Stuck In Customs

More from Burning Man

Today I’ll just post one from Burning Man, even though I have been posting them in smallish groups. If you want to see more, explore the Burning Man category here on the site.

Daily Photo – Biking Across the Playa

I think I need a bike this year at Burning Man! And, I need an awesome bike… with all kinds of lights and perhaps some speakers where I can plug in my iPod. The only problem is that I am not handy. I have only a few skills, and none of them seem to include all the things that everyone at Burning Man can build except me. Wherever I go, I’m surrounded by all kinds of nice hand-made art exhibitions… fanciful and crazy stuff is everywhere. Sure, I’m handy with a stylus and a Wacom tablet, but that doesn’t do me much good in the desert.

So, if you come out to the playa and have an extra amazing bike sitting around, let me know. I’ll bring you some Belgian gourmet chocolate for the trade.

HDR Tutorial- Five Languages Soon!

The HDR Tutorial is already in four languages, and the fifth, French is coming soon!

About 80% of the shots I put on the site are HDR, like this one below. I hope the Tutorial helps you out… if you have any questions, feel free to leave me a tweet or comment.

Adobe Speech Soon!

The event in San Jose is coming soon… The talk is free to all, and it’s on Feb 24th at 1 PM PDT in the Park Auditorium at 345 Park Ave in San Jose. There’s more information on the Adobe Distinguished Lecture Series page.

Daily Photo – A Rainy and Romantic Night in Ibiza

Part of Ibiza is an old walled medieval town that is surrounded by layers of winding streets old shops intermixed with homes. A few streets away from the walls, some of the streets are full of pubs and quirky shops… I think it’s better to explore them at night than in the day — and especially so in the rain.

On this night, it was a little chilly and rainy, but that does not effect my camera. I’ve never had a problem because of rain or cold or heat or anything. It just works!

The rainy streets were full of colors and life. I saw this couple quickly walking under an umbrella so I took a quick one to capture the scene.

Bad Internet Marketing

Because of the popularity of this blog, I get these emails just about every day. It is so crazy… I want any potential “internet marketers” that are reading this site to know that I don’t do paid-blog posts or any of that nonsense.

Companies send me FREE STUFF all the time. You should see my studio – I’ve got piles and piles of crappy stuff… everything from camera equipment to gadgets. I always tell people ahead of time that I only review it if I actually like it. This is because I am super-busy… and people are too busy to read 1000 reviews… so I just stick with the best stuff.

So, of the hundreds of things I have to review, I usually do only about one every two months. Don’t get your hopes up, marketers… and certainly don’t send me lame emails like this one I got a few days ago:

One of our major clients are currently working on making their website more visible in a particular Google search and we have indicated your site as a potential partner in this venture.

What we would like from you is a banner on the homepage and/or an article in the form of a blog post, product review or something similar. Our content is bespoke, tailored for your site and written by one of our professional in-house copy writers; we always ensure that content is relevant to both the client and the hosting site.

Daily Photo – Time Frozen in the Ancient Village

I feel like I’m in a hurry to take photos of all these ancient places before they become homogenized. I worry that in 10 years that every place will look like a typical street corner in Plano, Texas. Know what I mean? There’s nothing horrible about having a Home Depot and an Applebee’s within every five mile pod of super-structure, but it can lose a bit of charm after a while.

This is a famous old village in China where the legend tells of two phoenixes hovered endlessly, transfixed by the beauty they saw below. It’s located in the western part of central China’s Hunan Province. It’s called Feng Huang Cheng (“feng huang” being the Chinese name for the phoenix), and I’m happy I got to spend a few days wandering around its mysterious bits. This is a good overview of the city, and I’ll have many more from the insides coming soon enough.

BTW, if you are wondering how I made this… you may be interested in the textures tutorial.

Miss Part 1?

Last time, I put up a little bit of part 1 from our YouTube channel. But, YouTube really limits the length, so there is really a longer part 1. To see the whole thing, go to Part 1 of 3 here on Vimeo.

