My Little Helper Carissa

I always look forward to my kids coming home from school. My wife and I are blessed to have the school bus drop our kids off practically on our doorstep. I decided to shovel snow while I waited for the bus to arrive.

Yesterday I did not get a chance to shovel the snow since we had an early call and start time on the other side of town for the Commercial Video Production. I always hate to drive over snow in the driveway-- doing so compresses it and makes it more difficult to clear and causes the snow to turn to ice. It was bad weather yesterday and I broke my rule to get to the set.

This afternoon was my window of opportunity to clear away the snow, ice and slush before it froze again. It's always a pain to remove wet and heavy snow. My youngest child, Carissa, blessed me with her enthusiasm to pitch in and clear the driveway with me. She did an awesome job. We worked together outside for about an hour. As we finished up I decided to turn the work into a photo op. I wanted to share the moment with you.

All these photos were taken on a Canon G9. I am so glad that I purchased the Canon G9 Digital Point and Shoot at the end of last year. It's a super camera and the best production camera I have owned to date! It also takes amazing video. All that from a camera that can fit in my shirt pocket.

Until I Blog again, remember not to take life too seriously and make sure you tell someone that is close to you how much you care for them-- no one knows when our loved ones may depart so we should try to let our loved ones know how much we care for them.

Thanks for reading,

John :)

In front of Camera!

John gets a touch up from stylist Kirsten Roberts.

(One Handed Self portrait taken with a Canon G9 camera. It was more challenging to take a photo myself without moving my head toward the camera-- did not want to make Kirsten's job any harder. It guess you could call this my attempt to take a one handed Candid Self Portrait)

Today was a different experience for me. I drove my kids to a Commercial Video production shoot and I ended up being a part of the production as an extra. Not sure how, when, were and why it will be used. If I would say more, I would be breaking my disclosure agreement. The only thing I can say is that I was an extra and I got paid for it.

I found this experience very educational. For the first time in my life I was on the other side of a Production company that I had nothing to do with. I had friends who were professionals in the industry photograph and video tape my wedding-- so that was different too! For commercial work, in the past when I was used, I was actually brought on as part of the production team and my hand would be used or even once, I was the assistant for a photo ad and the model all at the same time. That ad ran about 10 years ago for University Med Net. I ended up having my head take up practically the full page of the Cleveland Plain Dealer. After it ran, I remember running around my neighborhood recycling the recycled newspaper to get extra copies. That's when I learned how out of registration the color on the Plain Dealer was. I was in a B&W add in which they added a Rubick's Cube in Post. It appeared in my hand in Color.

Unfortunately when I have photographed for newspapers such as the New York Times, I have to go to the newsstand and buy a couple of copies. Newspapers never provide tear sheets. Even though I have photographed for the Boston Globe, I have never seen my photos that have appeared in them. They do not publish locally like the NY Times. Magazine and client work is different-- they provide copies as part of our licensing agreement which makes it a lot easier to acquire tear sheets. After one job is done, I'm off to the next assignment and I do not have the time to track down my tear sheets.

I have to give the director of todays production a lot of credit. He did a great job running the production despite the fact that some of the hired talent gave their unsolicited advice on how things should be to everyone in the room. I chalk this up to lack of experience on their part. I remember hearing a story about a photo assistant that assisted world renowned Cleveland photographer Bob Bender. The assistant suggested to Bob and the client that the tin ceiling be a different color. The client agreed. Bob had to loose a day to paint the ceiling. After the photography was completed, they lost another day to paint the ceiling back to its original color. Needles to say, Bob never used the assistant again and the client ended up going with the original photo before the ceiling was painted. If you see something wrong in a photo, let the director or photographer know in a discreet way. An extra set of eyes and ears can be a good thing, but you don't know what the camera is seeing unless you are looking through the camera!

Until I Blog again, remember not to take life too seriously and make sure you tell someone that is close to you how much you care for them-- no one knows when our loved ones may depart so we should try to let our loved ones know how much we care for them.

