06-06-06: A couple of photos

[Mike Jackson]

Doug,
As Mr. T might say, "I pitty 'da fool" who tries to learn Photoshop by reading the Photoshop manuals, or any books on Photoshop for that matter. The information you need is much too visual and interactive to be read and understood.

The 4-10 minute video clips at Lynda.com go through each section carefully and visually, along with the vocals to explain their options and decisions.

At Lynda.com, you have the option of buying each individual CD training course at about $75 to $150 each. With that, you can load and watch it on any computer at any time. The other option is their on line subscription of $25 per month. With the subscription, you can watch ANY video title on any topic as many times as you want for as long as you want. The videos are divided into small clips so you can watch any particular one over and over at any time. A typical Title might have from 7 to 14 hours of clips. AND, you can log on to Lynda.com from any computer that has Internet and watch the videos. They also have an option to buy a full year for roughly $20 per month, or about $240.

I checked into some local Photoshop training classes, and they cost around $200 for six or seven classes. When the class is over, your done! But, of course, you'd spend a lot of time going over beginning information and not get to the good stuff. With Lynda.com, you get to jump in at about any section and learn something. Additionally, I am always going back to the site to review something I know I should have remembered, but forgot the sequence or forgot one check box to check.

Best of all, you can sign up for one month at $25 and drop it at any time withou a penalty. If you are busy during the summer and don't think you will we needing it, drop it and renew in the fall. There are quite a few free sample movies at the site to let you get the feel of the rest of the videos, so all you have to do is log on and try them.

After trying to learn Photoshop for close to 15 years, I can tell you this is the best tool around for a relatively minimal expense. No matter what you skill level, it will blow you away and still keep you coming back. While I am mentioning Photoshop here, they also have titles on just about every popular software title you can imagine, including Illustrator, Freehand, Dreamweaver, Flash, GoLive, Quark, i-tunes, InDesign, and so on. They add titles at about 3 per month, too. They are all included in the subscription.

So, if that isn't enough to make everyone go there, then "I pitty ya' "!

Mike Jackson

[Doug Bernhardt]

Mikey.....have visited the site and look forward to a run at it. Need to do an update of the "video viewer" or whatever that might be called first. All to say that your "developing/darkroom" work is quite terrific.

[Mike Jackson]

Hi Doug,
You will have a good time and learn a lot at the Lynda.com site. It's the weekend, so I will post a couple more photos. The pair at the top are Western Tanagers. They are some of the most colorful birds we see here in the mountains. I caught this rare shot as the male reached down to feed the female. I shot three quick pictures of the very quick event and this one caught the exchange perfectly.



This shot was taken early this morning at an Osprey nest south of town. I have been to the nest area half a dozen times, but this is the first time I have been able to see the chick. It appears to be only a few days old. I'll go back every few days to get pictures of the little one as he grows. There are a lot of nests in the area, but this is the only one I know about that has a hillside in the right place to let me shoot down into the nest.

Have a great weekend. Darla and I are taking the kids to Idaho for a quick skate boarding trip.

Mike Jackson