Beautiful Video

I tweeted this out recently… I thought it was so unique — I wanted to share it with you here.

Lilac Wine from Matthew Landa on Vimeo.

Daily Photo – Forever Skies

The beautiful and endless skies of Iceland are a constant source of inspiration. Have you ever seen that movie, “What Dreams May Come”? Do you remember how it had these flowing, impressionist scenes? Iceland is kind of like that all the time! I wonder if the people that live there get used to it over time… I can’t say for sure. But I was keenly aware of every hue and color in the sky throughout the roadtrip.

If you recall, I also used to double-major in Geophysics, so I am into the geology of all these places. But, I end up getting frustrated when I can’t recognize different formations. Like, for example, that wonderful mountain-plateau there on the left… not sure how that was made. It’s different than all the other bits of these glacier-carved fjords. Anyway, I’m sure that one of the clever people in this audience can tell me what it is!

Filed under the categories: Iceland, Nikon D3X, Travel

Composition-on-the-scene

I did not include this photo below in my most recent eBook, but maybe I should have! It’s a pretty good example of setting up a composition on the scene… you can only do some things while there, and no amount of Photoshop can save a bad placement of the camera.

In this case, there was actually a big boring block of space in the sky. I kept moving my camera around until the string of lights ended up bifurcating the sky. Also, this gave us another leading line that stopped at a phi point, to help the eye travel around.

Frankly, I don’t like to over-analyze photos too much in text… it makes them lose their magic a little, don’t you think? But, on occasion, I will provide a little bit of play-by-play analysis!

Daily Photo – The Ultimate Carnival

I’ve been to Disney World many many times, but this is my first time as a grown-up to Disneyland. I always feel strange, by the way, calling myself a grown-up!

Disneyland has two parks on the premises. This one is from California Adventures, the second and newer park. Towards the backside, there is this perfect street, full of carnival-like activities. As most of you know, I’m a big fan of graphic design, so it was great fun to look at the delicious details in all of these signs.

Filed under the categories: California, LA, Nikon D3X, Travel

Tripod as an Easel

I recently swtiched to some Really Right Stuff tripod legs. They are awesome! I have them linked up on the HDR Camera Equipment page.

So, there are plusses and minuses to carrying around a tripod. Here is a “plus” that not many people think about.

Whenever you are carrying around the tripod, it takes a bit of effort and forethought to set up a shot. You need to positing it in a special place, at a certain height, and at a particular angle. I compare it to Renoir or Monet taking their time to set up their easel and canvas in the perfect spot. It makes a big difference if you walk 10 steps closer to the target area or 10 steps further from the target area. There is an extra consideration photographers have to use because of the lens that is on board, but it’s still a similar process. So, as much as I lament the extra hassle of a tripod, I do like that it requires me to go through a thoughtful process of setting up the shot.

Daily Photo – The Storm Hitting the Barn

It was about 3 in the afternoon and things were getting over-the-top warm. You know that feeling when the weather gets so uncomfortably warm that you expect something to happen soon? This feeling washed over me about 30 minutes before these violent clouds form to sweep over the Rocky Mountains towards the barn.

The tripod was nearby, so I grabbed it to go outside and set up the easel.

Filed under the categories: Montana, Nikon D3X, Travel, Yellowstone

Best TED Talks Reminder

I like to collect some of the best TED talks. I’m always adding to the page. If you have suggestions, or things you’ve seen where you think, “Oh – Trey would like this!”, please leave a comment on the “Best TED Talks” page here on the site!

Daily Photo – The Mean Streets of Tokyo

Tokyo has amazing action all the time. There is never a good time to sleep or turn off the camera! Every minute I sleep, I feel like I am missing something!

This was taken close to midnight on another evening when I was just randomly walking around the downtown streets. It’s all a wonderland of lights, colors, people, and sounds. I’ve noticed there are many kinds of “sensory overload” – and they are all on a sliding scale from good to bad. The bad sort is the “Las Vegas” type of sensory overload. That’s the kind where you just simply need quiet in order to collect your thoughts. The kind in Tokyo is completely different. Yes, it is overloading, but it’s also stimulating in a good way… so it continues to feed you until you just absolutely crash. It’s great!

Filed under the categories: Japan, Nikon D3X, Tokyo

I jump from a plane today!

This is a big lead-up to OpenCa.mp on Saturday and Sunday. I am speaking on Saturday at 11:30 AM — I hope if you are in the area you can stop by!