Thanks for reading,

John :)

Keeping Your Creativity Alive Weekly

(magazine above: February 2008 Creativity Cover)

As a creative professional I am constantly looking for avenues to expand my creative thinking and to learn and view work from other creatives. I am a member of ASMP (American Society of Media Photographers) and our local chapter ASMP/ONC use to have a program entitled "Ideas and Images" This was a fantastic program that I would love to see brought back. The organizer would select 4-5 presentors and have them present anything they wished for 20 minutes. Such notable presenters were F. Eugene Smith who is an Architect who discussed beautifying our cities with signage and minimizing the ugliness-- through burying overhead electrical and telephone wires, etc. He showed some before and after slides that really made us think how much more creative and beautiful things would be if we really took the time to care and think about beautifying our environment. There was another presenter that discussed his interests in Tea Ceremonies.The program ran for about two hours and everyone loved the program. The programs ran for a number of years back in the olden days of the last century and utilized slide projectors before we all had Power Point or Keynote presentations. (editors note: I just came back from a conference in Dayton, OH and there was one presenter that used a slide projector. I can't remember the last time before this that I saw a slide projector being used in this century. Funny how times change!) This program was what first attracted me to ASMP and can be credited for having me join ASMP back in 1994.

I found a weekly substitute for this Ideas and Images program through Creativity. Creativity is a monthly magazine (in print form) that I subscribe to that has started to offer a weekly top 5 video synopsis (on their web site) of the top 5, or to quote Creativity: "a weekly video recap of the Creative you need to know." Creativity goes on to describe: "it's all here in a concentrated, 5-minute, 5-item video treat" You can visit the top 5 at Creativity-Online.com/top5


Until I Blog again, remember not to take life too seriously and make sure you tell someone that is close to you how much you care for them-- no one knows when our loved ones may depart so we should try to let our loved ones know how much we care for them.

Thanks for reading,

John :)

Senator McCain speaks to NE Ohioans in Rocky River (Cleveland)

Today was another political rally that I was out on assignment for-- this time covering John McCain's Rocky River Town Hall meeting. The highlight of the event was the audiences question and answer session. Senator McCain had great expressions when he answered the audience. One man asked if he (McCain) supported the draft. McCain said that he would enact special legislation for a draft of only one-- that would be him-- the man who asked the question. McCain then popped back to seriously answer the question.

My favorite photographs from this rally (like the Obama Cleveland rally) were from a lower angle of coverage so I could include the more colorful background behind McCain and to add more depth to the photographs of people in soft focus infront of McCain. The McCain rally was smaller than both Obama rallies and the backgrounds had a more polished look-- they had less area to decorate and therefore were able to more thoroughly decorate the backgrounds with the American flag, McCain posters, etc.


Rocky River Rally:

Press Q&A after Rally:

All images ©2008 John C. Kieger / www.KiegerPhoto.com


Until I Blog again, remember not to take life too seriously and make sure you tell someone that is close to you how much you care for them-- no one knows when our loved ones may depart so we should try to let our loved ones know how much we care for them.

Thanks for reading,

John :)

GasBuddy's Map Feature: the Google maps of Gas Prices

Many of you are familiar with Google Maps and I'm sure a good many of you have searched the internet for great values on gas prices. Imagine if the two could be combined. Well the wait is over. I just stumbled accross a site that offers prices posted on a map that uses the Ajax platform to allow you to move around and zoom in or out of the map. The site is GasBuddy's Maps!

Give it a try for yourself:

Search for gas prices by US Zip Code

If you would rather search the site with a traditional text search you can do that as well (see below):

Search for gas prices by US Zip Code

Until I Blog again, remember not to take life too seriously and make sure you tell someone that is close to you how much you care for them-- no one knows when our loved ones may depart so we should try to let our loved ones know how much we care for them.

