If you are like me, you don’t have a lot of spare time in the week, so you try to hyper-compress and optimize your media consumption. To that end, I now listen to a few podcasts on a regular basis. You can subscribe to them all via iTunes for free, or go right to the webpages below. I have many that I sample from time to time, but the following are some great “regulars”.
This Week in Technology – A great combination of tech news and analysis. Always fun and interesting.
A few days after the talk at Google (I think the Authors@Google *LINK to video are adding subtitles now, for those of you that have trouble hearing), I went up to Napa to visit my mom and my grandmother. Besides getting a bunch of homemade fudge (which I brought to the Stanford photowalk), I also stopped on the way back south in Petaluma at Leo Laporte’s “cottage”.
I’ve always been a big fan of Leo’s! Beside just seeing out of one eye (a strange bond I feel with him), I’ve really gotten a kick out of the way he approaches and discusses technology. In fact, I listen to his podcasts so much that my wife often says, “If I have to hear that Leo ONE MORE TIME, before jamming the radio to get off AUX to FM.”
Leo was in the middle of a podcast when I walked in to watch his operation in person. We didn’t really get a chance to talk, but he was gracious and said hello quickly while in the middle of the broadcast. I think he’s very clever with his media powerhouse there. I was fascinated seeing the operation — everything from the logistics to the electronics – smart.
His whole team was out in the front part of the college, and, while there, I also met Dr. Kiki (Dr. Kirsten Sanford is probably what it says on her degree). She was as nice as I expected as well – her show is called “Dr. Kiki’s Science Hour” — another nice podcast for your lineup!
After leaving, I stopped in downtown Petaluma to grab some lunch and some internet. Whilst there, I went over one of the bridges to grab this shot. I don’t know if the water is always this brown and muddy, but it certainly was this day!
I knew a Type A personality would come along and create a Flickr Group for the Auckland Photowalk. Thanks for that – there is the link for everyone else that has yet to discover it. I am so lame and slow – it takes me a long time to process photos, but I will ! Thanks again everyone for the walk, the talk, and the pizza! I’d also like to thank Vivian Ho and Virginia Mui for helping me out with the whole event!
Christchurch Event Soon!
On the heels of the north island, the photowalk is moving to the south island and Christchurch on March 4. This talk will be a high-class event, complete with Wine and Cheese… but of course!
Daily Photo – The Giants in the Muir Woods
When I was in California recently, I left Leo Laporte’s cottage to take some photos of the Muir Woods. If you have never been here, it’s a must!
Did you know this is where they filmed that speeder scene from Return of the Jedi? Very cool. I did not see any Ewoks in the forest, nor did they try to trip me by making me roll my robo-angle on strategically-placed logs. Those Ewoks… so small, crafty, and flammable.
Michael over at PetaPixel (he is a good Tweeter – I rewet a lot of his stuff @PetaPixel) is running a contest to give away the book. Head over there to see how to enter!
Continue Discovering New Photographers and Artists!
Be sure to look at the Smugmug Portfolio Contest to see some of the nice entries there. I think you will see some stuff that appeals to you… and it will be a good way to discover some new photographers!
The Great Room at Hearst
I was able to get up through a somewhat secret door into the upper area of this room. It was a little sketchy up there with a sharp dropoff, so I had to keep my wits about me!
The greatest challenge at Hearst is getting set up, composing, and executing all the shots before the next wave of tourists come through. I was usually able to get this done, and there was always a gentle pressure to shoot fast and then move on! One time, however, I just could not finish in time.
They strode in and began randomly shooting away. I think it is so interesting (and somewhat depressing) to watch how tourists take pictures. Really, they are just “documenting” and “collecting”. Why? This is an interesting question! These people are not dumb or vapid… They are not doing it because everyone else is doing it. But I do think people like to softly record their lives. They do the best they can, and I guess that is okay. I do get flummoxed that people don’t go out of their way to take “better” pictures. They seem satisfied with lackluster, predictable, “scientific-documentary” shots that are just not interesting. Not that every photo has to be a work of art, but why not try a little? Why not do a few things here and there to improve your personal photography. It’s not that hard to improve, and anyone can improve! I suppose I just get bummed out that people don’t even try to improve… they just expect and then become satisfied with mediocrity.
