Despite thedude’s protestations, he always has a good time in Fresno. Oh sure, it can be a bit hot, but aside from that, a visit to Fresno is a good time – thanks almost entirely to Kelly’s fabulous family. Good people, good food. This weekend featured Frank’s excellent grilled lamb chops and a wedding reception…
Year: 2006
Butt Shot Number One
Almost all of the top ten most viewed photos on the Carnaval SF web site were shot by thedude. Can you guess which picture holds the top spot?
Happy Birthday Bill!
We celebrated Bill Dalton’s birthday last night at the Burt’s residence on a surprisingly mild evening in the beautiful Oakland Hills. Ben prepared another of her world-famous Thai dinners with help from Tum. We met Tim Cahill – founding editor of Outside Magazine and prolific travel writer and his wife Linnea. Jerry Alexander dropped by…
Carnaval 2006
I can’t believe that a whole year has passed since the last Carnaval Parade in San Francisco. This year’s event must have been the largest ever. The parade lasted nearly four hours. I had planned to put a few shots up and link the rest into some sort of photo album, but after looking at…
Oakland’s Magnificent Fox Theater
My recent visit to the Oakland Fox Theater was very interesting. I saw first hand what nearly 40 years of neglect will do to a building. The photos below look better than the building does “in person”. The shots below give a clue to the condition of the walls and the plaster pretty much throughout…
San Francisco on a Sunny Day
Weather forecasts called for overcast skies and even the possibility of rain which seemed to work in our favor today as we breezed into the city with Paul, Joanna and new friend Michael. We hit many of our usual stops – Union Square, Lefty O’Douls, the Top of the Mark and finished off the evening…
KaBoom!
We try to see the KFOG KaBoom every year. We normally drive into the city, but decided to avoid the hundreds of thousands on Fogheads in the city and instead watched the fireworks display with a musical soundtrack at the nearby Middle Harbor Shoreline Park – the best park noboby knows about. The KaBoom is…
Olive, Ice Cream
We were lucky to have a few hours with our most excellent friend Olive. It was a lovely evening, so we took a short walk with Olive and her somewhat spastic dog, Frisco, to Ben and Jerry’s in beautiful Jack London Square. Yes, she ate the whole thing.
Steaks on the Grill
Chris and Ben hosted another fabulous shindig at their home in the Oakland Hills. No Thai food this time, though. Instead, we had good ol’ steak and corn-on-the-cob. Yum! These images were all shot by Grant with his amazing Canon 5D. This dang camera produces absolutely the best color and simply amazing sharpness. I own…
This Saves Me a Bundle
Recently I have been toying with the idea of buying a color printer. Epson and HP make some fine printers that offer superior quality to any traditional printing methods. I’m pretty picky about my images, and thought that this would be the cheapest way to share prints of my favorite images with friends and family….
Terramare
We spent the weekend in Northern California at what is now one of our favorite destinations – Terramare. This amazing property is locate in Gualala – directly across the street from one of our other favorite places – St. Orres. The house features sweeping views from its perch on a cliff high above the thundering…
Schultz Has a Heck of a Lot of… Friends!
He also has a lot of stuff. So much stuff that I suggested to him at his 70th birthday bash today that we need to do some serious shooting before this special place disappears forever. He suggested a coffee table book, and I think that’s a terrific idea. You see, his unique home/workshop/museum is on…
Lazy Man’s Time-Lapse
The Bay Area has seen some very interesting weather in the last few weeks. We’ve seen way more than average rainfall and below normal temperatures. I’ve been feeing bad about not getting out to shoot some pictures of the snow, the rainbows or gorgeous fluffy clouds we so rarely see in the Bay Area. Well,…
Another Point of View
As you know, thedude was not the only person with a camera on the Philippines trip. Here are a few of my favorite shots by Grant Goya – in no particular order. Grant shoots with a Canon 5D. I think his camera outperforms my Nikon D2X in almost every category. Dammit!
Feasting in the Philippines
One thing we found in ample supply during our visit to the Philippines was food. I can say without a doubt that we were never hungry during out trip – not for one single minute. Our incredibly gracious hosts saw to it that we were always within arm’s reach of mass quantities of food. This…
Happy Birthday, Ben!
