I’m so excited I could burst; my buddy and world class photographer Joe McNally (who’s shot for everybody from National Geographic to Sport Illustrated), will be joining me as part of my Lightroom Live Tour in Honolulu, Hawaii this year, on December 3rd at the Hawaii Convention Center.

As you might guess, I’ll be handing the live shoots I do during the day over to Joe, so the students will get to see a true master at work. I hope you’ll get to join me for this incredible opportunity to see a living legend live with me on my Hawaii Tour stop. You can sign up at PhotoshopSeminars.com

Uploaded on Aug 26th, 2007
by russell Technorati Tags: zooomr, photography, photo blogging

A little more activity this week related to new characters in Season 4 and a few other interesting items to note:

*Jeff Jensen of EW.com reported this week that Jeff Fahey (of Lawnmower Man fame) has joined the cast for Season 4, so that makes 5 new characters that will be introduced during the story arc for the season.

Executive producers Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse tell EW.com that Jeff Fahey — a cult-pop fave most famous for The Lawnmower Man and most recently seen in Grindhouse — has been added to the show, joining previously announced newcomers Jeremy Davies (Saving Private Ryan), Lance Reddick (The Wire), Ken Leung (The Sopranos), and British actress Rebecca Mader (The Devil Wears Prada, Love Monkey).

Given the lengthy beard that Fahey is sporting these days, there is a ton of speculation about the character he could have been hired to portray.

*Kristin from E! Online had a few snippets related to Lost on her blog this week:

Thomas in Dallas: Any word on Lost? I can’t wait to see new episodes!

We still don’t get new eps until February (a little fact that makes me sob uncontrollably every time I hear it). However! The coolest cast around just went back to work last week in Oahu, and I’m hearing very good things about the new season! Michael is back, the Losties we love are front and center and the storylines are tighter than, well, I’d say Josh Holloway’s backside but, sheesh, I’m a married woman.

Ginny in Ipswich, Massachusetts: Will there be any cast changes this season on Lost?

Aside from the newbies we announced last week (much thanks to Korbi for that scoop!), Entertainment Weekly is now reporting that Grindhouse’s Jeff Fahey will join the island crew this year. I can also tell you that although I’d heard a while back we’d be seeing a little less of Matthew Fox this season, so far there are no signs of any “Jack-off” days on the production schedule (sorry, I couldn’t resist, I’m 12). So, we’ll see.

So, even though we are still months away, at least we know they are shooting Season 4, that our favorite characters are front and center, and that we will have at least 5 new characters this year that somehow fit into this ever-growing puzzle!

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This fall, one venerable reality series is missing from the prime-time TV schedule: The Amazing race, which doesn’t return until mid-season. But if you’re desperate for a fix, students at Ithaca College have produced two seasons of a TV show called The Race that was inspired by the CBS series and is an excellent substitute.

In fact, while the show doesn’t have quite the scale or culture shock of the CBS version, it’s frequently easy to forget this is not a multi-million dollar production airing on CBS. The editing and music create tension, the establishing shots are striking; some of the contestants are likable, others not so much. Even the challenges are impressive, and some could easily have been challenges on the CBS version. In many ways, it’s reminiscent of early seasons of The Amazing Race, which were rougher around the edges but had more depth.

This race may not have the word in its title, but it is absolutely amazing. It’s no surprise that it required a crew of 50 for the first season and 70 for the second. The show is produced by Pete Berg, an Ithaca College graduate, who says on his web site that he “edited over 200 hours of footage into 9 hour-long episodes” for the two seasons.

The first season of The Race aired this past spring, and its four episodes are now viewable online. A second, five-episode season has now been produced, and its first episode is online; the show itself airs starting Sept. 17 on Ithaca College’s ICTV, which streams online. There’s also a video podcast so you won’t miss an episode.

The Race and The Race 2 [ICTV]

» read the latest news about The Amazing Race 12
 » find more reality TV news and gossip at reality blurred

AP - First, Michael Vick apologized to all the people he lied to. NFL commissioner Roger Goodell. Atlanta Falcons owner Arthur Blank. Coach Bobby Petrino. His teammates.

Jordan Pearce, 18, said she hugged 765 people in less than an hour Saturday and plans to send the results to Guinness World Records.

Experts who work with overweight patients have written diet books that offer practical advice on getting started and sticking …

AFP - Oscar-nominated actor Owen Wilson called for privacy on Monday after being hospitalized in Los Angeles following a reported suicide attempt.

It’s official…the beta is over! As is being reported on Yodel! the all-new Yahoo! Mail rollout has begun. Many of you have already been switched from the beta, but others may have to wait a week or so for the rollout to hit their respective servers.  Below is the post that John Kremer, VP of Yahoo! Mail, published earlier this morning on the corporate blog.

If you are here for the first time, this is the Yahoo! Mail blog, the home for all things relating to Yahoo! Mail. Whether you are looking for news on feature changes, bug fixes, interviews with Yahoos working on Mail, tips from power users, tutorials, a glimpse behind the walls here at Yahoo!, or what have you, this is where you can go to find it. Subscribe to the RSS Feed, or even better you can add it to MyYahoo by clicking and you can see updates there!

Ryan K
Community Manager
Yahoo! Mail

———————————————

Introducing the all-new Yahoo! Mail

My kids, like most, love text messaging. But while their nimble fingers can easily navigate cell phone keypads at lightening speeds, I definitely prefer a full keyboard, and am much more inclined to use email than text messaging.

So I’m doubly excited to announce the launch of the all-new Yahoo! Mail today. Not only are we launching a brand new version of one of the most popular Web mail services in the world, but we’re unveiling a solution to my texting woes, and giving people around the world more ways to connect. With the new Yahoo! Mail, people can send and receive free text messages in their email to and from any mobile phone number in participating markets including the US, Canada, India and the Philippines.

