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  • Gamestorming – Video Book Review

    chrisbrogan.com
    ceb
    15 Oct 2010 | 1:16 pm
    I’m really jazzed by this book my friend, Dave Gray, sent me. It’s called Gamestorming: A Playbook for Innovators, Rulebreakers, and Changemakers (amazon affiliate link), and it talks about a lot of ways to use visual thinking to work through business challenges. The book is PACKED with examples and how-to information, so it’s not nearly a book on theory. It’s a book for people willing to try. You surely don’t have to be an artist to dig into this book. Stick people will suffice. Check it out if you need to think in more than one dimension.

  • 33 New Social Media Resources You May Have Missed

    Mashable!
    Zachary Sniderman
    17 Oct 2010 | 11:19 am
    Fall has officially hit Mashable HQ. The temperature is dropping, pumpkins are being picked, and bags of candy line store shelves.While you were out watching the leaves turn or planning your costume for Halloween, Mashable was busy writing up another week of great tools and resources for your social media pleasure.Social Media is stocked with a list of memorable viral video or smile-worthy social good campaigns. Tech & Mobile showcases some great robots, tips for your iPad, and trends in web app design. Business rounds out our list with how to gain inexpensive online exposure, use mobile…

  • Five Ways to Build Public Speaking into Your Marketing Plan

    Entrepreneur.com - Small Business News and Articles - Latest Articles
    15 Oct 2010 | 2:16 pm
    No news to buzz about? Speaking engagements to generate publicity. Here's how to make the most of your efforts.

  • America's top colleges

    Holy Kaw!
    17 Oct 2010 | 11:55 am
    Here’s something to forward to any helicopter parents that you know: Forbes released its rating of America’s top colleges. Here are the top ten: Williams College Princeton University Amherst College United States Military Academy Massachusetts Institute of Technology See the full list at Forbes. We aggregate education news. Permalink | Leave a comment  »

  • 8 Photoshop Tutorials for Retouching Your Profile Pic

    Mashable!
    Sarah Kessler
    17 Oct 2010 | 12:32 pm
    Yes, you’re beautiful exactly the way you are. But that was true when you woke up this morning, and it likely didn’t stop you from showering, brushing your teeth, and otherwise spiffing up a bit.Why not spruce up your online appearance as well? Even if you don’t have a magazine photo team to touch up your photo, it’s easy to make a couple of quick enhancements with basic Photoshop knowledge (just please don’t go too crazy — your friends should be able to pick you out of a lineup).Whether you want to remove acne or add a tattoo — these eight tutorials…
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    Holy Kaw!

  • America's top colleges

    17 Oct 2010 | 11:55 am
    Here’s something to forward to any helicopter parents that you know: Forbes released its rating of America’s top colleges. Here are the top ten: Williams College Princeton University Amherst College United States Military Academy Massachusetts Institute of Technology See the full list at Forbes. We aggregate education news. Permalink | Leave a comment  »

  • 5 ways to make your blog stand out

    17 Oct 2010 | 7:51 am
    In a web world boasting millions of blogs, a “just okay” blog post doesn’t cut it. If you want yours to stand out—you’ll have to blog like a champion. Not sure how to do that? Read up on the five ways to make your blog posts exceptional. See a few tips below: Write an engaging title. Incorporate easy-to-use content. Mix content types (video, photos, text, etc.) All five at Social Media Examiner. All the top blogging tips and tricks. Photo credit: Fotolia Permalink | Leave a comment  »

  • Food you can buy for a dollar

    17 Oct 2010 | 7:33 am
    Have you ever wondered how much food a dollar can buy you around the world? Jonathan Blaustein did. His project, “The Value of a Dollar,” investigates the answer to that very question—and his findings might surprise you. See some of them below: Ten early season organix blueberries from California Eight escargot from Indonesia Seven tomatillos from Mexico Full story at The New York Times. More yummy foodie tidbits. Permalink | Leave a comment  »

  • Tech Support

    17 Oct 2010 | 7:24 am
    Some resort to the hammer, others resort to tech support, but what if there was a way to fix that mysterious malady without a fist through the wall? We can dream, can’t we? Full story at Buzzfeed.   The lighter side of tech. Permalink | Leave a comment  »

  • The internet commenter

    17 Oct 2010 | 7:06 am
    Let’s face it: We’ve all be there, we’ve all done that, and we’ll all do it again.   Full story at Laughing Squid.   Taking a break for comedy. Permalink | Leave a comment  »
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    Mashable!

  • 8 Photoshop Tutorials for Retouching Your Profile Pic

    Sarah Kessler
    17 Oct 2010 | 12:32 pm
    Yes, you’re beautiful exactly the way you are. But that was true when you woke up this morning, and it likely didn’t stop you from showering, brushing your teeth, and otherwise spiffing up a bit.Why not spruce up your online appearance as well? Even if you don’t have a magazine photo team to touch up your photo, it’s easy to make a couple of quick enhancements with basic Photoshop knowledge (just please don’t go too crazy — your friends should be able to pick you out of a lineup).Whether you want to remove acne or add a tattoo — these eight tutorials…

  • 33 New Social Media Resources You May Have Missed

    Zachary Sniderman
    17 Oct 2010 | 11:19 am
    Fall has officially hit Mashable HQ. The temperature is dropping, pumpkins are being picked, and bags of candy line store shelves.While you were out watching the leaves turn or planning your costume for Halloween, Mashable was busy writing up another week of great tools and resources for your social media pleasure.Social Media is stocked with a list of memorable viral video or smile-worthy social good campaigns. Tech & Mobile showcases some great robots, tips for your iPad, and trends in web app design. Business rounds out our list with how to gain inexpensive online exposure, use mobile…

  • 5 Gadgets that Broke New Ground in 2010 [Mashable Awards]

    Blake Robinson
    17 Oct 2010 | 10:07 am
    As part of the upcoming Mashable Awards, we’re taking a closer look at each of the nomination categories. This is “Best Gadget.” Be sure to nominate your favorites and join us for the Gala in Las Vegas! Sponsorships are available. Please contact sponsorships@mashable.com for more information.The year hasn’t been heavily focused on creating new gadgets, but major hardware revisions have kept technology interesting in 2010.Huge movements were made in Android, with the platform accelerating rapidly across both carriers and devices. Apple defined a whole new class of iOS…

  • Raptr’s iPhone App Tracks Your Xbox and PlayStation Friends

    Samuel Axon
    16 Oct 2010 | 6:01 pm
    Gaming-centric social network Raptr has launched an iPhone app that connects with Xbox Live, the PlayStation Network, Steam and Raptr’s own gamer network to track the activity and achievements logged by you and your friends.The app is available in the app store [iTunes link] for free right now. While you can’t use the app to play games (it’s not that kind of app), you can use it to see what your friends have been up to across all the above-mentioned gaming networks. You can also send and receive messages through Xbox Live and Raptr’s network.Raptr — one of our top…

