Hi Gang: As we head into the weekend, here’s what’s up:

McNally Scores Big!
First, a big congrats to our buddy Joe McNally, whose book, “The Moment it Clicks” has been honored with a prestigious 2009 HOT ONE Award from Professional Photographer magazine (here’s the link). Way to go, Big Joe!!!!

A Big Thanks to Bart Babinski
Bart was my guest blogger on Wednesday, and as Howard Schatz’s assistant continued our series featuring the photo assistants of famous photographers. I don’t know if you got to read Bart’s post, but here’s what one of my readers had to say, “Brilliant article. A perfect explanation of the passion for learning. Loved it.” I agree. If you missed it, go back to Wednesday and check it out (plus, there’s a couple of nudie naked photos of nakedness, which is always a plus).

A Photographers Guide to Avoiding Common Business Mistakes Class Live
Another amazingly insightful online class is now online at Kelby Training, this one is from our copyright experts; intellectual property attorney Ed Greenberg, and Photographer’s copyright advocate Jack Reznicki. This is the final segment in their series which has covered everything from model releases to how to register your copyright to protect your work, and now they’re covering common mistakes. This has been an amazing series, so make sure you check out this latest installment (here’s the link).

A Great Learning Tool for Photographers with an iPhone
This new App, called Strobox, lets you create sketches of lighting layouts and even share them with other people. You can drag and drop in a background, a strobe, a softbox—you name it. Now, you might be thinking, “When would I ever use that?” I can tell you where I’ve used a computer-based version of the same thing (except it was a layered Photoshop file). I use it when I go to workshops, or spend time working with another photographer. I can totally map out the lightning set-up they used right there on my phone in just seconds—it’s a great tool for doing just that, and best of all—it’s free!!! Here’s the link.

PhotoFocus Picks Their “Photo Educator of The Year”
I just learned yesterday that PhotoFocus.com had chosen me as their “Photo Educator of the Year,” and am just so honored that they chose to honor me with this award. Although it’s my name on Kelby Training, it’s an organization of nearly 90 full-time employees, and a group of dedicated and truly gifted individuals, and it takes every single of one of them to do what we do as a training organization, and I couldn’t do any of this without them, and I’m so blessed to get to work alongside them, who all share this honor with me today. I want you guys to know that the wonderful people at PhotoFocus.com did the very best thing for me they could possibly do, and that is to send the award in the form of a donation to Now I Lay Me Down To Sleep, which is an outstanding organization (link) that we feel very strongly about at Kelby Training, and it was so fitting that they chose them. My humble thanks to everyone at PhotoFocus who nominated me.

Thanks PC World Magazine!
A shout out to the folks at PC World magazine who included my book, “The Photoshop CS4 Book for Digital Photographers” in their Holiday Gift Guide for digital photographers. Here’s the link.

Another great Gear Guide for Photographers
My buddy Jeff Revell over at Photo Walk Pro put together a really nice gift list this year over at his blog, with some suggestions I hadn’t even thought about (but includes some that will end up on my personal gift list this year). Here’s the link (really nice job, Jeff).

That’s it for today
There’s probably more, but I’m beat! Have a great Friday, and a fantastic weekend!