New Video Soon

I made a quick video as I was going from one fjord to the next in Iceland just two days ago. I’m editing it now and hope to upload soon… so stay tuned!

Daily Photo – The Last Pier

I made two long drives to Milford Sound. Actually, on the first one I didn’t quite make it all the way because it got too dark. These are the perils of stopping a lot to take photos… but no matter, really, when you see stuff like this. How can you not stop for a photo?

It’s tempting to go out on the dock to take photos, but tiny ones like this tend to shift around with the waves. That can cause all the photos to be misaligned and can cause quite a processing mess. I spend enough time post-processing as it is, so I can’t imagine purposefully setting myself up for more!

Filed under the categories: Milford Sound, New Zealand, Nikon D3X

10 Amazing, Incredible, and Remarkable Adjectives

1. Amazing

2. Incredible

3. Remarkable

[Insert Annoying Ad here.]

4. Mind-Blowing

5.  Obamariffic

6.  Redonkulous

7.  Jaw Shattering

8.  H1n1ilicious

9.  Pants-Smelling

10.  Adjectival

Daily Photo – My Adventure Buddy in Argentina

I’m relatively picky when it comes to travel partners.  #1 rule:  Don’t annoy me.  Is that too much to ask?

So, I choose my travel partners with care… and I did not make any mistakes with my Russian friends in Argentina.  They were perfectly affable and enjoyable travel-buddies.  There when you needed them and gone when you didn’t…  it’s hard to explain, but maybe some of you know what I mean.

Below is Vulva, a wonderful guy with a gentle spirit.  He’s tall, somewhat severe-looking, and has a booming Russian voice, but he has a tiny Buddha inside of him… a really great guy.  One morning, we woke up and went out to shoot in fresh snow.  I grabbed this one of him in the woods before taking a little hike to the glacier below.

The Textures Tutorial video, which is always a popular thing, shows how I edited the second photo below… I recorded a screencast and talked through my steps in its creation.

Filed under the categories: Argentina, Nikon D3X, Patagonia

My Unexpected 24-70mm Usage

As a landscape photographer, I tend to go wide-angle a lot… Actually, I don’t particularly “like” (not facebook-like, like-like) being called a “landscape photographer” — but I know people like to categorize, and it’s better than being called a “underwear tester”.

So back to the wide-angle bit. I love my Nikon 14-24 lens… and when I go on trips, I expect to use that the most! However, I notice that this current photo-adventure in Iceland, I am using my 24-70 most of the time. About 70% of the time! I find it gets me the compression and framing I need for so many landscape situations.

I’ll have to add more photos soon to my Nikon 24-70 Review here on the site… but it is a very versatile lens!

Daily Photo – A Night with Harley

These bikes are really a fun subject for photography. I get excited every time I head out for one of these events. There are so many styles, customizations, and characters behind them… you never see the same thing twice.

Setting up for these photos is also somewhat of a fun challenge. Getting the right “background” is very important to me… sometimes it just does not work out, so I have to move on and leave a pretty bike alone. The other thing about these bikes, which you don’t realize until you take thousands of photos of them, is that you probably only have a 12.5% chance of getting a good composition and background. I break it down thusly:

• 50% chance that the bike is on its kick stand and leaning the direction you want.  These are just too hard to shoot from the downward-leaning side.
• Compounded by a 50% chance the background area is boring, distracting, inappropriate, or otherwise unpalatable
• Compounded by another 50% chance that the bike will be blocked by another bike, since these tend to travel in flocking patterns, like their riders.

Filed under the categories: Austin, Nikon D3X, Texas, Travel

New eBook from David DuChemin

David just released a new book about shooting in Venice that you might want to check out! Even if you are not going to Venice, he talks about how he took each and every shot… good data that is easily transferable to any situation. Besides that, he’s got a good selection of eBooks on there… maybe something will meet your fancy?

Daily Photo – The Impossible Mountains

I spent a wonderful day and night on a farm in the far north of Iceland with fellow photographers Helga Kvam and Völundur Jónsson. We went out to do some shooting together, and then they made me a fantastic meal… I took a bunch of photos of that event that I will post at a later time.

Völundur and I were discussing one particular mountain that was extremely difficult to photograph. I can’t pronounce the name since I can’t speak dolphin, but it’s about two hours outside of Akureyri. The mountain is very spiky and narrow, and it’s embedded in a very rough patch of peaks.

So I did my best to capture it in context. There are great super-hairy horses everywhere, and four of them were playing on one side of the river. I set up… and waited….waited….waited…. for them to get in the right spot and then finally took a photo.

This shot was taken around midnight. Incredible light for that time, eh?

Filed under the categories: Akureyri, Iceland, Nikon D3X

Sorry…

For slow responses in comments and stuff.  I have very little internet connection time here in Iceland.  I’m out shooting constantly… seeing amazing things… just amazing.

Anyway, please accept my apologies… I still read all comments and will get to them soon.

Daily Photo – The Red Room, Revisited

Frequent visitors will recognize this amazing place in Chicago.

