Winter weather

This year here in Wales UK we have had a more severe than normal December, we had a few inches of snow, now that's early for us, we tend to get it in January or February usually.

The weather however did bring some problems, while the main roads and motorways were kept open well, the side roads were left to their fate. Gritting which had been fairly regular before the snow stopped totally after, for well over a week the roads were packed sheet ice in many of the side streets.
The pavements again were left treacherous.
In the good old days the residents would have cleared their bit of pavement, but not now, you see if you just leave it and somebody slips it's not your problem (an act of God) if you clear the pavement and somebody slips your liable in this stupid blame culture we live in. Result? nobody clears the pavment any more.
My question is where have all the council worked been the last few weeks? why haven't they been out clearing the snow and gritting the side roads.

Merry Christmas

Just to wish you all a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.
Wayne

The police again

Yep good old South Wales police are at it again, in the appalling weather, loads of accidents what are our brave boys in blue doing?.... stopping motorists for having... shock horror... SNOW on their car roofs.
My god, these dangerous vicious motorists actually driving with snow on their cars? how dare they! I mean what next, the blighters will be driving with wet cars in the rain soon.

Ok I'll stop the sarcasm but come on, this is taking the p**s really, how the hell are we supposed to get it off? I'm going on 6 foot tall but i can't reach the middle of my car roof, how on earth is some aged granny suppoded to stand and clear it.

All I can say is if this is all the work they can find to do at Christmas maybe theres too many of them, time for some cut-backs and money saving I think.

Photoshop CS5 for nature photographers (book review)

This book by Ellen and Josh Anon is rather curiously one of the better photoshop books I have come across, the book is well laid out and has shed loads of information in it.

The title in some ways is misleading really, while the book is aimed at nature photographers and most of the illustrations are of flower/animals etc, the book is not limited to just that, it covers the whole range of photoshop tools very thoroughly.
It's well laid out has loads of helpful illustrations, and covers pretty well everything I could think of.

Would I buy it. Yes it's gone straight to the top of my list.

The photoshop CS5 pocket guide (book review)

By Brie Gnycild, this small book is surprisingly full of information, it covers most of the basics as a sort of mini reference book, I did find the lack of colour illustrations odd but that maybe only on the electronic version I saw rather than the full printed version.
The book is a bit on the basic side if your reasonably advanced.
Would I buy it, no for me it was too basic but for a less experienced user it might be handy.

Photoshop CS5 the missing manual (book review)

By Lisa Snider, one of my less favorite book that I have looked at recently. The book itself is comprehensive enough, and contains a lot of information, I just found it hard work and boring, there's a lot of text if you enjoy a read but not many illustrations compared to some of the other books I have reviewed, it's a good reference book for the shelf.
Would I buy it? No to be honest I didn't like the style.

Adobe stupidity reaches new levels.

Adobe stupidity reaches new levels.
Yes I'm bloody annoyed with Adobe.
As much as I like Photoshop I can't say the same for Adobe, every 18 months or so we get charged nearly twice what those living in the USA pay for the same product. It costs more to ship I hear you say, no it doesn't if your downloading it from their website, not several hundred quid more anyway.
Then theres the recent trend to take out stuff that used to be in it. Oh yes we can download it free and install it ourselves, but some of it is quite complicated to install, and some of it should damn well be in there to start with.
On Friday I needed to scan in some important documents, now I haven't long formatted my main pc after more virus trouble, so I had to re-install my scanner, no problems I have all the disks... well yes a slight problem... photoshop can't see the scanner to import any images. Oh the scanner works fine it just won't talk to photoshop.
I tried downloading the latest drivers and software versions, no difference, after a lot of hassle and time. I eventually found out (thanks DemiLion) that for reasons unknown adobe took out the twain import plug-in. This is a tiny filter in a folder of other filters, it takes up no space really, but without it photoshop won't see any scanner.
How monumentally stupid is that? didn't it occur to anybody at adobe that some photographers/graphic artists just might use a scanner occasionally.

Photoshop CS5 on demand (book review)

Written by Steve Johnson this is an excellent well laid out reference type book, while not specifically teaching you photoshop it does explain everything very clearly and covers a lot of detail and pretty much everything in CS5 you'll need to know.
This is the sort of book you'll reach for to find out how so and so works, like how the pen tool works or whatever, very very useful reference book.
Would I buy it?, yes pretty much an essential book for the shelf, you won't use it every day (especially if your experienced) but when you do need it it'll be bloody handy.

Adobe photoshop CS5 for photographers (book review)

This book by Martin Evening is one of the more comprehensive reference type books, it covers a load of stuff, lots of usefull tips with being complicated, perhaps not quite aimed at the beginner it should still be a good option for your first book.
Would I buy it, yes! without hesitation.

How to cheat in photoshop (book review)

This book by Steve Caplin is a must read for anybody involved in the business of faking pics or swooping heads around, it teaches the reader a ton of special effects tricks like ageing a person, making them younger, working with selections and the puppet warp tool, loads of other useful stuff too.
Definitely on my Christmas list.

Photoshop CS5 for digital photographers ( book review}

This is Scott kelbys latest version for CS5, the book itself is explained simply and the chapters are nicely laid out making it fairly easy to find stuff, the book covers certain things but also misses out other stuff possibly leaving you stumped if your looking for a certain tool instructions.
It's written in a jokey style which I personally find very irritating, but thats Scotts style.
Would I buy it? yes I probably would, it's got a lot of good stuff in it, I learnt a few things just skimming through to do this report.

Photoshop CS5 for dummies (book review)

I thought with Christmas on the way some book reviews might come in handy for stocking fillers for the photographer in your life. I'm using CS5 but most of these book have versions for the different photoshop versions so substitute as needed.
CS5 for dummies, well personally I don't like the horrid yellow colour for a start, and the slightly jokey style started to grate on me after a while.
The book itself is pretty comprehensive, it gives a lot of detail and should make sense to a beginner or more experienced user, it's not difficult to find the various bit's you might need, but I get the feeling it might be better to read it all through from the beginning (I didn't) Would I buy it? well I'd be very tempted to buy it as a reference book in case I needed to look anything up, but I'm fairly advanced in photoshop, if I was a beginner it would be on my Christmas list I think.
Wayne