We’ve come a long way, Baby! What I find amazing about this group shot is that the cold weather kept a lot of people away. My guess is that there are at least 100 others that did not make it to the party. I’m going to need a taller ladder for the next shot! Many…
Author: thedude
Oops – It Must Be Sunday
I think I need to add a new “horsie” category to my blog! By the way, I used my el-cheapo Korean 85mm 1.4 lens on today’s shoot. I love that lens!
Happy Anniversary
We’re 2-1/2 months late, but we finally got around to celebrating our anniversary with a day trip to wine country. What a beautiful day. Happy Anniversary, Kellster!
Tornado in Aisle 12 – Full Episode
Boom! thedude’s fire story begins at 28:45. Sorry about all of the annoying ads. I guess it’s the price of fame.
Point Arena, 2012
We just returned from a super-relaxing trip to Point Arena with most excellent hosts Tom and Julie. In an absolute stroke of genius, we decided not to drive to Mendocino like we always do. Instead, we stayed around the beautiful ocean side home and limited our activities mostly to eating and drinking, interrupted only by…
Annular Eclipse!
Despite Chris’ predictions, the world did not come to an end, and the steaks were delicious.
Another Sunday, Another Horsie
Meet another of Kelly’s pals from the Xenophon herd – Starlight.
After Hours in the Virtual Lab
While working on a visualization for a new lab space, out of curiosity, I decided to render the scene after dark, and was quite surprised by the results. The dramatic light provided almost entirely by a single omni-directional shadow-casting light somehow makes the scene look more real than it does with the lights on. It…
xfinity Logo Design
You can learn a lot about the process of designing a logo by tracing one. The design appears to be based on the ubiquitous DIN typeface – so popular it has its own web site. Simple tweaks were made to every character but the “n”, and the dots were dropped. You can see the minor…
That’s Just Dandie
Kelly poses with one of Xenophon’s newest therapy horses on a beautiful Sunday morning. Oh – Kelly likes this shot too. Something about Dandie’s ears being pricked.
Practice Makes Perfect
I see so much on TV and in other media that was almost certainly created with Cinema4D. So, to practice, I copy it — with varying degrees of accuracy. To create this, I Googled a logo, downloaded and traced it in FreeHand (Yes, I’m old-school.) The resulting .AI file was merged, extruded and rendered in…
How Does This Happen?
I just saw this in front of our office. Great googly-moogly!
On Location
Our trip to Death Valley was not strictly for pleasure — we had an ulterior motive. Chris has just made a remarkable meteorological discovery that will be ‘officially’ announced by the United Nations WMO (World Meteorological Organization) later this spring. It’s all very exciting, and helps to explain the film crew trailing him in the…
Vegas Interiors
Shot at City Center and Bellagio.
Golden Canyon
It must be said – this is one god-forsaken place. I can see why it was used as a proving ground for the Mars rovers and cast as the home of the Jawas in Star Wars. We found some interesting views along our 2.5 mile hike, but mostly just rocks and sand.
Artist’s Palette
This shot of an unusually colorful pile of rocks and minerals is made much more interesting by the woman in red who kindly hiked into the lower left of the frame just before I made the shot, providing a prefect scale reference.
Funeral Mountain Trail Ride
Kelly says no vacation is complete without a horsie ride. Some of you will recognize this photo from Kellster’s Facebook page. The main difference between the Facebook version and what you see here is the resolution of the full-size image, which is simply impossible to achieve on FB. This one is big enough to become…
How Low Can You Go?
If you’re on land and in North America, the answer to that question is, “282 feet below sea level”.
Vdara Hotel, Las Vegas
Kelly and I agree that this is the nicest Las Vegas hotel we’ve ever had the pleasure to visit. No casino, no smoking, free valet parking and a breathtaking view. Service was outstanding, and the price at the Vdara seemed reasonable! A rare combination, all but impossible to find anywhere else in Vegas. If you…
Kelly at Zabriskie Point
Another look at this spectacular site.
Zabriskie Point
I’m working on the images from our recent trip to Las Vegas and Death Valley. It looks like I’ll have a few good ones to share. Here’s a teaser taken at Zabriskie Point.
Snow Cat
Shot on the same day as the previous entry, I’m about to take a noisy, bone-rattling ride across the frozen Baffin Bay in a Snow Cat. If you look closely, you can see a bunch of sled dogs in the background resting after a 70-mile race held each year during the Julemand (Christmas) festivities. I’ll…
Life Show Logo
Another super-fun project at work. This treatment is over the top again, but so much fun to create, AND it makes a whacky wallpaper for my iMac. Regular readers may notice that the scene was borrowed from an earlier experiment.
Latest Ad Mockup
As is often the case, I have almost no idea what this product is or what it does, but I think I understand what the ad represents – the fact that something which used to require a whole bunch of time, effort and money just got a lot more accessible and way cheaper.
Oh, Yes I Did
I’ve really enjoyed my four-year-long love affair with the Nikon D3, and I have absolutely no regrets. She has served me well. I will always appreciate her superb build, her heft, her ability to see so much in so little light. I still love her and plan to keep her around – forever. But honestly,…
Super Sunday
I feel bad some times about ordering my subjects to pose for my shots, but after I see the results, I’m usually pretty sure they will want to see them too. What fun. Thanks to all of you! Thank you Kelly, for putting the whole thing together. You are da bomb! 🙂
James Was Here
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…
Fifteen Minutes of FLAME!
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…
Gualala 2012
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!
Impossible Photo Shoot
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. I don’t have a studio at work, but luckily, I do have one inside my computer. Thank you Cinema4D!