Category Archives: Family

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

Last Night at San Gregorio Beach

Posted on October 24, 2011 by thedude

I’m pretty happy with this shot of my wife with her parents and best friends Jeff and Wendy. To make it, I used my new FourSquare lighting system, held high above my head while I clutched the D3 with the other hand and snapped this about 30 minutes after sunset. The colors in this one make everything else on my site look washed-out. Wow.

Soft Boxes are nothing new in the studio. What makes this one so special is its portability. Equipped with a couple of Nikon SB-600 flash heads purchased on ebay and triggered with an on-camera SB-800, I can throw a heck of a lot of high quality light into a scene. Setup takes about 5 minutes, and the results speak for themselves.

If there’s anything not to like about these shots is that they look like they’re faked. Sort of like a cheesy Sears portrait against a photo backdrop. I can assure you — these are real.

Posted in Bay Area, Family, Photography | 1 Comment

Favorite Birthday Card

Posted on September 15, 2011 by thedude

Thanks Dawn, for the hilarious birthday card.

Posted in Family, Just Blogging | 1 Comment

Our New Favorite Shot of Bandit

Posted on February 20, 2011 by thedude

We look forward to the summer when he’s shed all of his winter coat and the trails have dried up so we can get an even better shot of horse and rider, but we both like this one a lot!

This image also marks the first time I used a new GPS device form BlueSLR. This small device connects to my Camera and adds GPS info to my photos in a very clever way. Instead of incorporating its own GPS chip, the BlueSLR gets this geolocation information via a Bluetooth connection to my iPhone! This results in much faster and more accurate GPS location info than other GPS devices for digital SLR’s, and presumably consumes less of the camera’s precious power. The BlueSLR iPhone/iTouch/iPad app also allows me to make several camera adjustments and trigger the shutter from up to 300 feet away. Very cool!

Posted in Bay Area, Family, New Friends | 4 Comments

Warmest Day of the Year

Posted on January 23, 2011 by thedude

Jim Rowe’s visit is coinciding with some spectacular Bay Area weather. The high temperature in Oakland was only in the upper 50′s, but in the warm sun it felt like 75. Perfect weather for oysters on the pier at the Lake Chalet.

Later, we went up to Skyline Ranch to visit with Kelly and Bandit.

Posted in Bay Area, Family, Old Friends | 4 Comments

Our White Christmas

Posted on December 27, 2010 by thedude

I was not looking forward to driving 5 hours to Shaver Lake to be held prisoner in a cabin in the snow, but that’s not how it turned out at all. The holiday I dread the most turned out to be more than tolerable this year. At times, it was actually fun.

The food and family stuff was fun and the cabin turned out to be a nice roomy house, but the icing on the cake came in the form of a foot of powdery snow. Beautiful!!

More fabulous photos here.

Posted in Family, Food, Holidays | 4 Comments

Introducing Bandit

Posted on November 13, 2010 by thedude

Kelly’s childhood dream finally comes true!

Accompanied by their official photographer, Kelly and Bandit took a short ride on this sunny, 70 degree day. Looks like Bandit and Kelly are getting along splendidly.

Many thanks to the great folks at Xenophon Therapeutic Riding for all of the support. Without your help, this would not have been possible. Also, I’d like give a HUGE thanks to our friends Hannah and Pooh, who have been amazingly helpful.

Posted in Bay Area, Family, New Friends | 10 Comments

My New Favorite Lens

Posted on September 25, 2010 by thedude

Steve has an 85mm f1.4 Nikkor lens for sale. I’d love to own it, but even used, this is one expensive lens! This led me into a search for alternatives, which led me to an entire Flickr group devoted to this interesting lens. I was impressed that these beautiful images were made with this amazingly cheap lens, so I decided to pick one up.

I’ve had the lens for just a few hours, and I’m already very impressed by the bokeh. To me, it looks as good as that from lenses costing five times as much. Interestingly, it seems that that the smooth bokeh makes the in-focus parts of the image appear even sharper than they actually are. Don’t get me wrong – I’m not suggesting that this lens isn’t sharp – it is! It already seems like the best lens bargain I’ve ever found.

Posted in Family, Photography, Within Walking Distance | 1 Comment

Fifty and Fabulous!

Posted on January 2, 2010 by thedude

Happy New Year, and Happy Birthday, Kelly! Thanks very much to all who helped us celebrate the end of the decade and the Kelly’s birthday! (Does she look great, or what??)

A few more pictures here.

Posted in Family, Holidays | 7 Comments

Birthday Party Invitation

Posted on January 1, 2010 by thedude

Kelly’s birthday party invitation received mixed reviews. Some missed the reference to 2007 word of the year — w00t! Most seemed to recognized the layout based loosely on WIRED magazine. Others questioned our choice of photo. For us it was easy – we chose it because she has a glass of champagne in each hand. :)

Posted in Family, Food, Holidays | 1 Comment

Happy Thanksgiving!

Posted on November 25, 2009 by thedude

After Kelly put some sparkly Christmas stuff in the bathroom, we enjoyed an absolutely splendid afternoon in Jack London Square. We wish you all a wonderful holiday.