Isn’t this just the perfect kind of place to take this sort of photo? I say it is! I almost don’t even know what to say about this place, and anything I say about it would only take away from it!

The only interesting thing about this is that I was in a tremendous hurry to take this shot and get to another destination. I think I had literally 45 seconds to take the shot. I prepared for it… got all the camera settings right, ran into what I felt was the perfect spot, ripped off some shots, then got right back on the road. Afterward, naturally, I was happy to see that everything worked out as expected.

Filed under the categories: Nikon D2XS, Travel

One thing we always ask for, as part of the deal, is for the companies to send us a copy of the final product. So we get several of these kinds of things a week, and it is always cool! I get excited and giddy to see my work used in creative ways across many mediums. Here is one we recently got of a poetry book that used on of my Indonesian pics on the cover. I put the orig below, along with a few other shots from that temple.

I end up throwing all of this stuff into these giant boxes in my office. I don’t know what I will do with them! They just kinda pile up… I should have a giveaway some day!

Filed under the categories: Borobudur, Indonesia, Jogjakarta, Nikon D2XS, Travel

You know, I was just realizing that I spent a nice part of last summer digging up dinosaurs with Jack Horner in the badlands of Montana, and I’ve hardly posted any photos!

Well, now we are starting to get a “bit” closer to the dinosaurs… Here we are, descending down through the sandstones of time into the belly of the beast. Just a few more feet down, and we are getting into the cretaceous. Getting from the top to the bottom is a little treacherous, but I find it helps to follow a smart paleontologist when trying to figure out the best way to traverse the mudstones.

Not too far from here, I picked up a hadrosaur vertebrae, which I now keep here on my desk at home, among a panoply of other 90 million year old dinosaur fossils that I was lucky enough to find.

Filed under the categories: Montana, Nikon D2XS, Rudyard, Travel

I’ve said this to a few people while talking about this place, but I’m not sure anyone believes me. This is the slipperiest place in the world. It’s completely unbelievable. I don’t know how many people die here every year, but it’s gotta be a high number. The ice is already slick, but when the mist from the waterfall settles on top of it, there is some eerie superconductivity achieved and then all frictional bets are off.

I did slip down onto my back at one point. It was pretty jarring, since I put 99% of my effort into saving my camera! Thank goodness it was a flat part… because if it was slanted, there was only one direction I would have slid.

This is the Gulfoss waterfall in Iceland. It’s pretty intense… and I don’t really recommend getting too close in the winter, in case you could not sense the trepidation before…

Filed under the categories: Iceland, Nikon D2XS, Travel

I was barefoot like the rest of them.

The day must have been around 95 degrees and as stuffy as can be, but the cool marble seemed to keep me from being drenched in sweat. After a long walk, I had finally made it to the inner core of the Taj Mahal, around the main tomb structure where pilgrims from all over the country had gravitated. The faithful coiled in long lines and snaked their way around the complex, waiting patiently to reflect at the megamausoleum and communing with the god of their choice. How could a billion people be wrong?

When I travel, I actually always enjoy talking to Indians (or whoever) about their religion. Here is a little thing I do… I’m not sure it’s totally ethical since I say the same thing over and over, but I enjoy seeing people’s reaction as a probe a panoply of personalities. Inevitably, when I’m in a taxi or man-powered trike-mobile, there is some sort of deity that is jiggling about on the dashboard or handlebars. It can be anyone from Shiva to Brahma to Vishnu to Krishna to Ganesha and beyond.

So, I always ask, “Who is the god to whom you pay reverence?”

They respond quickly and directly, usually naming one from of the top ten from the pantheon of possibilities.

I respond back, in all seriousness, “Oh! He is a very powerful god!”

To this, they always turn to me and nod gravely.

My guide there was from no from one of the traditional Hindu sects — he was a Jain. The Jain don’t recognize the divine origins of the Vedas (made popular in the US from Oppenheimer’s re-quote after testing the Bomb), nor do they believe in any one supreme deity. They instead revere Tirthankaras who have raised themselves to divine perfection. So anyway, if you ever try out the little trick above, don’t bother with a Jain because they will just give you a funny look and a wobble of inconsequential solitude.

So if any of you get the chance to go, I recommend it.  The people are all nice as can be and very eager to engage in conversation about just about everything.  Or, of you’ve already been, then you know what I mean!

By the way, this comes from my new Lucis Tutorial.

