Stuck In Customs

Another Nice Workshop Review

Thanks for all the nice emails and tweets everyone; I’m glad you had a good time. That is right, I still have no plans for future workshops, but I do appreciate all the feedback and kind requests.

Chris Stamper wrote an HDR Workshop Review on his blog that was very nice. Thanks Chris – I am happy you enjoyed it! Keep up the good HDR work and fight the good fight for us! 🙂

Nikon D3S Review Continues

I have a Nikon D3S still on loan from BorrowLenses.com, and I’m putting together some images for my Nikon D3S Review.  I don’t have it finished yet…. these things take a while, but, so far, I am very impressed!

In fact, I’m so impressed, that I am going to B&H Photo tonight to buy the full thing as a backup to my D3X! (You can see more info there on my Nikon D3X review)

The Taj Mahal from Akbar’s Palace

This image below was made with some textures from my Textures Tutorial. This is the only time that I “color” photos. Many times, I think people might think that I “paint” on top of my photos, but I do not. Sometimes, however, when I have an image that came out, ummm, a little more boring that it should be, I will give it a texture treatment. Maybe you are like me, and, on occasion, you take what you think will be a great shot. Then, you get home, and it just came out sort of boring.. that is always a bummer feeling. To get around that, I often use textures that I have collected from around the world.

Akbar’s palace has about one-tenth the number of visitors of the Taj Mahal, and it is almost just as stunning for photography. There are so many interesting and fun compositions, you just can’t go wrong. I recommend a full day here and a full day in and around the Taj Mahal. Besides these two major locations, the city streets, alleys, and everything in between are also highly recommended!

My Music Playlist – What are some of your favorites?

As I travel around the world, I’ve picked up an amazing collection of unique music. It’s not for everyone, but if you like eclectic stuff that gets you in a right-brain mode, I think it’s great. This first list I am releasing is my “World Lounge Mix” – I made an iTunes iMix of it and added the mix to Trey’s Music List! Coming soon are some of my favorite songs from other categories, like Ambient New Age, Spanish Guitar, World Music, and more. What are some of your favorite songs? Share them with me – I’d like to know!

Daily photo – The Olde Organ

Okay, if you were in one of my workshops, you are not allowed to guess, because you heard the unexpected answer.

But, of the rest of you, who can guess where this photo of this ornate organ was taken?  Those in my workshop know because I worked on it during the festivities.  It’s so funny whenever I zoom into 100% and people ooh and ahh at the details.  It’s funny because I do the same thing!  I know a lot of people say that 24 megapixel is overkill, but… well… it’s just cool.

I plan for the future when many people have 70 inch wall displays at 10,000 pixels across.  I want to make sure my images are ready for them!

Lengthy HDR Workshop Review

First, I should make it clear that I don’t have any more plans to do more workshops. I know there is a lot of demand all over the world — and these two previous ones have been ultra-successful. I may end up doing a few exclusive workshops in select cities around the world, but nothing is currently planned. I get approached all the time for this and that – and I’m looking at everything… but nothing is decided yet.

For sure, you should get ready for the HDR DVD to come out. It’s being worked on currently. It will be ready when it’s ready, but you can sign up there to be sure you find out first.

As for the Florida weekend workshop, Terry Reinert wrote a lengthy review on his blog. He was a nice guy, and I enjoyed meeting him. After the workshop, RC Concepcion asked Terry and Vanelli (his site) to take me out to shoot the sunset. Well, it was probably a top 10 sunset. It was one of those perfect sunsets where the sun was twice as wide as the skyscrapers in downtown Tampa. Even better, it was a perfect half-circle on top of a cloud.

The only bad thing is that we were in a car the entire time. I’m not sure what the heck happened, but I am sure what the heck didn’t happen. I had a chance to get the greatest photo of Tampa ever made, but I was stuck in a car. I have not yet ruled out conspiracy.

After that, Vanelli, Terry, and I ended up at Tampa University. Or maybe it’s the University of Tampa. We moved around there and they used a few of the new tricks from the workshop. I got some great shots that I haven’t had time to process yet… But I was happy to hang out with those two guys. RC tends to be a good filter on these sorts of matters!

