Assistant in Beijing?

I’ll be spending a bit of time in Beijing in the next few weeks. If we have any likely assistants that want to help me out there for a bit, contact us at business at stuckincustoms.com. You’ll have to carry a lot of stuff and do various mundane tasks. Being my assistant is not as much fun as it might seem… I assure you. I’m just setting low expectations.

Daily Photo(s) – A World Away at Burning Man

I asked my workshop class in London, “Who has heard of Burning Man?” Less than half the class raised their hands, so maybe it requires a bit of explanation!

Burning Man is a gathering in the desert of Nevada every year that attracts tens of thousands of artists, geeks, hippies, and everyone in between. People stay in costume all week, prepare fabulous art pieces, build extreme camps, drive outrageous art cars, and more.

I wore goggles most of the week to combat the frequent sand storms that come out of nowhere. They bathe the entire landscape in an orange scouring sand that exacerbates the post-apocalyptic scene. Because I became so used to seeing Burning Man through my goggles, I wanted to bring the experience to you as well. Below are a selection of photos with captions underneath.

My steampunk goggles that came in handy when the desert storms ripped through the landscape.

Putting on the goggles near The Thunderdome, one of the many camps and fighting arenas that spontaneously appear in the impromptu city.

The googles fully on... and now you can see what I see...

A traveler rests in front of a massive art structure. The art piece in the back has a hollow trunk that allows people to climb up to the spherical cage on top.

In the middle of the city is a vast expanse of desert where anyone can set up art pieces. Here, a small booth offering advice was erected. I sat down for a moment and they said I was beyond help.

Near my camp, a burner walks near the radio tower of Babel.

Every evening, a group of lamplighters walk through Black Rock City, hanging lanterns atop tall poles to keep the pathways lit for other travelers.

A ranger stands guard in front of the Burning Man tower during a sandstorm on the evening of the burn.

Filed under the categories: Burning Man, Nevada, Travel

Keeping up…. Live from Paris

Sometimes, if I have a few extra seconds, I’ll take little cellphone pics and upload them to Twitter. If you are not on Twitter, and want to see them, just click the little “Tweets” button/tab thing over on the right. It can give you the latest scoop in case you want to see what is live. For example, I am now in Paris, and I put up a few things over the day. None of these are great shots btw… just little slices of life I am capturing. I’ll repost them here below.

• http://twitpic.com/2ovq7r on the train from London to Paris … First time through the Chunnel…. exciting !
• http://twitpic.com/2owunj taking the metro to central Paris
• http://twitpic.com/2oyzuk now visiting more impressionists at the musee d’orsay… just visiting my collection…
• http://twitpic.com/2ozv6a and here I am with my nikons… all systems go for magic sunset….
• And this is right out of the Android cam… no adjustments… just wait for the big nikon show! http://twitpic.com/2p124h

New Video – The Parachute Jump

Here is the video that I edited together of the big jump I made with the Golden Knights!  Enjoy!

Filed under the categories: Dallas, Texas, Travel

Revisiting Photos

While I was at this hallowed landscape spot in Wyoming, I took a ton of photos. I’d move a little, shoot. Then move a bit more, shoot. Etc. I made many different compositions with small and big changes. These all ended up there in my Lightroom for later processing. I started processing them about 3 years ago, and this is one of my most recent results.

Personally, I think it is better than my previous versions of the Tetons. I don’t realize how I make little improvements in tiny areas of refinement. But, in looking at photos from many years ago, i can detect a difference… so that makes me feel better about the way things are going. I know we get a lot of positive comments on here… that is great… negative ones don’t bother me. I’m already hard enough on myself.

Daily Photo – The Tetons, Revisited

This area is not too far from Yellowstone. Just outside of the south exit, there is a fairly short drive to this area of Wyoming. It’s on the way to Jackson Hole. This is also an amazing place if you are into Bison. There are hundreds and hundred of bison in this area. A free one was roaming about while I took this. They’re actually quite dangerous for something that looks like a giant silly stuffed animal.

