Quick Hit Monday: Imaging USA Off to a Great Start; Top 100 iPhone/iPad Apps; Photoshop Tuts and Tips; and 200 Windows Shortcuts

Good Morning Everybody,

We landed in San Antonio on Friday and spent Saturday hanging with my brother who made the trip from Austin.  We don’t see each other often so it was good to get together. What I love about this convention is the fact that you get to catch up with all your friends you’ve made over the years from around the country. I’m enjoying the many HI’s and HELLO’s from the minute we hit the Marriott lobby.

PPA Charities Party Kicks Off The Convention.

Saturday evening was Imaging USA’s Charities Auction hosted by Texas School the largest annual week long get together of photographers in the country.  About 1200 photogs get together to learn from over 53 instructors conducting 35 classes. 

My class was sold out the day registration opened but there are still a lot a great classes waiting for you to check out.  Here is the link right here.  Here’s a photo of me with co-instructor Sam Puc.  Every one was having a great time at the party.  PPA Charities raised over $100,000 last year – WOW!

OK, who is that crazy monster with Sam and I? It’s the Ukandu monster.  Sam has just launched her Ukandu monster marketing campaign and I grabbed the opportunity to get my photo with Sam and the monster. Sam gave me a quick overview of Ukandu – marketing muscle for only $20 bucks per campaign -  but it’s best you check it out right it.

Another fun thing that happened was meeting the Grand Prize winners of our Digital WakeUp Call 2009 tour.  Blanca and Alex, owners of Blanca-Duran Photography, came up and said Hi. They continue to be so enthusiastic and bubbling about winning our $7500 grand prize – it was a nice visit. Check out their website and blog right here – some nice images.

Yesterday was the start of the Imaging USA Convention in San Antonio and things certainly began with a bang.

Top 100 iPhone/iPad Apps

I love the TOP 10 lists many bloggers post each year. Heck, I'm doing the same thing this week. One of my favorite sites to visit on occasion is Terry White's Top App site [link]. I don't know where he finds the time to research all the apps he ferrets each week but I'm glad he does.

If you are an iPad/iPhone/iPod app junkie you will love his Top 100 apps list of 2010 right here. I still need to review the list to see if I've missed anything. It's a fun read and he's got quite a few gems on his list.

Now A Few Photoshop Whiz-bang Tuts and Tips

Cool Senior Illustrations

Last week I stumbled on some pretty cool Photoshop tutorials. The first one can be found at TemplatePhotoshop.com. My good buddies at ACI Labs sponsor a Video of the Week and this one is quite well done on how to apply makeup in Photoshop.

What I loved about the tutorial is the very cool high school illustration pieces he was producing. I thought Woody Walters idea was one of the most original new product ideas I have seen recently. Check out the tutorial right here.

Adding Skies, Any Skies To Your Image

OK, I have to admit - I saw this in an email I received last week from Gavin Phillips pitching how easy it was to add skies and clouds to any image. I watched the video and liked what I saw. Gavin's multitude of skies can really change the look of an image dramatically. Check it out right here.

Histograms And Photoshop

PSDTUTS [link] has a nice series on understanding histograms and how you can get your best exposure.  Photoshop Basix, by Adobe Certified Expert and Instructor, Martin Perhiniak includes 25 short video tutorials, around 5 – 10 minutes in length that will teach you all the fundamentals of working with Photoshop.

This is Part 5 of the series.  The topic - What Does a Histogram Tell Us will explain the Histogram panel; specifically the Shadow/Highlights and Levels adjustments. This is a nice “gold nugget” find on the web – check it out right here.

200 Windows 7 Shortcuts All For Free!

Sorry MAC fans this is for PC users only ;~)  I get weekly updates from PC World about what’s happening in the world of computers.  Many times there are some nice treasures in their e-newsletter.  I thought this article could be helpful to lots of our DPT readers, hence the post. 

This 43-page guide covers not only the OS, but also apps like Calculator, WordPad, Windows Media Player, and Internet Explorer. It's arguably the most comprehensive keyboard-shortcut guide I've ever seen. You can download it right here.

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Hey gang, that's it for me today. We've got a full day so we need to hit the road. Don't forget, if you are reading this in San Antonio, plan to stop by at my program tomorrow and say "HI".

Adios, David