I got a heads up this evening that one of my shots was on Digg (thanks for all the positive diggs!). It was this first one of The Duomo from Milan. The second one I posted is of the exterior.

I don’t know if I can describe this place as well as Mark Twain did in Innocents Abroad in 1867, so I will just let him do it:

What a wonder it is! So grand, so solemn, so vast! And yet so delicate, so airy, so graceful! A very world of solid weight, and yet it seems …a delusion of frostwork that might vanish with a breath!… The central one of its five great doors is bordered with a bas-relief of birds and fruits and beasts and insects, which have been so ingeniously carved out of the marble that they seem like living creatures– and the figures are so numerous and the design so complex, that one might study it a week without exhausting its interest…everywhere that a niche or a perch can be found about the enormous building, from summit to base, there is a marble statue, and every statue is a study in itself…Away above, on the lofty roof, rank on rank of carved and fretted spires spring high in the air, and through their rich tracery one sees the sky beyond. … (Up on) the roof…springing from its broad marble flagstones, were the long files of spires, looking very tall close at hand, but diminishing in the distance…We could see, now, that the statue on the top of each was the size of a large man, though they all looked like dolls from the street… They say that the Cathedral of Milan is second only to St. Peter’s at Rome. I cannot understand how it can be second to anything made by human hands.

Filed under the categories: Musings

Today I saw on Flickr that someone started a fan club for Stuck In Customs on Facebook. So be sure to join it and get one of the last remaining spots since, well, it can hold an infinite number of people. Maybe we can prove the inverse paradox of Zeno by filling it up slowly and never getting to the halfway point. The previous sentence was a very nerdy joke and I apologize…

You guys can also find me on Facebook right here, so you can add me and we can be BFFF.

Moving on… I get nice emails all the times from all kinds of interesting people around the world. I got this one over the weekend from a nice chap named Tony who seems to have opened up a new photography chapter in his life!

Hey Trey, About 1.7 years ago i last emailed you. I saw your fireworks shot and it inspired me to leap into photography. I scored some gear and went shooting/learning. Since that email almost 2 years ago i have moved up a bit in know-how and rank as a photographer. Recently i have made the leap and started taking commercial photos. I have now shot and sold numerous works. I am retouching for authors and PR companies. I am shooting book covers, PR shots, Sr. photos, modeling/fashion..the list goes on. I didn’t even know what F-stop was when i started.

I recently made 1st place in explore with a clients shot that allowed me to post. It’s all thanks to a glimpse of your photo on a gawker banner while i was looking at gizmodo.com at work. I have plans to quit my day job (Sr. Director of Operations for a national credit card company) in the next 3 months… i just wanted to tell you that your work was the motivation for my new and wonderful life. I have never been more happy. I went to a flickr meet-up in my home town and i was like a celeb…people knew me i was the bell of the ball. I never thought for a moment i would ever get here. Today a man wrote me an email, he said he saw one of my HDR’s and it inspired him to take up photography. He wanted me to see his first HDR…it was a proud moment and i thought of the email i sent you a while back… it said the same thing… thanks man.

Anyway, I thought that was a pretty swell email. You can see his Flickr stream here.

In response to the nice memo and the first photo he saw, I am posting a few old classics from my  HDR Tutorial, which I suppose sent him down his own rabbit hole!

Filed under the categories: Musings

I’m working on another load of shots from Florida, and here are a few of my favorites, which you may or may not see iterations on in the future! These are all from Palm Beach… the first one was taken while I was having some peaceful time after being assaulted by lawyers in a deposition… the middle one is of a nasty storm that faced me at the airport… and the third one was some wonderful little light sculptures in The Breakers that I thought needed a good treatment.

Filed under the categories: Musings

Here are a few other favorites from Hong Kong to go along with the new one from yesterday. I hope these fire off more neurons in your pleasure centers!

Filed under the categories: Musings

I figured now that the election is over, everyone will be ready for a little Shanghai Surprise… so here are a couple of my favorites from there…

Filed under the categories: Musings

It had been a good several hours of trekking through a muggy jungle before getting to this place. I’ve been to a lot of muggy places (even Houston), but nothing compared to this place. When explorers "re-discovered" this temple just a few centuries ago, it was completely covered in jungle. I can’t imagine how hard the work was to clear the jungle back from the temple….

After emerging from the trees, I sat here for about 30 mins to regain my wits, and of course took a few shots to help pass the time while my ipod streamed some Baraka soundtrack action.

