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Yearly Archives: 2007
Last Sunset of 2007 – Updated
If I had know it was going to be this colorful, I would have set up my tripod in advance. That might have prevented the motion blur in the shot on the right. Oh well – the shot isn’t perfect, and well, neither was 2007. Let’s all work to make 2008 a lot better, okay?
Looks like I was not the only one who noticed this spectacular sunset!
Posted in Bay Area, Just Blogging, Loft Life
3 Comments
San Francisco in Ruins
Awesome (and sorta scary) image.
Click here to learn more about how this fascinating shot was made.
Posted in Bay Area, Just Blogging
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More Visualizations – Updated
Our association recently insalled Macassar ebony wood paneling in our lobby, and although the results are striking, the overall effect is a bit darker than we’d imagined. To brighten things up just a bit, we’ll be hanging some sepia-toned reproductions of four archival images that previously hung elsewhere in the building. Before we go through the expense of printing and mounting the large prints, I used PhotoShop’s fantastic Vanashing Point filter to create these realistic visualizations.
Let’s see how these images compare to the finished installation.
Here are the results. The hand-held time-exposures are a bit blurry, but you get the idea. Looks like I hung the images a little higher than in the visualization. I may need to move them down! I think they look better lower on the walls.
Posted in Loft Life, PhotoShop
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Holiday Season in Full-Swing
It’s that time of year. Seems like there are parties every night. Trust me – I’m not complaining. Although it does seem like I’m spending a lot of time taking pictures and creating photo albums like this one from our friend Lelah’s party last night. I was supposed to be photographing her and her baby Lohtse, but traffic conspired against us. It took us two hours to cover nine miles, so by the time we got to the party, the beautiful baby was sound asleep. At least I got a fun shot of Lelah and her mother. The family resemblance is striking, wouldn’t you say?
Oh yeah, a couple days ago I mentioned that we stayed at the beautiful Clift Hotel in San Francisco. Here are a few shots of my favorite model in and around our suite. Spectacular! The hotel’s not to shabby either…
Posted in Bay Area, Holidays
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Christmas Party – Affymetrix Style
This entry probably won’t be of interest to most of you, but I went to so much trouble getting the images posted on our blog at work that I figured I’d get a little extra mileage out of them by posting them here too.
Rumor has it that the people in this photo album are coworkers of mine, although I know almost none of them. They seem like a good group though. :)
We decided to get a room in the city last night at the Clift Hotel, which turned out to be pretty darn nice. That’ll be the topic of a future post, but right now we have to go back to San Francisco and make some pictures of a baby and her proud new Mama.
Posted in Holidays, Work
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Oakland Homicides – Not All Bad News
I pass this little monument every morning on the way to the office. It’s sad to watch the crosses multiply as the year rolls on. But the news is not all bad. The last time I heard it mentioned in the news, homicides In Oakland were down 1/3 from last year. Lets’ hope this trend continues.
Posted in Just Blogging
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Does the Pope Wear a Funny Hat?
Well, yes, but not every day. This red cappello romano is just so dang cool! Evidently, the pope’s choice of headwear is a big deal!
Posted in Just Blogging
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Holiday Manipulations
Before and after.
This year’s greeting card began as three images – a classic Christmas painting by Haddon Sundblom, who painted at least one other familiar icon as well as a few stunning pinup girls. The Coca-Cola image came up while Googling “classic Christmas images”. The fact that there was already a little Jimmy in the scene may have influenced my decision. :)
The second image was of a bottle of Jack Daniels, and the third was itself a composite of two goofy-looking shots like this one. The rest of the transformation is pure PhotoShop. If you’re interested in learning more about how this idea developed, download the the PhotoShop file with layers intact here. (10 megabyte .psd file.)
Posted in Holidays, PhotoShop
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So Much to Be Thankful For
Wonderful friends, perfect Bay Area weather, fantastic food. An awesome day.
Love to all of you from thedude and Kellster!
View the rest of the photos from our fun-drenched day here.
Posted in Bay Area, Food, Holidays
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The Essence of Dudeness
For the last few years I have been hosting a web site featuring the work of an extremely talented illustrator named Charlie Powell. I have always been a fan of his work, so when he offered to paint a portrait of thedude in exchange for web hosting services, I jumped at the chance. Now thedude joins the likes of Bono, Howard Stern and Oprah among the celebrities he’s painted.
I am so very happy with the results! I think it’s an excellent likeness of thedude enjoying three of his favorite things – wine, cameras and computers! This is especially amazing when you consider that Charlie and I have never met. He painted this based solely on images from thedude.com!
When deciding where to display the 11 x 17″ painting, Kelly’s first suggestion was was, “How about above the toilet?” Nice. Well, I have a few ideas of my own.
Posted in Design, Shameless Self-Promotion
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thedude and The Younger Dudes
While in the Midwest, thedude stopped in Franklin, Wisconsin to pay a visit to his favorite nephews – Jacob and Ryan. It’s hard to believe how tall these kids have grown. Ryan is old enough to drive a car and is looking for a college to attend! Man, I must be getting old.
Sister Dawn and her husband Dennis’ backyard is adjacent this cornfield. Fun!
A Beautiful Dream
Last night I had one of the most beautiful dreams of my life. You have to have known my friend Jeff to fully appreciate it, but I felt I needed to write it down anyway and share it with those of you who did.
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Kelly and I were vacationing in a beautiful place with steep mountains, brilliant green pastures, fluffy clouds. Our hotel room had a spectacular view. Kelly was in the shower getting ready for a hike through a nearby valley where I planned to shoot a few pictures to capture the beauty of the place. I grabbed my camera, turned around and the door swung open and in walked Jeff! He looked exactly the same as I remembered him and very much alive. We spoke to each other and joked like we had seen each other last week. Nothing about Jeff seemed to have changed – except that he had this little smile on his lips – like he had a big secret he was anxious to share. Was he really alive?
Kelly came out of the bathroom and met Jeff. Smiles were exchanged, and at that moment I noticed that other friends were in the room with us. Paul was there, Kalvin too. We all sat around the hotel room and joked and laughed like we had done a thousand times before. As always, Jeff was center stage. We were so happy. I couldn’t believe it. At one point I asked, “Is this really happening?” Everyone smiled and nodded – yes, it was.
As if to prove a point, Jeff waved his arm and pointed at the door. He said, “Go ahead, say you wish the door would open.” I did, and the door swung open hard – leaving no doubt as to who caused this to happen. Jeff beamed. He said, “Say you wish it would close!” The door slammed shut.
It was at this moment that I realized my friend Jeff really was dead – his new powers proved it. But it was OK – in fact better than OK. He was having a great time, and he was still very much with us.
A few seconds later a glittering, ghostly wizard came into the room. He was short – perhaps three feet tall. He looked a little annoyed with Jeff, and scolded him for “revealing too much”. He reached into his robe and pulled out a hat, which he placed on Jeff’s head, instantly transforming him into a wizard too. As he hustled Jeff out of the room, I heard myself say, “We love you, Jeff.” The wizard looked at me and said, “I can see from your eyes that you mean what you say.”
I awoke with tears in my eyes.
Posted in Just Blogging, Old Friends
8 Comments