Thanks for reading,

John :)

Barack Obama Rallies in NE Ohio (Akron + Cleveland)

Today was a busy day for me. I was out on assignment covering both the Akron and the Cleveland "Keeping America's Promise" rallies with Barack Obama. Obama ended up arriving a 1 & 1/2 hours late to Akron which in turn threw off the Cleveland rally as well.

Both rallies were very different atmospheres. The Akron rally was a smaller and more intimate event whereas the Cleveland event was significantly larger and had more people in the backgrounds that detracted from the photographs. For some of the coverage in Cleveland I opted for a lower angle of coverage to give a cleaner background behind Obama and to add more depth to the photographs. I ended up leaving the Akron rally early to allow time to arrive in Cleveland so I only was able to photograph the meeting the crowd in Cleveland.


Akron Rally:

Cleveland Rally:

Meeting the crowd in Cleveland:

All images ©2008 John C. Kieger / www.KiegerPhoto.com


Until I Blog again, remember not to take life too seriously and make sure you tell someone that is close to you how much you care for them-- no one knows when our loved ones may depart so we should try to let our loved ones know how much we care for them.

Thanks for reading,

John :)

Jott: Creating and e-mail or Blog Entry ViaVoice, or at least the modern equivalent!

Imagine calling a toll free phone number and hearing "Who do you want to Jott . . . Got It!" What in the world is John talking about? I originally titled this piece "Creating an e-mail or Blog Entry via phone! As soon as I started to write this down, I realized everyone would think it was a pretty easy thing to do-- you just need an iPhone or other web enabled Smart Cellphone. Actually what I am referring to is a nifty WebApp called Jott. This WebApp from Jott networks allows anyone with toll free 800 phone access to access their web server. Like many Apps on the web, it is currently totaly free. Yep, you can essentially call from anywhere in the U.S. to access your account to e-mail them from your pre-defined Jott e-mail address book. The Jott Application is a Voice voice to text transcription service program.

How well does it work? The first time I tried it I was amazed. It can sometimes take some time transcribing your spoken word. If you are speaking difficult words you can spell them out to aide in the accuracy of the transcription. After your voice is transcribbed, it provieds its own evaluation of the specific "transcription confidence" such as:
Transcription Confidence: HIGH
Transcription Confidence: FAIR

If it is not very confident and states "Transcription Confidence: FAIR" it may be best to click on the link enclosed with the e-mail message to your original voice recording. That's a great feature that you can use even if you don't have a Jott Account!

Obviously you would not want to Jott anything that is private or sensitive in nature since everything is being stored on the Jott Servers.


Jott allows its users to be able to "Jott" notes to themselves or others when it wouldn't normally be safe to do so such as when you are driving a car, as the video illustrated.

The WebApp also comes in handy for people who might not be as internet or computer savvy. (Note: a friend would have to set up the account for this type of person). They could communicate with someone who is constantly on-line when they are constantly off-line. The only downside-- it ends up being a one sided conversation-- the on-line person could not communicate back via on-line. Wait a minute, they could resort to an 1870s device to communicate back. That 1870s device is, ofcourse, the Telephone!

Until I Blog again, remember not to take life too seriously and make sure you tell someone that is close to you how much you care for them-- no one knows when our loved ones may depart so we should try to let our loved ones know how much we care for them.

Thanks for reading,

John :)

Google introduces GOOG-411

Google has introduced GOOG-411 as a toll free directory assistance number for anyone to use for free anywhere in the United States.
They will even connect you to the looked up phone number for free. The service appears to just be for business right now. One word of caution-- when you are connected the phone conversations are recorded so don't call at talk about something private!


Until I Blog again, remember not to take life too seriously and make sure you tell someone that is close to you how much you care for them-- no one knows when our loved ones may depart so we should try to let our loved ones know how much we care for them.

