Dear Steve,
Our family is truly saddened by your passing. I still remember the life-changing experience the first time I sat in front of a Mac. A light bulb went off in my head, I remember thinking “it works like I think, it is so intuitive”. This was in 1994 and even though you were not at Apple at this point, your heart and soul was still in the product. In one instance I was converted from someone who literally hated computers to someone who fully embraced them. A Mac was not a “computer”, it was fun, it was a lifestyle, a philosophy and most off all an awesome tool that opened up entirely new avenues of creativity. Realizing that the business of photography and the way we consume media is forever changing, I taught myself Photoshop and graphic design, started designing websites and produced multimedia projects, even created small 3D animations (you can see one below) and eventually joined a multimedia startup. At one point I got to work with the Apple Quicktime team and got to present our flagship multimedia tool iShell in Cupertino in front of over a hundred Apple engineers. All of that without ever taking one computer class, which would have never been possible without your vision of computing. Now that I am back working as a photographer full time I am still working on Macs, surf the internet on the iPad and watch my children using your cool gadgets.
Steve we never met, but you have been with us for a long time. So thank you Steve for your passion and sharing your genius, for all the wonderful products and for making the digital age fun! Our condolences to your family and friends. You truly will be missed.
Sincerely,
Marcel Siegle
Here is a little animation I produced in the late 90′s on an 80MHz Power PC, using Strata 3D, Poser and Adobe Premiere. Some of he scenes took weeks to render. It was an exciting time.