Also at Hearst there is a “no flash” rule. Thank goodness! Of course, they do it to protect the works of art there, but I am happy that people do not use their flash because I normally see people do it in silly conditions. As far as I know, this “no flash” in Hearst Castle (and other museums) is a good policy. I always hear that flashes can damage paintings and whatnot — is this scientifically true? Maybe it is. I know if you leave art in bright light all day that it can become discolored… but are a bunch of instantaneous flashes the same thing? I don’t know… I’d love to see a full study on it if anyone has a link. As with all things, the policy certainly sounds solid, but I am skeptical about “common wisdom”.
Personally, I would institute a “no Dumb Use of Flash” rule, which would tell people not to use their flash to take photos of things that are over 15 feet away. Like, for example, did you see the opening ceremonies of the Olympics? Thousands and thousands of clueless people using their flashes! Aren’t any of those thousands of people somewhat curious — wondering if the flash actually does anything? Or maybe this mass flash-delusion is only negatively reinforced by seeing all the other flashes going off? I don’t know…. but it is interesting to think about.
I am releasing some new photos that I took while inside the Google HQ recently. I had to get them cleared by corporate communications, and now they are free to be released! You can find me on Google Buzz here. They’ll be released at some random time on the 16th…
Google Buzz – List of Photographers
Are you new to Buzz and looking for Photographers to follow? See this Photographers on Buzz list. Note, this is a BIG LIST, but I suggest you surf around it and see some people! You will likely find a few that you like… so many great photographers and artist out there – I hope this helps you to discover some new ones.
Daily Photo – Building 43 at Google
Wow I had a great time at Google! The guys and gals there I met were very nice and cool… After my Authors@Google talk, I stayed around for a while to take photos while waiting on the workshop to begin. There are sensitive areas of Google, of course, and I didn’t even try to take pictures of any of that stuff… Building 43 is the central building of the whole Googleplex. It houses the offices of Marissa Mayer (who did not show up for my talk *ahem*), Larry Page, and Sergey Brin. I wanted to pop into their offices and make unique photos of their offices for fun, but I did not want to ask on my first visit. Wouldn’t that be one of the most interesting things in the world? To see the offices of all these people? They don’t have to be awesome and all James-Bondy — even something mundane would be interesting, if captured in the right way. But I do picture Sergey stroking a white cat…
I feel a little late to the SmugMug party! Here is the story… I kept hearing more and more about SmugMug. And I was like… What! Why is everyone always talking about SmugMug! What a strange name. Hey… I’m on Flickr… the last thing I need is another place to host my photos… this is what I was thinking.
And then the very kind Candice Cunningham invited me to speak at the inaugural SmugMug meeting here in Austin. It was an amazing group of people and many people in there already had SmugMug portfolios and businesses! As I learned more and more, I became even more impressed. I even got to visit their HQ near San Francisco and I came away really excited about the present and future of SmugMug.
I have linked the “Visit My Portfolio” up there on the top right of the site to link to StuckInCustoms.SmugMug.com. It is really beautiful and I have decided to make it official.
I am very happy with my SmugMug Portfolio. You guys know I always want the best!
Even more Customization!
I wrote a second article on you can further Customize SmugMug. It already comes with a bunch of themes, but if you want something truly unique, you can just pay a bit extra to get something that is completely different. I reviewed four different third-party companies, all of which can give you a custom SmugMug “skin”.
Daily Photo – The Glorious Church at Stanford
During our amazingly fun Stanford photowalk, our entire unit crashed into into the church like the Allies setting up barracks inside a French cathedral.
Right before we went in, as I climbed the stairs, one of the more nervous-types that was on the photowalk said, “Uhhh, I don’t know if they will let us in because they are about to close.” I said something to the effect of, “Who cares, we’re going in anyway until they come tell us to leave!” And with that, we blew in through the front doors and spread out far and wide. I set up my camera and gave a little talk about my settings for the shot. I mentioned that in dark situations, you don’t want your multiple exposures to all be 30 seconds. You need to widen your aperture and increase the ISO so that your all your exposures get finished, with the final one at 30 seconds. In this situation, I shot 5 exposures at 1 step increments with my 5 respective shutter speeds at 2 seconds, 4 s, 8s, 15s, and 30s.
Oh, btw, now that I am one with sweet sweet SmugMug, click on the photo below to see it big and bold and proper. At the top, you can select whatever size you wish.
Here is why Google Buzz is great for photography and conversation and friends:
The photos go Full Screen and can be viewed in their proper glory
I get to see people’s photos as soon as they go up and scroll through them in a nice lightbox
It’s very simple and built right into the GMail interface
Conversations are real-time and it has all the “fun” of a chat room without the pressure
What do you think about Google Buzz?
