NED Alumni Convention 2007

Update: If you can't see the embedded slide show above, click here

The 3rd annul N.E.D University Alumni Convention took place in my home town. Being a proud alumnus, I volunteered to cover the event by taking photographs.

The slide show above will grow, as I go through the 654 photos that I took on that day, so stay tuned :)

The photos in this slide show include:

• Keynote speech: Return to Glory


• Panel 1: From NED to NASDAQ

Happy Labor Day!

A sign posted in the window of a theater on Addison Street in Berkeley, California

The Ruling Ring

Happy feet

Downtown Buffalo

As seen from my room window at Hyatt Regency Buffalo.

Mohib at Pakwan restaurant

Mohib and I had the notorious Sunday brunch at Pakwan restaurant in Hayward today. The place was crowded and we had to sit in the "family room", this was the closest I could get to a clean shot without including any other patrons.

Url: Mohib Ahmed
Location: Pakwan restaurant

$5 shirt

I was bored at work, sue me ;-)

If you want to learn how to make your own shirts, here's a very nice tutorial

Thank you card

Howling Monkey

Shot outside a 7-Eleven store in Santa Clara (N Winchester and Newhall st.)

I have seen some funky names of energy drinks out there, but COME ON! I am not so sure about the message here. To me, a 'caffeine charged' monkey running around howlin' in a 'monkey suit' might be something I'd laugh at but certainly not something I'd want to drink

What I find interesting is the 'Multi-Vitamin' claim, because from what I read here the caffeine and sugar in these drinks make you pee away calcium, magnesium and zinc from your body.

Learning to CUSS

One of the things that really annoy me in my line of work is reading technical specification documents, real thick ones at that too and what's worse is that some of them are out of date but none of the technical support/sales staff would tell you that until you it out on your own.

My current ordeal is to go through a 300 page technical specification document (plus certification document) for a type of computer Kiosk used at the airports.

At least the abbreviation they used makes me giggle every time :)

Maserati love

Someone in the adjacent office space drives a Maserati and parks it outside in the common parking lot. I am so fascinated by that emblem on the car's grill that I sneaked a photo :)

The technique is simple, use a slow shutter speed and manually zoom a little while taking the shot.

Business portrait: Saeed Kazmi

Click here for the complete photo
This was the first time I shot a business portrait, and I realize some of the mistakes I made in this photo. Like the shadow on the shirt collar should have been balanced out with a reflector and the shadow is a bit too dark (the ideal ratio is 1:2 stops)

Nevertheless, I got to shoot a photo again after such a long time that I am just happy to be shooting again :)

Click here for bigger version

Dry leaf

Dry leaf,
originally uploaded by imfaraz.

A dry leaf photographed against a table lamp.

To me, it kind of looks like the roots of a plant

Bigger version

Happy Pirate

Happy Pirate,
originally uploaded by imfaraz.

Only 46 days to go for the International Talk like a Pirate day.


Don't forget to watch the videos:
- Five A's of Pirate lingo
- The Pirate song

(McDonald's Happy Meal Pirate sitting on an empty visiting card holder)

Downtown reflections

Downtown reflections (color),
originally uploaded by imfaraz.

Financial district, downtown San Francisco.

Bigger version: Downtown reflections (color)

Downtown reflections,
originally uploaded by imfaraz.

Bigger version: 'Downtown reflections (black & white)

A(skewed) view

Askew(ed) view,
originally uploaded by imfaraz.

These are the Hyatt Regency guest room balconies overlooking the Bay and Piers.
I took this shot outside 4 Embarcadero center (right next to Hyatt).

Check out the Bigger version here (on Black)

The Modern Pyramid

The TransAmerica Pyramid,
originally uploaded by imfaraz.

The Transamerica Pyramid is the tallest and most recognizable skyscraper in the San Francisco skyline.
Check out the Bigger version here (On Black)

Took this photo around 6:30 pm on California Street infront of the US Bank building

All you need is love

All you need is Love,
originally uploaded by imfaraz.

Two words explain it all: Newly weds :)

(I also saw "I love my wife" written in bright red chalk on the rear cabin window of a Ford truck about a month ago but didn't have a camera handy at that time.)

Millard Fillmore

Millard Fillmore,
originally uploaded by imfaraz.

Millard Fillmore was the 13th President of United States and a resident of Buffalo, Newyork. Buffalo has the unique honor of being home to two presidentst of United States.

Millard Fillmore was also the first chancellor of the University of Buffalo, now known as SUNY University at Buffalo.

This statue is placed outside the Buffalo City Hall.

New resources

Michael F. Cohen has a very interesting set of slides online on:

- Capturing the Moment in photography.
- Visualization of Everyday things
- Research paper Photographing Long Scenes with Multi-Viewpoint Panoramas (Aseem Agarwala, Maneesh Agrawala, Michael Cohen, David Salesin, Rick Szeliski, ACM Transactions on Graphics (Proceedings of SIGGRAPH 2006), July 2006)

There is also an interesting new software from Microsoft Research called Group Shot