As I finish up the REMAKE (DVconfidential 2.0) of this blog - that is scheduled to be launched next Monday - I stopped long enough to become the leader of this past week’s Photo Walk in Safety Harbor, Florida, for Scott Kelby’s Worldwide Photo Walk.

I met some absolutely great people who were also top notch photographers. I was so impressed with our whole group! There were about 45 of us who braved the rain, and on top of everyone being so polite and helpful to each other, everyone took really great photographs even in difficult conditions. As proof of this, in my first pass through all 316 images that were uploaded to our Safety Harbor Group Flickr account, I decided to pick out my Top 40. Would you believe that every single person (29 who uploaded + 1 that uploaded for multiple family members) was represented in that Top 40 list? It’s true! And that’s pretty amazing… I hope everyone is as happy with their images as I am looking at all of them!

But there could only be one winner from our little group (to get the new Scott Kelby book) and that person was named: FSUDAFT on Flickr, who’s real name I believe is Michael Pino. He won for his shot appropriately titled Safety Harbor. I think he captured the essence of the day post-Fay (Tropical Storm/Hurricane), but he did it with great composition and in a new and unique way.

Safety Harbor

What I also really liked was that he had some other great photos taken that day, that were in a completely different style and photographic genre, that also turned out fantastic. For example, check out:

Rain Drop on a Flower

Ant on Tiles

I also want to call a special attention to our two youngest photowalkers who put up absolutely fantastic images. If you haven’t taken a look at their photo-stream, you owe it to yourself to take a look. If I had 1/10th of their talent at their age… ;->

Katelynn Antonelli, age 13 - Photos

Nils Sheppard, age 10 - Photos

Now that the Photo Walk competition part is over (Scott will announce the worldwide winner on his Blog on Friday) I will go ahead and upload some of my shots to my Flickr account over the weekend. If you’re on Flickr and you want to connect with me, all you need to do is add me as a Contact. It’s real easy to do and here are instructions for 2 different ways to do this.

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I’m going to be working hard at the 2008 WEVA Conference and Expo next week in Orlando, Florida. I’ll be doing 3 different seminars as well as working and answering questions in the Adobe Booth and making several appearances in the WEVA Expo Theater sponsored by Adobe. If you’re planning on attending, please come by and say HI!

Here is the info and schedule from the WEVA Show website

Adobe After Effects: Quick-Start Boot Camp Rod Harlan, DV Confidential Monday: 1:00pm - 3:00pm ($55)

Not sure which effects suite is right for you? Here’s your chance to get a good look under the hood of Adobe After Effects and uncover new ways to jump-start your creative juices. Learn the basics from renowned Adobe trainer Rod Harlan who takes you through an intense overview of powerful new After Effects applications you can begin using immediately. Learn how to get started and up-to-speed quickly. Discover time-saving short-cuts, new techniques, and amazing AE creativity you can save and use again and again to create unique productions that command higher dollars.

Photoshop CS3 Extended for Video Rod Harlan, Dynamic Media Editor of Layers Magazine & Founder of Digital Video Professional Association Tuesday: 8:30pm - 9:30pm

Photoshop CS3 Extended offers many new options that work well for motion graphics designers. Join Layer Magazine’s Dynamic Media Editor, Rod Harlan as he walks you through the many new facets found in the king of design programs.

From importing video layers to working the Timeline, setting keyframes, animating layers, applying filters to video, creating video smart objects, rendering animations to video, choosing the right codec and much more! Photoshop CS3 Extended will change how you work with video and build animation elements.

Advanced Techniques for Dynamic Motion Menus Rod Harlan, Dynamic Media Editor of Layers Magazine & Founder of Digital Video Professional Association Wednesday: 5:00pm - 6:00pm

Nationally renown educator and trainer Rod Harlan shows you to combine the power of Photoshop Extended and After Effects along with your favorite DVD authoring program to create dynamic motion menus. Learn the advantages as well as pitfalls to avoid in using this popular industry workflow.