This one also uses my textures from the newer tutorial in this section

Filed under the categories: Angkor Wat, Cambodia, Musings, Siem Reap, Travel

I think Times Square was built for a night like this! The sky was this deep blue and the clouds were all swirly like a screensaver. The lights and the colors usually come out just right (of course, it takes a bit of HDR action to get things just right)… speaking of that, I have an HDR Tutorial if any of you want to give it a try for your next big-city shoot.

Filed under the categories: Musings

This was one scary place in a storm. I can’t overstate that. The whole place felt alien and ancient… there was hardly anyone at this remote temple, and then pretty much everyone left when the storm hit. Between squalls, I took some quick shots as the sun went down, using a rainsleeve over my camera to try to keep it as dry as possible.

Filed under the categories: Indonesia, Jogjakarta, Musings, Travel

There is a little story over at “Innovative Digital Photographers” about the stuff you see here on Stuck In Customs. You can get to the article here. It features a shot from Yellowstone, where I happen to be near today for some meetings in Montana. I have pasted a few of my favorite Yellowstone shots below for your wide-screen viewing pleasure!

The second shot there is of a nearly-impossible-to-photograph Steam-Tornado taken at the Grand Prismatic in central Yellowstone.

Filed under the categories: Musings

I’m working on my biggest photo ever over the weekend and putting on the finishing touches. In the meantime, a commenter reminded me of a fun shot I did of some children in Indonesia, so I thought I would put up some of my favorite kids’ shots from around the world (that are not my own kids!)

The children below are from, in the following order, Indonesia, Cambodia, India, Bangkok, Malaysia, Thailand, and Iceland.

Filed under the categories: Musings

I arrived about 4:30 AM and was alone except for a few monks that were moving about, preparing for their morning offerings. The mist and humidity hung thick in the air, and you can really feel it in this shot. The whole scene was 200% dreamy, and the thick layer of fog made it impossible for my eyes or camera to focus on anything except for the impressionist vision itself.

Filed under the categories: Angkor Wat, Cambodia, Musings, Siem Reap, Travel

This is probably a rather crazy thing to do, but I have done crazier things for worse reasons. Also, a man will do many insane things for what he loves, and this may or may not be limited to things like cameras and games.

What can someone do when faced with new camera equipment?

I plopped down a deposit at my favorite camera store to get on the list… I will try not to lose the receipt in my trunk underneath sports equipment and old jogging shorts that I really should have washed in April.

I’m very excited about the mystical Nikon D3x. I have a D2x right now and it has treated me well. I think the new sensor, the new sweet megapixels, the new screen, and a bunch of other little goodies will be great. I’m going to have to work with some smart programmer friends to hack the thing to make it more suitable for HDR. The firmware won’t let me do what I want to do, which is:

• Press the button once to take 3 autobracketed exposures
• Have a 2-second delay after I press the button for the camera to stop the micro-shakes
• Take the shots at +2,0,-2, rather than the silly +2, +1, 0, -1, -2 that I have to do now
• Keep the mirror in lock-up mode the whole time… there’s no need for it to flap up and down like some Da Vinci mechanical wonder

A Small Diatribe on Megapixels

I think that having 20+ megapixels will be great too.  And YES, I will use the megapixels.  It bothers me when people wag their finger and say, “You don’t need that many megapixels.”  Yes I do!  I need the details… who wants to zoom in on a flower 100 feet away and see a blur?  Who?  Not me and not my great fans… we need the details.  I’ve got the tripod, and with my firmware hack I can get zero shake.  If there is a little wind, I can crank up the ISO and still get nice clarity thanks to the new sensor.

People also say that you don’t need more than 5 megapixels to get a nice 8×10.  That is very true, but I don’t think that is how most people will consume photography in the future.  I think they will consume it while in a comfy chair or couch, looking at a huge display with incredible resolution.

The other reason we need the megapixels is that we, as humans, are woefully unable to envision to doubling of tech fidelity every two years. It won’t be that long until we have the Fareinheit 451 video walls, and people are going to want walk-up resolution. For every shot, I need it to be the absolute best in quality — otherwise, why bother?

Below is the first shot I took when I got the Nikon D2x while I was in Chicago.  I’ll be putting this great camera that has served me well up on eBay as soon as my new ride rolls into town.

Filed under the categories: Musings