However, I will make an exception for Antonio Piccolboni! He’s been a huge fan of my photography for five years, a terrific coworker and friend. I could not turn him down. Antonio and Maria were married in a charming Quaker ceremony in a spectacular amphitheater at the Berkeley Botanical Gardens. Congratulations, Antonio and Maria!
Category: Photography
Dogs Defeat Spartans in Double Header
The Fresno State Bulldogs beat the San Jose Spartans twice today, 1-0 and 5-3. This was thedude’s first girl’s softball game and first attempt at shooting one. It will come as no surprise to anyone who has attempted to photograph a fast-moving athlete pushing herself hard that there is only a tiny fraction of a…
Stone Circles – Beauty and Mystery
Andrew took these awesome panoramic shots on a recent vacation trip. The arrangement on the left is the Ring o’ Brodgar, the Stone Circle at Castlerigg is on the right. I don’t know much about how the circles came to be, but then, neither does anyone else.
It’s Never Too Late for Photo Fun
This poster was imagined almost 30 years ago. We shot these images of Steve in the living room and printed them by hand at the time. With lots of dodging, I was able to achieve decent results, but was limited to a print 24 inches wide. Thanks to the fact that I preserved the original…
On Film and Friends
Memories flood over me as I see some of these images unfold on my 24″ display. Some of the images really smack me up and down and back up again – for a number of different reasons. A few things I thought when I saw this shot: We must have been having a great time…
Photo Advice from thedude
A coworker recently asked for photo advice after seeing the pictures I shot at our company Christmas party. I took the time compose a lengthy response, and figure I might as well share it with my regular readers too! Hi thedude, I was looking at the pictures you took at the party. They are amazing….
Gettin’ All Ansel With It
We drove to Strawberry, California (Pop. 50) yesterday to take part in a 50th birthday celebration for Kelly’s long-time friend Jeff Marshall at the historic Strawberry Lodge. Along the way we enjoyed a delicious lunch at the Heyday Cafe in Placerville. We arrived at the lodge just in time to see the moon bouncing toward…
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…
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…
Wrong Lens, Ten Minutes Too Late
I made the trek up to the roof to try and shoot the sunset again, with mixed results. The walk up the stairs was not a total loss, though. As you can see, when you put a few images side by side like this, the overall effect changes. The shots you see here are the…
Oakland Weather
This is odd weather for September 19th. We might get rained on tonight. Unfortunately, what I had hoped for – a huge thunderhead lit by the setting sun – didn’t quite materialize. At least not from this vantage point. Oh well, the pano quite accurately captures what it looked like. Look closely. How many vehicles…
Beautiful Bass Lake
Occasionally thedude finds beauty in things that are not exploding or spewing flames! This weekend’s trip to Bass Lake found us sipping cool beers on the deck at Ducey’s while enjoying this splendid view.
Hot, Fun-Filled Fourth
Many thanks to our hosts Hi-Suk and San Ju for a wonderful day at their gorgeous country home in Guinda, Califirnia. (Don’t feel too bad – we never heard of Guinda, either.) July 4th was the hottest day of the year so far – at least 110 degrees. Ugh! Luckily, the couple have a gigantic…
San Francisco Death March
Entertaining guests from out of town is exhausting. Ann and Lynne had made a detailed list of must-see Bay Area “attractions” – some of which I had been successfully avoiding for nearly 25 years. Places like Fisherman’s Wharf, The Haight, Lombard Street, the Painted Ladies, Chinatown, Ghirardelli Square, San Francisco cable cars and Alcatraz are…
Hot Fun Actions
I use a PhotoShop Action to prepare images for my blog. My “Blogerize” action scales images for the site in steps while applying a bit of smart sharpening along the way. The action also converts the images to the appropriate color depth and color space. Since I need to do these things for every image…
Spring is Here
While most of the rest of the country is experiencing freezing temperatures are snow, spring brought glorious blue skies and near 70 degree temperatures to the Bay Area this weekend. Splendiferous!! What’s a little earthquake now and then when you can have have weather like this on March 3rd? After Saturday brunch at Sam’s in…
200 Second Street
One of my favorite new developments in the neighborhood is this one. What I really like is that the developer of the lofts at 200 Second Street had the stones to use colors other than the four or five “standard” exterior colors for new developments in the Bay Area. That along with some nice architectural…
Fun (But Dangerous) New Neighbors
Today we discovered that we have not one, but TWO wineries within stumbling distance of our loft. Both JC Cellars and Dashe Cellars recently opened tasting rooms less than three blocks away. What a great addition to our neighborhood. This is the kind of urban development we can support! Tasting is free, and the rich,…
A Nice Site Gets Nicer
thedude was thrilled to discover tonight that the official San Francisco Carnaval web site has given their home page a tune up, and now features one of thedude’s shots from carnaval 2006. They must really like the shot because they devoted so much screen real estate to it. Not even thedude.com features a photo as…
Merry Christmas!
Oh that is SO CUTE!! –Tres 2 funny –Grant Very nice card – how long did it take you to put it together? –Dawn (About two hours.) The e-card is your funniest yet! –Todd OH MY GERSH….I just about blew ice water out of my nose!!!!!! You are a nut!!!!! LOL –Wendy One of the…
Warping Space with a Digital Camera and PhotoShop and PTlens
A new acquaintance inspired me to follow through on an idea I’ve had for a long time. The idea is appealing to me because it fulfills a real need, but also because it gives me an excuse to combine some of my more obscure toys and skills to produce something unique. The idea was to…
Not Entirely My Idea
I really wish I could take credit for the redesign idea, but it was the always inspirational Before and After Magazine that made me do it. The latest issue contains a story about this attractive site. What peaked my interest is that this design clearly rewards people with a lot of screen real estate. My…
Congratulations, Steve & Debra!
Kelly and I had a wonderful time at your wedding. The 20’s theme was an excellent idea – everyone looked great! I now have hundreds of photos to retouch, color-correct and otherwise perfect in PhotoShop before they’ll be suitable for display on thedude.com. I’ll be busy for days. I’ll post images as I finish them…
Grand Tetons Panorama
I saw numerous examples of images like these in galleries throughout Jackson. (The cabin in the scenes below is the most photographed structure in the park.) Many were shot with a large format camera and exhibited breathtaking sharpness and supernatural colors.
Jackson Hole, Wyoming
Our best friends Chris and Ben have a very cool cabin just a few yards outside the Grand Teton National Park. This shot was taken from the deck shortly after sunrise on Friday morning. We stared at this view for three days and barely noticed the structures in the foreground – our eyes were fixed…
O’Hare International Airport
One of the first things you may encounter when traveling through Chicago’s O’hare International Airport is the wacky walkway under the tarmac between the terminals and baggage claim. I’m usually too busy to stop and photograph this spot, but this time I was able to spare a few seconds to shoot two quick images with…
Can You Spot the Difference?
Of course you can! Another photographic blunder saved by PhotoShop.
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…
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…