Another year gone by in the blink of an eye! Wow. Hope everyone’s Christmas and New Year Holidays were wonderful. We have been working hard to keep our studio running smoothly. Our devoted clients keep us alive in this down economy. We are so blessed with a wonderful family, friends, and clients. We are ready for 2012. Our goal this year is to communicate better with everyone, keep our blog alive and updated! Yes! We love what we do and will continue to keep up with the latest trends yet preserve the traditional too.

Luminaria Ceremony Relay for Life

The Relay for Life is very personal to us. We have had a lot of friends and family lose their battle to cancer. Pictured in the panorama below are a few. Unfortunately each year the list grows. Luckily there are also survivors in our life.

This fundraiser gives us this unique opportunity to celebrate the lives of all those who have battled cancer, remember loved ones lost, and support the American Cancer Society’s lifesaving mission by fighting back against a disease that has already taken too much. If you want to donate click here to go to our personal page for Relay for Life in Paradise CA.

Spring time, ah the beauty of flowers in the spring. We have had a crazy winter this year so spring is a little later than usual. We still have daffodils which are normally gone by now. April showers did bring us so many beautiful flowers.

It’s May, it’s may! Spring Fever and time to tend to the garden and bask in the beauty and joy that it brings. The greenery this time of year is so nourishing and healing.

One of my favorite all time songs is “It’s May” from Camelot. Below are part of the lyrics of the chorus. Who sang that song?

“Tra la! It’s May!
The lusty month of May!
That lovely month when ev’ryone goes
Blissfully astray.
Tra la! It’s here!
That shocking time of year
When tons of wicked little thoughts
Merrily appear!
It’s May! It’s May!”

The word for today is backup. What do you use to backup your important files? The cloud? An external hard drive. DVD’s or CD’s? All of the above. We have had some bad luck with Western Digital external hard drives. Lost 2 so far and one was unrecoverable by an expert who works for the City and the Police department. Bummer!

We do use an online service called Carbonite and now have found that LaCie hard drives are the most durable, so far. The hardest part of backup is the fact that you should backup to two different locations whether they be online or on an external hard drive. Dropbox is cool for sharing files across computers. It is a free service that lets you bring all your photos, docs, and videos anywhere! Ah technology!

Photoshop classes from 7pm to 9pm at Alain Tomatis Photography Studio on the Skyway will start April 13th on Wednesday nights. The classes will cost $25 each, limited to 5 students. Please register no later than the week before by filling out my contact form here on my website for more information on how to pay and other details. Let me know what version of Photoshop you are using and what you would like to learn.

For those of you who own a Mac, I will be teaching a basic Photoshop Elements Class for the Mac Users Club called MacChug. It will start at 7:30Pm. The club has some awesome raffles for incredible prices. There is a beginners class for those new to the Mac at 6:30pm, membership is not required to attend and VISITORS are WELCOME! at the Masonic Family Center located at 1110 W. East Ave Chico CA.

Then starting on April 6th on Wednesday nights I will teach Photoshop classes from 7pm to 9pm at Alain Tomatis Photography Studio on the Skyway. The classes will cost $25 each, limited to 10 students. Please register no later than the week before by filling out my contact form here to get more information on how to pay and other details. Let me know what version of Photoshop you are using and what you would like to learn.

Photoshop classes to begin in March. I’m thinking of either teaching them on a week night around 7pm. Which night works best for most people? Let me know. I also do one on one tutoring to help you with a variety of computer challenges you might be having. The Photoshop classes will Be $25 per person for a 2 hour class with a minimum of 4 people, and a maximum of 10. One on one tutoring is $40 an hour. Contact me for more information. How can I help you?

My areas of expertise are in Photoshop, Dreamweaver, InDesign, Outlook email, Facebook, Linkedin, Twitter, Web design, Graphic Design, and basic computer clean up and navigation.

Our Help-Portrait event was a success. It was last Saturday at The Family Resource Center in Paradise right across the street from our studio. We had 3 local photographers and 17 volunteers. We took photographs of 110 people. It was so rewarding and some of the families had never had a professional portrait. We are already planning next year.

Wow time has flown by this year. I never seem to think of things to write on this blog when I have time. Guess I need to keep a recorder by my bed because that is when I come up with topics I’d like to discuss. I’m always encouraging my clients to have a blog that feeds into their Facebook which then feeds into Twitter and Linkedin. I just never seem to find time to write in my own.

Our studio is in the midst of our busy season with the High School Senior Contract and Sports. We have an exciting project that is coming up on December 4th. We are planning to participate with a community of photographers, coming together across the world to use their photography skills to give back to their local community.  Help-Portrait is a wonderful event that will be held on  December 4th 2010,  photographers around the world will be grabbing their cameras, finding people in need and taking their picture. When the prints are ready, the photographs get delivered. We are excited about this prospect and hope to involve many local photographers both professional and hobbyist. I will keep you posted.Let us know if you are interested in joining us.

Tonight I’m off to a Rotary dinner to honor members who have given back to the community. I love the Rotary Club and it has done so much for our community and around the world. If anyone would like to join me some Thursday at Noon to find our what it is all about let me know. Happy Thursday!

I love album art. I still have quite a collection of albums. Some of my favorites covers are The Beatles, one particular favorite is from Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band. From Wikipedia:

In 1938, Columbia records hired Alex Steinweiss as its first art director. He is credited with inventing the concept of album covers and cover art, replacing plain covers used before. After his initial efforts at Columbia, other record companies followed his lead. By the late 1940s, record albums for all the major companies featured their own colorful paper covers in both 10-inch and 12-inch sizes. Some featured reproductions of classic art while others utilized original designs.

This blog topic was inspired by another blog I read frequently by John McWade of Before and After. What is your favorite Album Cover? CD cover?