Book Giveaway on Abudzeedo!
The editors over at Abduzeedo (who, by the way, attended my talk at the Google HQ) launched a book contest to give away a free copy of “A World in HDR“. Even before I mentioned it, there are already over 300 entries, so pop over there and leave a quick comment to enter. Easy and fast!
Daily Photo – So Many Wonderful Things at Hearst, So Little Time
Hearst Castle is indeed one of the most beautiful places in the world. It’s just a trafficless hour north of LA, but it seems a world apart. It worked out as a perfect stopping-point for my little road trip from Hans Zimmer to Google!
I grabbed a lot of photos of this pool. And I mean a lot. I had great trouble in choosing the “best”, and there are many winners that I will be sure to include in coming weeks, months, and years!
I wonder if WF Hearst ever had one of those crazy house parties with rap video girls dancing and grinding all around the edges of the pool? I can’t imagine college girls doing jello shots and big floatees that have beer-holders. This is all just a tad too classy for that…
I sent out a few worried tweets while en route because of the rain, and I got tweets back that there was a full complement of photowalkers waiting under the tree in The Oval. I showed up, at the very last possible second, and then said hi to everyone. It was a very upbeat crowd, and I was happy to meet all of them! I think we had around 50 there, even though the rain was rather epic, especially by California standards!
After I explained the way I do my Photowalks (half shooting, half sharing online), we set out to hit a few spots on campus. As we were moving about, Arnav Moudgil took this photo (also on the right) for the newspaper. This was taken when we were walking in one of the covered areas of the campus.
We moved around and hit several locations, including the one below. At the end, we went over to an eating area and talked for a long while about photography and stuff! I signed books, gave away all kinds of goodies from Smugmug, and this sort of thing — it was nice to meet such enthusiastic photographers. One enterprising Type A created a “Stuck In Stanford” Flickr group where people are currently sharing their photos… this is my first contribution to the group!
Daily Photo – The Stanford Church in the Photowalk Storm
The rain situation was betwixt sprinkles and torrent. There was enough rain to moisten my bulbous 12-24 (that sounds dirty), so I wanted to be quick. Usually, I let people look through my lens to see the composition, but, it would have gotten too wet… so I just fired away quickly then put on my little trombone-cover-thing.
Now, maybe my smart audience can help me figure this out. Some people on the walk told me that “HDR” was “invented” here at Stanford. Others tell me MIT. A few people told me that the first HDRs ever taken were inside this very church (where I also collected some shots, for publication soon). Anyway, this all sounds very intriguing… and I am interested to know the real answers!
My friend RC Conception tweeted me about a contest he is running on Layers magazine along with Brad Moore to give away a copy of my book. You can see more by visiting his contest post on his website.
Reminder of Kelby Article
Speaking of Brad Moore, he was the nice gentleman that helped me with this long guest post on Scott Kelby’s blog a few months ago. If you missed it the first time, you might enjoy it now. It’s called “Being an artist sucks. Being an artist is awesome.”
Daily Photo – The Sunset in San Clemente California
We had a great photowalk down in San Clemente! Thanks again to everyone that came along… I enjoyed it very much. Now I am finally getting a chance to post-process some of the images. If you were there, you may remember when I took this one!
Want to see other photos from the Photowalkers? Visit Victor’s Noiseware Review here on the site.
I spent the night up in Napa where I was visiting my mom and grandmother (so I have extra fudge for everyone!). Since I was coming back to the Palo Alto area anyway, I drove through Petaluma. While there, I stopped by the TWIT cottage to meet with Dane. Whilst there, Leo happened to be taping a show, so I ducked in a for a few moments to see everything in person.
So, what is cool about this? Well, for one thing, I’ve always like Leo and the scene he’s throwin’ down. Did you know he also sees out of just one eye? The one-eyed guys have to stick together.
Also, he runs a huge media empire out of this little cottage in Petaluma! It’s really an impressive feat. He has several shows on his network that I think are interesting. You can either get the podcast on iTunes or watch live at http://live.twit.tv/. I recommend TWIT (This Week in Technology). There is another good show called “Macbreak Weekly” which is very good. Last, you should try to catch the science stuff with Dr. Kiki. She was there too – a very nice gal…
I thought about setting up for a major hardcore HDR in his studio, but I didn’t want to impose… It was my first time in there (previous appearances on TWIP – This Week in Photography) were all remote via Skype, so I got a kick out of seeing the operation in person!
