photos of Steinberg and Reddicliffe that appeared to have been digitally altered -- the journalists' teeth had been yellowed, their facial features exaggerated, and portions of Reddicliffe's hair moved further back on his head. Fox News gave no indication that the photos had been altered."





Original photos and Fox News versions. (http://mediamatters.org)

I wanted to enter into a tirade but, why bother - Darth Vader is alive and well, works at Fox News and has a copy of photoshop.

Last Tuesday, May 27th, about 15 former staff members of the Thousand Oaks News Chronicle got together for a reunion luncheon. The News-Chronicle was a training ground for many Los Angeles based journalist and photo-journalist. I worked at the News Chronicle from 1982 - 1990. The paper later was folded into the current Ventura County Star. Thanks go to Carol Bidwell, currently working at the Los Angeles Daily News, for organizing the event.

Most of the photos are by Bob Pool. I added about ten.

Of course, Bob Pool and Bob Baker had to recreate one of their famous newsroom shouting matches.

Enjoy - News Chronicle Lunch Link

Scott



1983 self portrait while working at the News-Chronicle. The press passes are from working in at various newspapers around the country.

UPDATE: Carol Bidwell wrote a column for the Los Angeles Daily News on the fate of newspaper journalism. Her column link.

Last night I downloaded the new Adobe Lightroom 2 Beta. The top new feature is a retouching brush that allows selective dodging, burning, saturation and similar adjustments to photos. No longer am I stuck with global corrections only. I immediately worked on this recent image of the Continental Building in downtown Los Angeles. I darkened the sky and bottom half of the building and added saturation to the yellow lighting.



The finished image is above. The original image is below.



Localized corrections means many fewer trips from Lightroom into Photoshop. Once a couple more major features are added - like soft proofing - Lightroom will be a complete workflow application.

I witnessed this on Monday. On a busy Wendy Drive in Newbury Park a man stopped his car in the middle turn lane, flicked on his blinkers and got out. With the engine running, blinkers blinking, he dodged oncoming traffic to run to the curb and yes, buy a newspaper from a coin box.

Afterwards he calmly got back in his car, turned off the blinkers and drove away.

While pondering why anyone would put their life on the line for a newspaper, a recent joke from one of my sister-in-laws came to mind:

Ron was in trouble. He forgot his wedding anniversary. His wife was really angry. She told him "Tomorrow morning, I expect to find a gift in the driveway that goes from 0 to 200 in less than 6 seconds AND IT BETTER BE THERE!!"

The next morning Ron got up early and left for work. When his wife woke up she looked out the window and sure enough there was a box gift-wrapped in the middle of the driveway. Confused, the wife put on her robe and ran out to the driveway, and brought the box back in the house. She opened it and found a brand new bathroom scale.

Ron has been missing since Friday.

I guess that was Ron on Monday in a hurry to buy a newspaper to find a new place to live.

Steve Jobs recently dropped the iPhone price two hundred bucks. The Apple faithful cried foul. The media grabbed the story and Jobs was the lead business story for 72 hours. HAD JOBS FINALLY SCREWED UP?

NOPE

Apple had to drop the price by a third. And was handed a publicity bonanza.

At $599 Apple took over two months to sell one million iPhones in the U.S. Ten million world wide in 2008? Nope, not at $599.

OK, the iPhone is the best cell phone. But Jobs announced the iPhone over six months before birth. All competitors were handed six months to get ready. Thank-you for competition! At $399, Apple will sell ten million world wide in 2008.

So while introducing a refreshed iPod lineup, Jobs happens to mentions a 200 dollar price drop. A ho-hum news story of new iPods - destined to be buried inside business sections - suddenly becomes Apple fan boys screaming bloody murder! And guess what - the story gets great play!

Apple is the news for 72 hours. And most stories still mentioned the new iPods.

Everyone is talking about iPhones and iPods - not about X-Box 360s and Zunes. What better way to control the news going into the holiday season.

Are we sure Jobs didn't plan this?

ps - On Tuesday Sept. 18th, Apple is expected to announce plans for the cheaper iPhone in Europe

Its been over a week since any postings. No photos today, just my Backup Blues story of woe.