Daily Photo – The Portofino Bay

Today, I drove to Orlando and decided to put myself in charge of a sunset shot. Of course, since those two jokers where many area codes away, it worked out well.

We stayed here at the Loews Portofino Bay Hotel at Universal Orlando. This place is gorgeous. I never know how I feel about these “recreations” of other real-world places. The REAL Portofino is very pretty and unique, of course, but this recreation is also really nice. I mean, it’s actually pretty here, even though it is just a facsimile. It’s not the same as being in Italy, of course. But, it’s better than being at a Walmart in Ft. Lauderdale, you know? Okay, it’s a WHOLE lot better. There are six Italian restaurants, a pretty boat that takes you back and forth to Universal Studios and Adventure Island, and a very nice staff that is helpful and attentive.

Blog now on Amazon Kindle!

Do you have a Kindle? Now the blog can be wirelessly delivered to you, fresh daily, and right as rain. Get the Kindle Version Here. Enjoy! And thanks, I appreciate your support!

We’ve had this available for a bit, and I have been testing it and all systems are go!

Great workshop weekend!

We had a great one – thanks everyone for coming! I hope you enjoyed it as much as I did. I got a real kick out of seeing people’s results from the night before. People went home and tried all of this stuff for real and got some stunning results. On Twitter, check the the has #HDRWorkshop for a few samples. Thanks again for all the enthusiasm when you come to the classes – that is really nice of y’all.

Daily Photo – Zen Peaceful Iceland at Dusk

The soft magnetic blue of dusk lasts a good hour or more in Iceland. It’s a nice time to relax into your right brain, move around freely, and take photos until you collapse in exhaustion.

In Reykjavik, there is a lake that freezes solid, or, at least, it appeared to be solid, every winter. I started walking slowly across really give it a test. Why not? During my scoot-fest, I found this wonderful little bridge.

I’m thinking of going to Iceland this year for the summer solstice (that day when it is 24 hours of sunlight)… sounds awesome! I can’t imagine a 5 hour sunset followed IMMEDIATELY by a 5 hour sunrise!!

Comments appear to be broken on this one post – strange! As always, you can click through to the Flickr comments if you want to say something – I read them all 🙂

New Print on Sale

Every week a new print comes available in Limited Edition Numbered series. This week it is “The Fallout Bunker”, the unique and wonderful airport architecture in Thailand. This is the sort of print may not work so well in a traditional home (like my others), but for the right environment, it will be a real stunner.

Daily Photo – Another Magical Disney Fireworks Show

Disney has a very cool “Pirates and Princess” party where they really take their fireworks to the extreme. I worked hard to find a nice reflective surface, even though I had to elbow a few little princesses to get this spot. They started to complain, and I just said, “Stop being such a princess!”

Now, if I can only convince the Powers That Be at Disney to fire off these fireworks at dusk – now THAT is a photo. The thing is… everyone shoots off their fireworks in pitch black, well, because everyone ELSE does. However, I can make a strong case that fireworks look better when there is a bit of ambient light in the air. The fireworks are still bright and beautiful — they do not have to be against a pure black backdrop to “pop”.

For Artists and Photographers that want to follow another path

I am going to mention this tomorrow during the workshop with Scott Bourne, but I get inspiration and ideas from a great variety of sources outside of photography. Unfortunately, I find that photographers stay in the bubble too much and keep reading the same sort of thing. I put together “Trey’s Book List” here on the site for you. It’s filled with all types of subject matter from genetics to physics. For example, if I ever run into a fellow artist that also has a passion for Richard Feynman, we always become fast friends!

Another Nice Testimonial for HDR Spotting

I am glad some more people are getting into the private beta of HDRspotting.com – as always, the goal of the site is to showcase interesting HDRs from all over the world to drive more traffic and attention to YOUR website. It’s built on top of something we call an “Attention Generation Engine”. As we tweak all this out and iterate, we hope to open it up to more and more people!

