I’ve said it often, “Photoshop World is my favorite professional conference. By far. Bar none.” Why, is a bit hard to say. I’ve learned amazing things at Imaging USA. And, Texas School gave me the base upon which to build everything I do.

Sometimes, I wish I had a posse — a group of skilled photo folks to help me with my shoots. All of us who work alone know how difficult it can be to do something complex, particularly on location. Some shoots require an extra set or two of hands, another set of eyes, and a sounding board for ideas.

With the release of Plug-In Suite 5, onOne has raised their prices — including the discount price they have allowed me to offer my students and readers. Graciously, onOne has allowed me to offer my students and readers the Suite at a heavily discounted price — $379.99.

Nowhere is the pressure of competition greater than in the world of wedding photography. So, I turned to one of the world’s best known and most successful wedding photographers, my friend Hanson Fong, for answers to the question

The immediate response was overwhelming. More than 150 of you sent emails saying “yes” to my inquiry as to whether I ought to start “a survival stories” section on this web site.

To survive in this business climate, to improve our art, to differentiate our work — whatever our goal, we must continue to learn and grow as photographers. Fortunately, there has never been a greater variety of learning tools available.

To paraphrase Charles Dickens, “These are the best of times, these are the worst of times.” It’s all a matter of perspective. Looking at the bright side, the tools we have available for use as professional photographers have never been better or more competitively priced.