I have backed up all files for years on to duplicate copies of DVDs. With Lightroom I decided to build up a full library of my favorite images onto a hard drive with a second external drive as a backup. On Monday, July 16th, I had both drives on doing backups. Of course I got hit with a city-wide blackout.

The main drive died within 24 hours. The external box it was in also had its circuits fried. When I turned to the backup drive, its directory was scrambled. The drive was recovered, but all files lost. I could recover individual files, but that was useless as all folders, file names etc that are important to having a Lightroom catalogue was lost.

So after a week of trying different recovery options, I am back to going through my DVDs to rebuild a new Lightroom catalogue. Actually with version 1.1, is easier to do mini-catalogues - so each catalogue will stay under 4-gigs. I will now back them up to DVD in addition to a backup external drive.

What was lost, was many hours of work building a photo library, including a couple of personal projects. Now I start over.

Live and Learn - remember that a hard drive always dies, just a matter of when.

Scott

On the way to work this morning I stopped at The Oaks to check out the line for iPhones at the Apple Store. About 50 were in line. The first ones in line were four high school seniors from Westlake High School who got in line at 5pm on Thursday. They planned to keep some of the phones and sell others. Each person was allowed to purchase two phones.

While checking out the line, I saw about ten people working on laptops, but only two were using macs. This was a good indication of the appeal of the iPhone to none Mac users.



About 50 people were in line at at The Oaks in Thousand Oaks at 10:30 this morning to purchase iPhones at the Apple Store. First in line was four students from Westlake High School who arrived at 5pm on Thursday. From left are: Stefan, 17, Jeremy, 17, Thomas, 17, Harry, 12 (Jeremy's brother), and James, 17 (standing). They had to camp outside of The Oaks Thursday night. Stefan, was definitely going to keep one iPhone calling it a "Completely Revolutionary Device."

iPhone:

Looks like a great product and will do very well in sales. The hype is off the charts and is reflected in rising stock price. Buy.

Disclosure: I own some Apple stock.

But I am a low-end tech guy. I just want a cell phone for one purpose - make phone calls. About three months ago, I was excited to get my Nokia phone to sync with my computer contact list. Forget the text, web, built in camera etc. I do not use. Period.

Forget entertainment centers, too many remotes. My watch resets itself every time change - a present from the kids tired of doing it for dad.

Still I have my passions, photography, Photoshop, Lightroom, this web site, and tinkering with old Mac computers.

Enough of this tangent. My iPhone conclusion: it will be a big hit, but not for me - way too many features I'm not interest in.

Stanley Cup: (Warning label - bad joke)

Following the return of the Stanley Cup, National Hockey League officials were very upset with the Anaheim team. Seems the cup was full of quacks fixed with Duck tape.

Last Thursday I was able to drop in for a few minutes to see Perry Riddle's show. See earlier post for information. Many friends of RIddle showed up for the opening - bottom image.

One recent email got my attention: “Award-winning Photojournalist Perry C. Riddle presents an all-new portfolio with more than 60 images revealing life, commerce and touches of whimsy in the revitalized heart of downtown Los Angeles.”

June 14th-July 5th, 2007

Continental Gallery

408 South Spring Street

Los Angeles, CA 90013
Opening Reception with the artist on Thursday, June 14th 6pm-10pm



Perry Riddle the night before his show. Concord 5340z camera 1/2 sec ISO 70.

On Wednesday evening I stopped by the gallery see how preparation was going. Only ten images were hung. His wife and several friends were helping, but Riddle planned to be up all night. Plus he still had a few prints at the lab to pick up Thursday.

Riddle is well known in the photojournalism community. He was the NPPA/Missouri POY Newspaper Photographer of the Year in 1969 while working at the Chicago Daily News.

I worked with Perry Riddle at the Los Angeles Times from 1990 through his retirement in early 1996. During the last few years, Riddle mainly worked as a night photo editor.

After deadline on Riddle’s last night, the entire newsroom came over to the photo desk and gave him a standing ovation. Since then Perry has kept a low profile around downtown Los Angeles. Now I know what he's been up to - back on the streets doing what he loves best - shooting great images.

The gallery is not staffed, so hours have to be arranged by artist. Perry says he will post hours after the opening, most likely on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays.