  • Steve Jobs and Mark Zuckerberg Talked Ping Over Dinner

    Samuel Axon
    16 Oct 2010 | 5:18 pm
    Not thrilled that Apple’s Ping music service doesn’t integrate with Facebook? Well, Apple feels the same way — that’s allegedly why Steve Jobs invited Mark Zuckerberg over for dinner to talk.When Apple first launched the music discovery and social networking service inside iTunes, users could use Facebook Connect to access information stored in their Facebook accounts such as friends lists. It was important to the service’s success — after all, without that feature you’d have to search for each new friend by name rather than just importing your Facebook…
 
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    Fast Company

  • Clinton to Tech Innovators and Entrepreneurs: “We Want You”

    E.B. Boyd
    16 Oct 2010 | 6:21 am
    Feeling cooped up in that dingy old cube? Life seem a little meaningless? No worries. The State Department will be happy to send you to the far reaches of the planet to end violence, empower citizens, and bring peace and prosperity to the rest of the world.Public officials swinging by Silicon Valley usually are on the prowl for precious campaign dollars. But Secretary of State Hillary Clinton made a point of stopping by the Bay Area on Friday night to ask for something completely different: the tech world’s energy and expertise. “The new communication tools that you and I use as a…

  • Should Albums Cost $1.50?

    Austin Carr
    15 Oct 2010 | 4:20 pm
    When you head to the iTunes store for that latest Katy Perry magic, do you opt for the $9.99 album or the 99 cent single? Most of us choose the latter. And that's why, according to Rob Dickens, who headed up Warner Music in the UK for more than decade, album prices must be "radically" slashed--to around £1 ($1.50). Dickens introduced the controversial theory at The City music conference, where he argued that in order for record labels to combat piracy and boost sales, the music industry must make an album just as impulsive of a buy as a single is today. Lowering album prices, he explained,…

  • Forget Advertising: In-App Purchasing Is Where the Dollars Are At

    Kit Eaton
    15 Oct 2010 | 4:13 pm
    While the debate over Web ads versus app ads may be going strong, some new data from Flurry analytics may make it moot. The in-app purchasing game has taken off to the point where revenues from in-app buys are dwarfing advertising income--at least for apps on Apple's iOS platform.Flurry, often a source of inside analytical data on smartphone apps, has a very challenging bit of data out at the moment: According to the graph above, there's a massive swing in terms of smartphone app revenues. At the end of 2009 the greater majority of cash rolling in to developers from their carefully crafted…

  • Investing in Post-Conflict Zone Startups Just Might Save the World

    Lisa Katayama
    15 Oct 2010 | 3:46 pm
    When Kevin Braithwaite, a serial entrepreneur and director of the incubator RootSpace, tells fellow Silicon Valley types that he's investing in startups in Lebanon, they usually look at him like he's crazy. "Most people choke on their drinks and walk away," he tells Fast Company. As it turns out, they're the ones who might be crazy: An increasing number of investors are looking to post-conflict zones and fragile states as promising future markets. It's admittedly a radical idea, as a panel of experts pointed out at the Social Capital Markets conference in San Francisco last week. The average…

  • Google, Slooh, Bring Amateur Star Maps to Google Earth's Sky

    Kit Eaton
    15 Oct 2010 | 3:04 pm
    As part of Google's ongoing mission to map everything, it's partnered with Slooh to add in amateur star photography to the Sky in Google Earth. You have to pay for the privilege, but it's likely to add a fascinating new wrinkle to amateur astronomy the world over.Until now Google's Sky facility has let Google Earth users view professionally sourced imagery of the heavens. But unlike many industries or sciences, amateur astronomers are a major part of sky-viewing activities all over the world--and they occasionally spot things the pros miss--so Google's now moved to involve them more in its…
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    TechCrunch

  • M-Paisa: Ending Afghan Corruption, one Text at a Time

    Guest Author
    17 Oct 2010 | 12:02 pm
    Afghanistan supplies 92% of the world’s opiates. According to the latest available figures, the country produced 8,200 tons of heroin in 2008, more than double the the amount three years earlier. But even being the heroin capital of the world, bringing in more money than most Afghans can dream of, the on-going war and rampant corruption means the money goes to the wrong people and the country has no infrastructure. There are no decent roads, no railways… But they do have mobile phones. Four months ago, the Afghan National Police began to pay salaries through mobiles (using a text and…

  • Why Groupon Is No Ebay

    Michael Arrington
    17 Oct 2010 | 11:46 am
    Chicago-based Groupon is certainly one heck of a startup. Like Zynga it sort of came out of nowhere in 2009. Even last December I was sort of only vaguely aware of how fast it was growing. But it was clear by early 2010 to the whole world that Groupon was on a tear. First a round valuing it at $250 million. Then just a couple of months later it raised new money at a $1.35 billion valuation. And then in the last few weeks Yahoo offered something even higher for the company – between $1.7 billion on the low side and probably $4 billion on the high side. And Groupon passed. Revenenues are…

  • Mark Zuckerberg On Facebook’s Strategy For China (And His Wardrobe)

    Jason Kincaid
    16 Oct 2010 | 6:38 pm
    Today at Y Combinator’s Startup School, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg sat down for a lengthy interview with Jessica Livingston. The topics discussed ranged from Facebook’s beginnings (including a brief discussion of The Social Network) to the social network’s strategy in China, which has proved to be problematic for other Western tech companies like Google. Zuckerberg says that for years Facebook didn’t have a strategic plan for international growth — each month, the site would take off in a seemingly random country with no apparent pattern (obviously this approach…

  • Deals Aggregator DailyD Raises $5 Million

    Alexia Tsotsis
    16 Oct 2010 | 5:22 pm
    Group buying aggregator DailyD has closed a $5 million round of what looks like Series A funding according to a Form D SEC filing and reports on LA Tech blog Socal Tech and Yipit. DailyD is was started by LowerMyBills founder Matt Coffin and DailyStrength founder Doug Hirsch and currently aggregates deals in 53 cities while also offering exclusive family deals in Los Angeles. Jim Simons, a partner at Split Rock Partners who also backed LowerMyBills, is listed on the form. We have contacted DailyD for more information as to what extent Simons and other investors are involved and will update…

  • Getting To The Bottom Of The Crazy Yahoo-Groupon Rumors

    Michael Arrington
    16 Oct 2010 | 4:15 pm
    I’ve had an interesting few days trying to track down exactly what is and isn’t going on with Yahoo and Groupon. One source earlier this week said that a $1.7 billion acquisition was all but done, but Groupon’s management team balked and killed the deal. That’s certainly juicy and consistent with Yahoo’s failure to acquire Yelp and Foursquare. Another source close to Yahoo said much the same thing, but suggested the price was higher, well north of $2 billion. And yet another source said that Yahoo offered a price so high that Groupon had to take it seriously. But…
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    Seth's Blog

  • Hacking education

    Seth Godin
    17 Oct 2010 | 8:25 am
    "You teach kids how to succeed when they successfully foil the educational system." Arlo Guthrie

  • Merchants of dissatisfaction

    Seth Godin
    17 Oct 2010 | 2:39 am
    Many marketers are able to sell their wares by making us dissatisfied with what we already have.It's not that far from, "This will make you happy!" to "You're unhappy/ugly/lonely/using obsolete technology, better buy this which will help fix the problem."In fact, if you chart consumer happiness against advertising spend, I bet you'd find a juicy relationship. If the ads exist to make us unhappy (unless we buy the product, of course), then why is it surprising that we're less happy after we encounter enough ads? Just as the goal of cable news is to make us nervous so we'll tune in for more.Why…

  • N-1

    Seth Godin
    16 Oct 2010 | 2:21 am
    Fred had an inspiring post about the ability to always add one more thing. His old roommate called it N+1. Just when you think there's no more, you find a little room. Perhaps it's worth considering an alternative. N-1. There are tons of things on your to do list, in your portfolio, on your desk. They clamor for attention and so perhaps you compromise things to get them all done. What would happen if you did one fewer thing? What if leaving that off the agenda allowed you to do a world-class job on the rest? What if you repeated N-1 thinking until you found a breakthrough?