Extra Books at the Stanford Event?
I’m all out of copies of A World in HDR (but I am bringing some homemade fudge from my mom to hand out)! We totally sold out at the Google speech, which was way more popular than I anticipated… Also, some of you may remember that Amazon sold out in several countries, so it can be a little tough to get copies… they don’t exactly grow on trees! But, Amazon, Borders, B&H, and all the others replenish their supplies all the time.
If you already have a book, I am more than happy to sign it for you… it would be my pleasure!
Daily Photo – The Lonely Barn
Note that this is not the aforementioned TWIT Cottage.
Along the road from Napa to Petaluma, there are countless photo ops. I stopped here and there on the side of the road to jump out and take some shots. This one I took with my 85mm prime lens – I will soon add it to the Nikon 85mm Review page along with the other sample photos.
It was a foggy and overcast morning, so I had to look for other sorts of subject in the landscape that were interesting… which is pretty easy to do here in the wine country!
I’ll meet you all at The Oval on Thursday at 4 PM. There is ONE bit of bad news. There was going to be a talk afterward at 5:30 PM, but it looks like the auditorium at Stanford fell through. This was a surprise to me too – so, my apologies… however, the walk is still on and I look forward to meeting y’all.
As a bonus, I’ll be giving away a lot of Smugmug goodies! So be sure to come with room to take home something special!
Topaz Detail Review
Topaz Detail just upgraded their cool software. I have written a quick Topaz Detail Review, which I will add to more in coming weeks. It’s a really nice and fun program – I invite you to check it out!
Daily Photo – The Gothic Study
Note this is the “small” library. I’ll post the main library in a few weeks!
As always, you can zoom in to see the details by clicking through. The details are quite incredible, and I am sure you will delight in seeing the closeups of the hand-carved wooden arches and the painted Spanish ceilings… it was all amazing! If you look closely at the full res version towards the middle, you can see a portrait of WR Hearst when he was 31-years-old.
For you are in the LA Area (or willing to travel for an interesting workshop), join my friends Frederick Van and Joeseph Linashke for their workshop at nearby Joshua Tree. These guys have worked hard to put together a really excellent program… you can visit the website to see everything that is included!
New Interview Up with Ron Martinsen
I had an interview with the extremely nice Ron Martinsen. Head on over Ron’s photography blog to have a loosee! He also has a nice discount code on my textures tutorial, in case you have been waiting for a good deal!’
Daily Photo – A Great Day at the Google HQ!
Wow that was a cool experience. Those guys and gals over there are super-nice. You never know… I guess maybe Google seems somewhat intimidating from the outside, but after I met guys like Cliff, Brian, and Chip — I felt right at home.
I gave an hour-long talk in one of their theaters there. It was super-packed and people were standing all around because seats were gone. We were graced with the presence of one Sara Jane Todd from @Peachpit to help out selling books – and we sold out! Also, my Brazilian friend Fabio, the editor of Abduzeedo was there too, so it was great to see him.
The Authors@Google (video link) program has a neat deal where they subsidize books, so Googlers don’t have to pay full price. I saw all kinds of cool stuff and took a lot of pics. I have to get most cleared with Google Corp Comms before I can release… but I nabbed shots of a spaceship, a new pseudo-holodeck, and more mysteries await! We even got to eat lunch there in the Google cafeteria, which had some of the most excellent food I’ve ever had in such a setting… they even have a small organic farm on the campus… well, I could go on and on… but I was very impressed and happy to meet so many enthusiastic people!
The video should be done in the next 2-3 weeks or so. We’ve got good-man Brian at Google slaving away on editing the whole thing together!
I’m excited to meet a lot of my Google friends in person! The talk is today, and I’ve got everything ready for it. For reference, here are a few links I will mention during the talk:
HDR Tutorial – Free tutorial here on the site – you’ll be up and running with a pretty pic in an hour!
HDR Spotting – a site with the Attention Distribution Engine to drive more traffic to other HDR Artists sites (still in beta – you have to get an invite code from existing member)
Textures Tutorial - The textures and a video showing how I got those textured-photos
Videos – A collection of free videos showing how I take HDR Photos in the field…
Daily Photo – The Azure Blue Indoor Pool at Hearst Castle
I mentioned yesterday that I was able to get a private tour throughout Hearst. It was a long and great day! Thank goodness I had a mass of memory cards… I got so much footage it was crazy!