Thanks for reading,

John :)

Pre-Blogging

Pre-Bloggging:

What in the world is Pre-Blogging? Well I'm not sure if anyone else has coined this term before. It might just be a Kiegerism. A Kiegerism is something in which I created!

A little known secret about blogging is that you can customize and edit the post date. Why would one ever do that, you ask. Simple. It allows you to slack off and not write in your blog for a while, such as when a loved one is in the hospital dying or when you are really sick! By customizing the header date- it just means you are telling when, chronologically, the event happened-- for historical purposes and not when it was written.

To read my Pre-Blog please select the label filter "Pre-Blog" and then you will read everything in my life before January 5th, 2006.

Anyhow, I have decided to post events in my life that occurred before my Blog existed. I hope you like this concept. Feel free to post a comment here on the concept!

Nancy Moore, Shaker Heights Vice-Mayor

Today I have the privilege of photographing Nancy Moore, who is Vice Mayor of the City of Shaker Heights, other council duties include: Chair, Neighborhood Revitalization Committee; Member, Finance Committee, Economic Development Task Force, and Tree Advisory Board. She had been past President of the Shaker Heights Board of Education and she has always been very involved in the community. It was fun scouting locations for the photography since Nancy's house provided such a beautiful background. The first series of photographs were taken when Nancy was being interviewed by Jen Proe. The second series of photographs were environmental portraits.

Candids during Interview:

Environmental Portraits:

Assisting Dennis Brack

While reading Chris Walters photo blog, I came across his "How Photog's work the State of the Union" and much to my suprise the video included an interview with Dennis Brack. That took be back down memory lane when I assisted Dennis on a job here in Cleveland about ten years ago. Dennis gives a lot back to the photo community and went out of his way to mentor me.

Dennis has won awards from the National Newspaper Photographers Association, the White House News Photographers Association and the World Press Association. For the past ten years,member of the five member board of the Still Photographers Gallery of the U.S. Senate. Member of the Executive Committee of the White House News Photographers Association.

Here is what I commented on in Chris' Blog:

Great job Chris!

I really enjoyed watching this video on the Washington photographers photographing the State of the Union. I had the pleasure of Assisting Dennis Brack when he came to Cleveland about 10 years ago or so. He was shooting with his Canon Film Cameras then with the old style of Chimping with the Polaroid Back on one of the Canon EOS cameras. I can not say enough great things about Dennis. I have assisted many great nationally recognized photographers, but he was the only one who immediately became my mentor. A week after I worked with him he mailed the book "MAGNUM Fifty Years at the Front Line of History" by Russell Miller.

The Other thing I remember about working with Dennis was his little film case which was his fathers Amo Case from the Korean War that was made out of a Black Rubberized material.

Another Blackstar photographer I have had the pleasure of working with has been Cleveland's Mike Steinberg (http://www.ComPhotography.com)

I too was impressed with the fact that David Burnett supplemented his digital photography coverage with a 4x5 Graflex style "MentorReflex" camera. I also enjoyed his candor stating that he only shot 10 frames and would be excited if he had one or two interesting shots-- it would be a big deal. I wonder if he was shooting B&W 4x5 or if it was Color E-6 or Color Neg. It was funny that he said he liked brining the 4x5 because in the digital age it is good to sweat every now and then. The 4x5 looked a little heavy-- did he mean sweating from carrying it or sweating until he found out if any of the photos turned out!

On my blog (http://www.WhereIsJK.com) I have talked about my photography, TechTalk (info about photoshop, lightroom, computers, etc.)

I like this section that you call musings where you share some insight into the photo biz section. I think I'm going to drop Dennis a line this next we and say hi!

Thanks again Chris!

- John C. Kieger :)

This was such an awesome interview with a bunch of photographers in the White House Press Corps that I have decided to post it here as well:




This video was originally posted on the Photo Business News & Forum.

Until I Blog again, remember not to take life too seriously and have a great Weekend,

John :)

FaceBook and Re-Aquanting myself to my past!