Filed under the categories: Agra, India, LucisArt, Nikon D2XS, Travel

These old tractors are always interesting to photograph. I don’t know why! I really have no penchant for tractors one way or another, but they have a nice feeling about them for some reason, especially with a pastoral scene in the background… like a cabin with smoke coming out of the chimney. And just in case that chimney runs out of firewood, there seems to be a bit extra right around here somewhere…. now where did I put that extra bolt of wood?

Filed under the categories: Montana, Nikon D2XS, Travel, Wyoming, Yellowstone

Thanks all of you that were able to come out to my talk last night. I hope it was entertaining for y’all! The good people at CapMac said there was a good crowd there with just over 100 people. There were some very interesting questions, and everyone seemed very nice and affable. We’ll have to do it again next time – thank you all for coming – sorry I could not meet all of you!

This, below, is the Fig Tree restaurant on the River Walk in San Antonio. If you’ve never been around there for a walk, I highly recommend it. It’s a very touristy thing to do, but, still, it’s cool. And if you like Mexican food (who doesn’t???), there are a million restaurants right there on the river.

It’s all great for people watching. I always like to watch couples walk by and play, secretly, "Do those two look like they belong together?" That probably sounds like a weird game to play, but I can’t help it!

Filed under the categories: Nikon D2XS, San Antonio, Texas, Travel

This was a pretty cool area of Glacier National Park – the continental divide. For those of you that have never been there, this is the line that runs through the Rocky Mountains and separates the flow of water from one side of the continent to the other. We put Ethan up there and he did his own little part for erosion while I snapped away!

Filed under the categories: Glacier Natl Park, Montana, Nikon D2XS, Travel

Dresden had beautiful building after beautiful building!  They were just all lined up, waiting to be photographed.  As blind luck would have it, a storm had just ripped through, leaving this incredible purple sunset.  Well, heck, I guess I don’t have to tell you… since you can just look below and see!

And any of you in the Austin area that are coming tonight to my talk and tutorial (it’s free and you don’t have to be a mac user – more info here), be sure to come over and say hello!  Don’t be shy — I’d be happy to meet you in person!

Filed under the categories: Dresden, Germany, Nikon D2XS, Travel

I’m embarrassed that I can’t remember the name of that little island out there.  I think it’s called Bird Island… but I am not totally sure!   If I wasn’t so lazy, I’d open up Google Earth to figure it out for sure.  But then I know I have a lot of clever readers who can probably tell me for sure!

This was taken in Glacier National Park.  I woke up around 5 AM to drive out to this lake to capture the little island in the soft morning light.  I really like this area of the Rockies.  They seem very old and ancient to me.  I spent the rest of the morning tromping through the forest, trying to find more interesting vantage points while making enough noise to scare away any grizzlies that might have been looking to get me in an interesting vantage point.

Filed under the categories: Glacier Natl Park, Montana, Nikon D2XS, Travel

In reverse order of the titles, some of you might notice that I have added Facebook Comments below, so now you can leave comments with the old style or the new style. I left both systems in place since there are so many good previous comments, and they are not really convertible. The New Facebook comments are pretty cool because they re-use your Facebook info, and it extends that community and network of friends, since all these networks come together nowadays. It took a tiny bit of coding to set myself up as a Facebook Developer, but it wasn’t so tough (I knew that major in Computer Science would come in handy some day!).

There is a very nice community of people that come here to the site! You all are very nice and helpful… you give excellent comments, help one another out, give me advice, and drop all kinds of cool info bombs on the crowd. Thanks for that! I hope this Facebook comment thing can help more people to join the fun.

Anyway, to the photo for the day. This is not the usual, but it was such a cool slice of life, I could not pass it up! I was walking through the streets of Malacca in southern Malaysia, and building after building have all sorts of industry spilling out of them. Many of them are just deep garages where people have holed up to perfect one craft or another. This one was full of thousands of little bicycle parts. I stood out front for a while, watching all of them slowly convert the metallic entropy into bicycles…

The second photo below was taken in a similar fashion, although it was in the backstreets of Bangkok, Thailand.

Filed under the categories: Malaysia, Melaka, Nikon D2XS, Travel

There is a spread of farms in the plains that face the northern face of the Grand Teton mountains in Wyoming. I explored all around the area to find as many wonderful little things that I could find. There was this old little shack sitting alone in the middle of a field, so I had to jump a fence and circumnavigate a few bison to grab a quick shot for you all!

The one below here is one that Flickr deleted!

Filed under the categories: Jackson Hole, Nikon D2XS, Travel, Wyoming