I could have picked a bunch of shots to be the “first”, but I thought this one was particularly wonderful. There are two enormous pools at Hearst Castle, and this is the indoor one. This is a nice vantage point because this spot is actually quite difficult to reach! There is no door behind me… so I had to “shimmy” along that edge you see… It was NARROW… the shimmy was like a video game, except while holding a $10,000 camera! Sketchy! But I just had to get over here because I could visualize the shot before it happened…
Here’s a cool fact about this pool. Nearby, there is a huge room that was intended for a gymnasium that Hearst never constructed. The State then made it usable for IT and Archive area, so the water cools the computers… wild, eh?
On Monday Feb 1, I’m speaking at Google for their Authors@Google program. The whole thing will be recorded, so I’ll be able to share it back with the world here once it goes up. You can find out more by following @GoogleTalks. And thanks to Mike Wiacek @MikeWiacek who is the head of the Google Photog Club and to Cliff Redeker @mcrsquared for getting the whole thing set up… I am excited!
Later that afternoon, I’m giving a private photography workshop to people at Google back in one of their secret rooms… That should be a lot of fun too. I’ll be going through, in person, what I have in the HDR Tutorial here on the site.
There is a public photowalk on Thursday, Feb 4 at Stanford. We’ll meet at 4 PM at the The Oval. There may or may not be a talk after — it depends on if we can secure an auditorium!
Private Tour at Hearst Castle
I’m driving up the coast towards Silicon Valley, and I decided to take my time and leisurely drive up Highway 1. I’m doing my best to fill the trip with planned and unplanned adventures.
I spent a big chunk of the day up at Hearst Castle. I was given a private tour whilst guarded by one of LAPD’s finest, who is now a security guard at the castle. I had carte blanche to go anywhere and shoot everything – it was totally amazing! I got into the wine cellar, into the top two spires where there are tiny bedrooms, and all over the place. It was just amazing — I have not had time to process the photos yet… but… you won’t believe it!
Daily Photo – Big Sur in the Morning
5:30 AM. Alarm goes off. It’s always painful. People that say they are “morning people” — I think they are lying. But, when in a beautiful place, I always force myself, military style, to pop out of bed. There are hikes to be made and photos to take!
I stayed at the Ragged Point Inn. My room had a little fireplace and everything (which made it even harder to get out of bed!). After I got downstairs, I started a little hike to get a good vantage of the coast and the sunrise. Of course, there was a fence blocking the best bit, so I jumped over it like Carl Lewis (a much older, whiter, and less jumpy Carl Lewis), and edged along the rocky coast to get a good spot. I forgot to put on my hiking shoes and mistakenly donned my Cole-Haans while in the dark. Big mistake. Those don’t make for good hiking shoes, especially after five minutes of getting soaked in morning dew from the foliage I was ripping my way through.
But, I had on my earphones and was blasting away music… all was good… the sun came up, the clouds were perfect, and I took this photo.
Six days ago I was up at 3 AM, listening to Hans Zimmer while editing photos, and then I had an idea for a project with him, so I made a blog post. Now, less than a week later, I was in his studio in California!
For those of you that don’t know who Hans Zimmer is, he’s, like, the Liger of composers. He did the soundtrack for The Dark Knight, Pirates of the Caribbean, The Lion King, Gladiator, Sherlock Holmes, and many more! In fact, back when I was in college and had a double major in Computer Science and Geophysics (I dropped the Geophysics bit after a fight with the professor), I commandeered the SGI machine in the Geology department to make a computer animation, and I set the whole thing to one of Zimmer’s songs from Backdraft called “Burn it All”. So, in short, I’ve had Hans Zimmer’s music in my head for about 20 years.
The Story of How I Got Into Hans Zimmer’s Studio
It’s because of you! We have millions of visits here on the blog every month, and you all know how thankful I am for your repeat patronage. It’s tough to get a pretty photo up every day, and I thank you for all your feedback! So, when I put out the call in my newsletter, I got a ton of responses. My math-guess was that I was one or two degrees away from Hans, especially since there are many creative-types that are regular visitors.
Also, many of you hyper-active types (like me!) talk to me, ask questions, and follow me on Twitter — thank you for being responsive to real-time requests and news.
