Amazing Response on Digital Photography School!

Pop over to Digital Photography School and see this article about the new HDR Video Tutorial. They are giving away three copies. It went up just yesterday morning, and at the writing of this, it had already collected 500 comments. Just leave one to win!

Daily Photo – Arles and Van Gogh

We rented a tiny car in Montpellier and decided to spend a while randomly driving around the south of France. Regular visitors know that I’m enamored with the impressionists of the late 19th century. Even though I have yet to embark on the full tour of the homes of my favorites, I did make a point to stop in the hometown of Vincent Van Gogh for a quick look.

This is Arles, which is only a short drive from Montpellier and less than an hour from the Côte d’Azur. The streets are quaint and quiet. There are a few tourist areas, but after a few steps in a random direction, you’re back in the old streets. I needed to stay for longer for more exploration (!), but I did my best to make use of the short time I was there.

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

Updated HDR Tutorial

I’ve updated the HDR Tutorial here on the site with a few refinements. I’ll continue to fix up some stray bits here and there over the next few days. Have you never gone through it? It’s a foolproof 6-step guide… for beginners and beyond! Enjoy!

Daily Photo – The Peking Opera

This opera is like nothing else in the world. This was my second visit to an authentic performance, but the first one in this grand palace of opera. I understand that it had been closed for a long time. I felt honored to be invited to attend the opening night performance of the Peking Opera.

The opera is mesmerizing and confusing event. I had a wonderful assistant with me, and she was able to translate the essence of the story to me. The plot was a classical tragedy told in dance and other-worldly sounding voices. Also I was very fortunate to have carte-blanche and was allowed to take photos anywhere. I used this as much as possible, trying not to make myself an annoyance.

Filed under the categories: Beijing, China, Nikon D3X, Travel

Daily Photo – Icelandic Docks in the Afternoon

I arrived in Isafjorder in the middle of one afternoon, and my schedule was all askew. I had driven all night, taking photos along the way.  I usually tried to arrive at the hotel by 11 AM or so, because that was my bedtime.  If I didn’t hit the sack each day at 11 AM and wake up at 6 PM, then it threw everything off for the next cycle!

The skies were so interesting when I arrived, I decided to spend a few extra hours visiting the docks to explore.  This is a famous fishing town in the far northwest part of Iceland, so the docks had a nice sense about them.  I was so dog-tired that I was just kinda going through the motions.  But it did keep me in that sleepy dream-state that helped everything flow easily.

After this, I went to check into another Hotel Edda.  Many of these locations are converted high-schools that are hotels in the summer months. It’s so strange sleeping in a school in the middle of the day.  I happened to arrive at each one on opening day, so I was often the only guest there.  It’s even more eerie, being in a huge school all by myself, sleeping away.

Filed under the categories: Iceland, Isafjordur, Nikon D3X, Travel

Win a Free HDR Video Tutorial!

John P from One Man’s Blog is giving away a free copy of the HDR Video Tutorial!  You’ll notice that he’s the guy that is interviewing people in those little testimonials.  He’s a heck of a nice guy and a good friend… I’m happy to share the love to his readers over there!   All you have to do is leave a comment on his blog to win!

Daily Photo – The Capital Museum in Beijing

And look – another amazing super-structure in Beijing!

Over the Thanksgiving weekend, I’ve had a lot of family in town and been showing them all my unpublished stuff from Beijing, including this photo.  They all remark on how impeccably modern and impressive the city has become. From what I understand, they have started bringing in more and more western architects to design innovative structures. I’m not sure who the architect here is… but it’s very well done.

See that giant red velvet wall to the right? It’s hiding a new display that’s currently being built. I’ve never seen such an elaborate “under construction” wall!

Filed under the categories: Beijing, China, Nikon D3X, Travel

Daily Photo – The Louvre

Ahhh… the Louvre! It’s one of the greatest in the world and always fun to explore. You gotta be kind of into museums, I suppose… the vastness of it is beyond words.  You really don’t get it until you’ve spent several hours inside.

I’ve often wondered what it would be like to be a student in Paris without anything to do. It would be so cool to go to the Louvre day after day… or maybe not. I mean, when you’re in that young student-mode, I don’t really know if you can fully appreciate everything. Maybe some things… but perhaps not.

I have a half-baked plan to go spend an extra week in Paris and go to the Louvre seven days in a row with just my sketchpad. I do like to draw (have a few on my “about” page), and I’d like to have a completely open schedule to explore all the rooms and chambers. After I took the photo you see here, I spent several hours inside… scouted out a few spots that look perfect to sit for a few hours with my sketchpad, my music, and a few secret snacks.

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

Happy Thanksgiving! (What kind of pie do you want?)

Happy Turkey Day to all my old and new friends that come here to visit. I really appreciate it! Today, I’m trying my first deep-fried-turkey. I’ll think of you all while eating and report back! Also, we have about four pies here… it should be enough. Let me know what kind of piece you want!

Daily Photo – A Beautiful Morning in Beijing

Another early morning outing found me at this place, just outside the Forbidden City. The morning was crisp and clear. It was one of those mornings where you feel like moving around to both stay awake and to stay warm.

I walked to the top of the temple with all my stuff. it was a lot of steps… too many steps for that early in the morning! But, I was surrounded by a lot of early-morning Chinese people working out. What was interesting is that most of them seemed to be over 50 years old. And there were A LOT of them! They were working it hard, and kind of making me look bad.

Also interesting — every few minutes, you could hear them yelling at the top of their lungs — various mantras and other words of power to that are part of their routine. It was unnerving to set up for a shot, enter my tiny moment of zen release, and then have some guy in all-white sweats yell something in Chinese a few feet from me!

