Friday, January 16, 2009

Finish the Sentence...with Dave Cross

[cue the a capella, 4-part harmony version of the Finish the Sentence game show music]
"It's time once again to ask a well-known photographer, instructor or otherwise interesting person the same 10 questions and ask them to Finish the Sentence! This week the sentences are finished by.... Dave Cross.

Dave, please Finish the Sentence..."

My favorite photography accessory (lights, modifier, bag, tripod) is
hmmm, tough to narrow it down to one....I'd say the Wescott Apollo Speedlite kit

I’ve learned the most from..
Trial and error. Asking "what does this do?" and "what happens if I try this instead?". Being willing to fail. Okay so that's 3 answers but it's my game show darn it all!

If I could go anywhere in the world it would be_____ because….
This was the toughest question for me. There's no one place that jumps out at me, so I guess I'd say somewhere beautiful with great photo opportunities, a super cushy hotel that's really inexpensive, great cheap food, no humidity or bugs, and where the exchange rate is 4:1 in favor of the US dollar. Any suggestions?

My most-used Photoshop add-on, plugin, action set (etc) is
onOne plug-in set, especially Photo Frame

I love the fact that Photoshop
lets me create things that wouldn't be possible with my camera alone. I love taking photos while I imagine in my head how I'll pull things together with Photoshop.

I hate the fact that Photoshop
still has little things that bug me after all these versions - can't they just fix everything on my wish list?

If I could turn back the clock 10 years
I would have picked up the camera sooner, and written down all the the titles of the great books I've read. I hate it when I go to buy a book and I can't remember if I've read it before! And it's even worse when they change the cover artwork so I can't even go by the cover! (There should be a law against that, shouldn't there?)

In 10 years
I'll be happily retired, living off my children ;)

If I could give one piece of advice it would be
As someone once said, don't sweat the small stuff. If you feel like you need to worry about something, worry that you aren't have enough fun and love in your life.

Your readers can find out more about me
um, right here? This is my blog after all....

Ladies, Gentlemen, let's hear it for Dave Cross!
[As you might expect based on who writes this, the audience makes the most noise in the history of the show]
Dave Cross is Senior Developer, Education and Curriculum for the National Association of Photoshop Professionals and is involved in all aspects of the training that is provided to NAPP members, including the content of seminars, conferences and workbooks. He also creates very popular weekly QuickTime-based tutorials that appear on the members’ website. Dave is an Adobe Certified Instructor in Photoshop CS3 and Illustrator CS3 and is a Certified Technical Trainer.
Prior to joining the NAPP, Dave lived in Canada and trained thousands of users across North America. Dave co-authored Illustrator CS2 Killer Tips and is the author of the Photoshop CS2 Help Desk Book and Photoshop Finishing Touches. Dave writes for Photoshop User magazine, teaches at the Photoshop World Conference & Expo and is the Lead Instructor for the Photoshop Seminar Tour. He is also featured on a series of DVDs, on kelby training and is one of the “Photoshop Guys” on Photoshop User TV.

8 comments:

Promdi Pinoy said...

nice blog! cool photos... i luv photography.. but am not really good at it.. but has already some good results through experimentation.. no formal training.

Magdalena said...

When you find that place… "really inexpensive, great cheap food, no humidity or bugs, and where the exchange rate is 4:1 in favor of the US dollar," please let me know!!!

Great blog Dave, glad you interviewed yourself :)

Happy shooting

Wm Snyder said...

Dave,

Any chance you NAPP guys could use your persuasion skills to convince OnOne and NIK to make their plugins available for 64-bit OSs?

Thanks
William

Anonymous said...

Seems you have taken a page from Scott on the self-interview. Great job though that Dave guy's answers...I just don't know. JK. :-P

Anonymous said...

Haaa!! I'm with you on the book thing. I started keeping a list about 3 years ago for that very reason.

Unknown said...

Check out LibraryThing for your book list! It's the greatest since sliced bread--and you can share it with your online friends and colleagues who have similar interests!
http://www.librarything.com/

Anonymous said...

Maybe one day Photoshop will be custom built to each user... but factoring in current cost, value of that benefit, and inflation... $153,859 should cover it, right?

One can dream :)

Unknown said...

Dave...you can't retire! Even if it is ten years away; how will I learn how to use Photoshop CS11 and beyond?