Gee...ANOTHER Photoshop Blog

Whatever would possess a man to start a NEW BLOG in this day of millions and millions of blogs?

Two things.

FIRST: I remember how tough it was to get a handle on Photoshop in the beginning. My choices for "learning how to do stuff" came from three sources. I could battle my way though dry dry manuals written by joyless people. I could pick up a few instructional gems on-line for free (and find myself added to dozens of SPAM lists). OR I could spend time with well meaning but misinformed instructors who offered their "expertise" for free.

Learning Photshop is tough.

SECOND: I am hoping that you like what you see here enough that you will come to my website at http://www.photoshopbasics.com/ and learn a little more about this great software.

When I was starting with Photoshop, I was surrounded by people who knew WAY more than I did about it. Much of what I learned was absorbed and gleaned from listening.

Wouldn't it be GREAT to create a community for people who are brand new to Photoshop? People could trade ideas...concepts...they can learn new techniques...they could post their art.

Photoshop gives your imagination wings. Honest. If you can visualize it...you can create it.

You won't have to deal with condescending "experts" here or there. I promise.

So that's what my main site is about. We've set up a Facebook community as well as creating publishing some downloadable courses. Click on the link above to find out more. (You KNOW you want to...)

THIS site is designed to record some of the growth pains of trying to set up a Photoshop basics site...you'll find all the actual instruction in Photoshop at http://www.photoshopbasics.com/.

This site exists to draw you to that one...and to allow one voice to float around cyberspace and chronicle the growth pains.

Photoshop Basics actually began around the year 2000. I had this idea that I COULD have learned all the stuff I NEEDED to know in about six hours.

1) You need to know where the Important Stuff is.
2) You need to know what the Important Stuff does.
3) You need to know how to SELECT Stuff.
4) You need to know how to CHANGE Stuff (y'know...Filters, plug-ins and the like)
5) You need to understand LAYERS...because that's what gives Photoshop it's creative wheels.

That's it. Beyond all this -- it's all blah blah stuff.

So the first inception of the site was developed with the aid of a webmaster from Halifax who didn't listen to anything I said. People had to order the courses and wait for the discs to arrive. (Memory size on these courses was MASSIVE because I wanted the Basics Course to have full screen "live" tutorials.)

I sold some.

THEN, about six months ago, I chose to take on a partner who knows much more about things of the Web than I do. Our shiny new site us up and running as of last week. The Facebook community is up -- and hopefully we'll see YOU there.

People can download courses now. That means I don't have to be burning discs all the time and hotfooting it over to the post office with orders. We've even revised the payment system so people can work with PayPal instead of the payment people we HAD been working with.

Will you, good reader, take a second to go to our new site? We'd really appreciate knowing what you think. You'll find regular postings of reviews and basic techniques there.

I'll continue here because it feels kind of good. Even if there is a very good possibility that I am talking to myself.

Ahem.