lesa's blog

I'm so unbelievably A.D.D. I can get distracted in the blink of an eye. Today one of my (many) distractions -- while I should've been writing a big honkin' column that's due Friday -- was to form a fantasy road race team.

My team, "Lesa's Hotties" are pictured above. I'm a little miffed that Lorenzo appears above Rossi in the grid though but I couldn't figure out how to modify that without starting over. Frak.

This past Saturday night I treated myself to a trip to my favorite book store: Barnes & Noble. I went to stock up on some great sci-fi books (a list follows) but as I trotted across the parking lot, I wondered, "Oh holy Thor! Will*my* book be here?!" And sure enough it was. I can't tell you how surreal it felt to see it on the shelf. The manager even came over and got me to sign them so they could slap the "autographed copy" sticker on the cover. Wow! I was so proud. For those of you who haven't yet picked up a copy, O'Reilly's wonderful 40% off sale lasts thru Feb. 14.

Looking back, I'm truly saddened to see the date of my last travel blog post. I even had some amazing trips in 2008, including a one month stay in the Mediterranean and Italian countryside! However, the biggest trip I took was that of writing my first book. It's called Photoshop CS4: The Missing Manual and weighs in at a hefty 800+ pages. This endeavor consumed five months of my life, kept me off my beloved F800ST (aka Saphira), and away from most every human I love.

Adobe made some pretty serious changes in Photoshop CS4, especially in the workspace. And while some of them, like the new Application Frame, will take some getting used to (and are optional), they’re changes that are long overdue. Each new version has piled new tools on top of old, and important bits and pieces were getting lost in the shuffle.

Last week I taught a super intensive beginner's Photoshop course at the esteemed Santa Fe Photographic Workshops. I'd never been to Santa Fe before so I didn't really know what to expect. I mean, I had always heard how amazing the light is, how cool the Adobe houses look, how affordable the jewelry is if you buy it direct from the Indians in the plaza, and so on... but nobody every really said anything about the PEOPLE of Santa Fe.

After teaching two graphic design classes to a lovely group of folks at a small business marketing conference up in Canmore, Alberta, I was treated to a 10 mile hike up to Plains of the Six Glaciers with my friend (and Your Mac Life listener) Maurice Shevalier. (Click here to see the Flickr picture gallery.)

Woo hoo! Today my first title for Kelby Training went live. It's a 2-hour little ditty called From Photo to Graphic Art and covers how to take normal photos and turn them into beautiful pieces of art, using Photoshop CS3. Here's a quick run-down of the content:

Perhaps the hardest part of early 2008 wasn’t waiting for the cold, icy fingers of winter to release their grip here on the East Coast where I live—it was waiting for Adobe to release Photoshop Elements 6. A worthy winner of Best of Show honors at this January’s Macworld Conference & Expo, the Elements update was among the most anticipated product releases showcased at the annual Mac trade show.

Though I didn't go riding this weekend, I did create an El Coolio graphic for a Photoshop training video I'm recording this week. The technique is selective blurring and fading one image into another. I think it turned out rather well :)

Finally got to go riding this past Sunday and though I feel a bit like the Michelin Tire Woman all bunched up with heated gear (hate that), it was nice to be back in "Saphira's" saddle. Since I had my camera with me, I fired off this shot after hanging my helmet on the handlebar.