There are invite codes out there – just ask around on Twitter or look in the HDR groups in Flickr or FB — NOTE – I do not give them out – so sorry I can’t help you (by design!).

Here is a nice testimonial from Gaensler (see his latest amazing shot on Flickr)

Since uploading my images on HDR Spotting the attention I get on my work increases tremendous! This encourages me to upload one image every single day, which is a great challenge due to the matter of only sending my best images. So HDR Spotting is pushing me further in my work and the comments I get from the community refuels my creativity!

Daily Photo – Grand Central Station

When I was in NYC a few weeks ago for the book party, I took some time one rainy evening to invade Grand Central Station without a tripod pass. I did not even know I could get such a thing easily, because the process for picking one up requires looking in the bottom of a locked filing cabinet stuck in a disused lavatory with a sign on the door saying ‘Beware of the Leopard’. (tip of the hat to the great Douglas Adams).

But even with my illegal tripod in hand, and in cool and casual defiance of the three-legged police, I strode around Grand Central Station taking photos with reckless aplomb. I really wanted to get on a train and go somewhere! But, I didn’t… I just walked out the exit and right into another amazing photographic situation!

The Amazing HDR Workshop Results!

I told the HDR Workshop class last weekend, very sincerely, that I was quite impressed with their progress. It’s my first workshop, and I love teaching people, but I did not expect them to make so much progress so quickly. Mind you, we already had a few people that were already quite good, but even they picked up a bunch of new stuff. Without further ado, here is a random selection of some of the resulting shots from their newfound skills!

(and yes, we are making an HDR DVD of the workshop for those that could not attend the event!)

• A shot from Cliff Blaise of the Driskill Piano, The Pennybacker Bridge, and see his recent Textured Shot (everyone got a copy of my Ultimate textures set) too – nice!
• Michael Steighner is a wonderful guy and artist.  Look at this recent shot of his of a Peaceful Evening.  And see his photo of the Oasis. AND his latest of an incredible shoreline.
• Wes Browning took this STUNNING HDR from the first day, and also said nice things about the workshop – thanks Wes!
• Michael Paolini was a heck of a nice guy and took this shot of Yours Truly hanging out over the railing at the Oasis.
• Eivind came all the way from NORWAY for the event!  See this great 6th Street shot he took during one of our photowalks.  He is just 20!
• Frank Jaquier really picked up everything well as you can see from this Driskill photo he took on the first day!
• Mark Interrante did a great job capturing our evening at The Oasis, where I took the group on a bus to capture the sunset.
• See this pretty sunset from Mark Schaffer, who is taking photos for all the right reasons… he loves it!
• Steve Popkin took this killer shot inside the Driskill on the first day!
• Ken Liu was a cool guy that came in from LA for the event – I enjoyed him very much and he got this sunset shot.
• Tim Donar came in from Arkansas for the event…. and I told him I was jealous because he got a better picture of the Frost Tower than I ever have!
• MOST IMPROVED –  She flew in from Hawaii and won a great prize for it! Diana Hudson, Before the Workshop and After the Workshop – awesome!

Also, a very special thanks to John P from One Man’s Blog (and especially Cali Lewis for the introduction!), Scott Kublin from ScottyCentral, and Alex Suarez, one of the aliens from Galaxy Quest.

Thanks Frederick Van for the Interview!

Hey that was a great interview! Hehe…  I just listened to it and forgot about all the HDR Controversy we addressed therein!  You can listen to it also from Frederick Van’s blog.  Thanks again for all the kind tweets and emails about the interview.  Even though I went out on a limb in many areas, I think they struck a chord… thanks again y’all.  And when I say “Internet” – I mean YOU! 🙂

Daily Photo – Templestorm

It’s hard to keep up with my students!  I feel they are catching up and surpassing me!  I won’t have it!  Hehe…  no no… my theory is that HDR will begin to splinter into a million different shards.  I can’t wait to see where each of them take the artform.

This is just outside of JogJakarta, Indonesia at an ancient temple called Prambanan.  It was the kind of place that has been sitting there waiting for me to bring my story-telling-machine there.  You have seen a few of my other shots of this place perhaps, just after the storm hit.  As I was leaving, I looked back over my shoulder to see this.  I sometimes forget as I walk away from things to turn around and look back, and I can see things I don’t expect.

