Photoshop's 20th Anniversary

My week was a little more exciting than usual, in that on Thursday I had the chance to attend Photoshop's 20th Anniversary Celebration. It was a lot of fun! There were presentations from all the Photoshop Guys: Scott Kelby, Matt Kloskowski, Dave Cross, Corey Barker, Terry White. Julianne Kost also did two kick-ass presentations, and the highlight of the evening (for me) was Russell Brown's amazing multimedia presentation (I don't even know how he did it). I mean, truly multimedia. Two of the media were mustard (or ketchup, not sure) and bread. It also involved some toy cars and gorilla hands. Awesome! Plus a quick but not too quick jab at Steve Jobs (the word 'megalomaniac' may or may not have flashed across the screen).

Plus, I learned a few new things about Photoshop, and had some free wine and crackers, and ended up with a t-shirt that I will probably never wear until I have to paint the house. I'm not really a branded t-shirt kind of girl.

As is to be expected, everyone was taking pictures. And I felt no compunctions in grabbing this shot, as the lady turned her camera around next and took several close-up pictures of me, with flash! To what purpose? I can only guess. I saw her LCD screen, I was literally the only one in the shot.
Cell phone cameras were also heavily utilized. (Sorry for the narrow depth of field on this one, it was pretty dark in there.)
In addition, Adobe handed out 40 flash drives with a Photoshop 1.0 app for the iPhone. I didn't get one, to my dismay. Adobe, if you're reading this, I'll still accept one, ok?

For more blog posts on Photoshop's 20th Anniversary Celebration, see:

Scott Kelby's Post over at Photoshop Insider

Jim Goldstein's thoughts at his blog

And finally, check out video of the entire event on the NAPP website, here.

Blades - And Some Thoughts on Criticism

In addition to my photo today, I just wanted to give thanks to all the people who come to the blog and leave comments. I try to respond as often as I can, but I'm sure you have no idea how much I value each and every comment that comes to this blog. Plus, I am pretty fortunate to have some insightful and critical commenters, who let me know when my photos are sub par.

Specific thanks go out to the 'mystery commenter'* known as Z who yesterday let me know that my photo wasn't quite sharp. Of course, Z was absolutely right, and I should have posted something else.

So thanks, guys, for keeping me honest. My favorite comments are the ones that make me stop, think, and re-evaluate. Don't be shy, tell me when I suck!

Back on topic: these grasses grow in Union Square (and other places, I'm sure), and I love their multicolored leaves.

*Mysterious to me, at least. As far as I know, Z and I are not yet acquainted. However, I enjoy having mystery comments. Gives a little spice to the blog.

Seagulls...

... are always congregating near the beach. Sometimes in interesting formations.

Gee, Another Blossom Shot

The trees by my work downtown are also flowering. This is my only excuse.

Family

Another photo from Valentine's Day. I just thought there was something so arresting about the three men in the family, off playing in the waves (plus of course the way they are arranged according to height) juxtaposed with Mom in the background, watching over them all, but not taking part.

Valentine's Day

(Yes, I know I'm a day late. Please ignore that fact for me.)

A little over three years ago, Evan and I went on our first date. And because we were both slightly dorky, and didn't have any brilliant ideas of what to do, we decided to go to the zoo.

The rest, as they say, was history. That zoo trip was the beginning of something that took us both to Thailand together, and then through many, many different countries, finally plopping us both back down here in San Francisco three years later.

So this year to celebrate and reminisce we decided to go to the zoo again. On Valentine's Day, which is close enough to our anniversary that we figured we could celebrate both at the same time. I was excited, I brought my camera with my long zoom and my 50mm prime.

But, such is life, we got to the zoo and the line was around the block, so we decided to reconsider. Evan, being the amazing boyfriend that he is, suggested that we drive down the coast and stop along the way so that I could take some pictures. What could be more perfect than that?

We had an amazing day.