ADOBE THEATER SCHEDULE
(located on the show floor)

Tues Aug 12
12:30–Adobe technology preview- the future is here for videographers- Dennis
1:30– Effects tips and tricks for wedding videos–Rod
2:30– Streamline your wedding video workflow from shoot to delivery with Adobe Production Premium–Dennis
3:30– Tips & Tricks for Weddings Videos–Javier
4:30—WEVA Latino—Adobe Tips & Tricks Presented Spanish- Frank Hernadez or Javier- John Zale arranging

Weds Aug 13
12:30–Tips & Tricks for Weddings Videos–Javier
1:30– Increase client services by delivering your video content everywhere–Dennis
2:30– Effects tips and tricks for wedding videos–Rod
3:30– Polished audio: Synchronize audio to your project and sweeten it with sound effects –Dennis
4:30– WEVA Latino—Adobe Tips & Tricks Presented Spanish Frank Hernadez or Javier- John Zale arranging

Tags: WEVA2008, Adobe

Popularity: 8% [?]

In Adobe’s Quarterly Conference Call that took place earlier this week, they confirmed that they are working on a version of Flash that will work on the iPhone. You can see the full transcript of the call, but here’s the part that got my attention:

 Operator

We’ll go next to Ross MacMillan with Jeffries.

Ross MacMillan - Jeffries & Company

Thanks. Just a quick one on Acrobat 9. I noticed that your — at least some of the foreign language versions were shipping about eight days after English. Can you just remind us — is that typical with an Acrobat release that we see major foreign language versions ship pretty quickly after the English version? And then just to follow-up was on the Apple iPhone 3G — any update on Flash support within that device? Thanks.

Shantanu Narayen

So on the first question, we don’t typically give date by date of when we are shipping different language versions of our products. Clearly depending on when in the quarter we ship English, you might see some of the major foreign languages also ship in the quarter. And as I said earlier in my remarks, we do expect to see English, French, German, and Japanese for Acrobat ship in this quarter. And that depends more on quarter boundaries than anything else.

With respect to the iPhone, we are working on it. We have a version that’s working on the emulation. This is still on the computer and you know, we have to continue to move it from a test environment onto the device and continue to make it work. So we are pleased with the internal progress that we’ve made to date.

Popularity: 22% [?]

(click on image for larger size)

Here’s my favorite unofficial picture (wish I knew who created it) from yesterday’s announcement of the Apple iPhone 3G. While the iPhone 3G hardware price has been cut in half to $199, the mandatory AT&T Data Plan has actually gone up (from its current $20 monthly plan) to a total of $30 a month. With a mandatory 2-year contract, that extra $10 a month adds an extra $240 to the price tag… actually making the package $40 MORE expensive than the 1.0 version of the iPhone. Here’s how that math works out:

iPhone 1.0 = $399 | 2 Year AT&T Data Plan = $480 | $399 + $480 = $879

iPhone 3G= $199 | 2 Year AT&T Data Plan = $720 | $199 + $720 = $919

Not that ANY of this is going to keep me from getting a new 3G iPhone! I just wanted to point out that it’s still about the same price, it’s just a different way of getting that same money from the customer. But now at least the customer gets 3G and GPS!

And for those that are concerned that their iPhone 1.0 will have lost all of its value on resale (because of of the $199 3G price tag), I would argue that the 1.0 models are now more valuable than ever. Because the iPhone 3G is ONLY available for $199 with a mandatory 2 year contract and in-store activation, it means that if you choose to jailbreak your iPhone 3G you’re still stuck with a 2 year contract or an early termination fee. For a lot of people that still want to run the iPhone on a different carrier than AT&T and be able to install free apps (vs. paying for them in the App Store), the iPhone 1.0 model will remain in HIGH demand.

Popularity: 39% [?]

Today is Mike Wallace’s 90th Birthday. The 60 Minutes star has done more for television news than anyone in the history of the medium. I hope I look half as good as him at his age and I’ll be thrilled if I’ve even accomplished 1/100th of what he has accomplished in his life. Take a look at this column to see who he has interviewed the last 60+ years.

Mike still goes into work everyday (at 60 minutes) and still gets some of the biggest interviews in the business. Take a look at the video below to see what his pal Andy rooney has to say about the guy and for a quick retrospective on Mike’s life. It really is amazing.

Popularity: 39% [?]