Let’s take a short break from our Philippines trip to wish our dear friend Ben a happy birthday. Ben prepared some of the best food ever for her own birthday party. As you can see, she also provided the entertainment. Happy Birthday, Ben! We love you. You are truly one in a million. 🙂 More…
Manila Mandarin Oriental
One of thedude’s favorite parts of our trip to the Philippines was the three night spent at the wonderful Manila Mandarin Oriental Hotel. This is one the nicest hotels we have ever stayed in. From the moment we were greeted by a legion of professional, friendly wait staff we knew that this would be a…
Taal Lake and Volcano
This is a panoramic view of the spectacular Lake Taal – more or less the view we had from the Discovery Suites in Tagaytay. The shot was taken late on a cloudy day, so it really did look this dark. In the foreground you can make out numerous fish farms. In the middle-right, you can…
New Friends
Kelly and I had such a wonderful time on our first visit to the Philippines. We were shown the greatest hospitality by our hosts, the Barin family. Many thanks to all of you for taking such good care of us while we visited. We’d also like to give a very special thanks to Grant and…
Another Manila Traffic Time-Lapse
I made a second time-lapse while in Manila, hoping to catch the controlled chaos that is Manila traffic. I pointed the camera out of the sun roof of our vehicle and began snapping at what seemed like an opportune moment. I wanted to show how the traffic continues to move – albeit slowly. We rarely…
State of Emergency in Philippines
Looks like we left the Philippines just a little bit too soon. Our hosts had casually mentioned that there were rumors of another coup attempt, but we didn’t think it much of it. This phone pic, taken from the exact spot I shot the traffic time-lapse shows that Manila streets are now crowded with demonstrators….
Catholic Girls
During our stay in Bohol, we visited the “centuries old” Baclayon Church and Museum. One of the most interesting facts about the beautiful old church is that it’s moss-covered walls are held together with the “white of a million eggs”. Sandy goofs with school girls from the adjacent Catholic high school.
From Leaf Spring to Machete
This hard-working craftsman spends mornings hammering old automobile leaf springs into 10 knives per day with a minimum of precise hammer blows. The sweltering conditions mean a 5:00 AM to noon workday for this muscular man, who has obviously paid a heavy price for not wearing any sort of protective gear on his face. Our…
Manila Traffic Time Lapse
We had the opportunity to hang out on the 27th floor balcony of a building in the heart of Manila. I realized that this might be my one chance to shoot a time-lapse of the traffic, so I leaned the D2X and the monopod against the railing and started shooting. I had hoped for rush-hour…
We’re Back!
Safely. For those who asked, the mud slide in Leyte was hundreds of miles away on another of the 7,107 islands that comprise the Philippines. Now the real work begins. The sorting, retouching, color-correcting, uploading and the really difficult part – the search for the right words. Here we go… While visiting Bohol, we took…
I Know This is a Good Trip
I have almost no time to blog! The business office closes in a few minutes, and I have much to say and too many images to post. Between Grant and myself, we have managed to fill up all of our CF cards and the hard drive on our laptop, and the trip is barely half…
Bohol Beach Club
We’ve really gotten into the relaxation mode since arriving at the Bohol Beach Club We’ve been spending the days lounging in hammocks on the beach. No time for blogging. I’m sure you understand. 🙂 I would not expect to hear much from us until we return to Manila the day after tomorrow. Waiter! Another mai…
We’ve Been Here Just 30 Hours
We’re not even close to being over our jetlag and I already have way too many images to post. I’ll do my best… We’re having so much fun with our gracious hosts and learning so much in the process. For example, we learned that no Philippine home is complete without a karaoke machine. (We’re just…
This is Working Out Well
Wow. Our first trip to the Philippines has been great so far! Things started off on the right foot before we even left the airport in San Francisco. We discovered that we had a $100 credit with the airline issued exactly one year ago, which means it was expiring the day we were set to…
Love Electronic Music?
Check out this incredible site. I’ve been listening to DI’s Chillout stream for a couple years now. This site does an impressive job at describing what “chillout” is as well as a myriad of other musical genres and provides links to mp3 streams as well. Thanks Tobias, for the tip!