We’re giving away some awesome prints at the show as well. I’ll try to snap some shots of the event so get can get the vibe.

Today (Thursday), I’ll be jumping from a plane with the Golden Knights. It’ll be very exciting… I’m jumping out with Cali Lewis, Frederick Van, John P, George Ruiz, and several others… it should be a great time. Watch Twitter for live updates from the event!

The Horse of Sagas Print

I got so many requests to make this a print that we changed around our planned list of releases. This is my favorite HDR of an animal I’ve ever shot. These Icelandic horses with their wild hair prance around all night long, probably thrown off by the strange day/night cycles. This was taken around 1 AM, very near the summer solstice. The photo was totally blown out from behind, and I did not use a flash. Flash tends to upset the animals a bit… so I used the HDR technique instead on the RAW to bring out the true colors and light on his face. Of course, these were the actual colors and light levels I saw when I was there… it just reminds you of how limited a camera is by itself.

More Favorites of Icelandic Horses!

Aren’t these horses awesome? I wanted to take the opportunity to put together my other favorite two horse photos from Iceland below for you. Enjoy!

Filed under the categories: Iceland, Nikon D3X, Travel

Burning Man PhotoWalk

See the Facebook event here!

You are all invited to join me at the Burning Man PhotoWalk! It’s free of course… Here are the details:

• Friday, Sept 3 at 6 PM
• Location: Center Camp: Look for all the people with the cameras, and me, possibly in Steampunk Goggles.

What we will do:

• Walk around together to take cool photos of Burning Man (for personal use only)
• Find cool art installations and activities
• Be cool (and not bother people with our cameras…)
• Learn more about our cameras
• Take some HDRs
• I’ll be there to answer questions whether you are a beginner or beyond!

More Resources:

• Photography Info for Burning Man
• Equipment Guide at Burning Man

See these cards below?  I’ll be handing them out around Burning Man…  It’s sort of a “gifting” place, where money is not allowed.  Since one of my only identifiable skills is photography, I am giving people the chance to learn more about their cameras.  I think we’ll have a good time and I hope to see you there.

Below is a Google Earth photo of Burning Man in a previous year… I think it’s pretty awesome.

See you soon at OpenCa.mp

I hope to meet a lot of you soon at OpenCa.mp in Dallas! In just a few days, I’m headed up to Dallas to begin the adventure by jumping out of a plane with the US Army Golden Knights. It’s gonna be a blast!

Daily Photo – Home of the Tree Samurai

This was my second trip to Kyoto, and I decided to return to this amazing treetop temple. At night, the delicate lights turn on and everything comes alive. It’s really brilliant… one of those scenes that makes you think the world is really a wonderful place.

This was right in the peak of the cherry blossom season. The soft pink of the blossoms grabs and reflects the light into an unbelievable prism. It’s all like something out of a dream, and I’ve done my best to bring it back to life here on the blog.

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

This was shot with a Nikon D3S and the Nikon 50mm 1.4 Lens. This particular one was shot at f/5.6 (f/1.4 would have made the sign blurry beyond recognition). Other particulars are: ISO 800, 1/500 sec exposure.

Join me live on Video today at 1:30 PM PST

EDIT: See the video recorded here.

On Sunday, tune in to live.twit.tv and join up the chat (click Popout Chat at the bottom) to join in the fun! I’ll be answering photography questions, HDR stuff, and the like.

I’ll be on with Leo Laporte on his big show, The Tech Guy, which goes to over 100 US Cities and XM Satellite. Leo is a real photography enthusiast — plus, he’s cool because he’s into a lot of my other interest areas of science/tech/emergent sociology/etc. If you are looking for some good podcasts, check out some from his network!

The TWIT Cottage

For those of you that don’t know, Leo has established an incredible lineup of podcasts, all of which eminate from this unassuming cottage in Petaluma, California. I’ve been over to the cottage twice, and I grabbed a few photos on my most recent trip.

Most of his guests come in via video skype, but sometimes they come there to the cottage. I was on The Tech Guy a few weeks ago, and while I was there, I took these photos.

In the larger one down below, you can see some of the fudge my mom made for Leo. She said, “He seems like a very nice man.”