It’s sure to come in handy for people like me who want to keep in touch with text-crazy friends and family. From my Yahoo! Mail window (and using my comfortably full-sized keyboard), I can type a note to my son, letting him know I’m on my way to his soccer practice, and send it straight to his phone. And he can send a text message right back to my email, letting me know where to meet him. The intuitive, chat-like interface makes it super easy, even if you’re a novice at text messaging.

We already have great integrated instant messaging features in Yahoo! Mail, so adding text messaging was a natural next step. It’s an increasingly popular way to keep in touch, especially among younger users. In fact, 69% of US mobile phone users between the ages of 18-39 use text messaging (Harris Interactive, June 2006), and half of Americans age 18-25 say they sent or received a text message over the phone in the past day (Pew Research Center, January 2007).

Today’s news doesn’t stop at text messaging — the all-new Yahoo! Mail also lets users send and receive instant messages in real-time to their friends who are logged into Yahoo! Mail, Yahoo! Messenger or Windows Live Messenger, without ever leaving the e-mail experience. You can even switch between emailing, instant messaging, and text messaging as your friends come online or go mobile. We want our users to be able to choose how they communicate with their friends and family, in the most appropriate method for the moment. By adding these new types of real-time communication into Yahoo! Mail, we’re laying the foundation for an even more social experience for our users.

For those of you who love the original Yahoo! Mail interface — not to worry. We’re keeping Yahoo! Mail Classic as well. Our goal is to provide the best email experience for everyone, whether that be familiar and comfortable or new and shiny.

To check out the brand new Yahoo! Mail, go on over to http://mail.yahoo.com. Enjoy!

John Kremer
Vice President, Yahoo! Mail

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The Internet is Dead and Boring - Blog Maverick Mark Cuban has a post out called the Internet is Dead and Boring.

“A lot of people are all up and upset about my comments that the Internet is dead and boring. Well guess what, it is. Every new technological, mechanical or intellectual breakthrough has its day, days, months and years. But they don’t rule forever. That’s the reality.

Every generation has its defining breakthrough. Cars, TV, Radio, Planes,highways, the wheel, the printing press, the list goes on forever. I’m sure in each generation to whom the invention was a breakthrough it may have been heretical to consider those inventions “dead and boring”. The reality is that at some point they stop changing. They stop evolving. They become utilities or utilitarian and are taken for granted.”

Hah, it’s funny to hear Cuban talk about the web being boring because to me it’s anything but. It’s not dead or boring to Fred Wilson either who talks about the vast rich land the internet has become for music lovers like him.

And I’m squarely with Fred in this sense. For me it couldn’t be more opposite. For me, I’ve never spent more of my entertainment time anywhere else.

When I was a kid I used to watch sports. Kind of reluctantly because I never really cared about sports, but I watched it. I went to Dodgers games. I watched Reggie Jackson become a home run hero at some year’s World Series. I’d watch football games with my brothers and dad. I used to collect baseball cards in like 1977 through 1979. I had this Rollie Fingers card where I used to laugh at the guy’s name.

Even after I grew up I’d still watch some sports on TV. The US Open Tennis show with Pete Sampras, the Superbowl (more for the commercials than anything else), etc.

And when I moved on and out of the house I was one of the first early adopters of HDTV. I bought the very first HDTV TiVo available for market. A DirecTV unit that cost about $1,300 when it launched. I watched a ton of TV back then. All these shows in HDTV.

But.

All that’s changed now. Sports? I watch ZERO sports now. Absolutely zero. And HDTV? Actually that’s pretty dead for me too. I only watch one single show on TV anymore. HBO’s Big Love. One hour of TV a week. I’d cancel my DirecTV except for the fact that my wife and kids are addicted to all that.

I bring up sports and HDTV because these are two places that Cuban tends to spend a lot of time, but I will say that many other things in my life have suffered. I don’t read books anymore. I don’t buy newspapers or magazines.

What do I do instead? Well I spend a ton of time with my photography on the web. Sure, I’m out there shooting and taking a lot of photos. But I spend sooooo much time on Zooomr every day uploading, commenting, favoriting, organizing. Yesterday I built this cool 100 photo mosaiac with my most awesome 100 photos from the last week as ranked by Zooomr. I keep up socially daily with my photo friends on Zooomr’s Zipline.

What else do I do online?

I LOVE music. Love it. Like Fred I hang out over at the Hype Machine. And I LOVE finding new music from my friends over at Pownce! (shhh… don’t tell the RIAA). That’s Pownce’s secret weapon over Twitter as far as I’m concerned. I love music and I can share it with my friends on Pownce whereas I can’t do that on Twitter. I spend time researching music on AMG.

I also spend time on Facebook. I used to spend more time over at DMU and really should spend more time there. I spend time blogging. Here, at my own blog. Commenting over at other blogs. I spend time working on Photowalking videos that my friend Robert Scoble posts up over at Podtech. Oh and I check out internet news type stuff a lot. Like on Techmeme where I found this story. On reddit, on digg.

Basically leisure time looks like this. Hang out and play with my kids, exercise, take lots and lots and lots of photos, watch one hour of TV a week (and that will end as soon as Big Love’s Season ends tonight I think, until next Season), and spend the rest of the time processing photos and hanging out on the internet.

Rather than get old and tired and boring for me, the web has done the opposite. It has invigorated my photography. Given me an audience for my work. Allowed me to quite literally help build an amazing photo sharing experience with Kristopher on Zooomr. It’s allowed me to meet some really super real life people through social networks and blogging — some really amazing photographers. And unlike Cuban, for me, the web remains, amazing, exciting, vibrant and alive.

All that HDTV and sports stuff? Eh, now that’s old and boring.