Filed under the categories: Jackson Hole, Wyoming

About the Site

We have quite a nice team here that have helped out with the site. Down at the bottom of the page, we have a new footer that came with the new design. In there, I put a link to “About the Site“, where you can get some scoop on people that help us out. We have a few freelancers that you might need in the future too!

That “About This Site” page is sort of a work-in-progress… but I believe in getting some things up early and then refining over time.

HDR on the iPhone

I was recently on Leo Laporte’s show The Tech Guy — we talked all about HDR on the iPhone. I’ll link over to that podcast when it comes available. My friend Brian Matiash wrote up a little analysis on his blog that you might enjoy as well.

Daily Photo – Rainbow over the London Eye

Today I am taking a train from London to Paris, and going through the chunnel (under the English Channel) for my first time. I’m very excited about this… I love the idea of rail travel in Europe. I don’t know why this is… I do look around at the other passengers and they often seem Euro-melancholy. Maybe you know what I mean…

So, today’s shot is of the newly famous London Eye. It’s more than just a ferris wheel. I can understand why it was so controversial when it was being built. What proper city would want a carnival-esque attraction right in the middle of it all? Well, this is no regular ferris wheel. It’s at least four times bigger than most, and each capsule is like a tiny plane. Sadly, I didn’t have a chance to go inside for a ride… this was for many reasons:

• They put a bunch of people in with you, and I fear they would all crowd to the window
• I want to go up at exactly sunset and take an amazing photo, which would really require me to be by myself or with an assistant
• I saw there was a special “ride” you can get that has gourmet chocolate on board. That sounded good and I wanted to plan that for a future trip!

Filed under the categories: England, London, Nikon D3X, Travel, UK

Twitter and Photography

Twitter has turned out to be a great tool for photography!  Not only did I help use it to organize the London PhotoWalk, but I also send out tweets to places like @WickedLondon and @Tate to get inside scoops on photography and whatnot.  Since these places are obviously into social media, they are often likely to respond.

Daily Photo – Wicked London

So, I just got finished watching Wicked in London.  It was a very cool experience.  I would have enjoyed getting a few more shots of the environs and actors/actresses — maybe next time!

The stage was wonderfully elaborate and fantasy-steampunk.  I didn’t expect so much steampunk stuff in my life lately…  speaking of that, I’ll have more of these sorts of photos coming from Burning Man in coming days.  When traveling on the road, it’s hard for me to get new shots up right away, but I know people enjoy seeing “live” shots that show what I am seeing on a timely basis.  It takes a lot of energy to be out shooting all day, come back, post-process, and then upload everything to the blog — but I will try to do it from time to time.

Anyway, if you get a chance to see Wicked in London, I certainly recommend it.  I won’t ruin the story for you if you haven’t seen it, but there is a surprise appearance at the end from Jar Jar Binks that is totally unexpected.

Filed under the categories: England, London, Nikon D3X, UK

London PhotoWalk Links

Thanks again to the massive group that came out!  It was a ton of fun, as you know!  Here are some links for you to follow to post your photos and give comments/review:

• Flickr Group
• Facebook Event

Video of the PhotoWalk

Stephen Graham put up a video of the event on his site too. He grabbed some informal footage while were all walking around… Jump over to his site iboogaloo.com to see it.

Pics of the event

Sadly, I’ve been too busy to process many photos, but I will soon!  In the meantime, I hope you enjoy the photos of others on the walk.  There are some very talented and passionate photographers in London… very exciting stuff!

And below are a few more photos from the event that came out kinda cool… so you can see what these things are like in case you want to join the next one. I stop a few times along the walk to describe the shot, give tips, and this sort of thing. Everyone gets along great, and people usually make many new friends, since most come alone!

Many people took many “behind the scenes shots of the event”. Some interesting ones from Gergio Amiti (5ERG10) and KBTimages.co.uk(uk_photo_art). Just click on the photos below to jump over to their photostreams to see more!

Filed under the categories: England, London, Travel, UK

Back to China

I’m going back to China for quite a while.   This will be a fun trip, and I’m getting access to all kinds of incredible places. I’m not totally sure about the details of my adventure, but I’ll be sure to share them with you here.

