Work’s been a little crazy lately, so I haven’t been able to commit the time needed to piece together my thorough review of the G9. I’m getting closer, though, and expect to post it early next week.

In the meantime, here is some Friday news!

• CanonBlogger started an interesting new post feature – What is this? He posts a picture and asks folks to guess what it is. The first image is an interesting one! Check it out here.
• The F-Stop magazine recently posted a great article on a shoot of the Navy Seals. The photos are great – the explanation of the shoot is great – the interview of the photographer is great. You can read the full article here.
• Scott Kelby recently wrote a post that, as of this writing, has 166 comments! He asked for feedback on what folks want to see in the next version of Photoshop. The responses are very interesting! You can stop by and read them here. While you’re there, leave a list of your desired features!
• Does you use Lightroom? Do you like to save time? If so, check out Lightroom Killer Tips presets. Matt posts a new preset about once a week and they’re great. One of the most recent ones is meant to be used on every photo you import, saving lots of time. You can read more about it and download it here.
• John Nack, a source for insider knowledge on Photoshop, just posted his thoughts on the new Photoshop User Interface. He even shows a few screenshots and a movie demo of the new interface. You can read about it here.
  

Ran across this at one of my favorite sites – a really fun way to search on Flickr – a Photo Galaxy. The interface is intuitive, simple and creative. It works great too! Check out the site at www.taggalaxy.de.

Do you have Adobe Photoshop? If you do, there is a chance you purchased it as part of the Creative Suite package, which also includes Illustrator, InDesign, Acrobat and depending on which suite, possible a few other programs as well.

Why purchase the suite? Price break. Each product can run around $700 and the suite comes in at a nice $1100 or so. So, if you purchase 2 of the programs, you’ve already paid for the suite. I know a lot of folks that end up getting the suite for that very reason – the value. They tell themselves that they’ll get around to learning the other progams (InDesign and Illustrator). But, in many cases learning another Adobe application becomes too burdensome.

Make the Suite Worth It

That’s where the InDesign user group comes in. I haven’t mentioned it much in the past, but I’m the co-chair for the Adobe sponsored Denver InDesign user group. I’m not an Adobe employee – just a loyal customer. I volunteer my time to plan and often present at these meetings. In fact, I just finished up our most recent chapter meeting. They are an excellent place to network and more importantly, learn InDesign. Topics range from beginner to more advanced features and can really provide insight into InDesign and all its great page layout capabilities.

Don’t let the Suite go to waste – learn InDesign today. There are local chapters all over the world, with many in the U.S. Check out the InDesign User Group web site today for more information!

I haven’t done much sports photography – I do, however, really enjoy playing several sports. One of my favorites is Disc Golf.

This shot was taken lying down and looking up as the person is teeing off. If you don’t know what disc golf is, check out the Professional Disc Golf Association (PDGA) web site here.

Gorillapod

Who Should Buy It?

Anyone who owns and uses a camera

the Cost

$24.95 – 54.95, depending on the model

the Good

Nice construction, great price, extremely flexible tripod solution

the Bad

Nothing bad here!

A few weeks ago, I reviewed a tripod by Gitzo, which is regarded as one of the premiere tripod manufacturers around. While I love my Gitzo, the Gorillapod tops its rating!

If you haven’t already seen the Gorillapod, it is a compact tripod (coming in at about a foot tall). Unlike other tripods, it has flexible, gripping legs, allowing you to put your camera almost anywhere. It comes in three sizes, depending on the size/weight of your camera.

I bought mine primarily for my new G9 point and shoot. The smallest version is meant for point and shoot cameras, but because the G9 is a little larger than others, I decided to get the medium version, which is meant for light SLRs. You can also purchase a heavy-duty version meant for SLRs with zoom lenses. Check out the site for full information.

The Good

Simply put, this thing rocks. It is small enough to fit in a backpack, but is still very solid. Knowing that the legs were flexible made me a little hesitant to put my expensive camera on it. But, after seeing it in person, any concern was removed. It easily holds my camera in any position, allowing me to set it on uneven surfaces, or when needed, wrap it around something like a car mirror or tree limb.

See the picture at the right of my Gorillapod in action at a recent family outing (click on it for a larger version). We wanted to take a family self-portrait and set the Gorillapod on the windshield of our van. It worked like a champ.

The Bad

After several weeks of use, I can’t find a single downside. Over time, I’m a little curious to see if the hinges will loosen up to much and become less effective – I haven’t heard anything about that from other reviewers, though. I expect that I’ll continue enjoying this great product for a while!

The Interesting

Joby (Gorillapod’s manufacturer) does a few interesting things. First, they seem to be a very environmentally friendly company. While I’m not as green as I probably should be, I do appreciate a company’s solid effort. And, they’ve turned it into a price savings for you. When at their web site, you can actually order any one of the products for about $3 less if you choose to not have it packaged (thereby saving packaging waste).

Also, they provide a Flash clip for the SLR versions that slides into the clip area and holds a portable flash like the Nikon SB-800 or Canon 580 EX II.

The Verdict

Do you own a camera? Then you should also own a Gorillapod. It’s low cost, low profile and high versatility make this an amazing purchase.

Adobe is one of the premiere creators of creative applications, creating everything from Flash to Photoshop to Dreamweaver. The good news? Adobe just released the beta versions of several of their products for testing on their web sites. One of the things I found most interesting was to see the slightly updated user interface. They seem to be sticking with the panel idea (which I really like), but have made it shine a little more.

You can download Dreamweaver CS4 (to create web sites), Fireworks CS4 (to create web graphics) or SoundBooth CS4 (editing sound files) from the Adobe web site here. The downloads will work on a trial basis (2 days), or you can input your CS3 licenses to unlock them for a longer period of time.

Also, John Nack posted an inquiry for anyone that would be intersted in trying the new version of Bridge. Check it out here.

And, last but definately not least, if you haven’t already downloaded it, you should check out the beta version of Lightroom 2. Lightroom is a great tool for managing, editing and outputting large numbers of digital photos. You can download a 30 day trial here. Or, if a friend who owns Lightroom 1 sends you an invitation, you can install a trial that runs through August. If you don’t know anyone that has Lightroom 1, drop a comment in and introduce yourself. We can become fast friends via e-mail and I’ll send you an invite!