I have been trying to learn some of the new 3D features in Photoshop CS6. I have to admit they are very cool and a bit more approachable then the interface that was in CS5.

In any event, I decided to challenge myself to create something using the new tools. So in honor of Bloomsdays, I "extruded" (Photoshop term) a map of Ireland and placed it on a simple background with a quote from the book. Like everything creative that I try for the first time, it's muddy, and awkward, but in some self irony, I'm going to try to learn from the quote that I used and think of it as a source of new discovery.

Thanks to Corey Barker, who had a great class on the Kelby Training website on how to use these new features.

Happy Bloomsday everyone.

"...but then I figured out my sorrows could swim."

"I really thought I was becoming mad. I started to drink, I was really, really deep into drinking, because I was sad. I thought that I could drowned my sorrows, but then I figured out my sorrows could swim."

-Tranquilino Castaneda on the affects of dealing with the massacre of his wife and nine children at Dos Erres, Gutamala in 1982

While on the treadmill at the Y tonight I listened to a recent episode of  This American Life titled "What happened at Dos Erres". The podcast is an hour long.

Between images of Piers Morgan interviewing Chaz Bono on one television screen and TMZ playing on the other television screen, I listened to a very moving story about a place and people I had never heard of.

The first 30 minutes are rough - incomprehensible evil by one set of humans on another. The second 30 minutes was more inspiring, the story of a mystery solved and the realization by a survirer that he wasn't alone in the world after all.

The podcast can be found here: What happened at Dos Erres

And a video of the reunion between father and son was posted on ProPublica's channel here:

Rock & Roll Stops the Traffic

While I was in San Francisco last week attending the Google Plus Photography Conference I participated in the Embarcadero photo walk with Trey Ratcliff. As part of the walk we came upon the Vaillancourt Fountain and I realized that this was the general area that U2 held a public concern years ago. I vaguely remembered that Bono had spray-painted a sculpture and had gotten in trouble with the city. No one on the walk seemed to remember the incident and when I finally got a chance I looked it up I found this YouTube video.  The incident occurred during the bands Rattle & Hum tour in 1987. In the video Bono climbs up on the sculpture at around the 2:50 mark and records the message that "Rock & Roll stops the traffic." The graffiti was removed long ago, which is sort of a shame since it was an iconic moment and it would have been fun to still see the paint today and remember a moment 25 years ago.

I've included a few more of the photos at my Google+ page which you can find here.

Update: Unfortunately the video was pulled by YouTube for copyright reasons. I think if you search "U2 Embarcadero" there are still some other videos out that show some of what was in the video above.

Cooking Video - The Best Tacos

Recently I have been taking a Final Cut Studio video editing class. With all the new technology built into today's camera it is a natural extension to move from photography into some amount of video capture. Just like using Photoshop in photography, post processing video can improve the quality of final product.

I've had some video clips that I took with my Flip HD camera a few months back while my friend Angelica and I made her recipe for tacos. I think these are the best tacos I've tasted so, using my newly learned skills I cobbled together the video below. This certainly is very rough with some choppy moments and some miscues but I'm happy with the progress that I am making and I learned a lot by forcing myself to try and make this a completed video. By the way, the music is from www.friendlymusic.com which is a site that provides a one time license for a song for two bucks, so I don't have to feel guilty about stealing someone's musical work.

Puerto Vallarta Recap

Not sure that I will get back to Puerto Vallarta for some time, but wanted to note a few places that I found fun while I was there.

• Cafe Roma is a fun, casual pizza resturant off the main strip. The place has cheap Corona's and very good pizza. After you have been in Mexico for a few days, a change of pace is welcome. The prices were also a relief as the tourist places were surprisingly expensive even in this weak economy.
• Archie's Wok is another nice find, serving fine Asian cuisine at reasonable prices. Food was very good and service was very friendly. Again not a Mexican food place but a nice change of pace if you are in PV for several days.
• Porto Bello was an excellent. It was very surprising to be in Mexico and discover such a good Italian restaurant. I highly recommend this place but be warned that it is not cheap.

That wraps up my notes from PV, not sure when I will be back but it a nice beach location with non-stop service from Phoenix. I can also use my frequent flyer miles which makes this a destination one that I will consider again in the future.

The Tillman Bridge

On my way to Photoshop World this year in Las Vegas I drove up US 93 through Kingman and then on to the Hoover Dam. Currently, the the Federal Highway Administration, the Arizona Department of Transportation, and Nevada Department of Transportation are coordinating the building of a bypass bridge over the Colorado River. The bridge is being built about a half mile downstream from the dam and is needed to reduce congestion, improve safety and keep the bridge secure from attack. I was happy to hear that the bridge will be named after Pat Tillman, well actually it will be named after two people, the former governer of Nevada Mike O'Callaghan and Pat Tillman. But to me it will just be the Tillman bridge. A new documentary about the tragedy of his death has come out, but I would rather focus on how he lived his life.

The photo above was taken about 18 months ago on a previous trip to Las Vegas. The bridge nearly complete, and is set to open in November of this year.

Photoshop World Las Vegas

I'm back from Photoshop World in Las Vegas that ended on Friday. I'm an enthusiastic amateur photographer and there is no place better to get the latest training and trends in the photographic industry then to attend a PSW. The National Association of Photoshop Professionals puts on two of these events a year, one on the East Coast (usually in Orlando) and one out West (usually in Las Vegas). I haven't been to the event since 2007 and below were the trends that stood out to that previous show.

• Video with DSLRs. In early 2009, Canon came out with their 5D Mark II, which included the ability to record HD video. I'm told that this was almost an after thought by the Canon engineers thinking that there would be a very small audience that would be interested in the video capabilities, perhaps a handful of photojournalist or wedding photographers might use the feature. Well there has been an explosion of interest and excitement surrounding this capability and there were several classes at PSW that dealt with capturing, editing and creating video with DSLR cameras. Count me as one of the ones who is trying to learn this new skill set and expand my ability to tell stories with it.
• HDR Photography. High Dynamic Range photography is a complete creation from the digital age, it isn't a process that the old analog darkroom could create. As such, it is fairly controversial in terms of its appeal. Basically the process involves taking several exposures of a scene (usually 3 to 5) and then using software blending these exposures together into one photo. By using the multiple exposures the photo can greatly increase the tonal range of the image. There were several classes on HDR at the show, and while I was there Apple announce that it would include HDR capabilities with the new iOS software.
• 3D Design. The 3D capabilities came in with a prior version of Photoshop but there seemed to be more interest in it this year. I sat in on one session that went over the capabilities and it was interesting. To me, this is just a starting marker for Photoshop and sometime in the next five years the capabilities of 3D will begin to expand rapidly. For example, loading multiple photos of a subject and then loading them into Photoshop to rotate around it would be very cool and something I think is not to far off, although I am completely speculating here.

Other observations: there were supposedly 3,000 people in attendance which seem strong in this economy, the accompanying trade show seemed much smaller than I remember with less vendor participation. The show itself seemed more diverse, with more women and African-Americans. In the past these shows seem to be a young to middle aged white guy fest. The diversity was a welcome sign.

Well that's all for my notes from PSW Las Vegas. I hope to make it back in a few years to see how things have changed.