Sure. This is the “Digital Age,” yet many of us got started in the days of loading film into a camera. We edited a motion picture by splicing the actual film footage. There was a time when we burned a plate for a printing press using a big sheet of graphic arts film. The Dodge Tool wasn’t just a thing used in Adobe Photoshop; it was an actual little tool in the darkroom. And then there was learning how Adobe InDesign allows you to space type that was once the job of hot metal typesetting. That background illuminates what the digital tools are all about. Understanding the analog techniques can improve the methods used in media technologies. And, then, there are those of us who pioneered the original 1984 Mac, Windows 2.0, and have 35 years in the digital world. The US Bureau of Labor Statics (BLS) says that millions of Americans are not retiring at 65 years of age. Many of us, in North America, continue to work as long as we can. That BLS data in not as fresh as we would like, but between 1977 and 2007 workers 65-69 increased 85%, 70-74: 98%, and 75+ 172%!  For now, that’s a good thing. It allows those of us, with institutional foundations, to give the industry’s new blood that foundational knowledge. Then, the new industry leaders can carry the foundations of the creative community into the ongoing growth of new technologies. We personally know why this is important. We are still in the midst of our career journey. Along the way, we are always learning new things. We find ourselves leaning on the knowledge of those with longterm expertise, who are kind enough to share what they know. So, what’s your story? If you are a Creative Professional, approaching 65 (like us), do you plan to stay in this for as long as possible? How about if you are over 65: is the thought of retiring a scary idea that you wish we never even mentioned? What if you are new to the creative workforce: have you found some experienced and trusted advisers who have shared with you some of that foundational expertise? ... View more

Does it ever feel like you have been Divinely thrown into a new situation? Maybe you had no idea where it would lead. Yet, looking back, you can see the Divine intent and, now, you cannot imagine how you could have taken a different pathway? This weekend is the 34th anniversary of our first “date.” It wasn’t one of those romantic kind of things. We got together to talk about creative professional stuff and immediately clicked. We were not involved in dating others. Week after week, the personal relationship grew but so did our industry zeal. So, if we took a different pathway, would it have been better? We have no idea. If this really is a Divine thing, has it been a smooth, level pathway? No. There’s been a bunch of rocky terrain, but being called to pioneer uncharted trails is like that. Does that make us some kind of super select couple? That’s hardly the case. We get more than a little scared for television Meteorologists, who go off to nasty weather events to cover them, so viewers understand the magnitude of such incidents. Once that’s documented, on a human level, those brave people have preserved it for others to learn from. That’s a calling. How about the handsomely compensated Executive Chefs, who direct a team to create some clever hotel events, which dazzle many guests? Yet, they feel called leave that safe employment to invest every penny they have in a restaurant of their own, which appeals to an under-served community? Jumping off a cliff, and safely landing in the water, works in the movies, but rarely ends well in real life. Being an accomplished, but not wealthy, Director, and feeling called to devote yourself to telling that cinematic tale, will at times feel like you’ve jumped off the cliff and now there’s no rewinding the footage, so you can choose not to jump. It doesn’t feel like we jumped off a cliff, 34 years ago. We took a lot of risks—we’re still taking them. We’ve learned to manage the risk, as best we can. We rely heavily on our faith. That part always proves to be risk-free. ... View more

Last evening, we celebrated our 30th wedding anniversary. By December 17, 1988 it had been over 4 years since we met and we had been working together, almost 7 days a week. That included work on our first book, the related seminar tours and trade shows, and even the opening of a Manhattan studio. What have we learned? In a word: “teamwork.” At some point, around 34 years ago, we stopped being 100% our own selves. We had many,  many projects to do, and we tackled them as a team. In retrospect, even our wedding was an event we created together. The creative process has come a long way, since. There were many players who were part of a project. Each jumped in and out of a project as it evolved. By way of example, if an advertising campaign needed a photograph, a photographer may have shot, on film, that one image without even knowing who the client was, much less how the photo was going to be used. Creatives were somewhat isolated, then. We were working on team projects, at the time. Many thought that was a crazy idea. A few years later, Whole Food announced that rather than having traditional managers, they were going have “team leaders.” In all candor, we were not sure that was going to work. Also around then, the Holiday Corporation (a.k.a Holiday Inn) was developing Hampton Inn, Embassy Suites, and Homewood Suites (now, all of them are Hilton brands). Rather than the standard hotel jobs, they were going for the team concept, which sought to create total guest experiences. Just like how the Whole Foods innovation has become the way of life at many grocery stores, the hotel team concept is baked into how Hilton and IHG hotels work. In all honesty, we didn’t set out to bring our marital life into our business life, or vice versa. It just happened. Somewhere along the way, illustrators began painting in Photoshop. Photographers became retouch artists. Eventually, many of us became integrated players in teams. Just like a successful marriage needs to be a harmonious team, to be successful in our careers, it’s all about great teamwork. We have learned to inspire others to joyfully come together to do great creative work. How about you? Has successful teamwork become more of an integral part of your creative career? ... View more