I’ve also recently gone through the trouble of getting another Chinese Visa. These things are not terribly easy or cheap to get! The first thing that is horribly unnerving is the requirement to send my actual passport through the mail. It’s a major worry to do this! Furthermore, it’s not cheap — in order to get everything back and forth to me as quickly as possible, fees + Fedex costs over $300.

I like the “softcore Visas”, where you stand in line after arrival and then pay some shifty-eyed Indonesian customs worker $20 US cash and he stamps you through right away.

Daily Photo – The Wormhole

Shanghai has this incredible tunnel that goes under the river to the Bund. It’s just wild inside!

They have a series of robotic trains that shuttle people back and forth. Robotic doors whir open then shut again. The front of the capsule has a bubble-window that allows for a stunning view as you dip below the river and back up again. Colored lights in every lighting configuration fly by in beautiful colors. This is an amazing experience that I recommend if you ever get to Shanghai!

Filed under the categories: China, Shanghai, Travel

Great PhotoWalk in London

We had about 75 people show up and had an amazing time. Thanks everyone who came out! We totally overwhelmed security at Westminster, Parliament, and The London Eye — they had no choice but to leave us be!

Before the walk, I gave explicit instructions to the crowd on what to yell in case they are accosted by the police: “Help Help! I’m being repressed!” Then, we would all work together to tweet it out and make a big deal of it… but, in the end, no one was bothered… it’s intimidating to see 75 tripods coming your way!

Below is a shot from Steve Graham (iboogaloo on Flickr).  You can visit his blog here.

Reminder about Categories and Previous Pages

There is a lot of content here on the site! I wanted to remind you that I do “categorize” every photo. At the bottom of this one, you will see it says things like “California” and “Hearst”. Clicking on any of those will take you to more of the same.

Also, the blog is only set up to show about 10-15 of the latest posts. With many categories, there are a lot more than that! So you can click “Previous” at the bottom to see more.

Daily Photo – The Grand Pool

I’ve already posted a few photos of the fabulous Hearst Castle indoor pool. This is the one that it is nearby, just outdoors. The thing is enormous and perfect.

I wonder if it ever gets used. So sad. Maybe they put on little pool parties here and there for the elite. Or maybe rappers rent it out and bring in a bunch of rap-video-girls to gyrate around the edges. I don’t know.

Filed under the categories: California, Hearst Castle, LA, Nikon D3X

HDR on the iPhone 4 with Leo

Hey everyone. Leo Laporte asked me to be on his show today (Saturday) at 11:30 AM Pacific. We’ll be talking about, among other things, HDR on the iPhone. I’ve gotten a thousand questions on twitter and everything about this… just finishing my analysis and will share it all!

Tune in on live.twit.tv to see the live video feed. See you soon!

More Burning Man to Come!

I’ve processed many photos from Burning Man. It was an amazing time, and I took a different approach. I did the usual HDR style on a few, but I also experimented quite a bit. I’ll share some of this in an upcoming post — I’m aiming to get them up sometime this week if I can! So stay tuned…

Daily Photo – Steampunk at Burning Man

I’ve always been a fan of the Steampunk genre. Have you never heard of it? I’m not sure I can explain it perfectly, but it mostly involves a parallel universe in which electricity never was invented and harnessed. The technology of steam is what continued to evolve to produce amazing machines, more sophisticated zeppelins, and fabulous gear-cog mechanisms of every size, shape, and function. Some movies that use this theme are the City of Lost Children, Sherlock Holmes, Steamboy, and more. I just finished a good book recommended by my uncle called “Boneshaker” that is also set in the milieu.

Anyway, everyone at Burning Man is in costume all the time. That’s about 50,000 people at a week-long costume party that becomes pretty intense. On the night of the actual burn of the tower (which you can see in the background), there was a little gathering of steampunk players toward the inner ring. One of the girls saw me taking photos, and came over to compare goggles for a bit. I grabbed this one of her just before it was time to return to her party.

