Monthly Archives: January 2012

Hovercards are Cool

Posted on January 31, 2012 by thedude

I know I’ve metioned Gravatars before and told you how cool they are. Having your own Globally Recognized Avatar is very cool. It puts a face to the commenter on numerous blogs and other social media sites. Avatars can be associated with e-mail addresses, so you can have a nice G-rated professional-looking shot for comments on your company wiki and a different image to adorn comments you leave on thedude.com.

Now the folks at gravatar.com have made Gravatars even cooler. When used with a plugin that enables Hovercards, you can get to know more about the commenter by simply hovering over their avatar. If your gravatar.com profile includes links, and a few images, they appear here. Check out this entry’s comment section to see it in action

By the way, in case you never noticed, hovering over any of the images on this site often reveals a little extra detail about the shot. :)

Posted in Computing | 2 Comments

James Was Here

Posted on January 30, 2012 by thedude

OK – I’ve been feeling kinda bad. My pal Jim visited for a week, and, despite great conversation, great weather and meals at places like Haven, Sea Salt and of course Chop Bar, I took a grand total of one photograph. With a cheap-ass point-and-click. I guess it could have been worse – I could have used a cell phone. There’s no excuse for this.

I was stumped at what to do, and Jim solved the dilemma by posting a really amazing shot of a few of the more than 50 orchids he has blossoming in his kitchen right now. In Madison Wisconsin. In January. I find this amazing. There is absolutely zero chance of me ever being capable of creating anything even remotely like this. I’m in awe.

It was great to hang with you, Dude. Always enlightening in so many ways.

Posted in Bay Area, Contributed, Old Friends, Wisconsin | 2 Comments

Fifteen Minutes of FLAME!

Posted on January 22, 2012 by thedude

OK, here it is, more than twenty years after the devastating Oakland Hills Fire, and we’re still talking about it. Well, at least I’m still talking about it. This time I’m sharing my experience with the crew from yet another reality show — Deadliest Planet. Watch out! Here comes another urban fire video!

It’s not hard to recall the events of that day, but just before the interview, we visited the fire zone to shoot some B-roll, and this had the unexpected effect of heightening my memories of the experience and probably made for a much better interview. We’ll have to see how the editors piece my sound bites together. I just hope it’s not totally embarrassing.

Stay tuned to thedude.com for show times and dates!

Posted in Bay Area, Shameless Self-Promotion | 6 Comments

Gualala 2012

Posted on January 17, 2012 by thedude

We took Kelly’s parents along this time. We couldn’t have hoped for better weather in mid-January. No Internet for almost four days. What a wonderful trip! Loved it!

Posted in Family, Holidays | 9 Comments

Impossible Photo Shoot

Posted on January 11, 2012 by thedude

Occasionally marketing asks for things that are (nearly) impossible to shoot. Like when they asked me to photograph a stack of sixty three 96-well microtiter plates on a white background.