Casino Royale

Our third movie to see in theaters this week was the new James Bond flick, "Casino Royale." This was a pretty decent film, it was a little long, and there were some really stagnant parts, but all in all, this was the best Bond film in a good while.

The Office: Reprise

Well, after enjoying the last four episodes of The Office, I am officially letting you all know that it is a great season. I am rather enjoying the new characters now, and just needed time to adjust to the change.

Would Could Be Stranger Than Fiction? The Fountain?

On Sunday, I received a gift certificate to Cinetopia from our church, a thank you gift for doing a lot of work on their 40 Days of Community campaign. So, after church, my wife and I watched Will Ferrell in "Stranger Than Fiction," an interesting film about a character whose life is narrated by a woman, with a better vocabulary than his own. I rather enjoyed that film, but I also enjoyed the experience of watching it in HD in Cinetopia's Living Room theater. Leather ottomans to put your feet up, servers to take your order and bring you the food and drinks, totally awesome!!

Today, we went and saw "The Fountain," a sci-fi movie starring Hugh Jackman and Rachel Weisz. What an interesting, unique, beautiful, strange film that defies description. We were so captivated, that we sat through the ending credits, enchanted by the beautiful piano score that ended the film. I will definitely be seeing the film, because it was very, very different. And that is a good thing!

The rest of the week is devoted to food, family, friends, and some great movies that we rented.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Photoshop for Photographers

About a month ago, I received a brochure for a "Photoshop for Photographers" seminar that was coming to the Portland Convention Center. I looked it over, and signed up thinking that it wouldn't hurt to go learn about the software that I use on a consistent and daily basis.

Yesterday was the day, and it was a great seminar! It started with a look at Digital Photography workflow. Being new to digital photography, it was great to learn how Photoshop's Camera Raw plug-in actually works, and how to get great looking files right out of the gate. From there, the speaker covered tonal detail using Curves, color correction, image retouching and vanishing point. All in all, it was an excellent seminar, well worth the $99 admission price. Check out Ben Willmore's site, Digital Mastery, where you can read free articles, buy his books and DVDs and learn more about Photoshop.

We Interrupt This Broadcast

The unfortunate thing about living in Southwest Washington is that we share broadcasting with Portland. This means that quality television shows, such as House M.D., are interrupted at critical and crucial plot points to tell us who won the Oregon governor race.

A New Toy!

Well, I finally bought a nice mini-DV video camera, a Panasonic DVX100B, and I must say that it is AWESOME! I used today on a shoot, and it really does a great job! It was much better than I expected.

Now to learn how to use it!