Trey’s Variety Hour #32 – The Google+ Photographer’s Conference

Join me, Guy Kawasaki, Vic Gundotra, Jeremy Cowart, Nicole S. Young, and RC Concepcion for a fun-filled evening! Besides talking about the upcoming conference organized by Scott Kelby (more at http://gpluspc.com/ ) we share some photos, hang out… you know… just chill out on camera with other photographers and stuff… keepin’ it real or whatever that means…

Podcast Options – Great ones! Get it first via…

Option 1: Subscribe for free in iTunes: http://goo.gl/ZAKd8
Option 2: It’s not in “podcast” form, but you can subscribe to My YouTube channel. http://www.youtube.com/stuckincustoms
Option 3: There are other subscription options avail on the TWIT page at http://twit.tv/tvh

Daily Photo – Old Man on Steps near Drum Tower

While I was circling the Drum Tower in Beijing, there was a small community of people that were outside exercising, milling around, talking, and watching the world go by.  Many of the homes in the little houtong had their doors painted red, and that was a common element that tied everything together.  I had my hip-shooter with me too so I could capture this one.

And Nearby…

Here is the Drum Tower that I mentioned above…

Filed under the categories: Beijing, China, Nikon D3X, Travel

Heart-Warming Email

Well, we just released a new version (Retina HD-graphics) of Stuck On Earth, and I recently received this email from Joe Crocker. I’m sharing it now with his permission. Thank you Joe!

Hello,

My daughter has a good friend who has diabetes. In the future she will be going blind. I have been looking for a group of pictures of all the great sites on earth and beyond for my daughter to give to her friend while she still has sight. Your Stuck On Earth is the closest thing I have found that approaches it.

Craziest Party Ever

So I think THIS is the craziest party I’ve ever been to!  It’s really hard for a photo to describe the sheer pandaemonium of it all…  And it’s not just for a little while – it’s a multi-hour party where people are dancing, screaming, shooting lasers, launching balloons, and, well, generally going curazy!

Daily Photo – The Man Burns

I was able to get up on a crane during the main event at Burning Man.  Before I got on, they made 100% sure (and then double-checked) that everyone had gone to the bathroom.  Once you are up on the crane, you’re up there for two hours.  I can only assume the crane operator was very serious about this because the worst-possible situation had occurred during an earlier Burning Man when he was at ground-level.

Filed under the categories: Burning Man, Nevada, Nikon D3X, Travel

Don’t forget the Live Show

I hope you enjoy the Live Show Tonight at 7 PM PT! And you can also subscribe via these methods:

• Option 1: Subscribe for free in iTunes: http://goo.gl/ZAKd8.
• Option 2:  It’s not in “podcast” form, but you can subscribe to My YouTube channel.
• Option 3:  There are other subscription options avail on the TWIT page at http://twit.tv/tvh

Live Show Time and Location:

• We are live every Monday night at 7 PM PT  (sample World Time for a show)
• Watch live on http://live.twit.tv
• Join above location for Live chat too.

Sony NEX-7 Review Video

Did you see the Sony NEX-7 Review here on the site? I’ve now added the hangout below…

Who’s in there? Sergey Brin from Google, Kai Wong from Digital Rev, Gordon Laing from CameraLabs.com, Keith Barrett from Vidcast Network.

Daily Photo – Awesome Car in Tokyo

Tokyo has a bunch of cool cars all over the place.  And look at that license plate!  How do you get that number?  Maybe you have to part of the Japanese mafia or something…

I took this photo a long time ago but only recently processed it.  In fact, I took it while we were doing the Tokyo workshop.  Remember that thing?  I only dedicate about 10-15% of my year to “teaching” stuff, since I am so busy with other things.  This year I’m working on a bunch of different things to help this scale, however, since it is hard to be everywhere physically at the same time.

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

Cameras at Burning Man

I get regular questions about how to protect your camera equipment at Burning Man.  Here are some points about that:

• I use a backup (3rd) camera.  I mostly just pull out a micro 4/3rds camera and never change the lens.  It’s kind of a challenge, but a good challenge!
• If you have to change lenses, well, don’t.
• If you MUST change lenses, try to do it indoors… in a car or in an RV of some non-dirty hippy.
• If you want to use your main camera, it’s good to weatherproof it with a baggie and tape… but the little dust will still get in.
• Or, really, just follow my first bullet point and use a backup-backup camera and don’t worry so much!

Daily Photo – Sandstorm at Burning Man

The sandstorms come fast and furious. I was out in the middle of one as it blew across the playa. I was on my bike at the time, so it was easy to get around and find good perspectives of the temple as the sun was setting.