  • Heroes and mentors

    Seth Godin
    15 Oct 2010 | 2:36 am
    Mentors provide bespoke guidance. They take a personal interest in you. It's customized, rare and expensive. Heroes live their lives in public, broadcasting their model to anyone who cares to look. The internet has created a long tail of heroes. There are tens of thousands of musicians, artists, entrepreneurs, social leaders, politicians (okay, maybe not thousands of these), coders and colleagues to find and emulate. WWHD. What would my hero do? I find heroes everywhere I look. I find people who speak to me over my shoulder, virtual muses, who encourage me to solve a problem or deal with a…

  • The book of the year

    Seth Godin
    14 Oct 2010 | 10:27 am
    Kevin Kelly publishes books rarely. Each one is a keeper, and a new one is a special event. His new one is out today. If there's justice, it will win the Pulitzer Prize. Kevin's book could be sketchily summarized in fifteen or twenty blog posts, and I'm tempted to do so, but I think you should do the more direct thing and just read it. That way, as I steal from it again and again going forward, you'll nod your head in recognition of the power of what he's writing about. Hint: it's as good as Guns, Germs and Steel, which I consider one of the most important big-thought books ever. Bonus! Steve…
 
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    Wired Top Stories

  • What Solar Needs: Its Own Karl Rove

    Michael Kanellos
    17 Oct 2010 | 7:35 am
    The solar industry has risen in popularity, in part as a result of its good intentions — but soon it will have to start to play ugly. The open question is whether the industry has the stomach to fight back — which is where Karl Rove comes in. The industry needs to outline in clear, sound-bite-like blurbs how solar will become the affordable best option in the future. More importantly, the spokesman needs to dig up dirt on the fossil industry.

  • The Web Isn't Dead (So Says Its Inventor) And Other 'Do Lecture' Notes

    Rupert Turnbull
    16 Oct 2010 | 7:35 am
    Holed up in yurts in a field in Cardigan Bay, Wales a couple of weeks ago was an impressive collection of some of the most intensely motivated, high-achieving individuals ever assembled. The Do Lectures are a series of talks -- inspiring, funny, jaw-dropping, but mostly humbling -- by speakers who come from diverse walks of life brought together by a common thread — a great story.

  • Grill Up a Perfect Steak

    How-To Wiki
    15 Oct 2010 | 4:00 pm
    It's surprisingly easy to ruin a good steak. On the other hand, it's not that hard to cook one to perfection. The choice is yours.

  • Boont Amber Ale Bites Big Daddy IPA at Sharktoberfest

    Erik Malinowski
    15 Oct 2010 | 3:20 pm
    October Madness: Thursday's Sharktoberfest event at the California Academy of Sciences pitted AVBC’s Boont Amber Ale against Speakeasy’s Big Daddy IPA.

  • Chipmakers Feel the Pain as iPad Eats Into Notebook Sales

    Priya Ganapati
    15 Oct 2010 | 3:06 pm
    The iPad is the hottest holiday gift this season but one group of companies are unhappy about it. Chipmakers Intel and AMD are feeling the pain from iPad sales as the tablet eats into consumer demand for notebooks.
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    ProBlogger Blog Tips

  • From Side Project to Sustainable Business … Using Social Media

    Guest Blogger
    17 Oct 2010 | 12:00 pm
    This guest post is by Clare Lancaster, of WomenInBusiness.com.au. Over the last 18 months I’ve built two profitable businesses with the help of social media. One business was a sure thing; the other was a side project. My side project was a blog: womeninbusiness.com.au. All of the important numbers (subscribers, page views and profits) are growing monthly and I’ve never paid a cent to promote it. When I decided to drop out of corporate life, my first move was to open a consultancy. I had been working online since 2001 and by 2008 was confident I’d accumulated enough skills and…

  • Blogger Accountability 101

    Guest Blogger
    16 Oct 2010 | 6:04 am
    This guest post is by JC of JCDFitness. Every blogger who’s responsible for a sizeable readership knows the excitement associated with gaining new subscribers and exposure. The process is encouraging and humbling at the same time – people are actually reading what you have to say.  They’re not only reading, but commenting and coming back every single time you hit publish.  They have your site bookmarked, and never fail to tweet about it whenever you publish something new. Everyone has their reasons for producing content, but if we take a look around the web, it’s easy to see the…

  • Autoresponders on ‘Roids

    Guest Blogger
    15 Oct 2010 | 6:12 am
    This post was written by the Web Marketing Ninja—a professional online marketer for a major web brand, who’s sharing his tips undercover here at ProBlogger. Curious? So are we! Darren has written a lot about how he has evolved his autoresponder sequences on his blogs. But I want to take this a step further and describe how you can turn a good auto responder into a great one. Step 1: Segment your subscribers when they give you their email addresses When you ask users to give you their email addresses, you should keep the process as frictionless as possible. If you can, just ask for the…

  • Build the Perfect Blog Audience for You

    Guest Blogger
    14 Oct 2010 | 12:09 pm
    This guest post is by David Risley of DavidRisley.com. If you could hand-pick your ideal blog reader, who would they be? What are they like? What do they look like? Have you ever even thought about it? See, all too often, a blogger sets up a blog and just starts posting with their fingers crossed, hoping somebody will come by. In those days, you don’t really think too much about the people you attract. It is all about those numbers and getting traffic up. After all, seeing some positive numbers in your Analytics at least means somebody is listening, right? As somebody who has been in…

  • The Blog World Paradox: a Blog Action Day Case Study

    Georgina Laidlaw
    14 Oct 2010 | 6:09 am
    Today, Darren and thousands of other bloggers are congregating in Las Vegas for Blog World. It’s fitting that Blog Action Day should coincide with the world’s largest blogging conference. Particularly this Blog Action Day, which focuses on water. When we think about water issues, we don’t need to close our eyes and conjure up the African desert or the Australian outback: we need only think as far as Blog World, Las Vegas. "Watershow", Las Vegas, by pgl Las Vegas is a modern, developed city that’s built in a desert. As you might expect, it’s facing…
 