And he is! You always wonder… if these people are actually jerks in real life. But he isn’t… just as nice as your instincts hope he is. It’s a good indicator that talent + good karma is a winning combination for the future. Back in the olden days (especially in media), talent and good karma were practically useless. Now, thanks to the internet, clever guys like Leo have no need to succumb to the Machiavellian nonsense of corporate media structures. Even better, he has a direct feedback loop to the audience he serves. Smart.

Daily Photo – Leo, Hard at Work

This photo below is a 5-exposure HDR. It was shot with a Nikon D3X (see my Nikon D3X Review) in aperture priority. The five shots were at -2, -1, 0, +1, and +2. Of course, Leo was moving around betwixt the exposures, so there are some tricks to fix that. It’s all there inside the free HDR Tutorial.

But you don’t need a big expensive camera like that to make HDRs. I have good/better/best suggestions on my HDR Camera recommendations page.

Chat Room friends who like all the details can click to zoom into the original sized version. Just click on the "O" (for Original) on the top of the SmugMug page.

Filed under the categories: California, Nikon D3S, Nikon D3X, Petaluma

Live Video with Leo tomorrow (Sunday)! 1:30 PM PST

Hey everyone! On Sunday at 1:30 PM PST, I’ll be on The Tech Guy with Leo Laporte. You can tune in live to see me at Live.TWIT.tv. There is also a very easy to use Chat room there (see where it says “Popout Chat”?). We’ll be talking a lot about HDR, Photography, and other awesome geeky things.

A World in HDR, now in Chinese!

The book is now out in a new Chinese version! We had some very good talks with Chinese publishers about this through Peachpit, and I think the final product looks pretty good! Now, I’m not totally sure (since I can’t read Chinese), but it looks like you can order it through this site.

The Black Rock

I spent a several hours on a huge black sand beach. This was in the volcanic area of southern Iceland, not too far from the recent volcano eruption. Parts of the nearby town of Wik were still covered in ash while I was there, so it had sort of a light feeling of an Icelandic Pompeii.

There were no roads in this area, but I wanted to explore, so I drove my 4×4 boldly out into the black sand expanse. It’s strange just driving in a blue, soft morning light across an endless horizon of black sand. It’s almost like being in the middle of a huge black asphalt parking lot, with no lines, no curbs, and no end. Every few miles, enormous black rock structures would shoot up out of the flatness. I stopped at every one, almost like it was calling me.

Filed under the categories: Iceland, Nikon D3X, Travel, Vik, Wik

New Print Available!

The Adventure Tree, one of my favorite, warm photos, is now available as a limited edition print. This is a wonderful tree I found sticking out alone in a forest in Patagonia. I used a variety and mix of textures to give it a warm and timeless feel.

Daily Photo – The Lego Dragon

There are these Lego stores popping up everywhere it seems. That’s okay with me… Who doesn’t like a good Lego set?

This one is just outside the Lego Store at Downtown Disney in Orlando. They have a few of those gigantic Lego beasts that were mysteriously built. Anyone that is sensible knows that it takes many hours to build something roughly the size of a human hand. So, these monstrosities must be either built by aliens or an army of industrious Germans that parachute in during the wee hours.

Filed under the categories: Disney World, Florida, Nikon D3X, Orlando, Travel

New Video – New Shoes for the Horses

The wonderful anachronism the horseshoe is our topic today!  The act of putting making and putting on new horseshoes is one of those dying arts.  There are fewer and fewer places where this is done on a regular basis.  So, I felt lucky to have the chance to watch the big event while I was at that ranch recently.

I made the video part of this with my D3S (see my Nikon D3S Review for more).  I really love how this camera is so easy for shooting video.  I used the Nikon 50mm 1.4 prime to shoot all this footage, although it probably was not necessary to use a lens like that.  I probably could have gotten the exact same footage (and depth of field) with the more flexible 24-70mm.

Daily Photo – Doug and the Horseshoe

Whenever earn would press the burning-hot horseshoe into the foot of the horse, this smoke would billow up in an amazing cloud. The reason they do this is to see how the shoe fits before going back to make a few adjustments. The whole process was awesome to watch, as you can see. I felt like I was time traveling!

Filed under the categories: Montana, Nikon D3S, Nikon D3X, Travel

Free Stuff on the Site

First, you can look forward to a free eBook coming soon for everyone.  We’ve taken some popular content here on the site and packaged it up for something you can take with you!  It’s in the works and should not take too much longer to finish up.

