Brian @ Wongside

I was rummaging through some old e-mails when I came across this picture. It’s been over a year since the picture was taken, and I thought it was appropriate to post. So here’s the story.

It was my first week at PrimitiveLogic. They threw me right into the fire, and off to Workday Training. Workday was founded by Dave Duffield, former CEO, Chairman, and Founder of PeopleSoft which was acquired by Oracle a few years ago.

One day, as I was crossing the street from my car to the office, I came upon an older gentleman carrying a paper bag.

“Are you Dave Duffield?” I asked.

“Yes, I am.” He responded.

I was stunned. I introduced myself, told him I working for a partner consultant, Primitive Logic, and that I was in the office for Integration Fundamentals training.

We talked as we hopped into the elevator. I asked him what was in the bag, and he said that they were bagels he had found on sale. He had to go a few floors further than me, but as I was stepping off the elevator, he spoke up.

“Here, why don’t you take these bagels to your class?” he said as he offered me some of the bagels from his bag.

“Thanks.” I replied with a bit of hesitation.

As I got off the elevator, it hit me: I was just given bagels by one of the richest people in America. In fact, he’s #347 on the Forbes 400, coming in with just about $1.1 billion.

In any case, the wealth doesn’t seem to have gone to his head. He’s a super down-to-earth kind of guy. And heck, he gave me bagels!

Dave, the pleasure was all mine.

B&H has a great article that invites us to consider the use of Angles of View rather than focal length in comparing lenses. The general premise is that focal length is difficult to compare across camera types and sensor sizes. I think it’s an interesting proposal, but I have my suspicious as to whether or not the camera industry will latch onto the proposal.

Like many people, I was both thrilled and dismayed last month. That’s when Canon announced their Spring Lens Rebates. But it had barely been a week into the rebates when retailers like B&H and Adorama decided to boost the prices of lenses across the board. That meant a lens like the EF 70-200mm f/2.8L IS USM which was about $1700 prior to the rebate, and $1500 after a $200 rebate immediately jumped up to $1600, effectively cutting the $200 rebate in half to $100. That doesn’t make it a complete wash, but it definitely diminishes the utility of a $200 rebate.

So I was interested to read the commentary by Roger Ciala, President of LensRentals.com. In it, he shares a few really good points and observations:

• The markup on a lens is really quite tiny, maybe 3-5% (about $30-$50 on a $1000 lens).
• SLR lens sales only account for about 2.7% of Canon’s overall revenue. Considering Canon is the largest player in the dSLR space, that’s pretty miniscule. Apparently, their business machine (copiers?) division is significantly larger.
• We may lose a few players in the SLR market as a result of this economic downturn. He names Olympus, Panasonic, and Pentax as possiblities. (Note, these companies make most of their money in other businesses, so as companies, they’re not going anwhere. It’s just that they may no longer decide to participate in SLR manufacturing.)
• The “Department Store Bad Christmas” concept does not apply. He details what this means in his article, but the gist of it is that lenses don’t have high markups, and they’ll still be just as valuable in a few months (unlike clothing), so retailers can afford to hold onto them without serious consequences.

Great commentary, and worth the read, especially if you were in the market for a new lens like I was. For the time being, I think I’ll sit this one out.

In an interesting commentary on the economy and what it takes to be competitive, Joel Spolsky takes a few paragraphs to explain the difference between the big box store that was Circuit City and “a much smaller business you probably haven’t been to” called B&H. I’ve known about them since late 2006 when I ordered my first dSLR from them–my quite aged, but trusty Rebel XTi. (Fortunately) I’ve never had to deal with their customer service. But the article seems to indicate that it’s first-rate.

An interesting read to be sure, especially if you’re into electronics and/or photography like me.

Our wedding photographer, Lynn and his sidekick Derek, did a great job taking photos at our wedding. But in case the reputation of your photographer is less than pristine, PopPhoto.com has a great article on How To: Get Great Photos From Your Wedding. If you or someone you know is getting married, this might be a good resource for them.  Check it out.

Yesterday, I left you a challenge to find me in Liz and Amish’s wedding photos. Give up? Here are two hints. Does that help?

No?  OK.  Here’s some more assistance:

First link. Bottom photo. Left side. Aisle seat. Second from the back. White shirt. Get it?

Second link. Behind Liz. Right. Guy with the yellow tie*. Back. Right. Glasses.  White shirt**. Got it?

Good for you. That’s me!

*Incidentally, the guy with the yellow tie is our friend Tim Choi. He and his fiancee, Edith, were engaged a couple weeks before we were, so they’re next. They’ll be married in September.

**I don’t know about you, but in this picture, it looks like I’m wearing a yellow/gold vest. What do you think?

As I mentioned a few weeks ago, Charlene and I had the privilege of attending the wedding of Liz and Amish. Lucky for us, Lynn didn’t take too long to post these. Maybe it was the long three day weekend. They’re beautiful pictures as always. I like how they also took photos at Stanford, and yet they have a very different flavor than ours did.

I love the ring picture. It would’ve been cool if he had a candle in the background for a fire and ice theme, but I love the picture regardless.

Great job as always, Lynn!

P.S. Do you see yours truly in any of the photos? Obviously, these aren’t my photos, so I’m kinda obscure, but if you look really closely you can see me in two of the pictures.

I’m not sure to what we owe the pleasure, but Lynn has posted a new slideshow from our wedding on his blog. Maybe it was an updated slideshow to go with the new blog, or maybe it was just because he had photos of us lying around, or maybe it’s because he wanted to show off his SlideShowPro skills. In either case, it’s a win for us, and a very nice slideshow.

It’s simply amazing to me how a bit of music added to pictures gives such a new dimension to them. It makes them that much more real, tangible, and memorable.

Thanks, Lynn!

We had a second shooter, Derek Tang, at our wedding, courtesy of Lynn and his connections. He’s got a photo blog as well, and he posted a plethora of photos as well. Take a look when you get a chance. He’s got some commentary of the photos as well:
http://www.xanga.com/dtangphoto/695902351/charlene–brian–wedding/

Derek came over the morning of our wedding to shoot the guys while Lynn and Joanna were at Amy Cheng’s place with Charlene.  Consequently, Derek got some cool shots of the guys that Lynn didn’t get. I’m glad he was there to capture the moment.

Lynn never ceases to amaze me. He’s posted photos of the wedding on his blog. I already commented there, but my favorites were “the ‘BAM in yo face’ shot, the ring shot, the cake shot, the double hug shot, and the one of our parents and us watching the Thank You video”

Thank you Lynn!

Updated 5/21/2009: Updated links to Lynn’s new blog.