New eBook Coming

I think you all will enjoy this eBook!

This Week in Photography Interview

It’s finally here!  The nice team from This Week in Photography has put up my interview – TWIP Episode Jan 13, 2010 (you can also get it on iTunes).  I hope you enjoy it.  We talk about everything from Creative Commons to Wide Blogs to HDR Photography to Mentally Unstable People Who Dislike HDR.

Amazing Review over at Abduzeedo

Giselle over at Abduzeedo wrote a fantastic review of “A World in HDR” and I am glad she enjoyed it so much!  Head on over there for a looksee.  Also, visit the top level of their blog because they always have great design inspiration.

Daily Photo – Lonely Boats Near Hakone

There is a spiritual and peaceful place on the edge of Japan.  I had to get off the bullet train and make a series of extremely confusing train changes to get to this place, but it was worth it.

The nice thing about photography is there is no such thing as bad weather.  Every scene has its mood, and whatever the scene is, that is the mood.  You learn to roll with the situation, and whatever is happening can be beautiful if you look at it for what it is.  It was a foggy and wet afternoon, so I walked peacefully up and down the shoreline for interesting things here and there…

Renting a D3S from BorrowLenses

I have a Nikon D3S Review coming soon, but, in the meantime, I am renting the lens from Borrowlenses.com while waiting to buy one! I’m going to use it as a second camera to my D3X, since it is often a good idea to have a second camera around. I haven’t written the full review yet, but I started it a bit, so you can see why I made this decision.

The team from Borrowlenses told me they have a short promotion going on — 10% off rental with the code 2010. It’s like Netflix for camera stuff! I have a review up on the Lens Rental page here.

My Music Playlist

The other night while I was editing photos in front of the class for “bonus time”, I turned on some of my music that I have collected from around the world. People always ask me for that playlist! Well, I have a lot… I think I am going to put them together here soon so you can see too. I’ll get that up and going within the next few days!

Daily Post – La Cremaillere

Ahh, the streets of France. If I could stroll them every night and find a new place to eat, I think I would be forever happy.

Anyone want to go with me? Looks like there are a bunch of seats there. We can just hang out and talk and munch on all kinds of things. But, I warn you, I simply can’t travel with picky eaters. I need adventurous eaters that aren’t easily scared of the unfamiliar. Not that anything in France is too strange… compared my Asian dalliances with live goldfish, durian, fried insects, live octopi, and live flounder. Okay, maybe I don’t need you to be as extreme as me, but I get drained when people around me only want burgers. Maybe this is just me!

Upcoming Speaking Engagements

I just finished a fun one on Sunday night for the Austin Photography Group. It was a very enthusiastic crowd and I was happy to meet many of them and talk about HDR Photography. Here are some other upcoming ones.

• Google – In early February, I was invited to come out to the Google HQ to give a talk for their Authors@Google program. I do not think that it is open to the public, but it will be recorded to be put online to be shared with everyone. I’ll let you know when it comes available!
• Ignite Austin – Jan 13 – I believe this event is totally sold out, but you may still be able to get in… or show up and fight your way in!
• Art Institute of Austin – Jan 14 – This sounds like a great group of people, and we’ll be able to get a bit more in depth into the artistic side of things.  Or, at least that is my hope!  I look forward to meeting you all! 🙂

Daily Photo – Entering the Fjord

Sometimes I get annoyed when I make a wrong turn, but not this time!  I was trying to find a remote place in the far northern part of Iceland, and I ended up going the wrong way.  Before I knew it, I was several miles deep into this fjord, but I could not bring myself to turn around.  It was too interesting and pretty!

The next day, I ended up finding the right way to go, but with white-out snow conditions, the road was sketchy.  VERY sketchy.  It was one of those situations where I was just inching along, scared witless, and giant trucks would occasionally blow by me at 60 km/h!  I was thinking… Jeez, these Icelanders are crazy!