I know there were some complaints on the HDR DVD page that that some people could not afford it (I should be more sensitive to a bad economy, more expensive than other instructional products, etc etc). Thanks for the feedback and, as with everything, it will drop in price over time until it finds a sweet spot for everyone. Until then, we hope you continue to enjoy the free resources here on the site.  (…and this is not a way to get you to feel bad for me… hehe… the DVDs are selling just fine… simply letting you know I understand the nature and origin of the comments.)

I guess most people don’t know this…  but there are costs involved with running the site, and we have a support team here for you too.   So, if you don’t want to buy anything, that is fine and dandy… doesn’t bother me at all!  I do invite you stay around to enjoy the following goodies:

Videos – Many hours of videos, tips, and tricks.
Reviews – A growing collection of my experiences with cameras,lenses, and software.
HDR Tutorial – Now we have three languages, and more coming soon!
HDR Spotting – a free site where you can post your photos and drive traffic to your portfolio.
Stuck In Motion Tutorial – a guide on how you can create a new style of slow-motion movies
@TreyRatcliff – and, as usual, I’m on Twitter for you to answer most questions… I have a 99.9% answer rate!

Also, of course, we have the daily photo in maximum resolution that is uploaded every day along with the EXIF data. I do my best to provide tips, conditions, and this sort of thing to help you in your own personal photo quest!

Daily Photo – The Solstice

This came from one of my favorite nights in Iceland! This was shot around 2 AM, right when I started feeling loopy.

I was on the edge of some precipitous volcanic rock, and there was a waterfall behind me. It fed this little area of rapids that emptied out into one of the fjords. There had been a light rain for a few hours, but the setting sun cut underneath the clouds to unleash some godly colors.

About 10-20% of my HDRs are in portrait mode. I am just usually in landscape mode for some reason. Part of it has to do with the way people consume these things — on monitors. I don’t like making people scroll up and down to see a photo. That’s kind of a drag. That’s another reason I don’t like those super-wide panoramas. They are so difficult to pan around, even though there are a lot of slick tools. It’s just not a “viewing” experience while you are busy using a tool to manipulate the photo itself. Do you know what I mean?

Filed under the categories: Iceland, Nikon D3X, Travel

HDR Tutorial now en Español y em Português!

You all know we have a free HDR Tutorial here on the site for English speakers. Well we have a few international friends that have translated it for us into Spanish and Portuguese!

• Tutorial HDR em Português – Esse simples tutorial HDR de 6-passos já ensinou milhares de pessoas ao redor do mundo, então tenho certeza que ele pode ajudar você também. E lembre-se, VOCÊ pode fazer isso!
• HDR Tutorial Español – Este sencillo tutorial HDR de 6-pasos ya enseño a millares de personas alrededor del mundo, entonces tengo seguridad de que puede ayudarlo también. Y recuerde, USTED puede hacer esto!

Many Brazilian, Portuguese, Spanish, and Mexican Bothans died to bring you this information.

Daily Photo – Morning. Coffee. Yellowstone. Fog.

My poor family. I dragged them all out of bed at 5 AM and put them in the car so I could go take this photo. I did load up on plenty of coffee to keep things fresh and warm on this cool morning, but my kids zonked out in the back of the car anyway. Well, if they’re not asleep, they’re whining, “Dad??? You stopping again!” … I rush out the door and trail off, muttering into the wind, “Yes but art must be made, you see…”

This spot is not too far from the entrance to West Yellowstone. The warm water that comes from the earth mixes with the cool morning sky. It creates a surreal layer of fog that simply rests on top of the river. It flows up, around, and through the neighboring trees. It reminds me of the dry ice that comes out of cauldrons on Halloween.

To take this shot, I set up with a tripod and grabbed 7 exposures from +3 to -3. I always anchor at even zero for these “sun shots.” I also set up for matrix metering, since you can’t figure out where in the dynamic range to hang your spot.

Tweet

Filed under the categories: Montana, Nikon D3X, Travel, Wyoming, Yellowstone

Thanks Again Community!

(BTW, it sounds strange calling us a “community”.  I never really liked that word… it’s like we meet for Bingo at the sad community center that smells like old tapioca pudding or something…  maybe you know a better word?)

I wanted to take a moment to thank all of you again for all the support, encouragement, and enthusiasm! I really enjoy reading your comments, getting your emails, tweets, FB comments and more. I feel bad I can’t respond to all of them, but I still do read them all. There is a lot, but the reading is not yet overwhelming. The responding is. Something maybe people don’t realize is that comments appear all over the site every day, even on posts that are several years old. For example, someone just dropped a note on a 2-year-old post “Girl in Qatar” looking for a penpal.

