About

The Short Version of Who We Are

The Mac Create Network is a resource dedicated to helping the Macintosh user reach their creative potential. It’s comprised of numerous Mac-learning, news and educational sites and is the home of the Aperture Users Network, the leading resource worldwide for the Aperture-based photographer.

History

The Mac Create Network developed out of the Aperture Users Network, which was founded in 2007 by David Schloss, a lifelong technology journalist, editor, photographer and professional educator…

But let’s back up a bit.

David Schloss is the former Technology Editor of Photo District News, a position he held for more than five years. Schloss has written two books on photography, countless articles for technology and photography publications (everyone from Time to Digital Photo Pro) and has spent his life as a photographer.

Before Aperture was released, Schloss was teaching classes with Blue Pixel where he showed students how to use the panoply of tools available at the time to manage a digital imaging workflow. At the time it only took a good dozen tools to master digital photography—everything from Photo Mechanic to Photshop.

In 2005 when Aperture 1.0 shipped everything changed. Despite the obvious issues with any 1.0 program it was pretty clear that the world of digital imaging had just changed in a massive way.

In 2006 the Aperture Users Network was formed in order to provide a dedicated, professional environment for the digital photographer using Apple’s Aperture. Through 2007 and 2008 the Aperture Users Network grew as it provided a mix of free content online and paid classes, which were held all over the world.

In 2009 the Mac Create Network was launched, a connected world of websites aimed at providing the same expert-level support to the creative Mac user as the Aperture Users Network was providing for the Aperture User. At the end of 2009 the Aperture Users Network site became a fully integrated part of the Mac Create Network.

In 2010 the combined Network provides information on Aperture, iLife and iWork, Final Cut Studio, Adobe Creative Suite and more. Our goal is to provide resources for anyone who uses a Mac to create anything, period.

The Mac Create Network works with a number of very talented contributors and developers. We’ve developed hundreds of hours of Aperture video training and we’ve got more coming in every other facet of Mac creative life. We’ve even branched out to include iPhone and iPad use in the Network because these tools are increasingly the backbone of the creative world.

Privacy

We haven’t, don’t and won’t sell your info. Period. There’s nothing we hate more than getting some annoying spam email simply because we bought a sweater online once.

We maintain a newsletter and we’d be thrilled if you were on it. and while our partners might include messages in some of our emails (they haven’t as of this writing though) we never provide anyone with that mailing list. We don’t share the info collected when you buy things from our store, or when you take any of our surveys. (The surveys are very useful and we do share the data collected from them, but none of the personal information collected.)

If it wasn’t clear, let’s say it again. We don’t share your info.

How and Where to Find Our Resources

We provide online tips, tutorials, news and information, and lead webinars and in-person seminars.

Our videos, presets, training materials and more are on sale at shop.maccreate.com.

Our Mac Create Premium membership offers discounts on hardware and software, plus special member-only tutorials. Information is available here.

We have a free-to-the-public community to discuss creative uses of the Mac at community.maccreate.com

You can sign up for membership here.

You can find us on Twitter @maccreate.

We are on Facebook at facebook.com/maccreate

Our events, webinars, meetups and special events are listed at macreate.eventbrite.com

You can sign up for one of our newsletters here.

Get More Information

If you need any more information, you can send us a message using the form below:

Contest Rules

We sometimes run contests, here are our rules.

1. No purchase is ever required to enter any Mac Create giveaway or contest.

2. Our sponsors are clearly listed on the ethics page of our website. Their respective mailing addresses are available on their websites.

3. The entry procedures for each contest are announced individually on Mac Create.com.

4. Our contests are generally open to anyone who is at least 18 years of age and who does not reside in an area where such contests are void by law. In cases where the contest or giveaway is promoted on Twitter, you need a free Twitter account to be eligible (http://www.twitter.com). You need to follow MacCreate on Twitter to be eligible and your tweets cannot be protected. Persons who have had their Twitter account blocked by Scott Bourne are not eligible.

5. Employees (or their immediate families) of Mac Create, Inc, any subsidiary, or anyone under contract for any work with Mac Create, Inc.  are not eligible to win our contests or giveaways.

6. The termination date for eligibility is the final day of each giveaway at Midnight, EST (or EDT, depending on the season).

7. All prize information including prize value is listed with each contest announcement. In each contest or giveaway, we reserve the right to substitute a prize of equal or greater value in the event that the original promised prize becomes unavailable. Some prizes may be awarded via gift certificate. Some are awarded directly from the manufacturers or distributors. In that  case we will connect the winner with the correct parties, sharing only the minimum amount of information needed for the prize presentation to be made.

8. The odds of winning will depend on the number of entries. Unless otherwise noted, all contests and giveaway prizes are awarded via random drawing. Our favorite tool for this is a custom Filemaker database using a variety of random number seeds… that’s the sort of geeky thing that we get into, you probably don’t care about that.

9. The winner does not have to be present for the drawing unless otherwise noted. If the drawing is by Twitter, this is obviously the case.

10. Winners automatically grant the use of their name and likeness in the promotion of this and other Mac Create contests. No, that doesn’t mean that we’re going to make you send us a photo of you. It just means we might say something like “Bob Smith of Kalamazoo won our last prize…”

11. For a list of winners, send a SASE to:

David Schloss
Winners – (Contest Name or date)
46 Hart Place
Nyack, NY 10960

12. Winners are responsible for applicable country, state or federal taxes (winner must pay any taxes due directly to a government entity).

13. While the contests are generally open to residents of any country, prizes can only be shipped to an address inside the US. Foreign winners must make arrangements to receive prizes via a US address, except where the prize is provided electronically, or is provided via a local distributor to that country.

14. All contests and giveaways are void where prohibited by law. It is your responsibility to refrain from entry if our contests or giveaways are illegal in your jurisdiction. If you are declared a winner but contests and giveaways like these are illegal in your jurisdiction, your prize will be forfeited and given to a runner-up.

Rules are subject to change without notice