About an hour after I sent out the newsletter at midnight, I got a response from a German gentleman (name private) who is friends with Hans! In fact, he told me he was going to see Hans the next day at his studio near Hollywood! He did a few things to help out, and, although I could not meet Hans today, I did get an amazing opportunity to take photos of his studio. I knew I could make his studio look the way it feels — I had a sublime confidence I could make it happen. Anyway, I was like a kid in a candy store. I got a ton of shots… I only had time to process four of them.
Hans Zimmer’s Studio
I don’t know if words do it justice, but I hope these photos do.
The studio is even bigger than I thought, and I was reminded of the Crimson Lounge in Chicago. In fact, I pulled up the image on my laptop there on the table to compare textures and light. I thought everything worked well together — the decadence and richness of the decorations integrated with the technology. I don’t know if there is a word for such a look… It’s something out of a Phillip Pullman novel, somewhere between Steampunk and Techno-boudoir. Again, words fail.
The first two photos I have placed on Flickr. You can click on them to go to Flickr and then zoom into the full-res size. Amazing details — especially in the chair photo. I’ll post more in coming weeks, months, and years, as usual. So, stay tuned… my ongoing quest continues!
Los Angeles Photowalk, Sponsored by Bay Photo, evening of Jan 27!
You are all welcome to meet me at 4 PM on at the San Clemente pier! We will have a nice photowalk through sunset, which is around 5:20 PM. All skill levels, from beginner to master are welcome. A photowalk is just a laid-back event where we stroll around, take photos, and discuss the art of life and whatnot… I was considering giving a talk that night as well, but we don’t have a nearby venue in mind. Maybe one of you has an idea for this…
A big thanks to Bay Photo, who is sponsoring the event. I’m going to be looking deeply into their metal prints very soon and give you a full report.
If you want to come, please leave a comment below… all are welcome – no charge! A big thanks to Candice Cunningham (her twitter) for organizing the event. I first met her when we and Jason St. Peter invited me to speak at the first Smugmug event in Austin.
Hans Zimmer, we Must Meet!
Has anyone read Atlas Shrugged and remember the great composer therein named Richard Halley? One of the heroes of the book mysteriously follows him around the world… I envision this dream-state with Hans Zimmer. In fact, I have a most wonderful project in mind that would be unique and right up his alley.
I saw this Hans Zimmer Video Interview about his new Sherlock Holmes soundtrack. It was very interesting to hear him talk about this stuff… I have all of his music starred and in special playlists, depending on my mood… In fact, I made a Hanz Zimmer iTunes iMix there on the right for you of some of my favorites. On occasion, I meet a fellow photographer that also loves Hans, and we have an instant connection that is difficult to describe.
Look at Zimmer’s recording studio (Thanks @Tatorandtots for the link). Amazing. Of course, I could take a much better photo of it… but that is neither here nor there. My photography studio (only on paper for my upcoming home in New Zealand) will make a wonderful attempt to be a tiny bit cooler, only insofar as I want a window that looks at a beautiful landscape (which can be closed for absolute darkness whilst the post-processing is in full swing).
See my other mixes on Trey’s Music List – Coming up soon – Ambient New Age, World Music, and other unexpected things…
Speaking at Google HQ, Stanford, and errrrr – something in the “Cupertino area”
The topic is “The Unexpected Art and Science of HDR Photography”.
Although I can’t discuss the latter, I can describe the talks I have at the Google HQ and Stanford. If you know someone at either institution, perhaps they can get you in. These are all closed, private events, but if you have some good Silicon Valley contacts, maybe you can make it happen. The presentation will be quite different than one might expect… I think it might prompt everyone to see the world from a slightly different perspective – I think we are finally getting to a spot where art and science can come back together in a natural way.
The talk at Google will be recorded in High Def and put on YouTube (thanks @GoogleTalks!) for the you all to see after everything gets edited together. I’d like to thank Mike Wiacek @MikeWiacek, who heads the Google Photog Club and Cliff Redeker (@mcrsquared) for setting this up. I’ll be giving a short workshop there on the Google campus that afternoon…
Daily Photo – California in the Morning
I woke up early one morning in the hotel to drive down to the seaside in San Luis Obispo to catch the sunrise. It’s really beautiful and peaceful there. I’m not really a morning person — this much should be known… more of a night-owl. But, maybe if I lived in California I might actually wake up early to catch the light of these sunrises.
