Hi everybody:
Before we get to some news quickies; just a quick thanks for my friend Bert Monroy for honoring us with his inspirational guest blog yesterday. Really wonderful words wrapped in beautiful images. You sir, rock!!!

Now, onto the news:

Two new DVDs from Vincent Versace come with something very cool!
Vinny is always “pulling a rabbit out of his hat” and I have to tell you; this one is very slick indeed, because if you pre-order one of Vincent’s new training DVDs (called Welcome to Oz 2.0), as a bonus you get a full copy of OnOne Software’s FocalPoint 1.0 plug-in for Photoshop. What’s particularly cool about this is—the software isn’t a demo version, or a crippled version in any way—it’s the full software (and you can even upgrade it when a new version comes out, which is usually not the case when you get a deal like this). Anyway, you can find out all the details right here.

Joe McNally’s Next Stop For His Location Lighting Seminar is Coming up Nov. 6th in Los Angeles, then onto New York City on Thurs Nov., 12th.
After selling out Washington DC with over 900 photographers, and literally blowing everybody away (you can’t believe the rave reviews we’re getting on Joe’s seminar!), Joe McNally is making his final stops with his Kelby Training Live location lighting tour this year in Los Angeles on Friday, November 6th, and then New York City on Thursday, November 12th, and if you’ve been waiting to have Joe show you exactly how it’s all done, here’s where you get all the info. This day will blow you away! (the photo above, from Joe’s DC seminar, courtesy of Joe).

It is just me…
Or is the judging this season on “Dancing With the Stars” incredibly inconsistent? I know this has absolutely nothing to do with Photoshop or photography or anything, but come on—I can hardly concentrate on this other stuff when Len is giving a free pass to stars who dance as stiff as a board, but then he hammers Mya, who dances like a real pro. What’s he got against Mya? It’s almost like two of the judges are watching one routine, and the other is watching something entirely different. I’ve always enjoyed “Dancing” but having both Dancing and “So You Think you Can Dance” going on at the same time really shows the difference between the quality and consistency of the judging on “So you think” (which I think is very even most of the time) vs. Dancing, where you have no idea what the judges will think about a particular dance, and the chances of them agreeing is very slim. Ugh!

Photographer Matt Lange Chronicles His Trip to Photo Plus Expo in New York Last Week
I mentioned that I talked Matt Lange (the photographer I shot the Louisiana Tech football game with two weeks ago), and his buddy Donald Page into coming to New York for the Photo Plus Expo show last week, and he put together a post with words and pictures chronicling his trip, the people he met, and the experiences he had. If you’ve got a minute, it’s worth checking out, as this was Matt’s first time in New York, and that experience, for anybody, is pretty amazing in and of itself, but his story really makes you want to plan to go to PPE next year. Here’s the link to check it out.

This Guy is Good
That’s the subject line of an email I got from Brad Moore yesterday, describing the work of photographer Ryan Schude, and after looking at his stuff—I totally agree. Now, his style is pretty wild (and his shoots look really complex), so if you’re in the mood for some (a) really good (b) wild (c) complex photography, take 60 seconds and check out this work (my guess is; you’ll spend a lot more than 60 seconds once you get there. This guy is good!). Here’s the link.

See Ya Tomorrow!
Have a great Thursday everybody, and I hope to see you right back here tomorrow.