Perry Riddle’s web site: www.perryriddlephoto.com.

This item was on craigslist Saturday: "Camarillo Camera Is closing it's doors and everything must go. Camera bodies, lenses, digital supplies, darkroom equipment, printers, paper. Leica bodies, F 100 etc..... Make an offer!! All day and night Saturday June 2, and Sunday June 3, 1780 Ventura Blvd Camarillo..."



I love great deals, so of course I dropped by on Sunday and scored a photo vest for 50% off. (Don’t tell my wife!)

But more importantly, Ventura County is losing one of its photography icons and I just wanted to say good-by.

Camarillo Camera has been a local Ventura County business since 1970. Original owner Gordon Cory not only had a full service camera store, but helped local high school football teams with quick turn-around of game films.

While I will have to admit I have been an infrequent shopper over the years, I still am saddened at the loss of any locally owned photography business.

Gary and Caroline Salstrom purchased Camarillo Camera in September 2001. Film sales were still a big part of the photography business then, some $3,000 a month.

As customers switched to digital, film sales faltered and the Salstroms tried to branch out into specialized services including film and video transfer, photo restoration and high quality photo printing. There is money in these areas, but not enough to keep Camarillo Camera open in its current location.

During the last two years, the Salstroms looked at other options, from downsizing the store space, to new partners, to outright selling, but nothing worked. So the decision was made the last couple of days to pull the plug.

“Basically imploded yesterday.” says Caroline Salstrom.

Business associate Stephanie Coyner and the Salstroms are still thinking about reopening Camarillo Camera in a new smaller location and building a business around the specialized services.

All day Saturday and Sunday, a constant stream of old friends and customers dropped in. Many helped by packing up items the Salstroms needed to keep. Phone calls were both sorry goodbyes, and customers inquiring about what items were left.

By early afternoon Sunday, the shelves were nearly empty. One customer inquired about a lone Canon film camera. Since everyone was busy, I was able to help by answering a couple questions regarding Canon lenses.

The customer purchased the camera for $50. Gary Salstrom jokingly asked if he owed me a commission to which I thought “MILLIONS.” But I declined, asked for one last handshake and said good-by to Camarillo Camera.



Owner Caroline Salstrom, left, with family pet Toby during going-out-of business sale. Caroline, right image, encourages a customer and long-time friend to keep counting money to purchase the chair he is sitting in.



Owner Gary Salstrom carries out darkroom supplies for a customer.



Darkroom light, timer, lens cases and other items sit on table outside of Camarillo Camera during closing sale.

Bad Pun: paraphrased from Paul Harvey....A burgler was exiting a warehouse through a vent when his foot accidently turned on the vent fan.

"This story was no longer another dumb criminal story, but a slice of life."

Legalize crime front: on Friday, Federal Courts shut down the State of California Unclaimed Property program. Turns out, the acquiring of "abandoned assets" was not being done to find the rightful owner, but as a major source of revenue for California.

From San Francisco Chronicle story: "Controller John Chiang argued the state would lose $600 million a year if the court barred the collection of unclaimed property.... "

Check the web site http://www.controller.ca.gov/ to see if you have any "abandoned assets."

Back to photos:



Los Angeles skyline on Friday June 1st. The mural at left is on the former Victor's Clothing/Hosfield Building on Broadway. ISO 400, 8/10th a second at f/5.6 with Canon Digital Rebel.

During the last couple of weeks I tried several RapidWeaver templates, finally settling on one titled side show. I changed the banner to one of my old photos, and off we go. Check back on a regular basis as I continue to build this site.

Enjoy!

Scott

Photo tech: banner photo is of a grandfather and grandson on the beach in Naples, Florida from 1981. Photo was shot on Kodachrome 64 film with exposure determined by meter reading the blank sky off to one side of setting sun. Image scanned on Kodak 2035 film scanner.

Welcome to the new Harrysonpics.com website. I found the domain name available and grabbed it. The downside is learning new software. I am using RapidWeaver and Photoshop Lighroom.

My old site at Earthlink was fun and easy to put up. But the web software Earthlink has is dated. Time to move on.

Enjoy

Scott