Neomorphic Ten Year Reunion

Ten years ago I got a job at Neomorphic, Inc. — a small start-up with a big idea and a fabulous group of individuals who, as a team, definitely got ‘er done. I am extremely lucky to have been part of this amazing team, led by Martin Reese, Cyrus Harmon and Gregg Helt. Thanks to…

An Exciting New Direction

After ten great years at Affymetrix, thedude is moving on to what will hopefully prove to be greener pastures.

Blustery Day on the Bay

With temperatures on the bay hovering around 50 degrees, it might not have been an ideal day for a Hornblower Cruise. Nevertheless, the mighty IT team braved the elements and posed for the obligatory group shot.

IT Picnic, 2009

It’s my duty to shoot the IT group at our annual picnic. I’m quite pleased with this one. I had planned to PhotoShop myself into the scene, but no matter how I try, I always come out looking like a cardboard cutout. Next year I’ll bring a tripod. 🙂

Affymetrix Rolls Out New Web Site!

The official launch date is Monday, but lucky readers of thedude.com can take a look at the new site deign now. It’s a huge improvement over the old site, both aesthetically and performance-wise. I’m very proud to have been a part of this effort. Yay!

Affymetrix Rebranding Campaign

Get the Flash Player to see this movie. After focus groups revealed that my company’s current corporate image reminded them of a “dull forty-something white male”, they decided it was time to make a change. So, Affymetrix hired a design team to help freshen our brand. I think the new branding looks great! This is…

AT & T Park

I was lucky enough to have an amazing seat at today’s Giant’s game. I was in row one directly behind the batter at AT & T park. I think I was closer to the batter than the pitcher was! If you look closely in the very center of the shot, you’ll see a Plexiglas window….

The Mighty Affymetrix IT Team

I made a group shot at our IT picnic last week. I often do not get to be in group shots, as I’m stuck behind the camera. I really wanted to be a part of this one, so I asked my boss to shoot a picture of me after I shot the group, and I…

Coworkers and Friends

Some of the brightest (and best-looking!) people I’ve ever had the pleasure of working with. Elise, Adam, Brant, Ron, Steve, Shannon, Guoying and Harley.

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….

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…

A View of the Third Floor at Affymetrix, Emeryville

I’m very impressed with the results produced by the latest version of PhotoVista. I forgot to level the camera for this panorama, and the results are still nearly perfect. There are still a few steps involved to get this kind of quality. Shoot 8 RAW images using a Nikkor 14mm lens with the camera in…

Two Places at Once?

thedude proves it’s possible. I should mention that I used the latest version of PhotoVista to stitch this together. The original 17,860 pixel-wide version is the best “automatic” stitch I’ve ever produced – at least in terms of stitch accuracy. The new version’s automatic lens detection is a real time-saver. This means that for most…

My New Windows Wallpaper

If only this fortune could come true… Maybe if I display it prominently on my desktop at work my bosses will be brainwashed into giving me a promotion and a huge raise. I’ll let you know how that goes. 🙂

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…

Farewell, Hugh

Yesterday my coworkers and I met at Kitty’s in Emeryville to send off another of my favorite coworkers. Hugh (aka Huge) and I have worked side-by-side for almost six years. He’s an amazingly talented SysAdmin, musician and a great friend. I am very sad to see him go. Best wishes to you, Hugh!

Ali

For the last three years I have had the rare pleasure of working with a person for whom I have a great deal of love and respect. Ali has been an absolute joy to work with. She is brilliant, beautiful and hilarious. I have never known anyone quite like her. Knowing that I’d see her…

Pano Tools and PT Assembler

You know I love panoramic photography. I’m always looking for tools to help me improve my results. Some months ago I downloaded Pano Tools and Pano Tools Assembler, but never found the time to try them out – until today. After my first hour with Pano Tools, all I can say is, “W-W-W-WOW!” There are…

thedude’s Work at Aqua Via

Once in a while thedude takes a paying photo job. Hey, he has to pay off these expensive photography toys! This client wanted some generic Jack London Square shots to help promote their new apartments on 2nd and Jackson – a couple blocks from here. We toured the building yesterday. The units are fairly nice,…

Juwei

My friend and coworker was taken from us this morning by an extremely aggressive cancer. We are all shocked and saddened by the suddenness of his death at the young age of 42. I sat next to and worked with Juwei for four years. He was kind, proud, reliable, and a damn good SysAdmin. He…

Bon Voyage, Nick!

My talented young coworker Nick is moving to a remote part of southeastern Arizona. That’s a bit of a bummer. But there is a silver lining – he’ll continue to work for Affymetrix – remotely! Thanks to Nick’s many skills and Linux/FreeBSD, this should be no problem at all. Best of luck to you, Nick!…

Affymetrix UNIX Op’s Group

I thought you might like to see a couple pictures of the fabulous guys I work with. This is the most talented group of UNIX GEEKS I have ever met, and our most excellent manager Karl. We spent this Friday afternoon in Pacifica at a cool bowling alley called Sea Bowl. The occasion was to…

My Fabulous Coworkers

I was asked to take a group shot of everyone at work as a parting gift for one of our coworkers, who is leaving to join the Computer Science faculty at the University of Massachusetts in Amherst and “pursue a career in teaching and bioinformatics research”. So, once again I borrowed Steve’s Mamiya 6 x…

Film Photography Ain’t Easy

As part of an informal project at work, I’m shooting high resolution photographs all of my company’s campuses. I got excellent results on the shots of our Emeryville office. Unfortunately, the shots I took this week of three buildings in Santa Clara are useless. Even though I carried a digital camera and shot numerous test…

Some Very Smart People

I have the good fortune to work with some incredibly bright people. Today I was asked to take photgraphs of a few of them. The images are to be printed in a scientific paper soon to be published in The Journal of Bioinformatics and Computational Biology. Meet Ann Loraine, Mike Siani-Rose and Melissa Cline. The…