It is the Crimson Lounge, and this is where we had the big book party in Chicago.  Before the party, I brought my rig down here to take a few photos of this place when it was nice and empty.  I like it for many reasons…  a big part of me remembers it from David Lynch’s mind and those macabre scenes from Twin Peaks with the midget.  A midget that walks backwards and talks backwards and then is played back forwards is enough to unnerve the hardest man.

Filed under the categories: Chicago, Illinois, Nikon D3X

Burning Man PhotoWalk

I’m really looking forward to going to Burning Man later this year. This will be my first time, so I’m excited to see what it is like… I’ll be having a PhotoWalk while there, so I hope you can come along if you are there! I’ll get more details later.

We’ll just have to be extra careful and ask permission before taking photos of people… I think it’s just sort of a common-sense thing, but we don’t want to have any angry hippies wiggin’ out on us.

Getting Closer to the Volcano

I’m getting closer and closer to the big volcano here in Iceland.  I’m starting to see the ash that is piled up and some of the changes…

Daily Photo – The Alien Pool

If you have ever seen this area of Southern Iceland, then you can attest to these amazing colors! These are totally accurate…. and I would find it hard to believe had I not seen it first hand.

It was my first time to this area in the summer. Do you see those strange rocks? Well, some of what you are seeing is rocks and the rest is a very unusual moss. It’s a tan-green color. It’s extremely fuzzy/spongy and makes the whole place just seem unworldly. That, combined with the extra-blue water, made for a scene that was just shockingly awesome.

Filed under the categories: Iceland, Nikon D3X, Travel

Iceland News on Twitter

Since I only update the blog daily, if you want the absolute latest on the Iceland trip, along with surprise pics, be sure to follow me on Twitter.

New Print Unleashed!

Recently I mentioned the California PhotoWalk in San Clemente where I met David Arkenstone. I listened to his music all the way up the famous Pacific Coast Highway. Here, in Big Sur, I got up early one morning to grab this amazing scene just as the sun was coming over the mountains to the east.

This Limited Edition Numbered Print is accordingly called “Sunrise in Big Sur“.

Daily Photo – Modern Techno Life in Tokyo

What happens in hyper-techno places like Japan and Korea seem to be the techno-canaries in the coal mine for the future of technology and behavior in the west. Several years ago, almost everyone walked around their ultra modern-cities with their heads buried in their mobile phones.

I was asked by many English-speaking Japanese there several questions that amounted to, “What do you think of Japanese people?”

I always had a hard time answering that. I love Japan, obviously… I find the people interesting, different, and wonderfully unique. There is one overall thing about the “general” mannerisms of the average person… it would be “robotic”. I don’t know why this is always in my head, but I often get a robotic sense from strangers, as if they are going through the day, devoid of any outward-facing emotion, buried in technology.

Filed under the categories: Japan, Tokyo, Travel

I’ve been working on this for a small eternity, and I am happy to finally release it. It turned out to be a much different experience than I ever imagined.

The work is just below, and under that are a few zoom-in details of various areas, in case you have further interest.

More about the work

Since seeing a painting over the internet is sort of difficult, I have a few zoom-in shots, both directly overhead and from the side with a 50mm prime, in case you are interested in the details.

My goal was to deliver the feeling of a fire and a sunset, one in the same I think all the blues turned out really well. I was inspired by, among others, the work of Clyde Aspevig. I found the water very hard to perfect. I remixed my paint about 100 times before I got deep colors I did my best to make the edge clouds a mix of fire, clouds, and smoke This signatures ensures that it will be worth more when I am dead I repainted the transition clouds time and time again until they felt right. Half my life, it seems, is spent staring at clouds. I did my best to show various layers of clouds in the atmosphere — from the high, wispy, icy clouds to the low, full, clouds of tumult. The canvas gave everything a nice texture… feels and looks good close up and far away I kept trying not to sing “Happy Little Trees” during this bit This was one of my favorite bits of the work – it came more easily than the rest

Filed under the categories: Montana, Travel, Wyoming, Yellowstone

Strange Things I’ve Seen/Done so Far Here:

I like to do my best to give timely updates when I am off on a photo adventure…. so while I am here in Iceland for about two weeks, I wanted to pop in on occasion with some new stuff!

• Got my metal tripod stuck in an electric fence for 11 seconds.  That was 11 long seconds of shocks…  (was meant to keep the sheep in and photographers out)
• Received a wake-up call at 8 PM
• Took photos behind a waterfall at 3 AM
• Avoided a dive-bombing bird who was upset at me for some reason
• Found two caves
• Drove for 3 hours without seeing another car

Daily Photo – Trey in Hot Water

In some spots, this water is like a lukewarm bath.  In other places, it’s like falling in fresh magma.  I wish I could get some place that’s right in between…. you know… about the temperature of a molten lava cake.

The water is a strange, but natural, light-blue color.   Really, milky-white is a more apt desciption.  The edges of the water are black lava rock, and the water laps up on it, giving it a fine white stain all around the outside.