I just turned forty in January and have lost touch with a lot of friends from the past. Not only that, but I started my wedding photography career photographing weddings for other studios. It was a great way to master wedding photography. It was sort of like my commercial photography business. I first started my commercial photography business assisting other commercial photographers. In fact, I would recommend this to anyone who wants to get started in wedding or commercial photography. There is a ton of information you can learn from a seasoned professional.

Well, my point is that with many of the wedding clients that I had early in my career I met and photographed their weddings through other studios. Since I created my FaceBook account yesterday, I have had some really awesome high school and college re-acquainting(s)-- that is with my classmates that I grew up with. It has been less than 24 hrs and I have touched base with a lot of awesome people that I should never have lost track of.

After I woke up this morning, I started to think-- I have had similar connections and bonding with clients from the past.

If you come across this blog and have been trying to find out whatever happened to John Kieger please click on my FaceBook account and feel free to invite me to be your friend. I know it sounds strange-- you should not have to invite me to be your friend. It should be "Re-Connect" to John.

I also have a LinkedIn account as well. In fact I was able to connect with a bride who I lost contact with who moved to Chicago.

If I have lost contact with you I look forward to hearing from you.

If you really don't want to join FaceBook, please send me an e-mail or post a comment here on my blog.

Until I Blog again, remember not to take life too seriously and have a great Week,

John :)

Brunch @ Blue Canyon Restaurant

Today my family and I went to the Blue Canyon Restaurant for Sunday Brunch. I always love the wonderful Cheese Blintzes. I can never get enough of them!

The Smoked Salmon was also quite tasty.

The Buffet room is quit spacious and allows many to come through without much congestion.

Like the Europeans, I always like to have Salad for the last course. As you can see the mixed greens are fabulous!

Well maybe not the very last course. There is always Dessert!

They also offer a selection of Twinsburg, OH famous George's Donuts too!

Worth noting, Chef Brandt makes his own spices which he sells to his customers too!

Chinese Academy of Cleveland Celebrates the Chinese New Year with the Shaker Heights Public School

The Chinese Academy of Cleveland moved their school to the Shaker Heights Middle School this summer. The Shaker Heights School District and the Academy both have benefited from this association. All Elementary School Children in the 1st and 2nd grade at the Shaker Schools learn Mandarin Chinese. They School District works with exchange teachers from Mainland China to teach these Shaker students. They also offer Mandarin at Shaker Heights High School. This year these students celebrated alongside the Academy's student this Saturday February 9th, 2008. I was the photographer for the event and below are some of the images from the event.











Until I Blog again, remember not to take life too seriously and have a great Weekend,

John :)

Sarah & Caleb - engagement session

Family Fall Fest

Every year the Shaker Family Center has their Family Fall Fest. Here are some of the images that I provided them. As the photographs illustrate, children look forward to this event each and every year.

Neighborhood Pharmacist

Last week I had the pleasure of photographing Phil Parsons for CVS/pharmacy Caremark. This was a fantastic photo assignment to work on. Not only did I remember him from my old local pharmacy from twenty years ago in my old neighborhood, but it ended up being a great reunion as I became re-acquainted with neighbors from years gone by. Loved by the community, Pharmacist Parsons still takes the time to care and interact with each of his customers-- no wonder why he is this years winner of the "CVS Caremark Paragon Award", a very prestigious award honoring the best of the best.

It not only was a fun assignment for me, but my client loved the results as well:

"What you have uploaded is exactly what we were looking for. You were worth every penny." - EH, Advertising Ventures, Inc.

A Classic Wedding

Last Saturday I had the pleasure of photographing Melissa & Tim's Cleveland wedding. We all had a wonderful time at St. Ann's Church in Cleveland Heights followed by the reception at Manakiki in Willoughby Hills. Despite the rain that day, Tim still brought out the family's classic Corvette. Sammy's always does a great job catering and the rain had passed in the afternoon so all were able to enjoy the beautiful weather outside.

