Tiny Website Tweaks

A few little things to note…

1) I added the Google +1 to the top of every post, page, and the main site.
2) I removed the slow-leading Tweetboard widget that used to be on the left
3) I fixed several typos in the new HDR Tutorial

Live Video Hangout Today

Come join live (it will be streamed and recorded too) – on Google+ at 12 PM PT (3 EST) today. I’ll have on Cali Lewis and John P, and we’ll be talking photography and stuff… it’ll be fun!

Great Structures

I know I take a lot of photos of churches… I have no kind of agenda or anything — I just simply like big, beautiful structures. It seems like in the last 500 years, churches have consistently been able to amass the huge sums of money necessary to build these “great structures.” The only other entities that amass a lot of money to make “great structures” are governments, corporations, and sports teams. But, really, governments often build extremely boring things with the money. Corporations sometimes build awesome buildings, but only a very small percentage of them are truly inspired. The third group, sports teams, do build amazing structures, but they are all fairly consistent in their look and utility. Any other groups I am missing that amass a ton of capital to build amazing things?

Daily Photo – The Vaults

I find that every time I take a photo of a huge cathedral, like the granddaddy here in London, that I take a landscape and a portrait shot. You just can’t get it all in! And then, I think, well if I could, why wouldn’t I just go ahead and do a full 360 shot? Where do you stop? Hehe this is a problem in a way…

But, seriously, I always have trouble enjoying panoramas and 360 degree photos on the web. Do you all agree?

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

Why I love the comments some others dislike

I wrote an article on Google+ entitled “Why I love seeing the “Nice shot” and “Wow” comments, and why some other photographers should stop complaining about it…”, and it was quite popular! In about 12 hours, it hit the max of 500 comments. Anyway, I thought you all might enjoy the article as well, since the same goes for here at the blog too!

And thanks again for all the adds and stuff. It looks like I somehow got in the Top 20 in Google+, so I’m very thankful to you all!

Looking for people to circle? See the Stuck In Customs community list!

Daily Photo – A great day at Google!

So, a fellow photographer at Google named Brian White contacted me through G+ and asked if I wanted to visit the Zurich offices while I was in Switzerland. It just so happened that I am flying out of Zurich, and I took a train from Zermatt yesterday afternoon to meet him.

I met all sorts of interesting people there from Google and from the Google+ team. To see everyone I met and circle them, see the Google+ post about this.

We did a live Google+ Hangout (see photo) from their offices and had people connect from all over the world. We even had a Vietnamese guy in Prague join and play us an acoustic guitar song! It was really fun…

After the Hangout, we went up to the Google library on the top floor of their offices to take this photo together. See those people there on the left? They mostly ignored us. I think this is because they were serious Germans playing a board game. Never play a board game with a German.

Filed under the categories: Switzerland, Travel, Zurich

Daily Photo – Walking Through Paris

Sometimes things on the map look really close together… and then you start walking and get about 25% of the way there and you become quite shocked at how far it actually is. This feeling can be a little defeating, until you realize of course that you are in a beautiful city like Paris and there is fabulous stuff all around you. And then, you remember you are a photographer with a ridiculously easy job, and everything comes right back in perspective.

And, speaking of that, believe me… I am super-grateful for this strange life I have. I never take anything for granted, and I get excited like a little kid on all these trips… love getting on planes… love the adventure… all of this sort of stuff. I know a lot of jaded people out there that do this stuff, and I just don’t understand them.

Filed under the categories: France, Paris, Travel

9 Exposures

I don’t usually take 9 exposures from +4 to -4, but I did bust that out in this case. I put all 9 photos in the Clubhouse so others could give this a go… it is a pretty challenging shot all around, as you might suspect.

People ask how long it takes me to do these… It’s a hard thing to answer. The thing is, I am very fast, so whatever number I say may be meaningless because of how quick I am with macros and stuff. However, after saying that, it does take me from 10 mins to 3 hours on each photo. This one took about two hours.

Daily Photo – The Old Farmhouse at Sunrise

Sometimes I feel a little funny about opening up gates to go into places… but no one was around, and this place looked pretty abandoned. And, really, I’m pretty innocent and don’t mean any harm…so, I just kinda let myself in, you know? Yes yes I know I shouldn’t do it… but I just opened up the gate, walked around the the back side of this abandoned place, took some photos, then left.

Filed under the categories: Travel

Secret Spots?

Where is your favorite secret photo spot? Perhaps someplace that a few people know about, but it’s generally kind of an out-of-the-way place that no one would ever know about.

Hmmm… if there was only an app for that… hmmmm… maybe your friend Trey has something up his digital sleeve…

Daily Photo – Time Traveling in the Steampunk Subway

Here is a new one from a discovery I just made here in France! Thank you for the inside tip on this amazing place from Friend X.

This incredible subway station under Paris has undergone a full Steampunk conversion, thanks to the mind of François Schuiten, a comic book artist from Belgium. Each tiny circular window lining the edges is a portal to another world. This is all influenced by Les Cités Obscures, where humans live on the counter-Earth. A wonderful concept… I think many of us on Google+ already feel one with the idea of the counter-Earth.

If you’d like to visit this stop someday, pull up a huge subway map and find your connections to the Arts et Métiers stop. It’s kind of out of the way, but just bring your camera and your imagination, and you’ll be there soon enough…

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

What is your Google+ ID?