Filed under the categories: Burning Man, Nevada, Nikon D3X, Photography Tips, Travel

YouTube Subscription

Don’t forget you can subscribe to my YouTube channel for free.  I’ve been putting up more and more videos – I hope you find something you like there!

Daily Photo – Waikiki after Sunset

Right after the PhotoWalk in Oahu started, I went over to take this photo.  As usual, I talked through it while people were crowded around.  But, at first, people didn’t ask many questions.  That’s okay… maybe the situation was weird… but later in the walk, people opened up and started to ask more questions.  I think people there were just very nice and didn’t want to seem too pushy or anything.  I do appreciate that, but people can always feel free to ask me anything.

Filed under the categories: Hawaii, Nikon D3X, Oahu, Travel

Tom hates Palm Trees

While I was in Hawaii with Tom, he wondered why I occasionally liked to include Palm Trees in my photos.  He thought they were obvious and touristy.  I tried to explain to him that they are not!  Most people in the world (99%) like a good palm tree… myself included!

Daily Photo - Palm Trees at Night

One night in Oahu we were doing some photography along a beach.  Off in the distance we saw some palm trees that were lit from the bottom.  It was about a quarter mile from anything else, so that was sort of strange.  But I thought it was so interesting to see them lit from the bottom with small green pools of light underneath that I decided to walk over there and see what was going on.  After I got over there, there were endless compositions of these various trees.  I grabbed about five different angles and then took a midnight-nature break of my own…

Filed under the categories: Hawaii, Nikon D3X, Oahu, Travel

This Week in Tech

The Instagram $1 billion… “The Name of the Wind” by Patrick Rothfuss… discussion of eBooks… breast recognition tech… and more more more… A fun show on This Week in Tech!

The others you see are Leo Laporte, John C Dvorak, Jolie O’Dell, and Fr. Robert Ballecer, SJ.

A Personal Sub?

This has been a little dream of mine… I’d love to have my own submarine…  But I want it to be kind of big, roomy, and fancy.  With internet.  I don’t know how you get internet on a sub, but I guess you cloud float up a little satellite buoy or something.  The whole idea sounds very impractical, but also kinda awesome.

Daily Photo – The Russian Sub

There is a longer story around this photo that I caught on video… I’ll wait for that to be released!

But, as you can see, I clearly got onto a Russian sub in the middle of the night.  It was docked right next to the Queen Mary in Long Beach.  As I was walking across its iron surface and hearing the empty echoes below, I could not imagine the sub making it all the way from Russia to this harbor.  That was a long, dark, cramped ride…

Filed under the categories: California, Nikon D3X, Travel

The Free International HDR Tutorial!

We do have the tutorial available in many languages now! I continue to make little updates to the tutorial here and there as I discover new things… I hope you enjoy it!

• Speakey le English? HDR Tutorial.
• Sie sprechen deutsch? Herzlich Willkommen zum HDR-Kurs auf Deutsch.
• Vous parlez français? Bienvenue sur le Tutoriel HDR en français.
• Parli italiano? Leggi il tutorial HDR in italiano!
• Fala Português? Confira o Tutorial HDR em Português.
• Hablas Español? Clic Tutorial HDR en Español.
• Mluvíte česky? Pokračujte zde!  HDR Tutoriál v českém jazyce.

Sony NEX-7 Review

shhh…. tomorrow is the official day, but if you want to watch me “build” the review today as I add new photos and make changes, see the inchoate Sony NEX-7 Review page now…

More from China

Click the China Category to see a bunch more stuff from the country.  I spent about a month there recently, so there is a bunch of new work that I’ve published.  Once you scroll to the bottom of the screen, you can select “PREVIOUS” to see even more.  Enjoy!

Daily Photo – The Nest

I took this photo while I was outside another tower in the open air with Joe McNally.  It was a great time..  It was also a bit scary.

For this one, I took my 28-300 and turned it upright to portrait mode and zoomed in quite tight.  I liked the way the layers of the city stacked upon one another into the distance, and that was lost in the wide-angle landscape mode.

Filed under the categories: Beijing, China, Nikon D3X, Travel

This Week in Tech on Sunday

See you on Sunday at 3 PM PT. I’ll be up in the studio in Petaluma (stop by to say hi!) with Leo for a live recording of This Week in Tech. It will also be viewable on http://live.twit.tv. See you soon!

