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Hi everybody! It’s Monday, and while it’s not a happy day to be a Tampa Bay Sports fan (I watched my Bucs lose live at Texas Stadium, and then went back to my hotel room and watched the Tampa Rays lose another World Series game on TV), I can overlook that for now, ’cause it’s time for the news:

  • If you’ve got a friend into photography; have I got a perfect Holiday Gift for them; Barnes & Noble has put together a special “Boxed Set” of my book, “The Digital Photography Book,” where you get both Vol. 1 and Vol. 2, along with a set of four 5×7 prints, for just $35.96 (even less if you’re a B&N member)–that’s it pictured above. You can get this specially boxed set at any Barnes & Noble store, or online at Barnes & Noble.com (link). They printed a limited number of these boxed sets, and I just learned that they’re really going fast, so if you’re interested; better grab a box soon.
  • One of my blog readers (and a NAPP member) Stephen Power from Limerick, Ireland has launched a new photo blog of his own, called “The Snappy Snapper” (you gotta love that name), and his lead off story today is pretty interesting; it’s called “The Problem With Photography Forums.” You can check it out right here.
  • I’m kicking off my Lightroom Tour 2 today in Dallas, Texas to nearly 500 photographers who’ll be joining me for the full-day workshop. My buddy “Hollywood” Mike Kubiesy (the show photographer for NBC’s “Chuck,” along with “NCIS,” “CSI New York,” and a host of other television shows shot out in Hollywood), is hanging out (and assisting me) today, and I’m really looking forward to meeting some new folks, and showing them my latest Lightroom 2 Workflow. My next stop is Orlando, Florida on Wednesday; click here if you want to join me there.
  • MPIX is in the news again; USA Today did a piece on them about how they’re challenging sites like Shutterfly and Kodak Gallery (you can read that here), and Jeff Revell over at PhotoWalk Pro finally took the plunge, and got his first prints back from MPIX last week (you can read Jeff’s comments here).
  • Yesterday, between games, Mike and I walked over to Union Station, an old train station in Downtown Dallas, to shoot some HDR shots of the exterior. I started shooting the outside of the building from the downtown sidewalk, and sure enough; here comes security. The security guard was pretty polite; she asked what we were doing, and I told her I was in town for the game, and then wanted to take some photos of the architecture of the old building. She told me, “Well, they don’t want you taking pictures of the building.” I was polite, but I let her know this was a public sidewalk; and I was well within my rights to shoot it. She let me know again that they didn’t want me shooting it; I let her know they didn’t have the right to stop me (and so I continued on shooting), and I asked her to call the police and let them settle it. She walked away, and I never saw the police, or her, again.

Well, I gotta run. The seminar starts in a few hours, and I’ve got to set everything up. Have a great Monday everybody, and Go Rays! (he said, half heartedly, knowing how few teams in World Series history have come back from a 1-3 deficit).