I did my Graphic Prepress apprenticeship with a large commercial printing firm in the 1990s. It was a lousy place to work, but a great place to learn everything about the industry.
Since then I've worked extensively in the newspaper and magazine industries, and in printing and marketing at various tertiary education institutions.
While at The Courier Mail newspaper in Brisbane, I learnt the fundamental Photoshop skills from the local industry's most skilled and experienced tradesmen. This ignited the passion, and I spent countless hours reading, watching and practising to become the best Photoshop operator I could be. In particular, I diligently researched the matter of Colour Management, to better control the wild beast that is CMYK.
Several years ago my girlfriend (now wife, and mother of our gorgeous children) studied photography and we began our own part-time business. My horizons broadened.
The transfer of Photoshop skills from publishing to photography is not as simple as you might think. Once again, the learning curve was steep, but the view from the top is very satisfying.
More recently, I've developed an image enhancement training course, and been responsible for improving the Photoshop skills of photographers (both professional and amateur) and graphic designers. It's very rewarding work.
Photoshop's such an amazing world, and I'll never know everything about it - very few people do, I guess. And Colour Management is such a complex subject, it frightens a lot of people. But it's great fun learning all the time, and that's why I love it.