lesa's blog

In between business meetings this past Friday, my husband and I visited the MOMA in Manhattan. Surprisingly, they let us take pictures (no flash, of course). We spent about three hours at the multi-level museum and really had a great time snapping this and that. I tended to take photos of my favorite paintings and Shawn (as usual) just shot EVERYTHING :)

There ain't nothing like going home.

Not much has gone on in the way of travel since getting back from San Francisco for Macworld Expo. That being said, I did drive to Long Island, NY on Friday to shoot the Fire Island Lighthouse. Much fun was had as after shooting, my husband and I spent 4+ hours at the Brickhouse Brewery.

Going out for a photo shoot is a rather new experience for us, and this one taught us several things:

1. Only shoot lighthouses in the summer, else you will freeze to fracking death!

Patience can indeed have its rewards, and when it comes to the newly unveiled Adobe Photoshop Elements 6.0 the payoff promises to be big.

Adobe announced the latest version of its consumer-level image editor, the first update to the Mac edition of Elements in two years. (In fact, it’s been so long since Adobe has come out with a Mac release that Elements skips version 5 entirely on this platform, going from 4.0 directly to 6.0.)

Give the gift that keeps on giving!

In light of my video training title release, Graphic Secrets for Business Professionals, the good folks over at Lynda.com have granted readers of The Graphic Report a free 24-hour pass to their entire training library.

Hot on the heels of the new Painter X release comes a completely redesigned package for painting hobbyists: Painter Essentials 4.

Sure, the folks at Corel could have stripped out some features from Painter X, slapped on an “Essentials” label, and called it a day (and to be honest, in previous versions that’s just what happened). However, with Painter Essentials 4, the company went back to the drawing board and designed a completely new interface—it looks nothing like Painter X, though it packs much of its power.

"Ahhhhhhhhh." That's what I say everytime I get to visit my true home, the Lone Star State. I've only been away a few short years, and I do miss it so (though in New England I'm experiencing, for the first time, a fascinating phenomenon called FALL).

I’ve honestly never thought of software as organic; however, if I had but one word to describe Painter X, that’d be the one. Though it no longer comes in a paint-can package (save for an exclusive limited edition), the new features in Corel’s Painter X (version 10.1) are sure to curl the toes of artists everywhere.

While teaching out at Photoshop World, I had a very surreal moment. As my friend Rob got ready to introduce me, he was standing right off stage and asked me if I was ready. He had that same black t-shirt with the big white STAFF on it that I used to wear back when I introduced speakers myself.

Though I've only known about them for the past year, an interesting sub-culture of folks in the weekly newspaper biz are quickly becoming my favorite people to hang out with. Affectionately dubbed "Alties" they are the Association of Alternative Newsweeklies and this past weekend I had the honor of teaching their writers and designers a 2.5 hour class on Photoshop and graphic design. I also taught for these folks back in February in Washington DC, and in Portland, OR in July.