This weekend is your last chance to get 50% off on $100 or more worth of books at MyPublisher. I made one more quick book this morning and ordered 12 copies for 75 bucks with shipping. You really should try it. It’s fun! There is no cheaper way to see a bunch of your favorite…
Category: Design
New and Improved!
MyPublisher released a new version of their cool book-making software. The new version has a few key enhancements. First of all, BookMaker 2.0 looks much more like a book. You now also have the ability to print pages with black backgrounds. YAY! There are other new features, but these two alone make the upgrade worthwhile….
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…
Fantastic Fire Arts Festival
Wherein Utilikilt-clad white male fire-worshippers from around the Bay Area converge on the Crucible in Oakland for their 6th annual Fire Arts Festival and play in public with very dangerous but mesmerizing big boy toys. Whoa. The things we saw there definitely fall into the “Don’t try this at home” category. This ain’t your Mother’s…
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,…
Suburban Illusions – From Camera to Book in One Day
Steve made these images on a sunny Hayward afternoon while riding his cherry 1942 AMC Flash Cruiser, recently resuscitated from a 64 year stint in a “barn at Francis’ house”. The unretouched Fuji FinePix E900 images were dragged directly into a MyPublisher book. Here are a couple of spreads from this sure-to-be-instant-classic. The process took…
Can You Spot the Difference?
Of course you can! Another photographic blunder saved by PhotoShop.
Oakland’s Magnificent Fox Theater
My recent visit to the Oakland Fox Theater was very interesting. I saw first hand what nearly 40 years of neglect will do to a building. The photos below look better than the building does “in person”. The shots below give a clue to the condition of the walls and the plaster pretty much throughout…
This Saves Me a Bundle
Recently I have been toying with the idea of buying a color printer. Epson and HP make some fine printers that offer superior quality to any traditional printing methods. I’m pretty picky about my images, and thought that this would be the cheapest way to share prints of my favorite images with friends and family….
Fabulous Free Photo Album Tools
This weekend while searching for an easy-to-use photo blogging tool, I came across a couple of very cool tools. Both make it easy to build very slick photo album pages for the web with a few clicks. The first is Porta. This totally cool Windows application allows you to build pages like this easily. It…
Kelly’s Cool Christmas Ornaments
Kelly took the tree down yesterday. These little guys are a bit odd, but awfully cute. I’ll miss them.
thedude’s Fiddieth Birthday Party Invitation
It just dawned on my that some of you might not have seen the fabulous party invitation. 🙂 Thanks to Apple for supplying the terrific iPod ads and to this great blog for a helpful tutorial. BTW, if you like iPods and PhotoShop, give this fun tutorial a spin. You are guaranteed to learn something…
Jumpin’ Jack Chestnut
From time to time friends send me fabulous images. This is definitely one of them. Meet Jack. The black and white is a nice touch don’t you think? It really sets off the metallic costume from its leafy surroundings. Most excellent costume and photography by Siobhan Chestnut. Fabulous!
Size Doesn’t Matter…
What matters is how BIG it is. There are many great things to say about this new configuration. I still have a vertically oriented monitor for browsing and working on portrait-oriented documents. (That’s just about everything, right?) In addition, I now have a huge, brilliant canvas for displaying and editing images. I briefly considered a…
Low Tech – High Concept
Our neighbors/friends Jack and Tres (see below) needed a quick web site so that they could pitch their fun idea for a Burningman theme camp. (All they really wanted to do is obtain permission to arrive early at Black Rock City.) So, they threw a site together quickly using hand-drawn graphics and a simple site…
Flyer Gets a Facelift
Inspired by the incredibly useful Before and After magazine, I decided to re-design a flyer for a friend. The old flyer seemed rather bland to me. It didn’t say enough about Chef Julie’s awesome cooking skills, and it placed her image at the bottom of the page, like an afterthought. The new flyer adds a…
More Visualizations with PhotoShop
There has been some talk lately of painting the exterior of our building. I’m very excited about the prospect – so excited that I climbed up on the construction site across the street and shot some images of the building specifically for visualization purposes. My 12 millimeter lens was not quite wide enough to capture…
Virtually Amazing
Andrew’s stunning Virtual Playa continues to evolve. His incredible Flight Sim scenery already includes half of this year’s Burningman installations, as well as most of the major installations from past events. Burningman founders have finally taken notice and are working with Andrew on a major multimedia installation for Burningman 2005. More news soon!
The Ultimate Visualization Tool
Kelly and I decided to pick a few shots from our Europe trip and have them printed for the living room wall. So, I used PhotoShop and it’s amazing new Vanishing Point tool to throw together a mock-up of the wall for visualization purposes. This helped us choose the images and play with placement as…
Quiet Computer Case on Steriods
I hate to admit it, but really do want this thing. It’s sooo geeky – so beautiful! I’ve been lusting after it half the day. What makes it so appealing – aside from its thick, throbbing manliness – is that it’s a completely silent PC case. The case contains exactly zero fans and works with…
There’s More to Life Than Photography
I can’t believe I just said that! Anyway, just so you know that I’m not getting lazy… I’ve been working on a proposal to add some color to our building’s hallways. I have to make a good presentation if I am to get any agreement between all the members of our association. I’ve also been…
What a Shame
The owners of Andrew and Barbara’s loft will be painting over this awesome example of Andrew’s skill as a muralist. Andrew has a better understanding of perspective and of how to fool the eye than anyone I’ve ever known. His work is amazing. You can’t see it here, but Andrew even took the time to…
What I’ve Learned About Photography
We all know this – and it’s absolutely true. Hardware has almost nothing to do with the quality of your work. I’m convinced that results don’t even have much to do with skill. What it’s about is motivation. I mean, what if I had shot the images in the collages I hung in our hallway…
You Just Have to FEEL It!
Andrew has finished his magic – for now – and the result is this spectacular piece of work on our pillars! We are soooo happy with the beautiful venetian plaster applied by the master. What you don’t see here is the wonderful sensual texture of the polished plaster. It feels like cold marble. YUM! Thank…
And Then…
…all the pieces come together.
Now THIS is Exciting!
I first noticed the fabulous fat typeface used on the Golden Gate Bridge when my daughter Kerry visited last year. I instantly loved it. I took this picture with the thought that I might use the typeface in a future design. Well, it turns out that I don’t need to go through all the trouble…
Put a Fork in It!
Andrew’s very first rendered scene is a beauty. We had this printed poster-size. It’s looks completely awesome! Of course, it would look great as a postcard card too! (Andrew – are you listening?)
Extreme Weather Cover, rev. 1
Chris and I revisited his book cover again this afternoon. The publisher thought our first cover looked a bit “too old fashioned”. We spent just 30 minutes or so, but I think our minor changes made a major difference. It’s amazing what a splash of color and a different font/case can do for a design….