I know I get many requests to be my assistant — but you don’t understand how bad it would be… I’d make you do things like wake up even before me, get me coffee, warm up the car, and all other sorts of things that you’d probably resent after a while… People seem to get over-enthusiastic about being my assistant, so I try to tell them bad things like this to dissuade them!
And below is a shot from a hotel I stayed in last time I was in LA… they have this cool outside firepit. I need more firepits in my life….
I have a strange array of answers I give when people ask me questions at book signings and stuff. I recently met a cool guy named Casey Berner, and he asked me if I ever “go back” to a photo after I am done to work on it again. I told him no, and then referred to a TED video from Dan Gilbert. Most of the time, I say this stuff and people just nod… but I don’t really know if it sinks in. But it did with Casey – in fact, he wrote a whole blog post on it and included the video I mentioned!
Coming to California
I’ll be coming out to California soon… to both LA and Northern California. I’ll be sneaking into a few bookstores here and there to secretly sign books. I hope things are warmer there than here!
Daily Photo – Sunset Under the Pier
We had a great time at the workshop today! After a sunset dinner at the Oasis, we came back to the Driskill and I offered to let people watch me stay up late and process photos. Everyone came but Cliff Baise who was probably drunk. (Actually, during the workshop, Cliff uploaded this cool pic to Flickr).
I processed three images, and I had a bear of a time with this one from Manhattan Beach. It was a class “HDR Problem” shot that had ghosting in the waves, a dirty gray sky, and unfortunate artifacting. I showed everyone how to fix these problems, and I hope some of it sunk in!
Just recently, I announced that a percentage of all book profits are going to Kiva. So far, we’ve gotten over $1,900 from Team Stuck In Customs, so that is great! You can find out more on the charity page or a recent post on the Kiva blog.
Holiday Gift Guide for Dads
Thanks to Cali at Geekbrief.TV on her recent Holiday Gifts episode for the nice things she said about the website here. She mentioned the “Stuck in Motion” page here on the site. And YES, I do have a new video coming soon! I am thinking about debuting it at the Austin Book Party launch on December 9th.
Daily Photo – The Crash of the Surf
While driving down 17-mile drive a few weeks ago, I stopped for a while to go on a little beach hike! While there, I found this little area…. I set up for a while to see what rolled in!
The video chat for the pre-release of the book will be up at tinychat.com/stuckincustoms. Actually, it’s up now, but I won’t be broadcasting video until the event starts at 7 PM CST on Nov 19th. Come back then and join in!
Topaz Adjust and Noiseware
It’s been a while since I mentioned these great products! I used both of them in the image below; the former was for sharpening and the latter was for noise reduction. I also used Noiseware on the Tokyo photo from yesterday. To find out more and get coupon codes, check out the Topaz Adjust Review and the Noiseware Review.
Daily Photo – Trees and an Aircraft Carrier in the Fog
The time I spent in San Diego was very moody and covered in fog. I went down to the shore one night to spy the USS Midway. The fog was pea-soup thick and it gave the environs quite the mood. I found these amazing trees nearby that seemed wonderfully illuminated against the glow from the aircraft carrier.
If you have some more ideas, Tweet me at @TreyRatcliff!
I’ve been asking all my social media pals, photographer-friends, and others about some of the most successful and fun Twitter contests that have been run. I was sitting down with my publisher at @Peachpit, because we need to Give Away a few copies of “A World in HDR“. While we thought of a few ideas, I thought we would open it up the Internet to see what we can find!
Frankly, and this might offend some people, I think that straight give-aways are crass and obvious. I think it can get you followers, but I can argue those are ill-gotten followers. You may disagree.
I think there are more fun, engaging, and productive ways to run Twitter contests. So, to that end, I’ve assembled some of the best below. If you have MORE, drop me a note in the comments, and I’ll do a redux soon! Also, please, tell me your favorite contest idea and we can try to do something similar for the new book! I’ll probably have @Peachpit run the contests, since I don’t want to Tweet about give-aways once an hour on my personal Twitter account (@TreyRatcliff). Besides, you guys should follow Peachpit anyway, since they are a good company that publishes fantastic books.
1) The Michelle
So named, because it is the idea of Michelle Greer, a clever Twitter user and social media smarty-pants at Rackspace.
We pick a non-photography related blogger who frequently uses pictures in their posts to act as a judge (who’s interested??)
Judge announces a theme for the day (Landscape, architecture, etc) and announces via Twitter. We’ll get that Retweeted widely and repeatedly.