 
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    chrisbrogan.com

  • Webinar- Blogging for Small Business

    ceb
    16 Oct 2010 | 8:40 am
    I’m giving a webinar on Monday, October 18th, at 7PM Eastern Time on Blogging for Small Business. After asking people who subscribe to the Human Business Works Newsletter, this was the number one topic. This information will be useful to anyone from a self-employed professional to a marketer at a mom and pop. You could apply some of it to corporate blogging, for certain, but that’s not going to be the focus of this particular event. (I’ll give you that one later.) Agenda: * Introduction and Goals * Five Ways to Use Your Blog for Business * Niches, Passion, and Hobbies * Site…

  • Are You Reading Cookbooks?

    ceb
    16 Oct 2010 | 1:30 am
    You can read cookbooks all day, but if you don’t get together some ingredients and try to assemble something into a meal, you’ve got nothing but the possibility that you might know how to make something. It’s Schrodinger’s cake . Learning does indeed have a lot of thinking and reading and gathering in it, but you still have to make something before you’ve brought it all the way through to something useful. Here’s a truth about cookbooks: unless you’re trying out for Top Chef, you have too many. But that’s not to say that you can’t…

  • Gamestorming – Video Book Review

    ceb
    15 Oct 2010 | 1:16 pm
    I’m really jazzed by this book my friend, Dave Gray, sent me. It’s called Gamestorming: A Playbook for Innovators, Rulebreakers, and Changemakers (amazon affiliate link), and it talks about a lot of ways to use visual thinking to work through business challenges. The book is PACKED with examples and how-to information, so it’s not nearly a book on theory. It’s a book for people willing to try. You surely don’t have to be an artist to dig into this book. Stick people will suffice. Check it out if you need to think in more than one dimension.

  • Mapping Your Projects

    ceb
    15 Oct 2010 | 1:30 am
    I was just looking through my projects to see what’s what, and where I’m spending my time and to understand how one thing might better feed another thing. In doing this, I found that drawing it out, using a mind map, was a great way to ensure that I could see some flow, some overlap, some sense of what was going to work and what wasn’t, and more importantly, where I might feed one thing with another thing. I want to talk about my projects, but I want you to be thinking about drawing a map like this for your own work. (If you want some advice on how to map ideas out, you can…

  • Push Past the Defeat Feeling

    ceb
    13 Oct 2010 | 11:05 pm
    Sometimes, you mess up. Sometimes you disappoint other people. Sometimes, you have someone who doesn’t like you, no matter what you choose to do. Why is it we get so wrapped up in that person? If I read 50 amazing and charitable things about myself, and there’s one jerkbag, I think about that jerkbag all night long. I lose sleep over him (almost always a guy). What is that about? That’s the stupidest use of my time ever, and yet, I’m guessing you feel that way too, right? By the way, sometimes, it’s your fault. Sometimes, you’ve done well by 99 people but…
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    Copyblogger

  • Copyblogger Weekly Wrap: Week of October 11, 2010

    Johnny B. Truant
    17 Oct 2010 | 7:39 am
    I don’t understand air travel in the least. I mean, I’m on a plane as I’m writing this, and really, the physics of the whole thing are astounding when you stop to think about it. The Wright brothers get all the credit for inventing flight, but they did the easy part. Get many tons of metal into the air, defy gravity, yada yada. Whatever. But who figured out you could get ten passengers to fit into three square feet of space? And who was first brave enough to charge for baggage, and movies, and make the seat cushion flotation devices coin operated? Now that’s…

  • How to Show Up and Write

    Taylor Lindstrom
    15 Oct 2010 | 8:00 am
    Ask any writer how to write, and they will tell you, logically enough: Write. Write every day. Write at the same time. Write for hours. Write for 20 minutes. Just show up and write. You’ve heard this advice before and you haven’t taken it yet. You meant to. But you haven’t. This is not entirely your fault, because while the advice is not complicated, it’s nearly impossible to follow. Mostly because it’s way too simple. Don’t get me wrong. We love simplicity. Simplicity is great and useful when you want practical steps to solve a problem. Simplicity is lousy when what…

  • Madonna’s 6 Secrets to Personal Branding Mastery

    Stanford Smith
    14 Oct 2010 | 6:30 am
    “Everyone is entitled to my opinion.” Ladies and Gentlemen, that’s Madonna. Most people think of sex-soaked, counter-cultural extravagance when they reflect on Madonna’s career. I see something else. Fearless mastery of her brand and message. Madonna doesn’t flinch. She’s mastered her craft. She never lost sight of her goals. That’s why she’s the #1 female music performer of all time. Her dominance of the pop genre is the reason that virtually every performer (male and female) puts her on their Top 10 Greatest Talent list. You can take a page from her book and rule…

  • 3 Steps to Take Yourself from Good to Great

    Sonia Simone
    13 Oct 2010 | 8:00 am
    In a good economy, you can do reasonably well with “good enough.” Good enough design, good enough marketing, good enough skills. When demand is high and dollars are sloshing around, there’s a market for Decent. Capable. Adequate. Acceptable. Unfortunately, we’re not in a good economy. We’re in a wretched economy. Industries all over the world are falling like bowling pins, and “good enough” professionals in all fields are scrambling. There’s always room at the top, the guru says smugly. Don’t you want to smack that guy sometimes? How are you supposed to get to the top? And…

  • Announcing the Prose Theme for WordPress

    Sonia Simone
    12 Oct 2010 | 7:30 am
    You may have seen recently that we merged StudioPress, creator of the powerful Genesis theme framework, into Copyblogger Media. Why did we do it? I can sum it up for you in a single phrase: because we’re control freaks. With Genesis, we saw an opportunity to create WordPress themes that were tailored exactly to our customers’ needs and desires. We could incorporate the features that are most important for content-rich sites, the expert SEO you insist on, and the security to keep your sites as safe as possible. Brian and I worked closely with Genesis founder (and our new partner) Brian…
 
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    ReadWriteWeb

  • Cartoon: Analyze This... Repeatedly

    17 Oct 2010 | 1:00 pm
    Google has just released a new feature for Analytics, replacing Site Overlay with In-Page Analytics. And I think I have a terrific pitch for the media outlets that like to run huge social-media-is-killing-us-all headlines. Here's how it goes: When you're playing Minesweeper, Solitaire or Angry Birds, it's a little difficult to convince yourself that you're being productive. But when you're tinkering with Google Analytics, it's a much easier sell. Sponsor And when Google comes along and makes Analytics that much more visual, then the combination becomes near-lethal. You can tweak away for…

  • Check Out the Companies That Make ReadWriteWeb Possible

    17 Oct 2010 | 11:00 am
    Our readers know ReadWriteWeb as the blog that's ahead of the technology curve. Our sponsors know us as that, too. Once a week we introduce our sponsors to our readers and let them know a little more about who they are and what they do. You can say thanks to the companies that make ReadWriteWeb happen by tweeting them (see the link below each sponsor) or following them using our Twitter list. Interested in being a ReadWriteWeb sponsor? Our readers are smart, tech-savvy decision makers; 40% have a graduate degree or PhD, and over 45% play a key role in information technology purchasing…

