…to photograph everyone who ever visits our loft. In keeping with that goal, I captured tonight’s visit from the fabulous Johnstone girls. We were happy to provide some much-needed comic relief over a delicious dinner while husband/dad Andrew collects dust on the playa. At first, the girls played coy and would not get into the…
Author: thedude
Ion Torrent S5
Now that’s it’s official, I can finally share some of the 3D work I’ve been producing for the last several months. Behold the S5! The ‘S’ is for Simplicity, Speed, Scalability… This amazing instrument has many applications. It has the potential to make the world a better place for all of us. I’m lucky to…
Bruce & Catharine and Blogging Again
After some well-deserved taunting from the Kellster, I took a long look at my blog to see if I could get excited about blogging again. After some searching, I found a WordPress plugin that will make posting image galleries like the one below much easier and this nice-looking theme by Anders Norén. Both make me…
1083 Rosies Set A New World Record
What record, you ask? Why, “The Largest Gathering of People Dressed as a Rosie the Riveter”, of course! (Guinness has a world record category for everything, it seems.) The fun-filled Rosie Rally took place in Richmond, CA – apparently the real home of Rosie the Riveter. Participants were for the most part dressed to perfectly…
That was Fun
Lots of wine and food. Perfect weather. Good times.
Galeries Lafayette
Luckily, Kelly was not the least bit interested in fighting massive crowds at the Louvre, so we blew that off, and instead went shopping.
Palais Garnier
Day Eight In my opinion, one of the most spectacular sites in Paris is the Opera House, better known to locals as Palais Garnier. I’d rank it higher than the crowded Palace of Versailles.
Latin Quarter and Champs Elysee
Day Seven We did a walking tour of the Latin Quarter, and later in the day we walked along the Champs Elysee, which had a huge Christmas market about a mile long, and is where I did much of my street photography. By now, we’ve become quite comfortable using the Paris Metro, which is convenient…
Paris Street Photography
According to Wikipedia, Street Photography – which is not always shot in the street, but which is nearly always black & white – has its roots in Paris. What better place then, to try to master the craft? Luckily, my new Fuji x100T may be the best camera available for the genre. It’s perfect because…
Christmas Day in Paris
Day Six It’s Christmas! The timing of the day’s activities was perfect, as we arrived at Notre Dame during a gorgeous Christmas mass. Aside from the mass, the day felt pretty much like any other. None of the usual Christmas misery. Just fun exploring new places. What a great day! In the afternoon, we strolled…
Auvers Sur Oise
Day Five We visited the last home of Vincent Van Gogh, and stood on the very spot where several of his paintings were made. We learned that he made more than 70 paintings in the last 70 days of his unhappy life. We also got our first glimpse of the sun today, which lasted about…
Les Andelys
Day Four Les Andelys is a town of 9000 people 60 miles from Paris, which makes it close enough to be considered a suburb. Much of the population commutes from here to Paris. Naturally the town has a large church named Notre Dame where we enjoyed a beautiful organ concert.
Rouen
Day Three Our third day finds us in the unpronounceable city of Rouen. Eighteen year old Joan of Arc was burned alive here. A chapel was erected in the 1970’s near the exact spot of her death. This prosperous city of 107,000 people and 70 church steeples is also home to many wooden and stone…
Palace of Versailles
Day Two After a tasty welcome dinner on board the River Baroness, we cruised a short distance up the River Seine to the 700 room Palace of Versailles and it’s jaw-dropping opulence. We inspected one of the enormous “apartments” used by royalty of the period, and toured room after room filled with gilded walls and…
Christmas in Paris
This year we decided to avoid the depressing spectacle that is Christmas in the US by traveling abroad for the holidays. This turned out to be an even better idea than we thought it could be. The usual guilt and stress of our most dreaded holiday melted away, and we pretty much forgot about the…
Oakland Skyline Update
We’ve had about enough of the almost non-stop helicopter sounds outside our window. There are three or four in the air almost every evening that doesn’t include rain. Click for a closer look at this 15,000 pixel-wide view from my rooftop. It’s not the sharpest image ever taken, but this is because the shots were…
Photographing Four Kids is Hard
While the thought of shooting kids (with a camera) is not something I’d normally consider fun, I really could not refuse when my boss asked me to shoot his kids for the holiday. I get butterflies before all photo shoots, and this assignment had me more nervous than most. It’s easier to focus the camera…
Oh Just Frigate
Working on a cover of a book about pirates. The image started as a model from the Sketchup 3D Warehouse, exported in 3DS format, imported into Cinema4D. What you see is pretty much straight out of Cinema.
Sports Photography is Hard
I photographed my first East Bay United Soccer match today. Simon has not had much success shooting his son’s matches with his point-and-click. I explained that you need a long lens, fast shutter speeds and a lot of patience. Great action shots are few and far between. Most of the time, they turn out like…
Distractions
It’s true – the new 5K iMac is mind-blowing. Ii takes just a few minutes on a 5K retina display to realize that there will be no going back. After my boss saw it, I had no trouble convincing him that I could not live without a 5K display at work. So now I’ve been…
Five Days Off the Grid
The most amazing thing about this mini-vacation is that I managed to stay completely away from any form of Internet or phone access for more than five days. This may not seem like much of a feat, but I challenge you to try it.
Attack of the Sexagenarians
Lots more pictures from Chris and Scott’s birthday party on my Google+ page.
Happy Birthday to Me!
I cannot thank you guys enough for getting my fifty ninth sixtieth(!) year off to a such a great start. You guys RULE! Chris and Ben, thanks for being the best of all hosts and for opening the door to your beautiful home. Thanks to Peter and Jane for the excellent conversation, the laughs and…
Amazing Stuff Happens
Kelly and I visited new friend Curtis spectacular home this weekend to have a look at the Burning Man shots on his 19-foot home theater screen. In case that wasn’t cool enough, Curtis had a scheme to make it even more memorable and amazing. Wow! View more pictures of this awesome evening on Google+, of…
Andrew & Jeri’s Dazzling Wedding on the Playa
Surrounded by bees and unicorns, Andrew and Jeri and Ursula and Sophie made it official on Wednesday as the sun set on The Man. With the Reverend Billy presiding, I assure you, this event was more beautiful and spectacular than you can imagine. If you want more, you’ll find a couple hundred high-resolution images from…
Richard Lair
My friend Herve had this to say when he saw my shot of Richard. ‟He has a Faulknerian stance, with a sprinkle of twinkling old Mark twain…” Richard is the world’s authority on the Asian Elephant. He has lived in Thailand for most of his life, and has spent much of that time running one…
iBurn For You
I worked with a 2D file provided by Andrew to create a 3D splash screen for a Burning Man mapping app called iBurn. With it, burners will always be able to tell how far they are from The 7 Deadly Gins or Hungover Camel Hydration Station or even F.A.R.T. Kamp, for when they get the…
It’s Official!
After 10 years of Andrew’s urging me to go, I will finally embrace the dust.
Weekend Renders
There’s a reasonable chance that I’ll be asked to serve on the board of our Home Owner’s Association in a few months, and one topic that will be revisited again is an update of the interior of our building. A facelift is long overdue, and having a few convincing 3D renders may go a long…