Contestant picks a photo that fits the theme, “Hey @TreyRatcliff and @Peachpit, this #hdr is inspiring (link).” Note this does not have to be MY photo…it can be yours, or anyone’s!
Judge picks the winner and uses it on their blog with attribution. Winner gets a the prize!
Why I like this idea:
People get to find and share great art online
People get to discover new photographers and new sites that feature them
I’m a big fan of Creative Commons (all my work is CC, no Commercial Use allowed without contacting us first). I think bloggers out there should know about all the beautiful photos from photographers that are available. And photographers who believe in creative commons LOVE to be featured on blogs.
Everyone likes eye-candy on Twitter!
2) The Trivial
Thanks to Eugene, a frequent guest on this site!
Send people on a scavenger hunt through a particular website to find something hidden
For example, we could ask, “How many nights in a row was Trey forced to eat borscht cooked by three Russian women in Argentina?”
The contest judge accepts tweets with real, creative, or funny answers.
The winner is selected randomly amongst those that got the right answer in 24 hours.
Why I like this idea
It’s fun and game-like
People get even more engaged in a website and might find some hidden gems
You have 24 hours to play, and you don’t have to be “quick on the draw”
3) The Macleod
A frequent guest of the site, Barbara Youngleson, brought this one up. Thanks Barbara!
This idea appears to have come from Hugh Macleod, the clever cartoonist and consummate cooligan
It works like this (more or less):
Purchase a book by any means, and send the PO over Twitter
A limited number of winners are chosen
Receive a second book, signed, for free. Give one to a friend!
Why I like it:
It is non-pushy
It rewards people that are real-enough fans to buy the book in the first place! Hehe.
Hugh did it, so it must have some coefficient of cool
4) The Threadless
This idea is being successfully executed at Threadless.com
If you see a Tweet you like, you can submit it to the contest
It is then voted on by the Threadless community
The best Tweets end up on T-Shirts and the Tweet author gets sweet cash.
Why I like it:
It’s incredibly fun and engaging.
It’s super-viral. I found out about it because someone nominated one of my Tweets: “If I get another dog, I shall name him ‘ROFL’.”
Threadless is cool, and it is fun to be associated with a cool brand.
5) The Moonfruit
Moonfruit (a website buildin’ company) ran a good promotion where you can use the hashtag #moonfruit in any kind of Tweet
They selected a random person every day and gave away a MacBook Pro
It resulted in the #moonfruit hashtag being a trending topic and gaining over 30,000 followers
Why I like it:
It was very easy to enter
It was viral because you wonder why your friends are all talking about Moonfruit!
Today’s Photo – The Bar at Dosa in San Francisco
The photo today was taken at an awesome Indian restaurant in San Francisco called “Dosa”. The manager was nice enough to allow me to move around and take a few photos after dinner. I was dining with the marketing and PR team from Peachpit (@Peachpit), who is publishing the book. Taking roll-call, we had Scott Cowlin (@ScottPeachpit), Sara Jane Todd (@SaraJaneTodd), and Laura Pexton (@Laura7). We sat around all night talking about having some fun Twitter contests for people to give away books… so here we are, and you get to vote on your favorites!
I had a great long weekend recently. It started in the San Francisco area where I attended the ReadWriteWeb conference on the “Real Time Web”. It was very cool to be sitting in rooms with engineers from Google and other major companies that are in the middle of evolving the web itself. There was lots of good food for thought. I was looking at it from the perspective of how to use the future web to increase attention to good content. I think we are moving into an area where attention can be created, just like wealth in capitalism.
Insofar as I believe attention can be created, I think we are certainly on to something with www.HDRspotting.com. It’s purpose is to drive more attention and traffic to other HDR photographers. I understand from some people that they are getting 5x the number of views there than on Flickr! Great! It was started with the intention that attention can be created, spread, and shared in a more intelligent way. I also get a lot of emails of people asking me for invite codes. I don’t handle that! Sorry! But, I do understand that new codes are going out all the time… new features are being added every few days.
This shot below is from 17-mile drive off the famous Pacific Coast Highway in California, a little trip that produced a lot of good shots I will sprinkle in over the coming weeks and months! Hwy 1 runs down a winding coastline, and there are great sites all over the place. This spot is just north of Carmel and a stone’s throw from Pebble Beach. When I was there, I also took this shot with my iPhone. The iPhone is good… but… comon! This one is a bit better… hehe. Am I wrong?