I also quite like it when people post links to their websites, their photos, or whatever they find interesting. I encourage it, and it helps YOU get to know OTHER nice people here in the community here too. I know my mom will track you down (like she did Gail) whenever you suddenly stop leaving comments. She gets worried (she called me one day and said, “Do you think Gail is sick or something?”)

If you have more ideas on things you’d like to see around here to help this process, let me know!

Daily Photo – Isabella’s Jewel Box

Up high, in one of the tallest towers of all the land, in the highest castle by the sea, sits a perfect bedroom, and it shines like the inside of a floating jewel box.

This amazing place is in one of the two peak towers atop Hearst Castle. Getting up into these rooms via tiny, twisting stairways is not the easiest thing in the world. The paths in and out of these bedrooms are almost so serpentine that they seem secret. When I was inside, I felt like I was one of the few people in the world to ever experience it.

Relapse Photo – The Castle From Below

I’ve included a second photo from the outside of the castle. Towards the top, you can see the two towers, each of which contains one of these little slices of fantasy.

Filed under the categories: California, Hearst Castle, LA, Nikon D3X, Travel

HDR DVD Spotted in the Wild

Yes, the rumors are true. Several dozen copies of the HDR DVD are out in the wild. I confirm that these are out there… we have given out a few as ‘testers” to make sure they work with many different DVD players and computers. Since this is our first mass-production product, I want to ensure that everything is of the best quality. We’ll be letting newsletter subscribers (Free to sign up) get the first stab at ordering, since I’m a little worried about meeting demand.

Daily Photo – The Hover Car in the Diamond Age

Around the time of the book signing in New York earlier this year, I headed out into the streets for some shooting.  The Diamond District is not too far from Rockefeller Center, and it is a perfect “New Yorky” area at night… especially in the rain.  Between stoplights, I would pop out into the street and grab some frames as quickly as possible.  With five exposures, the last was pretty long at 30 seconds, so it was still a little “exciting” to grab the tripod at the last second and then scurry off the street.

That one car the made it through my tripod-roadblock is interesting, isn’t it?  It appears to be a hover-car of sorts.  I can no longer recall what sort of car it was, but I keep staring at that wonderful apparition.  It’s quite mesmerizing, floating there on the rainy street.

Filed under the categories: New York, New York City, Nikon D3X, Travel

Tutorial HDR em Português

Do you speak Portuguese? My friend Gisele did a full translation of our HDR Tutorial, which is now mirrored here as the “Tutorial HDR em Português“. I know we have a bunch of fans down in Brazil and Portugal, so I am happy to make this available!

Of course, as always, we have the regular HDR Tutorial, if you want the King James version.

Daily Photo – The Park Through the Sky

Isn’t this park awesome? It is an elevated park that weaves along top of New York City. Hardly anyone knows about it!

Of course, people in New York know about it, and they assume that everyone else should know too. It’s relatively new — I think it only opened a few years ago. It’s called “High Line Park”, and it used to have freight trains that ran up and down it back in the 1930′s. That train service is dead, and they converted the entire thing into a long, meandering park.

Steve Simon (see SteveSimonPhoto.com) took me to this place after we had a fabulous French breakfast. I got in a bit of trouble for using my tripod, so I collapsed my tripod and acted like I was walking away until the security guard did. And then I re-built my decepticon transformer and took this HDR.

Filed under the categories: New York, New York City, Nikon D3X, Travel

About to get a new Android Phone

See the “Android Exploration Post” from a few weeks ago.  I’m leaning toward the HTC Desire.  You all are so smart about these things… seems to let me use any sim card when I travel.

Daily Photo – The Sheep and the Lonely House

The countryside is filled with hundreds, perhaps thousands, of little sheep farms.  I think they are all charming and fun to explore.  Luckily, no one seemed to mind when I would jump over fences and galavant across the meadows with my tripod.  The sheep would notice.  After spending a vast amount of time with them (not, “Oh I was just helping this sheep over the fence” time, btw), I can see sheep have two states of mind:

• Confused – In this state, they look at you with an empty stare.  You can see this in spades below.
• Scared – In this state, they simply run towards the nearest sheep and roughly at the same vector.

Filed under the categories: Iceland, Nikon D3X, Travel