Filed under the categories: Beijing, China, Nikon D3X, Travel

Hi London Friends!

During our workshop in London, we took a lunchtime walk over to this museum. We had a great time, evading security every which way. I have good memories of my times there with that nice group of people… I very much enjoyed it!

I edited this shot during the class. It came out so nicely, I decided to post it here!

Daily Photo – The British Museum

So, this museum has the Rosetta Stone — what else do you need to know? And if it’s got that, you know it has some other amazing things as well. I spent two days there — one shooting and one exploring! Okay, well, both shooting.

When the whole class went inside, there were a ton of us with tripods. We gathered around outside before we went in with our gameplan. Our strategy was simple: “Spread out and shoot. They can’t catch us all.” So we did exactly that and flew to the four winds. The guards were on their earphones nonstop trying to figure out what was happening with this flash mob. They would catch one, then run to the next, then the next. They got confused on who that had told to stop and who they hadn’t, so it was easy to be a repeat offender. In the end, no one was thrown out… it’s sort of a testament to not worrying about it all… just go for it!

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

HDR Video News – New Downloadable Version Available!

We have a new HDR Video Tutorial that I’ve just made available. We launched the DVD several months ago, and it has been wildly successful. I know there is another group of people out there that are looking to get below that $100 price point, so we came up with an Amazon S3 downloadable solution. Also, it’s available for immediate download, so we don’t have to mess with DVDs and that sort of thing. However, if you want the bigger version with extra stuff, it’s still available to you!

Video Preview

HDR Photos from the Video Tutorial

LA Under the Pier

Japanese Salaryman

The Long Alley

Filed under the categories: Travel

More Burning Man

See other Burning Man photos here.

I have so many photos from Burning Man that I am excited to post!  A lot of them are using a special style that I experimented with while there, even though the one below is one of my standard HDR jobs.

Daily Photo – Burning Man Art

I keep thinking about how much fun I had at Burning Man!

Before I went, I was really wondering…  I’m usually good at imagining what a new experience might be like by comparing it to others and intuitively filling in the gaps.  But, since I am quite open to new experiences, everything flowed very easily there and it was a good artistic shock to my system.

People spend all year creating fabulous works of art that they display on the playa.  At night, everything amps up to a whole new level…  just wandering aimlessly for hours will be stimulating to dark corners of your right brain.

This statue below, by Marco Cochrane, is called “Bliss Dance”.  It’s a 40′ structure made out of an intricate mesh of steel.  The lights around it would cycle through various color mixes every few seconds.

Even though I took many photos of this great piece, this one is my favorite. I felt like to really show the scale and relevence of the piece that I needed to include regular sized humans and the expanse of the playa at the perfect time of the evening. Usually, as you know, I don’t talk about all the elements that go into the photo… I feel like talking too much about the artistic creation of the photo takes away from it a bit… But then again, I’m just not objective about it… what do you think?

Filed under the categories: Burning Man, Nevada, Travel

Big Thanks to Our Support Team!

I wanted to send a public thanks to our support team (the guys than man support at stuckincustoms.com).  They’ve been doing a great job and we’re all thankful for them!  Since the DVD came out, they’ve been super-busy.  Do you know how confusing it is to coordinate Fed-Ex and PayPal and our DVD company and dozens of address in places that these companies don’t even have in their databases?  Hehe… well… there are always issues, and they’ve been doing a great job.  I just wanted to thank them publicly for their hard work.

Daily Photo – The Gentle Oxbow

Do perfect little places like this really exist?

Yes!

But they are a little hard to find… They’re not in guidebooks or written about on [most] travel photography websites. In fact, they’re all over the place. This was taken in an area of southern Iceland, on the road not too far from Hvolsvollur and Vik. If you just turn off the main road and meander down a few dirt paths, places like this are everywhere.

One of the most unusual places about this, which is missing from the photograph, are the bird sounds. They were extremely unusual, high-pitched, and made small siren-sounds when diving to and fro. The strange-nature sounds made me feel even more like I was on some strange Star Trek away mission.

Filed under the categories: Iceland, Nikon D3X, Travel

Interesting Newsletter Soon!

Some interesting news is coming soon! Are you signed up to our newsletter for free?

We send out about one newsletter a month or so… it varies depending on my mood and travel schedule. The last one contained a bunch of unpublished photos from China (I believe it was issue #17)… and you still have access to it if you sign up now. Be sure to check it out!

Daily Photo – Red Gate After Rain

When I’m someplace interesting, I usually set the alarm to get up quite early. Painful, yes. And then, when I’m in that half-wake state, I stumble to the window to look at the clouds and weather. If it’s a mess, I don’t go, and joyfully crawl back into bed. That’s just about the best feeling in the world.

But, sometimes, I force myself to go out anyway… that is what happened on this day. It was one of those frustrating mornings when it was raining — which makes carrying an umbrella + tripod + two cameras + camera bag quite a drain! But after walking a few kilometeres, I found this giant red gate that led to a quiet temple complex. I set up for a few shots before venturing into the beyond.

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

Speaking of Christmas Toys…

Any great Christmas toy suggestions this year?  I’ve collected some unique toys from various countries (like, for example, these Chinese Chain-Puzzles) in my recent 80-day-around-the-world trip… but I was wondering if there was something else unique out there you all have stumbled upon?

Daily Photo – Army Men

We were walking around near some of the roller coasters in Disneyland when these army men came around the corner issuing a bunch of orders through the megaphone. Ethan and I were so surprised — I hardly had time to pull up the D3S for a quick shot!

Some of those days in Anaheim can get pretty hot… I don’t know how all these people in costumes can handle it. I guess it’s better than being one of the dress-up people in Orlando, though!

Filed under the categories: California, LA, Travel