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Sunday morning I left the house at 11 and walked 1 block to Starbucks and picked up a coffee, a frapacino, and an iced green tea. A few minutes later Heriberto and Skip pulled up in Heri’s car. I handed in the drinks, jumped in the back, and off we zoomed to the Santa Fe Depot downtown (although we had to steer Heriberto passed the airport; he kept thinking we were flying and started to turn at Laurel). They just started boarding Amtrak's Pacific Surfliner as we walked up so we got on and found seats on the ocean side. Before we knew it we were gliding smoothly, quietly, quickly through downtown past the airport, Mission Bay, La Jolla; heading towards Irvine and the giant IMAX movie theater at the Irvine Spectrum Mall to see Avatar in 3D.

A word to the wise: do not travel with us if you’re super cool and will be embarrassed by 3 goof balls acting like teenage tourists taking pictures of each other and carrying on at every amazing sight along the way. We’ll understand if you spend most of the trip in the café car.

The train ride is truly beautiful, going right along the beach in many places. And it’s fun to see familiar sights from a different perspective and notice things you miss from the car.

Getting off the train in Irvine.

After the movie we walked through the mall towards the Corner Bakery to get something to eat; each of us with our camera wanting to get a picture of everything in sight. It was like herding kittens, only no one was doing the herding.

I had to show off my camera’s waterproof capabilities so I took a picture below the surface of the water of one of the fountains. Then, while still holding the camera under water, I turned it around and took a picture of us through the water.

On the train ride back to San Diego, we got 2 pairs of seats facing each other and had a great time talking, not worrying about traffic. What a fun day! Thank you, Heriberto and Skip.

Nik Comedy Night

Friday afternoon we closed the office promptly at 5pm to celebrate the launching of our newest software, Viveza 2. We met for dinner at Saffron - Chicken and then walked next door to the comedy club for an evening of Whose Line is it Anyway style improve. So much fun!

Tony and his lovely wife waiting for the show to begin.

Tierney onstage doing a great job of directing a skit about characters at Nik.

Morneé after suggesting an off-color topic.

Do I have to admit to knowing these people?

Lunch with Steve

Irvine Spectrum Fountain

Lunch with Anna 1.29.10

Speeding Trolley

After Sunset

SPF Zero

Lunch with Steve, 12/24

Hummingbird

Quote: The Paradoxical Commandments

People are illogical, unreasonable, and self-centered.

Love them anyway.

If you do good, people will accuse you of selfish, ulterior motives.

Do good anyway.

If you are successful, you win false friends and true
enemies.

Succeed anyway.

The good you do today will be forgotten tomorrow.

Do good anyway.

Honesty and frankness make you vulnerable.

Be honest and frank anyway.

The biggest people with the biggest ideas can be shot down by the smallest people with the smallest minds.

Think big anyway.

People favor underdogs but follow only top dogs.

Fight for underdogs anyway.

What you spend years building may be destroyed overnight.

Build anyway.

People really need help but may attack you if you do help them.

Help people anyway.

Give the world the best you have and you'll get kicked in the
teeth.

Give the world the best you have anyway.

- Dr. Kent M. Keith

Michael R. posted Mother Teresa's version of this quote on facebook. I found myself thinking about it and referring back to it

Because It’s There

I came across an article in a magazine where they quoted a photographer as saying: “the best camera to have is the one you have with you.” This makes sense to me. The best camera in the world does you little good left at home. Another very accomplished photographer was asked what kind of cameras she has. After listing a very impressive array of Nikons and Canons, she said she always, religiously, carries a point-and-shoot.

I’ve noticed a paradox when I have a camera with me. I’m at once more involved with my surroundings, looking for those little gems of light and form, while at the same time I’m more detached, an observer.

So I got an Olympus Tough for a very good price from B&H. It'll go 30 ft under water, will stand temperatures way below freezing, and will hold up to being knocked around. Not that I'm being super active right at the moment, but, you know, I aspire.

Why this photo? Because it was there. All of it: the mug, the fireplace, the camera, the software; refusing to be ignored.

Christmas Day

Peter and Mikey

Briar and Star

Lisa, Star, & Briar

Lisa & Dan

Lisa & Mikey invited Dan & Peter and me to her house for dinner. Lisa and Dan prepared a traditional English dinner with roast beef and pudding. Peter made an incredible apple crumb pie. Mikey recently adopted Star whose scruffy face and soft fur is so adorable!

Forgot to Blog This:

I bought myself a digital photo frame for Christmas and was going through photos to load into it when I came across this shot from July 5th that I posted to facebook but never got around to putting in the blog.

