Why didn't I do this before?

I have tried two on-line Photoshop courses from two different community colleges in my area and didn't like them. It wasn't the Photoshop portion that I didn't like but, I had trouble with the on-line interface.

I finally have enrolled in a Photoshop CS-5 course that is offered in a classroom sponsored by the San Diego Community College Adult Education Department. The course normally consists of seven five-hour sessions but, was cut to six sessions because of the power failure we experienced a few weeks ago in the Western United States.

I have completed two of the six sessions which is ten hours of instruction and have learned much more than I had expected. The instructor is great! He not only has expertise in the field but, he is enthusiastic and fun to be with. He also teaches in a way that corresponds to my way of learning. Best of all the course is free of charge and also qalifies me to purchase Adobe Products at an education discount.

I had not taken advantage of many of the capabilities of Photoshop CS-5 and some of these, like "Content Aware Fill" are almost magical. I am also working with a lot of the keyboard shortcuts which I previously had not used.

Good on you, Richard. And it also proves the point about us always being able to learn if we're willing to seize the opportunities that are out there.

When it comes to college courses, I'm a big fan of Open Courseware, just pick a university, subject, course, and you get all the information for free.

How's that for an opportunity ?

Going back sometime I played around with PS and thought I had some idea but NO. I did a course at our local Council of Adult Education and apart from learing heaps what it did give me was a structure or approach so when I sat at the computer and opened an image I know had process I could work through. It is fair to say that, like photography, you develop a style and processs to suit yourself but having a basic structure to work from helps enormously.

I actually have 3 processes now - one for the web, one for print and one for DVD shows.

Congratulations Richard.

Good on you Richard. Now you'll be able to create lots of these. :)