  • Lessons from Startup School from the Founders of Facebook, Groupon, GitHub and More

    16 Oct 2010 | 6:45 pm
    Startup School is an annual event co-sponsored by Y Combinator and BASES, Stanford University's Business Association for Entrepreneurial Students. Today's Startup School, now in its sixth year, was a day full of speakers, imparting their knowledge to a packed auditorium of entrepreneurs. The topics at Startup School ranged from the history of Silicon Valley innovation and the history (and future) of startup funding, to testing your hypothesis, pivoting, and optimizing for happiness. The speaker - 11 all told - gave presentations, followed by a short Q&A; with audience members. Sponsor Although…

  • Ron Conway Shares Anecdotes about Early Days with Google, Napster, and Facebook Founders

    16 Oct 2010 | 4:45 pm
    "It's not lost on me that the future of innovation is in the minds of the people sitting in this room," said angel investor Ron Conway, addressing a crowd full of entrepreneurs at Startup School today. One of the 11 speakers at today's event, co-sponsored by Y Combinator and Stanford University's BASES. Known as the premier angel investor, Conway admitted that he had fretted about what the content for today's lecture should be, but with some urging from YC's Paul Graham, Conway opted to simply tell a few stories of how he had met a number of today's strongest tech companies: Napster, Google,…

  • PHP Power Button: VMware vCloud SDK

    16 Oct 2010 | 3:15 pm
    Developers have access to a growing number of options for spinning up virtual machines. With each new software release from virtualization titans such as VMware there are also developer community efforts such as VI Java API with a wide base of contributors. Just as the contributors expand so do the options for developers familiar with other languages. Let's take a look at how VMware is expanding options with a recent beta that targets the PHP developer community. Sponsor Here Comes Beta The VMware vCloud SDK for PHP Beta is an example of expansion in available language support for the PHP…
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    Smashing Magazine Feed

  • Organization Tips For Web Designers

    Jeff Gardner
    14 Oct 2010 | 11:30 pm
      As a web designer, you’re often forced to wear many different hats every day. You’re the CEO, creative director, office manager, coffee fetcher and sometimes even janitor. That’s a lot for anyone, and it certainly makes it difficult to find any time for quality creative thinking. Organization in any operation is important, and for our work as web designers it is important, too. The good news? You don’t have to have been born an organizational machine. Let’s look at what being organized means and a few strategies and tips to help you clean up that…

  • The User Is The Anonymous Web Designer

    Alexander Dawson
    14 Oct 2010 | 2:56 am
      We invest time, money and effort into understanding our audience, and the movement toward a more socially networked Web has made us realize the power that visitors have over how our designs are engineered; and we try to meet their ever-growing needs. Community is integral to the evolution and functioning of a website, and visitors and website owners have become dependent on each other. This reflects a change in the industry: the user has turned into an anonymous designer.This article will explore the influential figure ‘user’ and uncover the power of your community.

  • 50 New Useful CSS Techniques, Tutorials and Tools

    Vitaly Friedman
    12 Oct 2010 | 8:42 am
      These are great times for front-end developers. After months of exaggerated excitement about HTML5 and CSS3, the web design community now starts coming up with CSS techniques that actually put newly available technologies to practical use instead of abusing them for pure aesthetic purposes. We see fewer “pure CSS images” and more advanced, clever CSS techniques that can actually improve the Web browsing experience of users. And that’s a good thing!In this post we present recently released CSS techniques, tutorials and tools for you to use and enhance your…

  • Local Storage And How To Use It On Websites

    Christian Heilmann
    11 Oct 2010 | 4:59 am
      Storing information locally on a user’s computer is a powerful strategy for a developer who is creating something for the Web. In this article, we’ll look at how easy it is to store information on a computer to read later and explain what you can use that for.[By the way, did you know we have a free Email Newsletter? Subscribe now and get fresh short tips and tricks in your inbox!]Adding State To The Web: The “Why” Of Local StorageThe main problem with HTTP as the main transport layer of the Web is that it is stateless. This means that when you use an application…

  • Retro Video/DOS Games For The Weekend

    Angie Bowen
    8 Oct 2010 | 6:52 am
      We thought we’d do something a bit different for the weekend, because not everybody is actually working during the weekend. And even if we do, we deserve a break from time to time. For just this occasion, we have poured across the four corners of the Web and amassed a collection of retro games to help you make the absolute most of your break time this weekend… and possibly any break time you take from this day forth.Now you’re ready to take some time off and unplug, let’s stroll down memory lane, the gaming way. Focusing on the days of the old DOS-based games,…
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    CNN.com

  • 2 dead in Arizona bus crash

    17 Oct 2010 | 12:10 pm
    Two people died Sunday in a bus crash in Kingman, Arizona, according to the Mohave County Sheriff's Department.

  • 2 Awakening Councils deny defections

    17 Oct 2010 | 11:05 am
    The leaders of Awakening Councils in two Iraqi provinces Sunday denied a report that hundreds of council members have defected to al Qaeda.

  • Ahmadinejad: Iran ready for nuclear talks

    17 Oct 2010 | 8:59 am
    Iran's president warns that his country won't yield any of its international rights to peaceful nuclear energy, local media report. Talks have been stalled for more than a year.

  • Gibbs: Economy still Job 1 for Obama

    17 Oct 2010 | 8:25 am
    White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs says the president, facing the certainty of fewer Democrats in Congress, will work on strengthening the economy.

  • Mall sorry for lesbian couple's ouster

    17 Oct 2010 | 8:15 am
    Managers at a Raleigh, North Carolina, shopping center apologized to a lesbian couple who say they were asked to leave after sharing a kiss and a hug.
 
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    Scott Kelby's Photoshop Insider Blog » Photoshop & Digital Photography Techniques, Tutorials, Books, Reviews & More

  • Do not watch this video…

    Scott
    14 Oct 2010 | 9:34 pm
    ….if anything at all offends you, because this video is packed with offensive…well…everything (from really, really bad curse words and Nazis, to Nazis yelling really bad curse words), but it’s after midnight, and I’m sitting in my hotel room in London, practicing for my seminar tomorrow morning, and a buddy sent me the link to this video, and I was laughing so hard tears were streaming down my face. Now, it’s very late. I’ve only slept a few hours after flying all night, so it may be much funnier to me tonight than it will be to you at 8:00 am in the…

  • Quote of the month

    Scott
    14 Oct 2010 | 7:40 am
    So I’m sitting in this burger restaurant in London, talking about Dave and Glyn’s past visits to Photoshop World in the states, and of course what topic comes up? Vanelli. In describing Dave’s personal encounters with Vanelli during the conference, Dave unwittingly came up with not only the most accurate and spot-on description of Vanelli during a Photoshop world, but he easily earned the honor of being my official quote of the month. Dave said, “Vanelli is like a bowling ball and all the attendees are bowling pins. He hits all the pins during the conference. No one…

  • In the London Tube…

    Scott
    14 Oct 2010 | 7:27 am
    With my Blog readers, Dave Clayton and Glyn Dewis, on our way to a gourmet burger restaurant in Covent Garden. Then, off for a three-man photowalk. – Blogging from my iPhone.