Part 2 of the Student Interview

And, below is part 2 which gets started on question 11, where I discuss the following:

• Tell me about your company there at Stuck In Customs…
• Do your friends treat you differently now?
• Do other photographers get mad when you give away secrets?
• The eBook business compared to the traditional ebook business
• How did you take that HDR of the fireworks that was in the Smithsonian?
• Archiving and organizing photos

Daily Photo – Blue Metal and Light

Many regulars know that I like to get “lost” in cities and find little secrets here or there. But, that’s often in the older, charming part of cities. I rarely go into the commercial or mega-residential areas because sometimes they are more sterile or less interesting. Well, this part of Beijing is sort of a neo-industrial jungle of wild architecture and unexpected forms of light. There are dozens of brand-new buildings, each with interesting designs and countless angles. I ended up staying in this area deep into the night.

Topaz Adjust Review and Problems

If you want to know more about how the photo below was made, and why it “pops” in that way, see my full Topaz Adjust Review.

So, I still use it from time to time to add some microcontrast to images, but I notice it is going super slow. Is anyone else having this problem? I have a pretty fast Mac Pro too… I just can’t figure it out. Also, I still have an old install of Topaz Adjust 3, which I tried out… but it crashes whenever I try to run it. What a pain!

Daily Photo – Journey of a Lifetime in Africa

I have never been to Africa, but it is very high on the list. Very very high. And I understand from many of my friends that it will get very deep into me, and I’ll want to go back many times. That’s okay… and I look forward to that feeling!

This photo below is taken in Disneyworld in the Animal Kingdom. The Imagineers run around and make everything look all Africa-ey and authentic… I don’t really know how authentic this is… but I certainly liked the feeling and style of this wall, so had to take a photo!

Getting Back to Spain

I need this to happen!  I had a great time while in Barcelona, and I need to spend more time in the country.  Plus, I know there are many other places…  a few days was not enough.  It’s like a tapas sampler plate… literally. Tonight, my friend Jack Hollingsworth (@PhotoJack) told me about a pretty awesome area of Madrid I need to visit!

Daily Photo – The Azure Cathedral

While walking through the streets around the edges of Las Ramblas, I found this secret place.  I’m not sure I could even find it again.  Maybe one of our smart readers knows exactly where it is.  Anyway, the place was quite beautiful, as you can see.  It was also pretty much empty, so I had no trouble moving around to find the interesting shots.

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February 2011 : Tuesday Feb 2011 : Tuesday

See More Photos of:  Iceland, Nikon D3X, Travel

#1 in App Store and the Icelandic Phallus

First in App Store for Photography!

Thank you guys and gals very much for the support – it wouldn’t have happened without you!

This last weekend, 100 Cameras in 1 (iTunes link), got into the first place spot in the hotly contested photography category for the iPhone. We’re also in the top 10 in 40 different countries – insane (see stats). I never expected any of that… It’s all very exciting and the whole team here is ecstatic.

We’ve heard all sorts of good suggestions, and a great update is coming up soon. The update will be free as always. Besides several new features, we also have some new achievements that we’ve been mulling over. With some good prompting from guys like Charlie Sorrel and Mike Schramm, we’re going to push them through. I don’t think this app will ever be done, but we’ll continue to evolve it as better and better ideas are folded into the mix.

Below are a few of my recent creations with the app… I put them out on Twitter and FB on occasion, but thought I might share them in the main blog here.

Created by mixing together two different effects via the new "Add Effect" button on the My Creation screen.

To make this, I first used the black & white effect in the Zen Effects group before adding two other effects to give it both light leak and some color.

Daily Photo – The Icelandic Phallus

I’ve probably just accidentally offended the fine Icelandic people with that name. Sorry about that… but I don’t know what it is. Most old cultures have statues with some kind of phallus, so it was a good guess. It’s a doubly-good-guess since Iceland is the home to the famous “Icelandic Phallological Museum” (wikipedia link, but don’t click on it), which sounds like a pretty happening place.  I told you not to click on it.

I found this in the middle of another one of those 6-hour sunsets. I had spent the first part of the day in a far northern fjord, at the farmhouse of a good friend.  About 200 km later, I found this spot near a crook in the road, standing up like cairn stones against time.