Archive for March, 2007 Page 2 of 3



day trip on chuckanut drive

Last Sunday my buddy Scott and I took a day-trip up to the historic Chuckanut Drive area between Bow and Bellingham, WA. It’s a pretty small stretch of scenery, but there are some neat places to explore. One stop is the Taylor Shellfish Farm, where you can see lots and lots of oysters and crabs, some run-down and abandoned houses, and a neat lighthouse covered in oyster shells.

Another cool stop is Larrabee State Park. You can hike down to the water and go exploring in the tide pools (when the tide is low enough) and climbing around on the really neat sandstone formations. It’s also got a boat launch, so those of you with boats or have friends with boats can go cruising around Samish Bay.

Chuckanut Drive ends in the Fairhaven district of Bellingham, which is cool in its own right. It has lots of neat little shops and cafes and tons of classic architecture to admire. The Colophon Cafe, in particular, is a good place to stop for lunch. Good sandwiches and some mean desserts.

The drive up to Chuckanut Drive from Seattle takes a little over an hour, exploring Chuckanut Drive itself can take an afternoon, and driving back from Bellingham is about an hour and a half. It makes for a pretty good day-trip.

You can check out photos from my trip in my Chuckanut Drive set on Flickr.

dslr power in a compact? wow!

sigma dp1

It’s not often that I get excited about new cameras coming to the market, but Sigma got my attention back during Photokina when they mentioned their upcoming DP1, and now they’ve confirmed it at PMA 2007. The DP1 has a fixed focal length 28mm lens, full manual controls, RAW image support, and — this is the kicker — a DSLR-sized image sensor. Is possible that I could get all the control and image quality of a DSLR in a compact camera? Sigma claims this is the case. There’s been no mention of a release date, so it’s anyone’s guess when the camera will be available to the masses or even when the normal review sites will get test copies.

The DP1 is a very interesting camera, because it has the potential to be the perfect compact camera for me. I shoot wide angle almost all the time, so 28mm will work perfectly for me. I like shooting with prime lenses, so the lack of optical zoom makes no difference to me (even on my 10-20mm zoom lens, I shoot at either 10mm or 20mm 99% of the time). Manual controls are a huge plus, especially manual focusing. RAW support is equally as good, because I really like having post-processing control. And, of course, the big sensor is the most attractive element of the DP1.

Assuming the price isn’t too extravagant and the image quality lives up to Sigma’s bragging, this could be the next camera to join my arsenal. It even has the potential displace my LOMO LC-A+ and Olympus XA as my primary compact carry-around camera. Heresy, I know, but film and development are expensive, and there’s nothing quite like instant feedback and post-processing flexibility.

We’ll see how this camera turns out once it’s finally released. And I really hope it isn’t too terribly expensive.

i worked on these

In the two years that I have been at Amaze Entertainment, I have worked on two published titles: Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest and Over The Hedge: Hammy Goes Nuts. I was an animator on both games, and both had really fun animations.

On Pirates I animated all of the bad guy grunts — human pirates, zombie pirates, cannibals, and creepy human/sea creature hybrids, to name a few — as well Davy Jones himself and the Kraken in the final boss battle.

On Hedge I did a bunch of animations for Hammy, most of the animations for Stella and the baby porcupines, and a few cutscenes involving RJ and Hammy.

After almost 9 years in the game industry, I now have 11 shipped titles under my belt. Not too shabby at all. :)

sunset jumpr

It was a gorgeous evening tonight. Patchy clouds to provide texture for the sunset. Warm enough to finally hang out outside without a jacket. And everyone at Marina Park was just in a good mood. I had a quick chat with a fellow photographer who was out there shooting panoramas. I showed this evening’s jumping series to a nice couple who was curious why I was jumping up and down on the dock. It was just a good evening all around.

As a side note, jumping up and down near the edge of a rickety dock is a bit nerve-wracking, even more so with my back towards the water. I just wanted to make sure nothing else but the scenery was in the background of my shot. :)