  • It’s… Pimpy Thursday!

    Brad
    13 Oct 2010 | 9:01 pm
    Hey everyone, Brad here with the latest news: Kelby TV is running a free photo contest from now until October 31, sponsored by Dell and Intel! The winner will receive a brand new Dell Precision M6500 laptop (the same laptop used in Photoshop Wars at Photoshop World)! Visit KelbyTV.com/photocontest for all the details. (Voting is open to everyone, submissions open to U.S. residents) Tomorrow is the day, London! Hundreds of photographers have already signed up for Scott’s Photoshop for Digital Photographers seminar in Islington tomorrow, but you can still show up and register at the…

  • It’s Guest Blog Wednesday featuring Jasmine Star!

    Brad
    12 Oct 2010 | 9:01 pm
    I shot my first wedding in October 2006.  Back then, I simply hoped for the best.  Hoped the wedding wasn’t delayed, hoped the family members remained nearby for formal pictures, and hoped I received a timeline for the day in advance.  I’ll never forget the terror of standing outside–in a garden–after my first wedding on a pitch-black night for the family formal pictures.  It was so dark I couldn’t get my camera to focus.  I actually resorted to my assistant holding a flashlight just to provide enough light to get my camera to fire. I redefined awesome.
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    Digital Photography School

  • 9 More Great Photography Tips from Around the Web

    Darren Rowse
    17 Oct 2010 | 1:06 pm
    Last week we shared 9 great links on other photography tips and tutorial sites – but we found so many that we had enough for another 9 link list. Take some time out today to surf through them, support the owners of other sites in this industry and improve your photography. Here are the links – enjoy: Shear Chaos Salon :: Circus Shoot (behind the scenes of a fascinating shoot) Learn the Basics of Color Focus Editing in Photoshop CS5 From Image to Flickr: Photoshop Tutorial An Interview with Joe McNally and Bill Frakes – with a Twist Are You Using Your Histogram to Get Better…

  • Beyond the Blue Horizon

    Guest Contributor
    17 Oct 2010 | 7:42 am
    Biel Servera recently shared this image with me from the Balearic Islands of the Mediterranean. He and fellow photographer Marcos Molina set out into the hills of northwest Mallorca to catch the rising sun behind the dramatic sea cliffs of the Cap de Formentor. Is it the famous green flash? A misaligned lens element causing reflections? A double exposure? No, none of the above. In a previous DPS article (It’s all about the light) we discussed how to use The Photographer’s Ephemeris (TPE) to plan photographs to capture the very best light of the sun and moon. For outdoor photographers,…

  • Best Video Setting For The Canon DSLR’s

    Darren Rowse
    16 Oct 2010 | 12:51 pm
    More and more DSLR users are utilising the ability that their cameras have to shoot high quality video – but what settings should you use to ensure you get the best quality video? Dave Dugdale from Learning DSLR Video put this video together for dPS just to answer that question – particularly with Canon DSLRs in mind. Video Transcription – Best Video Settings for Canon DSLRs I get this question about once a week, “What are the Best Video Setting For The Canon DSLR cameras”. So let me start off by eliminating two things you can take off the list. Those are…

  • Road Trip: Weekly Photography Challenge

    Darren Rowse
    15 Oct 2010 | 1:02 pm
    This week your photography challenge is to take a photo and share it with the theme of ‘Road Trip’. Yes – it’s time to get in your car, bike, scooter, skateboard, bus and hit the road and to capture something of it photographically. Feel free to interpret the theme in any way you wish – you might actually want to take a trip or you might want to be a little abstract and do something else ‘on the road’. Once you’ve taken your “Road Trip” image, upload it to your favourite photo sharing site and either share a link to it below or embed it in the…

  • Working with Textures – 8 Ideas to Get You Started

    Guest Contributor
    15 Oct 2010 | 7:41 am
    A Guest Post by Claire Woollam from The Digital Iris. The Oxford Dictionary defines texture as ‘the way a surface, substance or piece of cloth feels when you touch it, for example how rough, smooth, hard or soft it is’. As photographers we constantly strive to capture what we see in our pictures. Shooting textures takes the challenge one step further: conveying to the viewer not only how something looks, but also how it feels to the touch. A great texture shot reaches out and grabs you. To get you going, here are a few classic texture subjects to think about: Bricks / Walls Bricks are…
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    TUAW

  • Talkcast tonight, 10pm ET: Back to the Mac

    Michael Rose
    17 Oct 2010 | 12:00 pm
    With quarterly earnings due tomorrow and Wednesday's 'Back to the Mac' event coming up right afterward, there's plenty to cover and speculate upon tonight on the TUAW Talkcast. We'd love it if you joined us. To participate on TalkShoe, you can use the browser-only client, the embedded Facebook app, or the classic TalkShoe Pro Java client; however, for maximum fun, you should call in. For the Web UI, just click the "TalkShoe Web" button on our profile page at 10 pm on Sunday. To call in on regular phone or VoIP lines (take advantage of your free cellphone weekend minutes if you like): dial…

  • Life Browser adds sideswiping, improved page queue

    Michael Rose
    16 Oct 2010 | 3:00 pm
    Building a better browser for iOS devices is a bit of a Sisyphean task. When you're pitching your product against one of the most successful mobile browsers of all time -- in fact, when you and everyone else trying to hike the trail are simply staging your product atop the underlying WebKit engine shared with Mobile Safari -- it's not easy. The best approach may be to identify the pain points Apple isn't addressing in designing Safari for 80% of the users, and hit hard on the convenience and features demanded by the other 20% who might be shopping for a new deal. Looking at Life Browser, the…

  • Raptr releases free iPhone app

    Mike Schramm
    16 Oct 2010 | 12:00 pm
    Raptr is one of the gaming social networks that seems to have some staying power -- the idea is that you can broadcast and track what and when you're playing, and the network will share all of that information with your friends as it happens. Raptr has just introduced an iPhone app that allows you to check in on all your friends and their gaming habits from anywhere, and even send messages across to Xbox Live with just one inbox. The app is free on the App Store, but if you're brand new to Raptr, you'll want to head over to their site and create an account first (and probably pick up the…

  • Swearch brings style to the iPhone web app

    Josh Helfferich
    16 Oct 2010 | 10:00 am
    I guess you could say that it finally happened: Someone built a web app for the iPhone so beautiful that it's nearly indistinguishable from something natively run. That person is Steve Streza, and that app is Swearch. Swearch does one thing, and it does it very well. It allows you to search Google, Twitter, Wikipedia, and Flickr quickly. Thanks to resource caching, Swearch is lightning fast once you add it to your homescreen (with a spiffy retina-ready icon, to boot!). Navigation is done through a card-like interface that allows you to swipe through the selection of search engines much like…

