Stuck In Customs

I recently went down to Horseshoe Bay for a little family reunion and went out to play golf on this amazing putting course. I’m not sure, but I’d have to say it’s one of the best in the world if not the best in world. It’s an 18-hole course with long, winding putting greens through meticulous gardens. I took a ton of photos at the place, and I’ll have to get around to processing them. Golf courses often make for great photography subjects… I need to do a lot more of that, methinks! I haven’t had much time for golf lately… also, it’s been over 100 degrees here in Texas for about the last two months… making me think even more about New Zealand!

Thanks for participating in the little photo mystery yesterday… many people got close (or right about on) the answer. I’ll try to do that more often… post strange photos and see who can figure out what is a-goin’ on.

If you all want to try out “Netflix for Lenses”, read my new review of Lens Rental from BorrowLenses. I think it’s a great service. I gave the service a full run recently and came away happy!

This pic below was taken in China. It’s curious isn’t it? I’ll open it up for discussion… see who can figure out what exactly is happening in the photo… (don’t forget you can zoom into the original size on Flickr)

Disney after dark is very cool…  All the lights change and it comes alive even more, if possible.  One trick that I have picked up is the essential nap while at Disneyworld for the entire family.  We head back to the room after a busy morning and a carbo-bloat lunch for a family nap.  It keeps everyone sane.  And then, we can all stay up late with minimal chance of breakdown.  Seeing kids breakdown at Disneyworld is just not right… it’s not so Disney…

This one also has some nice details in the original size if you want to zoom in on Flickr… about 4200 pixels across methinks.

I hope you all enjoyed the Newsletter!  #3 went out yesterday on an automated schedule, so you should have received it at some point during the day.  Check your SPAM folders if it did not come through…  Feel free to forward it to your friends and relatives.  The site has grown virally over the years, and the more, the merrier.  I enjoy reading people’s comments and thoughts on things (not just positive feedback… but all sorts of thoughts around photography, family, travel, etc etc.).  Also, as always, feel free to share links to your own photography in the comments!  I don’t frown on that one bit.

We’ll be sending out the newsletter today some time… It’s on automatic release so it might go out any time… if you don’t have it by midnight, check your spam folder! If you haven’t signed up yet, you can do so over on the right side of the page here.

(btw sorry about the re-post of the harley pic… I am 96% mistake-free, but that lowers my average)

This photo below was taken when driving around the southern part of Argentina. I thought this was a nice sign heading off to a secret mountain hideaway in the Andes… certainly a moment worth capturing!

Daily Photo: Flying on a Harley

This is the subject of one of the other new videos in the newsletter. It speaks to a common problem many people have when uploading photos online. Sometimes, I’ve noticed, they don’t look the same on Flickr as the do on my home computer! That’s no good… I figured out the best way to do it and put it in a little video for you. You can get to it here at the ColorSpace Video.

My friend Scott has posted a new video on my HDR Photography that features me walking around Olympic Park in Atlanta taking photos. It’s up on his blog, so follow that link over to take a look! He’s just starting to learn more and more about photography, and he asked if he could follow me for a while with a video camera. I told him that would be perfectly fine. He was nice enough to edit it together into a nice little 8-minute piece there. I hope you enjoy it.

There is a longer “uncut” version of the video that goes on for 45 minutes. I’ll include a secret link to that just to Newsletter subscribers. The next newsletter should come out in the next few days… so get ready! (It’s Free!) (and even better, I promise not to Spam you… I have no Nigerian opportunities to extend to you)

There is one part of the longer video where I set up to take a shot of the Coke Museum. Scott didn’t get the security guard walking up to us… but at least you can see a bit of the situation on the ground and what a threat we were posing! (full article on Nearly Getting Arrested in Downtown Atlanta here)

This photo below is one of the many I took that evening with Scott and Rick. I described the best way to get these silky strands on the waterfall… everyone likes those, right?

I finished up one of the bonus videos tonight for new textures tutorial. I was very pleased with the way this one turned out, so I wanted to upload it! There is not much on this one… just a few secret effects.

This forest was all steamy and foggy in the morning. Part of the steam was caused by this little stream flowing through here. It had been a few days since I had seen my family, so I pulled out my Flip and made a little video. I went over to the steaming water and dunked my hand in there. It was pretty hot, but not burning hot. If I had more time, I probably would have crawled inside… so… I was trying to explain to my kids they should not touch steamy water at Yellowstone… but sending them mixed messages as I was dunking my own body parts in the middle of them, showing them how awesome it was!

I think we might be able to get a new video up for you tomorrow that was shot by my friend Scott in Atlanta. The newsletter is almost finished too, and it will include a special link to the longer, 45-minute uncut video. Scott was nice enough to share that one too!

I was on the hill in the Montmartre part of Paris just after the sun had set. I pointed the camera over the sprawl of the city just as the lights were coming on for the evening. I made it my personal mission to walk down into the city that evening, meander around, and visit at least three pastry shops and eat a silly number of desserts. I tricked myself into thinking that I might be burning a lot of calories by doing so much walking. It’s amazing how easily I was able to justify French desserts.

It is old indeed! This is from my newly discovered ghost town and favorite place outside of Austin to go for a fun afternoon shoot! As much as I love coffee shops, I hate to see one fallen apart into such a state of disrepair… but it does make a good candidate for some HDR!

If possible, zoom into the Flickr one and see the original size (via All Sizes+ on top) if you like all the details in these sorts of places. The one here on the blog is 900 pixels across but the original is 6048 pixels across, so the blog cuts out about 6x of the detail!

But, it’s better than the paltry Facebook or Flickr sizes which are so tiny that it’s kind of depressing… I think that is a major problem with those two services… the very small default size of the image usually does not do it justice. They should have two interfaces – a low and high bandwidth interface. That’s not too much to ask here in late 2009, is it?

Two textured shots in a row! Sorry, I usually don’t do this (put two very similar things back to back on subsequent days) but I’ve been spending my weekend evenings here recording these videos. I just finished this one and was happy with the way it turned out.

There was this interesting tree sitting alone after a morning snow. The snow had melted, but the skies still had these white-out conditions. Those skies normally make for very dull visuals, so I thought this would be a good candidate for textures. I think, by now, you guys know I can’t stand a boring sky in my photos… and since you can’t always have a four-star sunset, maybe it drove me to use the world around me to find textures to re-purpose inside these photos. I don’t know. Maybe I’ll figure out that bit in a while.