The whole time I was in here, I kept thinking this must be good for my skin…. removing toxins or something… that’s what they say, but who really knows.  Conceivably, it could be inserting more toxins into my body.

There is a fine silica there that you can spread all over to make a little mud mask. I didn’t really do a full mud mask since I’m not a woman.

Filed under the categories: Iceland, Nikon D3S, Travel

The Problem With PhotoWalks

I really enjoy leading PhotoWalks… I try to do my best to get around and talk to everyone. The biggest problem is simply that I don’t have time to get to know everyone as much as I would like! I can tell after meeting people that these are some interesting people…and we would probably have many things to discuss!

During the San Clemente one below, many people stayed after for a little pizza party. That was great fun and I did get to talk to people a little bit more in depth.

Daily Photo – Another Beautiful California Night

Here is photo from the very fun and engaging Photowalk in San Clemente, California.

Do you guys know who David Arkenstone is? He’s a musician that has done a few songs I’m sure you’ve heard. I’ve listened to some of his music for the last 5+ years, and I was SHOCKED when he showed up at the photowalk.  He enjoys photography and was a closet-fan of the site!

Even better, he brought me a bag full of CDs! How cool! Luckily, after that, I had a long road trip all the way up to San Francisco — I was able to listen to his CDs and just chill out… I was very happy (and felt lucky!) to meet him in person.

Filed under the categories: California, San Clemente

My family of course. But, after I have that, why not ask for a few more goodies? It’s good to have hobbies to keep us productive, after all…

So, here is a great list of…

Photo Toys and Gifts for Father’s Day

Some of this stuff I have… some of this stuff I want.  Either way, it’s a great list of goodies!  If you want more, see my full list of HDR Camera recommendations or Photography Gadgets.

The Awesome Green Cube – Approx $7 See Amazon’s current pricing – The Green Cube Everyone Asks Me About Mini Review – This is a clear, greenish 3-D bubble level.  I use it almost all the time and people always ask me about it.  It’s useful and cool-lookin’.  Even better than a fish-tie.

HyperMac Portable Battery – $199 and up See latest pricing - HyperMac Battery Page Mini Review – If dad has an iPhone, iPad, or Mac laptop, chances are one or all three are always running out of batteries!  This is a fantastic extra battery that powers all three.  I keep one in my bag all the time.  More than handy!

A Very Good Camera for HDR Shooting (or any kind of photography, really) The Nikon D90 – Approx $700-$900 See Amazon’s current pricing – Nikon D90 Body Only with No Lens See B&H’s current pricing - Nikon D90 Body Only with No Lens The Nikon D90 with Excellent Starter Lens - 18-105mm – Approx $1,100 See Amazon’s current pricing – Nikon D90 with excellent starter lens See B&H’s current pricing – Nikon D90 with excellent starter lens Mini Review – I recommend this wonderful camera because it does auto-bracketing, can hold a variety of lenses, and is an amazing camera now and for the future.  You’ll be able to have this be your main body as you slowly build up a collection of lenses in the future, as you get to better know your camera.

The Nikon Lens Coffee Cup - $40 and up, depending on auction price See Latest Prices on Ebay – Lens Coffee Cup – All Mini Review – How could not this be the best thing ever? I can’t think of anything more ridiculous or wonderful!

Daily Photo – My Camera in Tokyo

As you saw in the video a few days ago, I did a lot of night photography in Tokyo. Since I now often carry around two cameras, I sometimes use my second to take a photo of the first! Sometimes, I’m doing timelapse stuff which can take a looooooong time… so I get bored and start taking pictures of taking pictures!

I also included this because it has that green cube thingy mentioned above!

The Awesome Green Cube Everyone Asks Me About

Filed under the categories: Japan, Nikon D3S, Nikon D3X, Tokyo, Travel

OnOne Software Now Ready for CS5 OnOne Software has a new release out to make their cool plugin work with CS5. It’s really sharp, and I’ve been using it to process a bunch of photos. In fact, I just processed exactly 26 photos using OnOne. I’ll be releasing them in a special piece next week that I think you will enjoy! You can see one of those mysterious 26 over on the right… if you can figure out where that is, I’ll be super impressed! (And it will ruin my whole story!) If you want to pick up a copy, use the OnOne Coupon Code of STUCKINCUSTOMS to save the most money. You can buy and download immediately from the onOne Store I have a lot more information in the full OnOne Plugin review. I look forward to adding these 26 new images to that review soon!

Sleeping days and staying up all night in Iceland

I’m going to be trying something a little different this time. I’m here for about two weeks on a fun photo adventure. June is when the Summer Solstice is, and all the days around the have non-stop daylight. So, I’m going to try sleeping during the day from 10 a.m. until 5 p.m. or so… And then stay up all “night” taking photos. There should be a 7 hour sunset followed by 7 hour sunrise! I’m so excited!

I don’t know what kind of Internet access while out in the fjords, so I have some really cool and exciting stuff queued up for y’all.

Here is a collection of my favorite Iceland photos from previous trips… You’ll see why I came back!

Filed under the categories: Iceland, Travel