Filed under the categories: Burning Man, Nevada, Nikon D3X, Travel

Enforced in London

Well I’ve already been nearly to jail twice in London. And yes, just for taking photos.

My UK friends have warned me about how insane the rules are here, and they are right! I wouldn’t mind if there was ANY logic or reason to it whatsoever. But it’s artistically and personally offensive to me.

The first time was inside the first 10 minutes of shooting in Waterloo station. A security guard came right up to me and said, “This is private property.” I said, oh, that’s nice… It’s a train station and 3,000 other people are taking cell-phone pics at 5 megapixels and up. Then he sent me to the big boss, who was busy eating dinner behind a row of monitors. I asked him if I could take photos for my blog. He said absolutely not that it is a security risk.

And then I went over to the London Eye (the big ferris wheel). Two security guards came up to me there and said, “No tripod.” I asked why, and they said it was a legal risk that if anyone tripped, they could be sued. But there was no one near me within 50 yards except for the security guards! So I took off the camera and held the tripod, asking, “Can I hold it in my left hand while taking a photo with my right hand?” He said, “Absolutely not.”

These are the two reasons I hear again and again… Security Risk OR Legal reasons… just more evidence that governments and lawyers (especially, working in concert) are inane entities.

London Photowalk Tonight!

I’ll meet many of you soon! Looking forward to it! For details, see the London PhotoWalk Facebook Event!

Daily Photo – Approaching London

Despite being accosted by imbeciles on multiple occasions, I’m still having an amazing time in London. I go out just to take photos for a few hours, and then end up staying out past midnight! This great city has been on my list for a long time… so I am happy to finally make it.

The afternoon yesterday had a typical London rainshower. But it cleared up just before sunset to reveal magnificent clouds. I crisscrossed the Thames River many times to find the right light. After the sun dipped below the horizon, the light finally fell behind Westminster with a delicate palette.

Filed under the categories: England, London, Nikon D3X, Travel, UK

Renting a Car in Paris

No, I’m not renting the car below. But I am a little flummoxed. I’m taking the train from London to Paris, then spending about a week in France before going to Spain. I can’t decided if I want to go through the trouble of renting a car, or if I should just take trains everywhere. I don’t have quite as much time as I would like to explore the French countryside, so maybe I will stick with trains. My current plan is to spend some time in Paris, then go to Nimes before heading over to the Cote d’Azur. After that I’ll head to Barcelona by train for sure… but… in between, I just can’t decide.

Whenever I travel, I usually go into it with half-a-plan, as you can plainly see. I sometimes like to just figure things out on the fly and be flexible. Sometimes if things are overly planned, they lose some of the spontaneity of the adventure and the required intuitive creativity in dealing with new situations. I don’t know… maybe I am just rationalizing being a hit-and-miss planner.

Daily Photo – A Mercedes in Paris

While walking along the Champs-Élysées in Paris, I came across this really slick Mercedes dealership. I don’t even want to think about what the lease for this space is… but it is super cool.

I wonder if they would have let me walk in and take it out for a spin. I mean, you’re allowed to test-drive cars, right? I wonder if they’d be alarmed if I brought it back with a big Slurpee in the drink holder.

Filed under the categories: France, Nikon D3X, Paris, Travel

Hollywood Adventure Redux

I did take this bigger HDR photo below during that period I mentioned in the long-form story. In case you are new to the site, you might enjoy that much longer, 3-part story from last month. To get there, just hop over to “My Hollywood Adventure.”

Daily Photo – Play in Beverly Hills, Shop in Beverly Hills

Well, those signs pretty much say it all. The city council voted down the less-popular alternatives, “Get Mugged in Beverly Hills, Get Ladyboy Hookers in Beverly Hills”. Those were right out.

While I was shooting this, a stretch limo pulled up beside me. The driver and I had a nice conversation… He had someone in the back, but the screen was up to keep out noise and wandering eyes. The driver was cool… I don’t even remember what we talked about. He was doing his thing, and I was doing my thing.

As he drove off, we exchanged the nods that two men sometime exchange when acknowledging one another’s jobs with respect.

Filed under the categories: California, LA, Nikon D3X, Travel