I took a short hike today hoping to see fields of wildflowers, but I think I was about a week too early, so not a lot of flower shots today. Instead, I shot some man-made objects, including a freshly-installed Mag Spike and a bushel of unidentified metal thingies, evidently used in the construction of new…
Author: thedude
Some Vials and a Box
I often do not know exactly what I’m rendering. I just try to make things look good. Unfortunately, our products will never look like this on our web site. Our “real” real product shots are required to have a pure white background and a reflective white foreground à la outdated Apple ads, but this is…
James Bond Gala
Saturday’s James Bond themed Xenophon Gala was taylor-made for the photo booth! I’m absolutely loving the results, but I do have one issue with the photo booth. The images that come out of it are so dazzling that they make the rest of my shots look boring. The most amazing thing is how easy it…
Boof Strikes Again
This is so much fun! I set up my photo booth at an event at work yesterday. Once again, the results do not disappoint. Who can resist self-portraits like these? (Yes, we occasionally do have some fun at work.) Photo Booth continues to amaze me. I have never found a better way to get nearly…
Most High Mollusk
I don’t like to post sad news on thedude.com, but I cannot ignore the untimely loss of my long-time friend, JimmyD. Suffice it to say that my memories of him and the amazingly great times we had over the last 50-odd years will live on forever. I know that all CLAMs will remember JimmyD forever…
It’s official!
After years of helping people for free, I finally started my consultancy. I hope to offer lots of services, (Linux, 3D design, photography, etc.) but my first four customers are all paying for Linux and web work. A great start! No, I’m not leaving my full-time job. I love the people at Thermofisher – some…
Pillows
Sewn from one of my favorite typefaces – Chuck. Motivation for Dude pillows came from this excellent tutorial. I had planned to make inflatable vinyl letters, but the slightest tweak in lighting and materials produced this by accident, and it works for me.
Yosemite
After working on a few of my images, I confirmed what I already suspected. Yosemite looks better in black and white. The reason for this, as Mr. Adams clearly knew, is that you can make much larger image adjustments without destroying the image. The color image below was enhanced as much as I can stand….
Welcome 2016
May the coming year bring lots of love, good health and prosperity to you and yours! Cheers!
The Cawleys
The photo booth brings out the whacky side of my boss and his family during a shoot for this year’s Christmas card.
Coworkers
I volunteered to shoot headshots of my coworkers a few weeks ago. Having never actually done such a thing, I realized that I’d better learn how. So, I watched a couple of YouTube videos, bought an inexpensive studio flash and umbrella, and set it up in our office hallway, where the Venetian plaster walls seemed…
Photo Booth Goes Mobile
I took the booth on the road this weekend and set it up at one of the season’s best tasting Christmas events – Dinner at Sam and Mari’s. They were kind enough to let me tack a red backdrop to the wall, and well, the rest is Christmas history. Click for more whacky photos!
The Parinos
We had a little time to kill before dinner at Oakland’s finest restaurant a few weeks ago, and the photo booth was set up, so, well, you can guess what happened next.
Joanna Makes Paper Art
Talented friend and neighbor Joanna has started to produce a series of woven paper pieces. They range in size from approximately 20 x 30″ down to about 10″ x 10″. They’re meticulously made and very cool. They look best when displayed as a group, so you can’t buy just one. 🙂 Joanna has a web…
Sketch & Toon PGM
The marketing team has decided that at least one of our product manuals should contain line art instead of photographs. I like this idea a lot, especially now that I’ve been able to spend a little time with Cinema4D’s Sketch & Toon renderer. Like everything else about Cinema4D, this tool is amazing. There are more…
Wendy and Jeff
Our dear friends Wendy and Jeff – two of the dorkiest loveliest friends you could ever hope to have. We’re lucky to have them in our lives. More fun here!
3d Loft Project
I’m on the Architectural Committee here in the lofts. We’re hoping to do a little sprucing up next year, so we need a 3D model of the building. I mean, obviously, right? Since Cinema4D 17 includes a new SketchUp importer, I thought it’d be cool to do the modeling in SketchUp. This way, everyone would…
Santa Fe
We had absolutely no plans when we arrived in Santa Fe. Lots of food recommendations from friends, but as always, we wanted the flexibility to do our own thing. So, it was pure luck that drove us to the coolest place in Santa Fe – Canyon Road. We discovered this amazing cluster of galleries one…
Albuquerque Balloon Fiesta
We’ve all seen pictures of this amazing event, rumored to be the most photographed event in the world. While it is an amazing photo-op, pictures cannot capture the controlled chaos of the simultaneous launch of hundreds of whacky, colorful balloons. You can walk right up to the action. Balloon pilots and crew are happy to…
Xenophon Horse Show
As always, the 2015 Xenophon Horse Show was filled with smiles and beautiful children. This is always such a joyful event! It’s a privilege to volunteer my time to such an amazing organization.
Ion Torrent One Touch DX
Some of you will remember my photo of this instrument. The photographic image is used on our website and in printed materials, and it looks pretty good. Well, starting today, I’m hoping that we’ll be replacing all of our photos with renders created with my latest addiction – V-Ray. This renderer blows away anything else…
Thermo CostCalc App Icon
I’ll admit it certainly looks a wee bit garish and not entirely plausible at the enormous size above, but it needs to be bold to stand out on an iPad home screen, where it will be smaller than this: I’m not even sure what this App is, but I know it had to have a…
Ion Torrent PGM Dx II
After many years of practice and tens of thousands of renders, this is probably the most realistic-looking 3D render I’ve ever created. And I’m not satisfied with it. This week I’ll take the plunge and get a copy of what may be the best of the “photo-realistic” renderers – V-Ray. Stand by for a comparison.
60-ish
thedude passes another milestone, and could not feel better about it. Life is good. A few more photos here.
Ion Torrent PII Chip
Today’s eye-candy is a photograph. Well, actually, it’s five photographs combined into a focus stack. This is one of the chips that goes into the S5 and S5XL seen earlier. (It can decode your DNA, dude.) For this shot, the clear plastic flowcell has been removed exposing the extremely high-resolution sensor below. I shot this…
Ion Torrent S5 XL
I’m getting excellent realism with the new Cinema4D version 17. After a few refinements and a days-long render at much higher resolution, a large version of this rendering will hang on the wall of our offices in South San Francisco and Guilford, Connecticut offices. I used Photoshop’s awesome Vanishing Point Filter to create this visualization….
I Am a Material Boy
I’ve been asked to provide several larger-than-life renderings for one of our offices. While I’m excited about seeing my renders prominently displayed, I realize that my materials will need to be absolutely perfect if they are to stand up to scrutiny from the engineers who designed the instruments and selected the actual materials. So, it’s…
2015 Ion Summer Party
We had a company picnic yesterday. As far as I can tell, there was no particular reason for it, but it was a beautiful day, and the pictures worked out well. View the rest of the photos here.
Relaxing on Labor Day
Janet and Ruby, Linda and Dinero, Trini and Go-Go, Kelly and Ozzie, Christine and Ranger begin a trail ride on this gorgeous holiday.
Ion Torrent PGM Dx
Another of my recent Cinema4D renders. From my company web site: The Ion PGM™ Dx System is a reliable and robust in vitro diagnostic (IVD) next-generation sequencing (NGS) platform that is designed to deliver the proven performance and simplicity of the Ion Torrent™ PGM system, while empowering clinical laboratories with the flexibility to develop molecular…