Arched Oak

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This unusual oak tree—a favorite of mine—resides in a nearby park. I have no idea why it has chosen to grow this way, but it makes for an interesting portrait of a unique tree.

I'm currently working on my Painter 12 Essentials title for lynda.com. Scheduling has gotten moved around and I won't be recording until sometime in the Jan/Feb timeframe. Expect its release sometime later in the first quarter of '12.

Stumbling into History

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During my most recent trip to Southern California, I photographed this interesting architectural landmark near the Santa Barbara airport. This is a Barnsdall Rio Grande Oil Company gas station built in 1929 and turns out to be one of the most architecturally significant structures that represents the best existing examples of California gas stations built in the heydey of automobile travel up and down the California coast.

Besides its architectural significance, this station was utilized as the set for the 1981 remake of The Postman Always Rings Twice, starring Jack Nicholson and Jessica Lange.

You can read more about this unique location here.

Just Steve.

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I'm normally not a name-dropper. I've had this short incident held in reserve for years, and it now seems like an appropriate time to relate it...

In January 2000 at Macworld in San Francisco, Mark Zimmer and I were in the process of wrapping up a press tour for Metacreations Painter 6.1. At trade show events such as this, there are often small press rooms reserved for companies in which to conduct interviews. Mark, myself, and our PR person were in our press room preparing for the day's interviews with the Mac press. As I remember it, the PR person was organizing press materials and Mark and I were busy setting up a Mac on which to demo Painter.

Suddenly, a head popped into the doorway. It was Steve. No entourage or posse. Just Steve. Initially, I was the only one of us who saw him. In the most casual voice I could muster, I said, "Hi, Steve!".

"Hi guys! I just wanted to pop in and say, 'Break a leg!'", he said. We thanked him, wished him a good show and Steve was gone as quickly as he appeared.

Our PR person was absolutely floored. "That...that was Steve Jobs!...OMG!"

Mark and I managed to play it cool and say something like, "Oh...yeah...Steve."

That would be the end of my story except for one small factoid I possessed at the time: Mark previously confided in me that Steve had been in contact with him regarding working for Apple. Steve Jobs has long been known for his finesse at cherry-picking world-class talent. Mark was—and is—one of the brightest engineering pixel-slingers out there.

I've no doubt that Steve's brief appearance at our press booth door was designed to provide a small nudge to Mark in the direction of Apple, but it also provided a snapshot into Steve's inner-workings. The man is always thinking in terms of how to better Apple. Something as small as a quick "Good luck" certainly made our day and see the man devoid of ego...just another Mac-head wishing us well.

By the way, Steve's elixir worked its magic. Three years later, Mark became a Software Development Engineer at Apple, where he works today.