Grant makes a pretty good case with this shot – frozen at 1/4000th of second.
Category: Photography
Two More Kakku Panoramas
Well, it’s been five months since we returned from Burma, and I’m still looking at the pictures pretty much every day. Luckily, I like looking at pretty pictures of things and places I’ve seen. No matter how good (or bad) you think these images are, they definitely look even better to me, and hopefully, Kelly…
Laughing Dogs
Once in a while a friend sends a photo that amazes me. Dave was practicing with his new camera, and managed to capture this cool image of googly-eyed puppies going crazy in the Wisconsin snow. Dave, I’d say this picture proves that some pet-owners do look just like their pets! 🙂
Burmese Blacksmiths
After the silk-weaving, we moved on to another labor-intensive activity – turning leaf springs into knife blades. We’ve seen this sort of work before, but the way this team of men worked the hot steel was something to see. Here are a couple of videos.
Mya Thein Tan
I swear that I saw this lovely temple referred to as the “whipped cream temple” somewhere. You can see why. This was one of my favorite temples. Nearby, we stopped to have a look at the Massive Mingun Bell. Weighing in at 90 tons, it is the world’s largest cast bronze bell.
Mingun in the Morning
On the morning of our ninth day in Burma, we took another slow boat ride up the Irrawaddy. This time, our destination was the huge, unfinished Mingun Pahtodawgyi. If it had been finished, it would have easily been the largest pagoda in Burma – nearly 500 feet tall! In its ruined state, it’s merely the…
Syun Oo Pone Nya Shin Temple
This beautiful temple is on Sagaing Hill, has a great view of the Irrawaddy River and a fantastic tile floor. We loved the colors and the geometric patterns. The shot was made by stitching eight images together. The view encompasses a bit more than 180 degrees.
Bagan, Myanmar – Take III
While Kelly indulged in yet another spa treatment, Tum and I went back to the temples to shoot some more. We weren’t alone. A hundred or more people came to watch the sunset. Later, we arrived back at the Thiripytsaya just in time to see this.
Ananda Temple
The outside of the temple is beautiful, but it’s what’s inside that really shines – four spectacular gilded wooden Buddhas. (These shots are all high-resolution vertical panoramas. Look for large copies of these printed on metallic paper in thedude’s loft soon!)
Bagan Panorama
I did not do nearly as much of this sort of thing as I had hoped to. I had grand plans about producing some of the highest resolution images of Burma in existence. Well, the blistering pace of our trip made it impossible to stand in one spot long enough to create any Gigapan’s at…
Ingabo Village
On today’s return trip from the Golden Rock, we made a few stops. The last of our stops was in Ingabo Village where we happened upon the initiation rite for this 12 year old boy. Tomorrow he heads off to the monastery to do a stint as a monk, where he will begin a regimen…
Bago Market and the Golden Rock
I thought this might happen at some point on this trip, but it’s happening sooner than I expected. I already have way more pictures that I’d like to share than I can possibly post from here. Trying to edit my images down to a few favorites is not easy. I’m averaging 400 or so shots…
Greetings from Myanmar!
Our trip to Burma took 23 hours. The first 19 were made less than perfect due to three children who proved beyond a doubt that it is indeed possible to scream non-stop for almost an entire day. Despite the best efforts of a dozen extremely kind Singapore Girls, there was no stopping the screams. By…
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…
Holey Christ
Here’s a sneek peek inside Oakland’s Cathedral of Christ the Light. Although the 190 million dollar addition to the Lake Merrit skyline will not be open to the public until 2:00 PM this afternoon, I was able to sneak in yesterday and shoot a quick panorama. After scratching my head about the outside of the…
Pano of the Day, 2000
Shot on the roof on May 7, 2000. Boy, a lot has changed since then. Rendered with AutoPano Pro – this pano never looked so good.
Magic Camera + ImageMagick
We’ve been spending a lot of time with our neighbors Jack Tres and Olive lately. That’s a good thing. I shot this picture at Flora on Thursday night. The light was provided by a single candle on the table in front of Tres. I used my old manual-focus f1.4 Nikkor wide open, at 1/15th of…
A New Feature on thedude.com
Embedded streaming video! Get the Flash Player to see this movie. I found an inexpensive MOV to FLV converter which produces pretty decent results. The files are much smaller that the source Quicktime files, and still have much of the quality – even at large sizes. This means I can now stream video like…
We Had This Idea for a Shot
Olive said she wanted a shot of her jumping in the air, and I had in mind what I thought was a cool way to frame the shot. Olive braved frigid temperatures at sunset tonight, but the wind and the light conspired against us. And though none of the pictures turned out exactly as I…
Conservatory of Flowers
Yes, you’ve seen this location before on this web site. But not 30,000 pixels wide. The HDView plugin makes this previously unimaginable feat entirely possible. Be sure you have the HDView plugin installed, (Sorry, no Mac version yet) then check it out!
Best Pano Viewer Yet!
When I first used this plugin over at xRez, I was completely blown away. HDView is a must-have plugin! Get it now! Then, click on this link to get a taste of what’s to come. Amazing!!! So much to be excited about!
GigaPan Browser Embedded in a Blog Post!
It turns out it’s easy to embed a GigaPan Panorama on a web page. Hopefully, this will get more of you to check it out. Be sure to drag the the zoom slider on the left. Or, double-click on a region to zoom in on it. Looks like I have a white-balance problem in this…
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!
First GigaPan Panorama!
My apologies to those of you who have seen pictures shot from the roof before, but this one is different. What makes this first pano interesting is that I broke all the rules when I made it. I used a very modest camera, and shot in fully-automatic mode. I set the Gigapan rig on a…
Another Weapon in My Image Arsenal
I love panoramic photography. Now, I can’t afford one of these very expensive panoramic cameras, so I’ve been creating “poor man’s pano’s” for years by stitching images together – sometimes manually and sometimes with the aid of software. Well, achieving perfect results is becoming a lot easier these days, thanks to a couple of break-through…
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…
Aerial 360 Degree Panoramas
Here’s a new twist on 360 Degree Panoramas. These are shot from a helicopter. Fabulous!
I Will Work for Food
This photos-for-food-and-drinks deal we have with our friends at MoNO is working out very nicely for us. Yum!
I Don’t Do Weddings
However, I will make an exception for Antonio Piccolboni! He’s been a huge fan of my photography for five years, a terrific coworker and friend. I could not turn him down. Antonio and Maria were married in a charming Quaker ceremony in a spectacular amphitheater at the Berkeley Botanical Gardens. Congratulations, Antonio and Maria!
Dogs Defeat Spartans in Double Header
The Fresno State Bulldogs beat the San Jose Spartans twice today, 1-0 and 5-3. This was thedude’s first girl’s softball game and first attempt at shooting one. It will come as no surprise to anyone who has attempted to photograph a fast-moving athlete pushing herself hard that there is only a tiny fraction of a…