What were you doing 20 years ago? Did you watch some of the original episodes of “Law & Order SVU”? They’re hard to avoid. Some days they run on multiple cable channels. Why? “SVU” sometimes gets a million viewers for a rerun. That’s a pretty good audience for cable. The current season of SVU is the 20th. They are going into the record books for scripted television drama: https://www.today.com/video/mariska-hargitay-talks-season-20-of-law-order-svu-1329717827986?v=railb& So, what was (and was not) happening in media technology for 1998 Holiday Season? Well, we were still shooting on film. The very experimental Nikon D1 was not introduced until June 15, 1999. We were still involved with “desktop publishing” using Adobe PageMaker or QuarkXPress. Adobe InDesign 1.0 did not ship until August 31, 1999. Apple gave us the first bite at Mac OS X 1.0 on May 11, 1998, for those of us who were brave explorers. Microsoft shipped Windows 98, 4 days later. Offset printing press operators thought we were quite amazing that we could do our own proofing with the Epson Stylus Color 3000, which debuted in September 1998. In North America, HDTV was just starting to gain momentum. The initial live testing started on July 23, 1996, in Raleigh, North Carolina. We thought Adobe Premiere 5.0 was quite exciting (which was released May 18, 1998). We go back to Premiere 1.0. But, many of the professional video editors we worked with, thought we were playing with toys, to think we could do great work creating video content on a computer tower. Adobe Illustrator had proven that the Mac version and the Windows version could share a common User Interface. Version 8.0 was released on August 24, 1998. In today’s environment, Mac and Windows versions sharing operability seems quaint, but designing for the Internet was just ramping up. HTML 4.0 was still evolving and most people were working on a version of HTML 3. Adobe’s PageMill was up to version 3.0 and what would replace it, GoLive, had also released a third version, in 1998. 20 years ago, today, Macromedia Dreamweaver was still in its first version, in its first year. Version 2.0 did hit the streets in December 1998. Speaking of quaint, creating web images, in Adobe Photoshop, took a little doing, 20 years ago today. Version 5.5 was the one which brought valuable tools to Internet page creation. That happened February 17, 1999. How about feeling thankful for where media technology has come in the past 20 years? Many great technological issues have moved the industry forward in that time. But the industry gains have gone deeper. What are you thankful for? ... View more

Nelson Mandela said, “It always seems impossible until it's done.” 25 years ago, tonight, it seemed impossible that I would live. A steel beam fell on my head and crushed a fair amount of my skull. My brain was bleeding out. I had a “less than 25% chance of survival.” What does that statistic mean? Well… even if a person does survive, the odds of a patient living for more than a year are not very good. Of course, there are always issues with quality of life. So, sure, it makes sense to think winning a billion dollar lottery game, with one ticket, seems pretty good, by comparison. How about you? Have you ever been told that something couldn’t be done, but you wanted to do it anyway? Some kids have always wanted to pursue a career as a creative professional, but family members, or maybe even a high school counselor, said the chances of succeeding were not very good. (My high school guidance counselor told me that I “wasn’t college material.” It was a triumph to leave a copy of my Deans List certificate on her desk, after my first college semester.) As some of you know, 9-½ years after my cerebral trauma, Janet had a Brain Aneurysm and also had a less than 25% chance of survival. Her come-back therapies became my come-back therapies. What seems impossible for you to do, right now? We meet accomplished still photographers who feel shooting motion footage is too scary, even if the camera they shoot with does 4K Ultra HD video recording. Then, there are the brilliant print designers who are Adobe InDesign masters but they’re not feeling up for exploring web/mobile design with Adobe Dreamweaver, even though both apps are included in their Adobe Creative Cloud subscription. As Mandela is encouraging us to do, get the impossible done. ... View more