  • New MacBook Air has many batteries, few hard drives

    Aron Trimble
    16 Oct 2010 | 9:30 am
    An anonymous tipster has sent an image to our friends across the hall at the Engadget HQ and what a treat it is. The image appears to be of the upcoming MacBook Air that is likely to be announced at Wednesdays "Back to the Mac" event. Features include a re-designed case, more internal room for battery packs, and a 0GB hard drive. Wait, what? In this particular example, there doesn't appear to be a hard drive. This leaves us to speculate that there must be multiple models of the Air and this particular SKU is probably making use of some sort of flash-based storage device. The MacBook Air…
 
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    Strobist

  • Shoot the Bloggers: David Tejada

    13 Oct 2010 | 9:12 pm
    While in Denver late this summer I got to hang out with David Tejada, a corporate photographer from the area and frequent blogger/teacher. (Dave needs no introduction for long-time readers of this site.)So I couldn't pass up shooting him -- and using his own cool DIY beauty dish to do so.__________Dave was kind enough to hang out with us at a Denver lighting class, so I did not want to waste the opportunity to shoot him while he was there. Being a fellow small-flash guy, it seemed appropriate to include some of the lighting in the frame.The key light is Dave's own very nifty $20 DIY dish,…

  • On Assignment: Newspaper Man

    10 Oct 2010 | 9:00 pm
    Sometimes I miss working at a newspaper. And when I say "I miss," I mean that I miss it in the rose-colored glasses sense. Because some of the most fun I have had in the last 20+ years has been while shooting for small, community newspapers. So a few months ago I started stringing for a local business monthly as a way to keep touch with what I used to enjoy so much.It was in that capacity that I was assigned to shoot a full-page portrait of Stan "The Fan" Charles, pictured above. Stan was to be the cover for the Maryland Entrepreneur Quarterly section. Which is pretty impressive, considering…

  • Rosco will Help You Correct for Those Screwy Fluorescents

    7 Oct 2010 | 8:21 pm
    Time was, things were simpler and fluorescent lights only required a 30CC magenta filter in front of your film-based camera lens to bring them into line. Green your flash and you were done. Then the hippies took over and now we have CFLs pretty much everywhere. And they are not all the same color, either.Today, Joel Svendsen (who is not a professional actor but merely an ordinary person much like yourself) will walk you through how to correct for the various types of fluorescent lights.It is geared towards video but you can translate pretty easily. The big difference is that video folks…

  • Available Light. As in, Every. Available. Light.

    3 Oct 2010 | 9:01 pm
    UPDATE: In addition to abs, this one also has legs. It has made the rounds to Jezebel(!), Billboard and Blair's blog, too. I am heading out to get some ab spray now.__________Do you live in Phoenix? Were your lights flickering for a while a few weeks back?That could have been Blair Bunting's cover shoot for Billboard Magazine. He used 7 Profoto packs, 14 light sources and just under 20 Kilowatt-seconds of power every time the shutter tripped. For a 3/4-length portrait.Oh, and the subject was naked. So I am sticking it behind the "read more" jump.__________You(1) were expecting a female,…

  • Finn O'Hara's Time Lapse Rises From the Dead

    3 Oct 2010 | 9:00 pm
    Last November, we ran a cool time-lapse BTS from photographer Finn O'Hara of a huge-scale Toronto Maple Leafs shoot. It was up for a few hours, then had to be pulled over some confusion over who owned the rights to the video. It was replaced with a watered-down, neutered version which didn't get anyone's panties in a bunch -- or show much of anything.But the campaign has run its course and the original video is okay to run now. If you missed it, you can see it updated on the original post. It's a neat look into what goes into a 35-NHL player cattle call.(Answer: Probably more than you…
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    News: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

  • Casio updates firmware for EX-Z800, EX-S200 and EX-Z550

    15 Oct 2010 | 9:44 am
    Casio has released firmware updates for three of its recently released compacts. The latest firmware for the Exilim EX-Z800 and EX-S200 increases speed of image review after shooting, while the update for EX-Z550 is a minor bug-fix. The firmware updates are available for immediate download from the company's website.

  • Panasonic to ship AG-AF100 from December

    15 Oct 2010 | 8:09 am
    Panasonic has announced its AG-AF100 series professional Micro Four Thirds HD camcorder will be available from December 27 at a suggested retail price of $4995. Announced in May 2010, the camcorder is capable of recording full 1080p HD videos at frame rates from 12 to 60 fps. It includes HD SDI and XLR connectors, twin SDXC slots and is compatible with the company's line up of Lumix G lenses, filters and adapters.

  • Sigma makes 85mm F1.4 EX DG HSM available

    14 Oct 2010 | 11:06 am
    Sigma has announced its 85mm F1.4 EX DG HSM lens is now available at a retail price of $1,400. Announced at PMA 2010, the large-aperture short telephoto lens features a hypersonic focus motor with full-time manual focus override. It includes a hood extender for APS-C/DX users and is available in Canon, Nikon, Pentax, Sigma and Sony DSLR mounts.

  • Canon exhibits 4K concept camera at Expo 2010

    14 Oct 2010 | 2:43 am
    Canon has exhibited a 4K concept hybrid camera at its expo in Paris. First showcased at the company's Expo 2010 in New York last month, the camera is built around an 8MP CMOS sensor, 20x (24-480mm equiv.) zoom lens and offers 60fps 4K resolution video recording - almost four times the resolution of full HD videos. Apparantly, the company has no plans to release a working model.

  • Sony NEX firmware v03 now available/review updated

    13 Oct 2010 | 10:00 pm
    Sony has announced firmware version 03 for its NEX-5 and NEX-3 interchangeable lens cameras is now available for download. The latest version makes major changes to the user interface amongst other enhancements. A separate firmware update for the LA-EA1 A-mount adapter also adds AF support for 14 Sony SAM and SSM lenses. We have now updated our review of both cameras to reflect the changes.
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    Adobe Photoshop Lightroom Killer Tips

  • Sharpening Follow Up and Winners

    jgilbert@photoshopuser.com (Matt Kloskowski)
    14 Oct 2010 | 12:36 pm
    Thanks for all of the comments the other day about my upcoming sharpening class. I have to say I love the way this community jumps in to help and I honestly appreciate all of your time. I know we don’t have a lot of it, and I’m grateful you spend some of it here. While I always have some general ideas on what I want to teach, it’s questions from you that make sure I cover the stuff people want to know. First off, I have some thoughts I wanted to mention before moving on and then I’ll let you know the winners. A few common trends I noticed: • A large number of you…

  • Confused About Lightroom/Photoshop Sharpening?

    jgilbert@photoshopuser.com (Matt Kloskowski)
    11 Oct 2010 | 11:00 pm
    Hey everyone. I’ve been wanting to do a class on sharpening your photos for a while now and I’ve finally got some breathing room to get it done. I hope to record the class later this week but I need your help. Basically, I want to make sure I cover the stuff you want to know. I’ve even got a little reward for your help. In a nutshell the class will go like this: 1) Tips on capturing sharp photos (very quick though, this stuff isn’t rocket science). 2) How to keep your sharp photos sharp while working in Photoshop (basically what you can and can’t do that will…

