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Steve Jobs has written a very frank article outlining his thoughts concerning the licensing and selling of music online. Jobs states, "With the stunning global success of Apple’s iPod music player and iTunes online music store, some have called for Apple to 'open' the digital rights management (DRM) system that Apple uses to protect its music against theft, so that music purchased from iTunes can be played on digital devices purchased from other companies, and protected music purchased from other online music stores can play on iPods. Let’s examine the current situation and how we got here, then look at three possible alternatives for the future."

Read the Entire Article

We had a great time catching up with fellow photographers during our quick trip to Laguna Beach. Thank you to everyone who welcomed us so warmly.

Dane Sanders, who I first met a couple of years ago at one of Mike Colon's workshops, invited Erin and me to a lunch meeting with some of the best photographers in the OC. From Left to Right: Jules Bianchi, Dane Sanders, Jim Kennedy, Ryan Phillips, Joe Photo, Jessica Claire, Becker, Chenin & Doug Boutwell and Erin and me.

During lunch we talked about how networking has influenced our businesses. I've always felt a responsibility to share with others what I have learned throughout my life. I have grown directly as the result of other people - mentors, friends, colleagues - sharing with me their stories and helping me to improve. I sincerely feel that I have an obligation to pass that knowledge on and help others. It was simply great to join in the conversation with other like-minded photographers. Ron Dawson videotaped the luncheon and Dane will soon be featuring portions of the conversation on Simple Photo TV.


Here I am on Becker's lap begging him for an invite to his world famous party in Las Vegas during WPPI/DWF. This was the first time I've met Becker. Simply put, he's hilarious! I wish I had half the wit as Becker.


Erin and I also had the pleasure of having breakfast with Paul Gero Paul is a fellow newspaper/magazine photojournalist turned wedding photographer. This year, Canon named him an Explorer of Light. Not only is Paul a talented photographer, he is an amazing person. What stands out to me is his pure love for and excitement about his family. When he talks about his wife and daughter, Paul simply glows like no one else I've met.

Check back soon as we'll be sharing a little bit about the wedding we photographed while we were out in Orange County.

Ok, we're ready to move to Orange County. Just look at this view! We shot this last night from The Ritz-Carlton Laguna Niguel and just had to share it with everyone (Ignore the hurried sandwiching of images for the pano). It's absolutely gorgeous out here. We'll post more soon. Right now, we have to hurry off to photograph a wedding.

::CLICK HERE TO SEE THE VIDEO::

It has been one of "those" days, in an amazing kind of way!
We got a call this afternoon about a wedding in Laguna Beach, CA. Immediately, we were thrilled! Then, came the punch line...the wedding is taking place this Friday! So, the LaCour crew went into hyperdrive to prep and pack for the assignment.

As Mark and Erin prepared for a Thursday departure, the bad news came. The National Weather Service expected a huge ice storm to cripple Atlanta overnight. Delta Airlines preemptively cancelled over 200 flights, and it became clear that the only way we could ensure Mark and Erin arrived in LA for Friday's wedding was to get a flight before the ice storm hit!

So, about 6 hours later, Mark and Erin hopped on a flight to LA!

As I write, they are on Delta's last LAX - bound flight. ::CLICK HERE:: to watch a video clip of them at the airport with eight bags of luggage.

:: CLICK HERE :: to watch the hilarity ensue as Georgians prepare for the scary winter weather.

With the new version of Blogger, I found that it was difficult to insert a custom header image. I searched around on the internet, but didn't find a satisfactory explanation. So I managed to figure out how to do it and thought I would share these easy steps for those of you who might be curious how to do this yourselves.

Step 1) Create a custom header image for your blog. Use Photoshop to create an image that is 650 pixels wide by 79 pixels high and upload it to your webserver. Below is the one I made for LaCour:


Step 2) Log in to Blogger.com and click the "Manage: Layout" button


Step 3) Then click on the "Edit HTML" button


Step 4) Scroll through the HTML and find the section that looks like the following (which is about 1/4 of the way down):

#header {
margin: 5px;
border: 1px solid $bordercolor;
text-align: center;
color:$pagetitlecolor;
}

Now add in the following url, width and height tags so that it looks like this:

#header {
margin: 5px;
border: 1px solid $bordercolor;
text-align: center;
color:$pagetitlecolor;
background-image: url('http://nimbus-cdn.s3.amazonaws.com/blog_images/13095451836365607621/49b16e2e-eb9d-4c88-9843-5716c0657e72');
width:650px;
height:79px;
}

Be sure to add the appropriate url for your banner image and make sure that your width and height numbers are correct for your image. *Note: If you want to remove the border, simply change the border to 0 in the "#header-wrapper" section just above this section.

Step 5) Scroll through the HTML and find the section that looks like the following (which is about 1/2 of the way down):

<h1 class='title'>
<b:if cond='data:blog.url == data:blog.homepageUrl'>
<data:title/>
<b:else/>
<a expr:href='data:blog.homepageUrl'><data:title/></a>
</b:if>
</h1>

Now make it look like this:

<h1 class='title'>
<!-- <b:if cond='data:blog.url == data:blog.homepageUrl'>
<data:title/>
<b:else/>
<a expr:href='data:blog.homepageUrl'><data:title/></a>
</b:if> -->
</h1>

Step 6) Click the 'Save Template Button' and your blog should now have a custom header.