Adobe announced today a version of Photoshop available on the web at no charge, or at least for now. Adobe Photoshop Express which was released as beta today takes a step for Adobe of bringing applications online which some other companies have been doing for a few years, including Google.

I did the test drive and played around a little bit finding the adjustments offered are preset and quite standard but as a tool to help users become more familiar with the Photoshop name it may be good for Adobe. Most people I know hear Photoshop and think of a huge product which is confusing and for photographers or graphic designers. While it may be true this is the target audience for the full blown version, Adobe does have their successful Elements program and introducing users to the world of Photoshop may help the marketing for this product. As more and more users obtain a digital camera the demand for tools for an average photographer will start to increase and Adobe is trying to get into this mix. The one problem I have with online applications is the fact they are online, and you are limited to usage in particular locations. Additionally if you decide to work at a location with WiFi who knows what type of connection speed they may have as well.

Since this product is in beta at this time, Adobe also is looking for your feedback as well of how to improve the product moving forward. I recommend giving the product a test drive and see what this new option brings to the consumer market. As a photographer I always find it necessary to keep up on new products in both targeted for the professional and consumer as you never know who will be asking you a question once they find out you are a photographer and what it could lead to in the future.

At the end of every season the Denver Post has been publishing a series of images their photographers have taken during the season with a Holga. For those of you not familiar with the Holga, it is an inexpensive camera originally made in China. With the inexpensive construction it is known for light leaks, blur and other distortions which give images an artistic look in their own. Photographs made with the Holga have won awards in the past including one by David Burnett of Al Gore in 2001.

Check out In Winter’s Light from the Denver Post photographers.

Did you remember to get your bracket completed? We are already down to 64 teams with the opening round game this past Tuesday. Today 16 teams, will have their road to San Antonio end and many businesses will have lack luster work performance.

Also found out here in Denver the Arizona/West Virginia game will be shown, but not as a constant feed. So if the game is a blow out or something becomes interesting in another region they will switch to that game. Wondering about the games for Friday in your region, the coverage maps are also available.

Do you live in Washington DC, Chicago, Los Angeles, or San Diego? If so you can take part in the pilot program announced by the US Postal Service yesterday to recycle small electronics and inkjet cartridges. Just stop by your post office and pick up a free envelope to mail your old electronics to the company which won the contract to handle the recycling. If the pilot program is successful it could be nationwide by the fall.

If you are not in an area where this pilot is taking place, I thought I would mention some other options you have as well. You can recycle your iPod at an Apple store and get 10% off towards the purchase of a new model. If you are not in the market for a new iPod but need to recycle an old one, Apple has a program were you can get a shipping label for free to send them your old iPod and mobile phones no longer used. In addition many big box electronics stores have drop off points for old batteries, phones and electronics. Buying a new computer, most manufacturers have a method to recycle older machines for free as well. There are many options out there for recycling old electronics from these few mentioned, to programs which benefit schools.

If you are wondering the best method to recycle locally, check out the following website or give your local government agency a call to find out options you have in your town.

Tucked away in boxes at my parents house sit some of the baseball cards I collected while growing up. While 99% of the cards could be worth to a recycling facility than to a collector they all tell a story about my youth. I remember looking at some of the cards and wondering about everything which went into the production of the cards. Gene Wojciechowski recently wrote a column about Gregg Forwerck a photographer for Topps. While it doesn’t get into the details of the photographing process, it is interesting to learn about the photographer, his backgrounds and some of what he has come across in his 19 years of being the “Annie Leibovitz of sports trading card photographers”.

Here is an article I found about picture day at Giants spring training in 2006, while it is from two seasons ago it is still interesting to see what happens during photo day.

Also for those keeping track, 15 days until opening day for the White Sox.

This month the Society for Photographic Education (SPE) will be holding their 45th annual conference for three days in Denver. To help mark this the local arts community has made March a “Month of Photography in Denver” with many local and national artists showcasing their photographic imagery at various venues. Details regarding the various venues may be found at the Month of Photography site.

I am sure there are many of you who started accessing the internet with Netscape Navigator which owned the majority of market-share in the mid-1990′s. I still recall using it on my Macintosh (and later a PC) with dial-up access, not the quickest option but with less embedded media in webpages it did suffice. Netscape was not the first browser I used, those were the text based Lynx and Mosiac in some of the computer labs at the University of Arizona.

Over the years other options sprung up and soon Internet Explorer started taking market share from Netscape until passing it in the late 90′s with a better product. Netscape was bought by AOL and the downfall of the browser continued, finally leading to the demise of it as of March 1, 2008 when support will no longer be provided for Netscape Navigator.

Right now as you read this post, I would guess you are using one of three browsers: Internet Explorer, Safari or Firefox. The majority of users do use Internet Explorer, however Firefox is continuing to grow in usage with now 15% of internet users. This is significant for the browser wars as one which competes directly with IE forces innovations to be developed resulting in the users of the product benefiting, which is something we didn’t have for a while. It should be noted the underlying basis of Firefox is based on technology from the Mozilla Corporation which came from the Mozilla Foundation and before that the Mozilla Organization created by Netscape. So while Netscape Navigator is no longer an option when viewing the web, Firefox continues to grow and who knows someday we could be reading a post like this regarding Internet Explorer… you may laugh but anything is possible.

If you haven’t given Firefox a try you can find more information by clicking below.

On the evening of Wednesday February 20, 2008 a total lunar eclipse will be viewable to the mainland United States. During the eclipse you could expect to see a different color in the appearance of the moon making for an interesting evening. The eclipse of the moon will last around fifty minutes, with the mid-eclipse occurring at 8:26pm MST (3:26am GMT)

If the weather conditions are good be sure to check this out, as the next total lunar eclipse is in December 2010.

More information

Here is an interesting site which was posted on the blog LifeHacker this morning. The Newseum website allows you to browse newspaper front pages from around the world. By searching for a newspaper through a list, gallery or interactive map the actual newspaper front page is displayed letting you grasping the headlines in a specific area. You may also go further and look at a PDF of the front page, or go directly to the newspaper website.

I found this quite interesting today, with the Super Tuesday results in focus today in many newspapers not only in the United States but also in other regions in the world. With the difference in time zones and deadlines for printing, I would suspect the Thursday front pages may provide some more insight.

Newseum Newspaper Front Pages

If you are in the San Francisco Bay Area and are looking for a child portraiture photographer I would suggest checking out Annie Florin Photography. Annie is specializing in natural light, and natural environment child portraiture which can provide a different perspective versus a studio setting. Check out the website to view some of her work, and give her a call if you would like more information.