  • Free Lightroom Presets – Hawaii Five-O

    jgilbert@photoshopuser.com (Matt Kloskowski)
    10 Oct 2010 | 10:01 pm
    This week’s preset comes from what has to be the coolest opening credits on TV… Hawaii Five-O. Whether it’s the old show or the new one, which I’ve seen a couple of times, I just can’t get that song out of my head when I hear it. Anyway, they have a cool effect on most of the photos in the intro and I’ve got a few versions of some presets that do a good job of recreating it. As always, your comments are welcome. Download ‘em and let me know what you think. If you like them, you’ll need to send my family a thank you note, as they’re the…

  • 5 Ideas for Using Lightroom’s Smart Collections

    jgilbert@photoshopuser.com (Matt Kloskowski)
    5 Oct 2010 | 9:00 pm
    A while back I created a video on Smart Collections and one of the ways that I use them. Well, I was working with some new Smart Collections the other day and I thought it’d be cool to give you 5 ways to use them. More importantly though, I’m looking for some comments here on how you use Smart Collections. I figure there’s got to be plenty of cool ideas out there that I’m missing, so please share. Anyway, here’s 5 of mine: Smart Collection Idea #1: PSD Files Any image edited in Photoshop means it was taken to the next level. Since I’ll usually want to get…

  • Your Questions for Adobe?

    jgilbert@photoshopuser.com (Matt Kloskowski)
    28 Sep 2010 | 4:19 am
    Hey folks. I’m at the airport waiting for a flight to Minneapolis to meet with the Lightroom developer team (and product manager Tom Hogarty). I’m meeting Scott up there, and part of our trip is to carry the message from you on what you want to see in Lightroom (we’ve gotten lots of feedback from people in the last few months). I’m really looking forward to it because, while I’ve met parts of the team here and there, I’ve never been able to sit down with all of them and really spend some time talking about the program that we all really dig. So,…
 
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    Planet Photoshop

  • TGIF New Bits…

    Corey Barker
    15 Oct 2010 | 7:39 am
    Image of the Week Posted Hi folks. It is Friday so I have just a few little bits for you today. Be sure to check out the newest image of the week over at the NAPP portfolio page. This week we recognize David Rogers for this beautifully shot image shown here. We also congratulate Mike [...]

  • Cycling through layer blend modes part 2

    Web Editor
    15 Oct 2010 | 7:15 am
    If you’ve tried the previous tip but have a tool selected that also has blend modes associated with it (like any of the Brush tools), then you’ll find that the keyboard shortcut cycles through the blend modes for the brush in the Options Bar and not the layer. The workaround is this: First select a [...]

  • Defining A Shape in Photoshop

    Corey Barker
    14 Oct 2010 | 9:04 am
    Often times we find ourselves working in other applications that have certain features that other apps don’t necessarily have, or maybe they do but just not nearly as good. For instance, in Illustrator there is a remarkable collection of preset shapes that are part of the Symbols library. A lot of these shapes are really [...]

  • New Video from Larry Becker

    Corey Barker
    14 Oct 2010 | 7:49 am
    NAPP Executive Director Larry Becker brings us another exclusive video to the Planet. This time Larry shares some tips on doing some photo retouching using dodge and burn. Click here to view now. Also remember to check out Larry’s newest blog Cheap Shots. It’s a great resource for the novice photographer or someone who finds [...]

  • Cycling through layer blend modes part 1

    Web Editor
    14 Oct 2010 | 7:15 am
    Sometimes it’s useful to quickly cycle through your blend modes to see which one works best. Manually clicking on each one just isn’t quick, so try this: Click on the Blend Mode list in the top left of the Layers panel to select a blend mode. Then press Shift-+ to cycle down the list and [...]
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    Joe McNally's Blog

  • A Personal Blog Today….

    Joe McNally
    15 Oct 2010 | 6:13 am
    No speed light stuff today. Apologies…. About a dozen years ago my wife Annie made a pretty courageous leap of life and changed everything, all at once. What does one do when you shuck off all that is familiar, and move to a new and strange set of walls, have no money and a couple of sticks of furniture? Well, when you take a chance like that, and rescue yourself, sometimes, you reach out at the same time and rescue others. So Annie the animal lover packed herself off to the shelter, and thought she had decided to take home a little black ball of fur when, out of the same tiny fur ball,…

  • One Small Flash, Very Far Away….

    Joe McNally
    13 Oct 2010 | 12:24 pm
    Shot this the other week in Tampa, of our wonderful model Hope, doing her best Lady GaGa on stage in front of adoring fans. We occasionally end our days teaching lighting for Kelby Seminars this way. One little light, way far away. Been playing with line of sight forever, and am very involved in the beta versions of the coming Pocket Wizards for Nikon TTL. More on that soon, as the units evolve through testing phase. But, right now, I am content to mess around, sometimes surprisingly, with how far I can trigger a light. This light is an SB900, zoomed to 200mm, at the back of the auditorium,…

  • Staying Organized..

    Drew Gurian
    11 Oct 2010 | 6:28 am
    Always a challenge, right? Photogs–we’ve all got our bits and pieces, our favorite gadget, our go to, get out of jail free light or lens that saves our butt in the field. We accumulate all this stuff, and travel with it, and just keeping up with it sometimes seems to be half the battle. If you know anything about the way we travel, it’s that we generally have a good chunk of gear.  And with that gear comes an utter mess of cords, batteries, flashes, lenses, stands, etc.- if we don’t have a good organizational system intact.  So it seems as though every few months,…

  • Dang…Double Dang….

    Joe McNally
    7 Oct 2010 | 3:17 am
    Just caught up to this column by Ashley Gilbertson in the NYT, all about Tim Whelan pulling the plug on his tiny photo bookstore in Rockport, Me. Dang. Above is a portrait I did of Tim in his shop a number of years ago, with his beloved pooch, Maya. It is one of my favorite pix, understandably, ’cause the combo of the little shop and Tim’s company was irresistible. It was a rite of passage as an instructor up at Maine Media Workshops. Finish your class, get paid, and go and leave a chunk of the check behind at Tim’s store. A wander (make that more of a shuffle, the place…

  • The iPad Interview

    Drew Gurian
    1 Oct 2010 | 4:48 am
    Bill Frakes and Joe McNally iPad Interview from Manfrotto on Vimeo. While I have to admit to being simultaneously over and underwhelmed by Photokina, one really fun thing happened. Bill Frakes and I did kind of a Penn and Teller, Mutt and Jeff, Harry and Sally…..no, wait a minute……kind of thing with the iPad, the new must have, go to, touch screen thingamawhooziebopper that promises to change everything. I mean, it’s so cool, even I have one. (Gift!) What’s not to like about a device that makes all our pictures look snappy and great, even when they’re (at…
 
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