An Aside: Congratulations Russ, Outdoor Photographer's Newest Tipster!

Photo by Russ Burden

I want to congratulate photographer Russ Burden for an incredible career coup that is long overdue and greatly deserved. Burden's fantastic photo tips and techniques are now being featured on Outdoor Photographer's website!

My blog readers will recognize Burden's style and seemingly infinite fount of knowledge on Monday's regular "Instructor's Tip." Now, readers can find 16 of his articles each illustrated with one of his photos.

Go to the site and just under the top banner on the left side of the home page is a HOW-TO button. Click on it and drag to the Quick Tips title. You'll be brought to a page that has nine of his articles. Click on page 2 and you'll see another seven.

To thank Russ for his willingness to help other photographers grow, I encourage you to read the articles and please leave comments. The more positive feedback he gets, the better it will be for him to continue having his work appear on the website.

"The more people who read the articles, the more will know just how much photography means to me," Burden says. "I'm hoping this helps reinforce to everyone just how important our wonderful art is and that I'd love to share my knowledge, enthusiasm and passion for it with each and everyone of you on a nature photography tour. I need to fill them all, especially in that I have to send my son to college this fall!"

Nice job Russ! You rock, and I'm so happy for you!

BREAKING NEWS: Adobe Launches Photoshop Express

I got an email today from Richard Peterson (yet another of my favorite instructors) about Adobe's launch of "Photoshop Express," its new online photo editor with free storage and sharing. The application has been released as a beta, which means Adobe needs you to help them finish creating it.

Try it out, then sound off about it. What worked? What didn't? What desperately needs improvement? Select the "Feeback" tab and give Adobe a piece of your mind.

Edit photos, create albums and share them online. The 2GB worth of photos you get to upload should be more than enough to get you started. Once your in, view and share your albums publicly or be nosy and browse community galleries and albums others have uploaded. Create your personal URL to share with friends and family (mine is http://shebawheeler.photoshop.com)

I like being able to crop, rotate and tweak images. Plus it's very convenient to be able to ship them directly into my blog or Facebook page, although I haven't used that function yet. It was a breeze to upload my images from Picasa and Photobucket into Photoshop Expres. Users also get to take advantage of some easy retouching tools to give your friends that coveted glamour look minus the pimples and wrinkles. ;) Get it now here.

Don't leave me hanging. Let me know what you think!