I had recently reconnected with friends from Champaign Tim and Keith (front row) on facebook. They were already planning a trip to SD over the 4th so we made plans to meet for brunch in Coronado. They brought along Michael, back left, and his partner (Robert? David? Help me out guys!). As a special treat, afterwards Michael took us on a tour of one of his client’s condos that he had just completed redesigning. He had stripped it down to the bare bones and rebuilt all interior walls and surfaces. The results inside were as spectacular as the views outside.

Of course, now that I have all of the Nik Software programs on my laptop I had to play and adjust the photo; part of training for work, of course. I took out the noise and emphasized the fine lines and details, except for our faces. At our age we don't need those lines emphasized at all. And since I hadn't spent much time in our program for black & white images I converted the image to give it a vintage look. What do you think?

Nik Holiday Party 12-11-09

Friday, December 11th at noon, we closed the office and headed across Mission Valley through the rain to the Town & Country Hotel and Convention Center for the Nik Holiday Party. There a feast awaited us with plenty of Drink and much Roast Beast. Unlike the Casino Night a few weeks before everyone brought their Cameras with Serious Lenses. I was quite intimidated with my little semi-manual Olympus. But it's not too big, fun to use, and does surprisingly well.

After dinner and awards and speeches and general congratulations all around, and more beverages, we had a White Elephant gift exchange. As you can see in the background of the pictures and movie, there is hardly any sort of Holiday decoration at all making it difficult to get into the Christmas Spirit.

I kid: the whole place was wall-to-wall decorated trees and elves several layers deep, some a little scary.

The gift exchange was aggressive, but fun. I started out with a great looking game called Fact or Crap. But I didn't keep it long. Next I unwrapped a cloth shoulder bag that was beautiful, but not me, until I found out it was an actual prop used in the Bourne Identity movies. I'm a huge fan of that trilogy and was quite delighted with it, until someone else thought it delightful, too. So back up I went and unwrapped this:

Hmmm. What should I take as my White Elephant present next year?

Gypsy

I took these pictures of Ms. Gypsy Thanksgiving Day to test out the Nikon D200 I borrowed from work. She was originally looking all cute on the couch, but had to come check things out when I sat down on the floor looking in her direction. I just pointed and told her to “go over there” and she happily posed for me.

Thanksgiving 2009

Thanksgiving started with a walk on the beach. Since Dan & Peter decided on an evening meal and the day was beautiful, sunny, and warm, I drove up to Black's Beach shortly after noon to get some exercise and enjoy the nice weather. I had borrowed a camera from work, a Nikon D200, and an external flash to take to the party, but I debated about taking it to the beach. It was big and heavy and I've taken lots of pictures at Blacks before, so I decided to enjoy the experience directly, not through a camera lens, and left it at home. And wouldn't you know, it was the clearest I had ever seen it. From the top of the cliff I could see what I'm pretty sure was Catalina Island, about 26 miles away. There was no haziness in the air at all.

I went down the cliff by the glider port and walked north toward Torrey Pines, taking off my sandals and enjoying the sand and splashing in the surf a little bit. It was a perfect day, warm without being hot, the water was cool without being cold and the clearest I've seen it. I went up to, and on to, the big square rock that separates Blacks from Torrey Pines Beach. On the way back, while walking past some clumps of seaweed, I almost tripped over this big, gorgeous lizard about 2 feet long. And me without a camera!

Dinner at Dan & Peter's was wonderful. They love to cook Thanksgiving Dinner and they're very organized. Their kitchen is nice if not large, but they had everything under control and clean the entire time. The food was fabulous and the company couldn't have been better.

I'm a little slow in posting the pictures because I took them to work and used the Nik Software to tweak them a bit. Even though I had a nice camera and flash unit, it's hard to light a picture well without some expensive equipment, but the Nik Software and Photoshop let me put the light on the main subject and allowed me to take attention away from background objects. I have a lot to learn, but it's fun to play.

Quote of the Day

I saw this quote in the news about Switzerland’s recent referendum to ban the building of any more minarets (the tall spire above a Mosque):

“...the Organisation of the Islamic Conference called the vote a “recent example of growing anti-Islamic incitements in Europe by extremist, anti-immigrant, xenophobic, racist, scare-mongering ultraright politicians who reign over common sense, wisdom and universal values.” ’

If you replace the word “Europe” with “the United States” you could replace “Islamic” with any number of things. I'm taking small comfort that we’re not the only ones with ultraright politicians reigning terror over common sense, wisdom, and universal values. I wish we could figure out why so many have turned away from logic and submitted to their basest fears. There's no reasoning with them; it's an emotional response, but I can't figure out what it’s in response to.