I have been holding off on new business cards for quite a while now. I really wanted to find something that not only looked professional, but something that went above and beyond from the moment you held it in your hand. First impressions are SO important! (Letterpress pun intended. Impression? HA!)

I have to say that after searching and searching I found there are a lot of Letterpress Companies out there and most of them do an amazing job, but the folks at The Mandate Press are (in my opinion) the best of the best. From start to finish they exceeded my expectations (which trust me, were high to begin with!).

Quite Simply -
Quality of Card: 100%
Customer Service: Infinity %

If you are looking for a letterpress company I highly recommend The Mandate Press. Thank you guys so much! :)

Today I joined a small group of photographer friends WAY up in Mission for a vintage fashion shoot. Special thanks to Jason Brown aka “The Birthday Boy” (this coming Tuesday)

I have always wanted to shoot fashion, and in all honesty I don’t know why I haven’t until today. I absolutely loved it, and I’m looking forward to getting some concepts I have out of my head and into the real world!

P.S. This is Amber, she is such an AMAZING model and was so much fun to work with! Thanks Amber!

When Grit and I were in Germany in September I had the opportunity….nay…the PRIVILAGE of partaking in Oktoberfest. It was truly amazing, not to mention *slightly* overwhelming, but I held on with all my might! I actually didn’t know until I got there that there was more to Oktoberfest than just Beer and Dirndl’s. It was a full out carnival! Food, drinks, rides, music….CHAOS!! (note to self: ignorance makes for better surprises!)

And with that…a video. This was an absolute blast! The best part is Grit didn’t want to go on the ride so I went with her friends and they don’t speak English… so ya… made it even MORE interesting!

For the photographers viewing this, yes I did take my 5DmkII on a ride that plummets to the ground in a complete free-fall of DEATH. I also don’t edit video much, so this one is pretty silly….nevertheless it was fun and I wanted to share. Yes it was edited in iMovie and not Final Cut Pro.

Oktoberfest. Video Editing.

There’s a learning curve.

For both. ;)

After a VERY weird day of weather, this gorgeous sunset is how it ended. I saw this while driving around and scrambled to get my camera and head to the beach. I hope you like it!

Happy Friday Everyone!

Hey everyone! Today’s blog post idea actually came to me via a nice little spam email I got late last night. No, it wasn’t a special offer for the magic “Blue Pill For Men” or  ”Where to get cheap flights to anywhere I DON’T want to go”…. it was actually entitled: ”How well do you know Photoshop?” …..I have to give them an “E” for Effort, at least these guys are doing SOME research as to who they are emailing lol! It got me thinking….how well DO I know Photoshop? How well do ANY of us know Photoshop?  I have used Photoshop extensively for almost 11 years, I have taught private lessons, I have even assisted in instructing a few larger classes, but I still learn new things almost every day. OF course (and I don’t mean this in a bad way), many photographers know how to use “Actions” (usually made by other photographers and then bought by millions worldwide), which are essentially several individual editing ‘steps’ or  ’tweaks’ done to your image all rolled into a shortcut so you may execute it and look like every other photographer at the click of a button. :) I have to admit, I am guilty of doing this at times, so I don’t condone ‘Actions’ as being wrong, however they should be used as a stepping stone towards a final product of YOUR style, not someone elses… They are great, I just think as photographers we are using other people’s ideas more-so than our own. We won’t get into this, this is a blog post in itself :). But what about all the other stuff? The day-to-day Photoshop tasks such as zooming, opacity, merging layers? Did you know that you can press ‘command+alt+M’ on the keyboard to open up the Curves Dialog Box? Sure it only takes a second or two to click on the Image menu, roll over to the Adjustments menu, and click on ‘Curves’… but what if you have 1000+ images to sort through? (well, first off, you’d probably use Lightroom and save about 8 hours! That too, is a post in itself!). Forming a habit with hotkeys and shortcuts will shred MINUTES off your editing, so you can spend time with your family and friends…away from your office! Time isn’t money. Time is more valuable than money, therefore you should be spending it how you want.

I have done a bit of research and have found  some great links that I would love to share with all of you.

Photoshop Hotkeys for Mac and PC – www.spoono.com

Photoshop Tool Hotkeys and More – www.associatedcontent.com

Top 10 Hotkeys Every Graphic Artist Should Know – www.hyperninja.com 

Go through them and find out what you use the most. Whether you are a seasoned Photoshop Wiz or a beginner willing to learn by experience, these tidbits are certainly worth a look and will save you more time so you can get out into the sun!

My personal favorites that I use all the time (and aren’t even mentioned on the links) are: 

Dodging/Burning Toggle: shift+o
Brush Size Increase: ]
Brush Size Decrease: [
Brush - 1 step Softer Edge: shift+[
Brush - 1 step Harder Edge: shift+]
Opacity: press 1-0 (where  1=10%, 2=20%…0=100&)
Flatten All Visible Layers: mac: command+shift+E    pc : ctrl+alt+shift+E
Dragging an image around (in fullpage mode): hold spacebar + click and drag the mouse to move the image

I hope this was informative! I’d love to hear feedback from all of you!

Have  a great weekend! 

Michael

p.s. I thought I’d add a photo as well, just in case the text was a little TOO on the ‘blah’ side. :)  This abstract shot of Canadian Geese in flight was shot outside my house in Calgary in 2004. Processed in Lightroom and prepared for web in Photoshop. Hope you like it! :)