Hey everyone! I am busy putting together the next Newsletter. It will be a good one and I have something special planned for this next one. Maybe I can get it out in the next week or so? I have an upcoming photo trip down Highway 1 in California, so I’d like to get it out before then. As usual, the newsletter is free and we promise not to spam you… just to fill your inbox with pretty things and artistic inspiration.

I hope this new experiment will take hold. I think it’s very cool and different. I’m calling it “Japan: The Moments Between”. I know… very mysterious… well, just wait and see. I’ll include an advance link in the newsletter.

In other news, we were highly ranked over at BootsnAll Travel in their listing of the top 15 Travel Blogs. Go over and have a looksee… their website looks pretty sharp too.

Also, here is a link to an interview I did a while back and I forgot to mention! It is a “Flickr Photographer Profile” and it’s over at Robert Scott Photography.

Last, we are working on a new site for HDR Photographers, It’s been designed to drive more traffic to other HDR Photographers’ websites, blogs, portfolios, and the like. Right now, it’s in private alpha/beta testing and we are still adding many more features. But you can go have a quick preview over at HDR Spotting.

To complete the theme of mysteriousness for today, I’ll include a few mysterious photos here from various spots around the world:

Filed under the categories: Travel

I’m just finishing up almost two weeks in Japan, and it has been an amazing trip! Usually I try not to start posting shots until the trip is at its close, and this is the first.

While there, I spent time all over the country. I got a rail pass and just jumped on the bullet train to take me from one remote spot to another. I ended up with a few days in Tokyo to do my best to capture the city. I’ll be posting photos from the trip throughout the next few weeks, months, and years, as usual. I hope this is a new line of photographs that will be interesting to you.

Photographed here is the Kiyomizu-dera temple in Kyoto. The city is known for its traditional Japanese architecture, slower-paced life, natural beauty, graceful geishas, and zen peacefulness. I probably could have stayed in Kyoto capturing scenes the entire trip. I remained here until the sky turned black, and then I headed back down some winding streets to find an old small restaurant where the food was mysterious and every course was served with a gentle bow.

Filed under the categories: Japan, Kyoto, Nikon D3X, Travel

While in Argentina, I wish I had more days in Buenos Aires, but I made the most of what i could. This usually involves waking up very early and going to sleep very late. It gets a little hard after a few days, but I get into “content acquisition mode”, and I try not to make excuses for sleep!

Many parts of Buenos Aires are very colorful and fun. I’m not sure how all these individual tenants get together to decide on colors, but they end up looking kinda cool, even with minimal coordination. I guess the guy on the left there just thought, “I’ll paint my wall orange”, and then he did it, and it just looks cool. It kind of reminds me of how rappers can put on the craziest hat in the world and it still looks pretty cool on them. I don’t get it. I only look cool in one kind of hat – a baseball cap (with a mild tone).

Filed under the categories: Argentina, Buenos Aires, Nikon D3X, Travel

This is from an awesome monument in Indonesia called Borobudur. There are about five ways to spell this temple, at least when I spell it. But, you get the general idea.

I’ve re-mastered this one by using the textures from the Textures Tutorial. This one is actually featured in the video. I have a non-textured version of this which is also interesting… and I think I explain in the video that the use of these textures doesn’t necessarily make something “better”, but what it does do is make something else that is equally satisfying in a different way. So then, at the end, you have two photos, rather than one, each one different and nice in its own way (if that makes sense!).

Filed under the categories: Borobudur, Indonesia, Jogjakarta, Travel

One morning when I was walking around Angkor Wat, I saw this monk there, chatting away on his mobile phone. I thought it was just all so unusual — I had to take a shot! Many monks from all over Asia come here on pilgrimage. I suppose he could have been talking to someone in his home precinct. Are they called precincts? I don’t know.

Also, if any of you have read the new Neal Stephenson book, you will get the “Jeejah” reference. It’s a very interesting book about, well… I am not ruining anything here, but it starts out with the tale of a monk. They are not familiar with all the technologies used by the outside (extramuros) world, and they call mobile phones “jeejahs”. There is a whole array of new words in there for the new world he has created… his books are thought provoking as always.

Filed under the categories: Angkor Wat, Cambodia, Siem Reap, Travel

Sorry about the long gap in posting! You know my promise to you is a photo every day, 365 days a year. This is a promise I break several times a year, so it’s hardly a promise. But, yesterday just happened to be one of those days.

Whenever I don’t post, it usually means I am traveling somewhere EXTREMELY remote that has no hint of internet. Those places are fewer and farther between nowadays! …but at least I’m getting some good stuff for y’all!

Today’s photo is from a forgotten field in the south of Argentina, not too far from Ushuaia. There was a housing community near here that was built then abandoned when the lake level started to rise. It was full of old husks of structures that were still beautiful in their own way (and doubly so at sunset).

Filed under the categories: Argentina, Nikon D3X, Travel