Photos of Me from Recent PhotoWalks

So this is kinda crazy…  I get tagged a LOT nowadays from these photowalks… and now they all just kind of collect here like junk in an eddy…

See the photos here.

Daily Photo – The Impending Storm

And about three minutes later, I was drenched.

I barely got this photo in time.  I could see the storm coming across the beach towards us.  About 60 seconds after I took this photo, you couldn’t even see the islands.  The worst part wasn’t getting soaked — it was having to run back to the car in the torrential downfall with all my equipment.  I wasn’t a happy camper at the end… but I felt good because I was pretty sure I got a good shot…

Filed under the categories: Hawaii, Nikon D3X, Oahu, Travel

Two Camera Setup

Today’s photo really took two different cameras… that is, unless I had two cameras ready to go, I never would have gotten it.  Do any of you walk around with a two-camera setup as well?

Daily Photo – Late for a Very Important Date

I spent most of one morning shooting in Union Station in Los Angeles, and I highly recommend this to any photographer!  Not only did they let me use my tripod, but there are all kinds of cool people-watching along the way.

My tripod was set up for an HDR of the interior, but I saw this couple walk in and start doing, well, whatever they are doing.  I had my hip-shooter on, so I squatted down to take this shot…

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

Monterey PhotoWalk Today! Over 260 people RSVPed!

Time/Date: April 12 starting at 9:30AM – Arrive early to shake hands!
Start Location: Monterey – across from the Aquarium 
End Location: The Wharf!

- Free event
- Hosted during the EG Conference – day passes will be avail if you want to come
- All skill levels – bring your mobile phone!
- Family-friendly – great for kids and dads and moms
- RSVP on Google Schemer: http://goo.gl/8JrU0
- Can’t get on Google Schemer? Click link: http://goo.gl/RoxQg

Tag to use for your photos on Google+:  #MontereyPhotoWalk

Trey’s Variety Hour 30 – The Great Aussie Photowalk

Australian Photowalkers Michael N Sutton, Gretchen Chappelle, Mykal Hall, and Alexander Kesselaar join adopted Aussie Brian Rose from the Google+ Photos team, Keith Barrett and me for the show!

We have a great time sharing all kinds of photos and stories from the record setting photowalk in Australia.

Sutton shared this really cool Google Spreadsheet of all the photo albums from the walk: http://goo.gl/6BqR2

We finish the show by sharing some G+ Discoveries:
Stephen Godfrey, David Savage, Michelle Robinson, Francis Gorrez, and Andrew Sanigorski.

Thanks to Leo Laporte, Tony Wang, and Dave Veffer for helping out with the whole production!

Podcast Options – Great ones! Get it first via…

Option 1: Subscribe for free in iTunes: http://goo.gl/ZAKd8
Option 2: It’s not in “podcast” form, but you can subscribe to My YouTube channel. http://www.youtube.com/stuckincustoms
Option 3: There are other subscription options avail on the TWIT page at http://twit.tv/tvh

Been Skiing Lately?

I’ve had some busy winters, so I haven’t been doing much… actually, I’m a snowboarder.  But I recently had a friend tell me that they notice that a LOT of people are using GoPros on the mountain.  Have you noticed this?

Daily Photo - The Long Dock

On one of my final nights in San Francisco, I walked out on the dock off the Embarcadero to see what I could see.  There were nice views in every direction, and one of the best was looking straight back up the dock at the Transamerica building.

This wide-angle 14-24 lens is one of my favorites, but it does have one little problem that can also be an advantage.  It takes whatever is in the center of the frame and makes it quite small.  The opposite of that happens on the edges, where things get quite spread out.  So, I did that little trick here to help the Transamerica building to seem a bit taller.

Filed under the categories: California, Nikon D3X, San Francisco, Travel

Your Internet Radio?

Do you use Pandora or Spotify or Last.fm or something else?  I’m a Pandora subscriber — I use it quite a bit to discover new music.  I notice it starts to repeat songs sometimes, so I keep spawning new stations off songs I like… that seems to work.  Anyway, yes, I was wondering what internet-service you like?

Daily Photo - Sunrise over San Francisco Bay

After my very early morning in San Francisco, I started moving my way further up the mountain.  The orientation of the bridges kept changing relative to one another with Oakland in the background.  Once I got up high enough, I affixed the 28-300mm to the body, zoomed in, and got this shot.

I was lucky that the morning mist/fog gave a nice sheen to everything.  I kind of wish I lived in SF.  I think I would force myself to get up here every day for a year… and see the different light every single day.

Filed under the categories: California, Nikon D3X, San Francisco, Travel