Jeanne Freeman Smith 9/21/1910-4/3/2007, My Grandma

My Grandma & Grandpa gave me a $4000 loan back in 1991 so I could buy my first Hasselblad system to photograph weddings & commercial work in medium format. I will be eternally grateful for their generosity. This is the first photograph taken with my Hasselblad Classic kit-- a Hasselblad 500 C/M w/ an 80mm CF f2.8 lends with Ektachrome (EPP) Color Transparency film. This is one of my most cherished photographs. It was taken outside their house and illustrates a very happy time in their life. I am truly blessed to have a career in which I can capture precious moments of people for generations to come.

My Grandmother just passed away on April 3rd and I spoke at the memorial service. My Grandfather passed away on December 13th of 1997.

Here is what I said:

Jeanne Freeman Smith 9/21/1910-4/3/2007

My earliest memory of my grandmother is indeed not my memory, but hers. She told me how she held me, rocking me in the rocking chair, when I was very very sick. She was terrified that I was going to die and she loved me so very much and did not want me to die. She rocked me back to health. She was always the one to go to when you were sick or sad or having trouble. Grandma--- the giver of unconditional love.

I remember going on walks with Grandma to the Five & Dime store @ Cedar Center. Later in life it would be shopping on the west side @ Parmatown mall.

I'm so fortunate that my children got to meet Grandma Jeanne. I never got to meet any of my Great Grandparents. Jeanne was different things to different people. I never knew Jeanne as a mother, that was who my mom & aunt knew. I knew Jeanne as my Grandma who I was so very close to. Will & Carissa never knew that Jeanne. They knew Great Grandma Jeanne. We all evolve over our lifetime into different parts of a whole. Each moment in time represents a different part of us, of our lives.

The night before Grandma Jeanne died, Will & I had a discussion about life and death and how none of us go on living forever. We talked about how Grandma Jeanne would probably end up being the next one to die. We talked about how fortunate we were to have known her and how grateful we were to have seen her one last time over Thanksgiving in Washington. I now believe that this was the Holy Spirit talking to us letting both Will & I know about Grandma Jeanne's condition. It was indeed Grandma Jeanne asking permission to leave this world and join her husband, Charles Smith.

Inner Beauty & a look at Dove's Beauty, Aging & Self-esteem campaigns

I have always felt that true beauty comes from within and that we all change and age over time. This true beauty is best captured candidly and naturally. This is one of the reasons that I feel so privileged to be a photographer who documents special events as they unfold. We all have unique life experiences and stories. I've always been drawn to people as a subject matter. I truly enjoy capturing one's personality on film, and now digitally-- so one's loved ones, historians and all of us can cherish. Isn't it remarkable how most people can be moved by a spectacularly photographed emotional event of a child, wedding couple, and so on. It involves the human element, it involves people's inner beauty coming through the protective shells that we learn to create! I enjoy capturing those special moments!

Dove's Real Beauty Ad campaign(s) illustrates this marvelously. I just came across a neat little video about the Evolution of Beauty. This covers the distorted "myth" of shallow unrealistic "beauty." Dove created it to explain "All this talk about fashion models and extreme dieting. How did our idea of beauty become so distorted?" It actually can be argued that this "Beauty" is not beauty, but fashion that comes and goes with the times-- a 1950s model is so very different from one today by these false standards.

I hope you enjoy the clip as much as I did. It is part of their Campaign for Real Beauty.

Dove answers "Why the Campaign for Real Beauty?

For too long, beauty has been defined by narrow, stifling stereotypes. Women have told us it's time to change all that. Dove agrees. We believe real beauty comes in many shapes, sizes and ages. That is why Dove is launching the Campaign for Real Beauty."

Other campaigns they have following the same theme deal with girls and low self-esteem .
(This low self-esteem ad by far, is my favorite commercial in the campaign to date.)

