Michael Ninness grew up in the Redwoods of Arcata in Northern California. He moved to Seattle in 1989 to study for a Graphic Design BFA at the University of Washington and fell in love with the Pacific Northwest. He paid his way through design school by teaching professional designers and photographers digital imaging tools and techniques. Michael was the former LiveMotion Group Product Manager and a Senior UI Designer for the Creative Suite at Adobe, and was a Program Manager for Expression Interactive Designer at Microsoft. In early 2005, Michael returned to his teaching roots and joined the team at Lynda.com, an award-winning publisher of self-paced online video training, CDs, books and events for designers, photographers, developers,instructors, students and hobbyists. Michael is a frequent and top-rated presenter at numerous industry events including Photoshop World, PhotoPlus Expo, PMA, Macworld, FlashForward, Web Design World and Pacific New Media at the University of Hawaii. He is the author of the Photoshop CS2 Essential Training, Photoshop Power Shortcuts and Photoshop CS2 & Flash 8 Integration video training titles published by Lynda.com, and is a contributor to Photoshop User magazine.