I’ve been enjoying it quite a bit (my Google Profile). Please put your Google Profile in the comments so that people can circle you. Perhaps a “Stuck In Customs” circle for people in this community? Pretty good idea, if I do say so myself!

Daily Photo – Horse in Landscape

Remember what I said a few days ago about reasons for no stopping for almost every horse photo in Iceland? Forget I said that. I don’t know what I was talking about. Go ahead and stop… I mean, how on earth can you pass this buy?

These horses remind me a bit of the sirens in Odysseus, distracting me from my destination… But, really, that analogy falls apart because I had no destination in mind, so I allow myself plenty of wonderful distractions.

Filed under the categories: Iceland, Travel, Vik, Wik

Free HDR Tutorial Video

Okay now that I let it out there with a smaller beta crowd, we can make it official! The HDR Tutorial has been totally re-made and we’ve worked out all the bugs. Also, I made a new video to accompany it that shows how I at least start the process. Enjoy!

Daily Photo – Snow in Nikko

It was a freezing cold morning when I woke up to explore this temple area of Nikko. Luckily, I was the first person to arrive, and I was pretty much alone for this early morning because of the snow. It gave me a peaceful period to explore with my music on… taking my time and moving around the temple to take in the big picture and all the nice little details.

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

Your Website?

Do you have a website or photo portfolio you’d like to promote or mention? Put it below in the comments and people can visit to find out more about you!

Daily Photo – The Pool at the Traders in Kuala Lumpur

This is an open-air area atop a beautiful hotel in KL. There’s an awesome pool and a trendy bar where you can have drinks and watch all sorts of sylph-like Euros make sinuous music-video-like moves in and out of the pool. This top level up here is a “spa” area with doors that lead of into little massage rooms, where, no doubt, other Euro sylph-like maneuvers are going on.

Filed under the categories: Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, Travel

Your Most Amazing…

What is the most amazing concert / venue you have ever visited? There are little amazing things that happen all over the world all the time, but I rarely hear about them… so I was wondering what experiences you have had.

Daily Photo – Sting in Concert in Nimes

So I’m going to see Sting in concert this week right here in this old Roman ruin. I’m very excited to see what it will be like to see something like this here… It’s hard to imagine what it will be like, but I’ll try to grab a few photos while I am there… no promises, though, but I’ll see what I can get! I’m not going in any official capacity – just as a fan in the audience.

Filed under the categories: France, Nimes

Google+ Profile

I know many here in the community know my Google+ Profile, but I think everyone would like to know yours too, so feel free to put it below! Still having trouble getting in? The communinty here is doing a great job paying forward invites after they get in. Check the Facebook Page to see if there are some openings!

Google+ Explosion?

So, I posted the Paris photo below about 24 hours ago exclusively first to Google+. It spread very quickly and I woke up to see I was in the top 25 of all 15+ million Google+ users. This is really crazy, but it has been very fun!

See the Paris Photo post here in Google+. It ended up getting shared by many people, and, sort of like a virus, the follower count shot way up. It swamps Twitter and Facebook…and has been really interesting to compare. But no worries, the blog here will always be my mothership, where I put long-form thoughts and the daily photo…

Daily Photo – Reflections on the Eiffel Tower

Isn’t it romantic? What could be more perfect than a beautiful sunset here in Paris?

There was a big storm all day long, but I could see the clouds were beginning to break up a little to the west, and I knew there was a possibility the sun would dip into an opening beneath the heavy clouds. So, with that intense possibility, I headed over to the Eiffel Tower area hoping the light would turn out right…

I also made a behind-the-scenes video. Since you guys have been so nice over on Google+, I’ll share that video exclusively there first, so be sure to stay tuned… I’m still editing the thing together!

Filed under the categories: France, Nikon D3X, Paris

Random Encounter!

I took this on my first evening in Beijing, and, of all things, I met Gernot here on the corner by chance! Gernot is a very interesting photographer that came to my workshop in Tokyo earlier in the year… and here he was just randomly! I’m jealous of him because he just took a motorcycle from Shanghai to Tibet on a photo-adventure… can you imagine? He’s been sharing some photos in the Clubhouse and it looks like a great time.

Daily Photo – Forbidden Corner

Two of the corners around the moat around the Forbidden City are exactly the same. The only difference is the direction they face. And, with bad luck, I started on the wrong corner, so that meant a not-so-short-runwalk to the other corner, and that is no small feat with something this huge. But, in terms of a long walk, at least there is something beautiful to look at along the way.

Filed under the categories: Beijing, China, Nikon D3X

Japanese People

Aren’t Japanese people pretty awesome? I mean, this is sort of a sweeping thing to say, I know… but, really… whenever I talk to people from various countries, most everyone finds the Japanese to be wonderful and quirky. There’s never one single thing that people mention… but there is something about it all that is quite nice.

You probably think I’m crazy now.

Daily Photo – The Hare in Harajuku

Every time I go to Tokyo, I try to spend some time in Harajuku. It’s one of the wildest and most unique places in an already unique city. It’s the sort of place where you take a people-shooting lens because of all the various types of people you see walking through the streets. And even more unique than the people are some of the shots and the decor, as you can see here…

Filed under the categories: Japan, Tokyo, Travel