Today was my last day of employment, and I will now be exchanging the two major foci of my creative time. 

My interests in photography and astronomy and art was always secondary to my full-time work as a color scientist, an occupation that has provided a long and fulfilling career. 

But this particular outcome was something of a fluke; the education I pursued was a hodge-podge of art, science, and engineering, and my early career was filled with jobs at not-quite-successful entrepreneurial startups that caused my dad to inquire where I was working next, because he wanted to avoid investing there!

Thirty-five years ago, I signed on with a young company, Management Graphics, an early pioneer in computer graphics, a field that was rapidly advancing beyond the video game Pong.  At MGI, I contributed to technology that transferred computer images onto film.  We received an academy award for it!

MGI then figured out how to transfer computer images to color copiers and printers, which caught the attention of the company dominant in that arena, Electronics for Imaging.  EFI promptly acquired MGI, and I have been working for them ever since.  My first employer had a huge party when their revenues reached one million.  EFI is now a billion-dollar company.  Maybe Dad should have reconsidered…

During my whole career, I always had the rule that if the work became tedious or boring, or that I was no longer learning, I would move on to something else.  As it turned out, there was no need:  the computer graphics, printing, and color science fields were advancing so fast that there were ALWAYS new problems to figure out.

And so there has been no shortage of work to do. 

But working full time takes from the other important things in life, raising a family and pursuing personal interests.  Fortunately, I was able to blend them.  Many of the photos I intend to post on this site were taken while on family camping trips, where I could take pictures of the night sky, which I then used as test images for my various work assignments.

Still, employment and income came first, and camping and astrophotography came as time-off allowed.  With the end of formal employment, I anticipate that camping and all those other things will now be first, and consulting work will be on an “if-interesting” basis. 

The two foci have reversed.