Twenty-five image bokeh panorama shot at the office today. I’m learning a lot about the process of creating these. The 90mm lens I’m using seems to be a bit long and a bit slow. It’s not easy to get good coverage without taking a lot of shots. The depth of field is not shallow enough…
Category: Photography
Be Smart – Try Again
I noticed that my photo stitching software was a couple versions behind, so I downloaded the most recent version and rendered the Smart pano again. Forty image bokeh panorama shot in the garage at work on a Sunday morning. Right-click here to download a 5K version.
The Brenizer Method
This weekend I learned of the Brenizer Method This photographic technique creates images of very high resolution and very shallow depth of field. The resulting “bokeh panorama” simulates the look of a very large (8 x 10) format camera with your basic digital camera. Excellent! I could not wait to try this for myself, but…
Merry Christmas
In case you’re wondering, I created thedude & Kelly action figures in Cinema4D and composited them into a photograph of our fake tree with PhotoShop.
Cell Phone Street Photography
I walked to the local Ace Hardware this morning and took a few shots along the way. I noticed some attempts to thwart graffiti. I love all the color and the bold designs. I hope these works of art remain unspoiled for a long time. I also discovered that my Nexus 5X is almost perfect…
Halloween Photo Booth
I’m getting better and better results from the booth. Not just because of tweaks to the hardware, but also due to the fact that my audience at work knows how to get better pictures out of it. (Get closer! Lean in a bit!) And although I can fit 10 or 12 people in the booth,…
Nova in the Booth
Kelly’s birds definitely do not want anything to do with this shiny contraption, but I was able to get this cool shot of Nova just as she began her escape.
Walking in the ‘hood
Shot with my Nexus 5X, which, as you can see, makes a pretty decent camera.
This is not your mama’s photo booth
It’s difficult to pick favorites from yesterday’s party at work.
Ocean View Drive
I like this hand-help time exposure from our recent Pacific Grove trip.
James Bond Gala
Saturday’s James Bond themed Xenophon Gala was taylor-made for the photo booth! I’m absolutely loving the results, but I do have one issue with the photo booth. The images that come out of it are so dazzling that they make the rest of my shots look boring. The most amazing thing is how easy it…
Boof Strikes Again
This is so much fun! I set up my photo booth at an event at work yesterday. Once again, the results do not disappoint. Who can resist self-portraits like these? (Yes, we occasionally do have some fun at work.) Photo Booth continues to amaze me. I have never found a better way to get nearly…
Yosemite
After working on a few of my images, I confirmed what I already suspected. Yosemite looks better in black and white. The reason for this, as Mr. Adams clearly knew, is that you can make much larger image adjustments without destroying the image. The color image below was enhanced as much as I can stand….
Welcome 2016
May the coming year bring lots of love, good health and prosperity to you and yours! Cheers!
The Cawleys
The photo booth brings out the whacky side of my boss and his family during a shoot for this year’s Christmas card.
Coworkers
I volunteered to shoot headshots of my coworkers a few weeks ago. Having never actually done such a thing, I realized that I’d better learn how. So, I watched a couple of YouTube videos, bought an inexpensive studio flash and umbrella, and set it up in our office hallway, where the Venetian plaster walls seemed…
Photo Booth Goes Mobile
I took the booth on the road this weekend and set it up at one of the season’s best tasting Christmas events – Dinner at Sam and Mari’s. They were kind enough to let me tack a red backdrop to the wall, and well, the rest is Christmas history. Click for more whacky photos!
The Parinos
We had a little time to kill before dinner at Oakland’s finest restaurant a few weeks ago, and the photo booth was set up, so, well, you can guess what happened next.
Wendy and Jeff
Our dear friends Wendy and Jeff – two of the dorkiest loveliest friends you could ever hope to have. We’re lucky to have them in our lives. More fun here!
Albuquerque Balloon Fiesta
We’ve all seen pictures of this amazing event, rumored to be the most photographed event in the world. While it is an amazing photo-op, pictures cannot capture the controlled chaos of the simultaneous launch of hundreds of whacky, colorful balloons. You can walk right up to the action. Balloon pilots and crew are happy to…
Ion Torrent PII Chip
Today’s eye-candy is a photograph. Well, actually, it’s five photographs combined into a focus stack. This is one of the chips that goes into the S5 and S5XL seen earlier. (It can decode your DNA, dude.) For this shot, the clear plastic flowcell has been removed exposing the extremely high-resolution sensor below. I shot this…
2015 Ion Summer Party
We had a company picnic yesterday. As far as I can tell, there was no particular reason for it, but it was a beautiful day, and the pictures worked out well. View the rest of the photos here.
It is My Goal…
…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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
Tower of Power
I had some free time while kelly was riding Go-Go today at Xenophon, so I went out looking for photos. This PG&E tower, on the Xenophon property in Orinda, is about 18″ square; too small for a dude to crawl into, so I stuck my X100S into the center of the structure and pointed it…