Their most recent campaign deals with the slightly older group:


This is their anti-anti-aging Ad campaign for their "Dove ProAge" where they feature "real" aging 50+ & 60+ women in the campaign. If you have problems viewing the campaign or you want to see it again you can view it: Here.

Information on all of the campaigns can be found at www.campaignforrealbeauty.com/

Military Retirement Ceremony

On Saturday, I had the pleasure of photographing a retirement ceremony for Army Colonel Cheryl Kyle at Executive Caterers at Landerhaven. She served as a nurse in the Army and is currently completing a PhD in Health Services Administration. She told me she wanted to wear her Battle Dress Uniform since she wore it for most of her career and wanted to retire wearing it. Many wonderful speakers paid tribute to her, including: Rev. Dr. Henry J. Payden, Sr., Frmr. U.S. Congressman Louis Stokes, U.S. Congresswoman Stephanie Tubbs Jones, Warrensville Heights Mayor Marcia L. Fudge, Esq., just to name a few. She surprised a colleague with a promotion ceremony. Both she and her colleague were pinned with their Colonel's wings that night.

eBay and money making!

I just found out some interesting info about web offers. People actually sell off these offers on ebay!

For example:

Make a PayPal purchase of $30 or more by March 31 and you will recieve a $15 rebate. You must first register your email. The rebate can be used only one time. The complete terms and conditions are found on the PayPal website.

Take a look at this:



This free offer:
http://paypal.promotionexpert.com/greatshopping/signup/200702/bannerout_s.html?route=bannerout.s

Is being sold here on ebay.

Highest bid currently is $1.50

What an interesting way to make money. I wonder how "Legal" this is and I also wonder if Paypal would refund the $ under their insurance policy they offer if the individual pays via Paypal. I also wonder if it was worth the time to create the auction for the individual.

Adobe Photoshop Lightroom Update

Adobe Photoshop Lightroom will be released on February 19th. You will be able to order it for only $199 for a limited time. After that period the retail price will be $299.

More information about the actual Photoshop Lighroom release



You can still download the Beta version of Adobe® Photoshop Lightroom™ until its expiration on February 28th.

Until I post again, have fun, remember not to take life too seriously and have a great week,

John :)

Photoshop CS3 Beta

Adobe Announces the (pre-)release of Adobe® Photoshop CS3 Beta!

Photoshop CS3 Beta was is currently only available for Photoshop CS2 owners. Adobe decided to make this Beta version available to the general public of registered PS CS2 users because of the Mac Universal Binary issue. This is "Adobe's way of delivering native performance on Intel based systems many months earlier than [they] otherwise could have done." It is available for both Macs & PCs. Macs need: OS 10.4.8 (Tiger) +, PowerPC G4 or G5 or Intel Mac with at least 320MB RAM , 64MB VRAM. Windows PCs need: Intel Pentium 4, Intel Centrino, Intel Xeon, or Dual-Core Intel Xeon processor, Windows XP Service Pack 2 or Windows Vista, 320MB RAM, 64MB VRAM . I have not yet gotten a chance to play with it yet on my Mac-- I still don't have Tiger, I just have Panther (10.3), but I'm playing with it on my PC. I'm most excited about the Smart Filters. I currently use and love Smart Objects with Camera Raw and Smart Filters are just an extension of this concept by offering the ability to "redo" or "tweak" the filter after it has already been applied.

If you are a PS CS2 user, I urge you to download the Demo. If you are not a CS2 user and want to see some of the Camera Raw Functionality, I suggest you see my previous post on Adobe Lightroom which is now available for PCs as well and has been renames Adobe Photoshop Lightroom.

I'm still not sure how Ligthroom will work with or be integrated with Photoshop.

Until I post again, have fun, remember not to take life too seriously and have a great week,

John :)

Acrobat's Cool Typewriter Tool

I Just came across this coo