Red Carpet Event

I think these things are always a bit strange… but my mom really liked these photos from this red carpet event that was hosted by Samsung recently. This one came about through my agent at CAA, but next time I’ll have to tell her not to put me back-to-back walking down with a gay guy because they always outdress everyone else… He’s not in the photo below (lots of ppl there) — but his name was David Bromstad (a designer you may know from HGTV). He’s a super-nice guy and we shared a little dressing room. I knew immediately that he would out-dress everyone!

(Note: those little shopping cart icons below were part of the screenshots that I grabbed from the news agency website)

BBC: The Story of India

Has anyone seen this? It’s pretty good…. watching it now. Besides being full of good content, there is also nice cinematography.

Daily Photo – The Walt Disney Concert Hall

I had a late night taking photos in downtown LA. I parked over near the Walt Disney Concert Hall and this was my final photo of the night as I was walking back to my car.

It was one of those situations where I didn’t feel like unfurling my camera again. You know when you’re really tired and you’re just ready to mail it in? That was me… but I saw this strange green light… and it looked a little like the green reflection off the hall… and then after that, I knew I had to go ahead and take a photo. I was happy to at that point.

Filed under the categories: California, LA, Travel

Wow! Half-a-Million Pinterest Followers!

Thanks everyone for the follows over on Pinterest! Here is one of my favorites Inspirational Boards that you may enjoy… Who are some of your favorite people to follow? When you look at my boards, you can see who I follow and re-pin the most… seems to be a lot of people from France that I follow I think!

Old-Timey Photographers

I always think about those old-timey guys and how they used to have to carry around those giant cameras and go through all the trouble. I wonder if anyone will ever think of me like this… lugging around my big Nikon and a giant computer to process the photos… yes, I suppose they will. Or, hopefully my future self will think that about my past self.

Daily Photo – Icy Tones in Yosemite

We had a great time at the event at Yosemite. I don’t do many of those, you know – those extended trips with big groups of people – but it was a lot of fun!

I think I was out in this area with Karen Hutton, Thomas Hawk, and Robert Scoble. It was a wonderful scene of lines and strange colors…

Filed under the categories: California, Travel, Yosemite

Great Prizes at the NYC PhotoWalk from Adorama!

The PhotoWalk is tonight! We have some prizes to announce from Adorama:

First, we’ll be giving away 5 gift cards for Adorama valued at $100 each! Second, we’ll be giving away Think Tank Retrospective 5 Shoulder Bags! After the event is over, put your photos in the Google+ or Facebook event below and tag them with #TRNewYorkPhotowalk – we’ll pick random people both! It doesn’t matter if you post 1 or 20 photos… you still have an equal chance of winning!

PhotoWalk Event Details: Google+ Event / Facebook Event.

San Francisco Soon….

After I go to New York then LA then Burning Man, I’ll be coming to San Francisco for a bit. I’m not sure what I’m doing yet, but i do always love the city… we’ll see!

Daily Photo – Exploring San Francisco from Above

From on top of Twin Peaks in San Francisco, a good zoom lens when the fog rolls in can get a little crazy! The fog glows orange-red with all the lights and it feels a bit… apocalyptic. I took about 20 shots of this, and the fog would creep around this way and that. They all looked interesting, but in the end, I liked this one the best.

Filed under the categories: California, San Francisco, Travel

Daily Photo – Giants Stadium

When I spent the evening at the Giants game in San Francisco, we had carte blanche to go anywhere and shoot anything, so that was pretty awesome. Tom and I had the number of the PR guy in our pocket in case anyone gave us any trouble… but no one did. We spent most of the night roaming around the stadium, taking photos from many vantage points. No one ever bothered us about the tripods and stuff, so that was a welcome delight!

This was shot with the Nikon 14-24 lens… as usual, all the EXIF info is there if you click through to SmugMug!

Filed under the categories: California, Photography Tips, San Francisco, Travel

Funny Article about Comic Sans

I saw that the CERN made the Higgs announcement and their infographic used Comic Sans, of all things. Geeky people got a real kick out of this, but I wanted to remind them of this poignant article written by the Comic Sans font himself.

Daily Photo – Alcatraz at Sunset

I was over on Treasure Island one evening taking photos when I saw the sun sinking through a lot of moisture in the air. I also saw Alcatraz out in the water, so I jumped in the car to drive around and find a spot where everything lined up together. That was a great night!

Filed under the categories: Nikon D800, San Francisco, Travel

And the big announcement is…

not here… but it will be here tomorrow! I’m so excited! Christmas in July!

Daily Photo – Los Angeles from the Hollywood Hills

“The Hollywood Hills” is one of those areas I had always heard about but never visited. I always wanted to get a photo of them, but, how, exactly, does one do that?

Well once I finally found the area and started exploring it, I decided to try to find a unique shot. It snuck up on me one afternoon while jogging through some trails along the top. I saw this scene and decided to return later, when the time was right.

Filed under the categories: California, LA, Travel

Big News Coming Soon!

We have a secret new announcement coming to the blog about a big event within the week. So, get ready for something that is both undefined and unknowable.

Which is your dominant eye?

I ran a poll over on Google+ about which eye is your dominant one — interesting results! Go over and vote. Gooooooo left eye!

Daily Photo – The Lupines at Sunset

So here is a cool thing about this photo that one might not guess. This was taken with a Sony NEX-7 and the kit lens! Yes, the kit lens.

This was shot on Baker Beach in San Francisco one evening when I was exploring…. I was double-fisting it with two cameras… and I saw this quick scene so I went for this experimental shot.

Filed under the categories: California, San Francisco, Sony NEX-7, Travel

Join Ben & Chris on Monday

Here’s a great Kickstarter project! It’s a very cool device you can use to make some incredible time lapse sequences. I’m buying one!

And even better, the founders, Ben & Chris, will be Live on Monday night’s show with me. We’re trying something new, and you can watch live here on StuckInCustoms.com. The show starts at 7 PM PST (Your World Time). Just look at the blog here a bit before that and you’ll see the YouTube Live Embedded Player.

Daily Photo – The Griffith Observatory

This was a very fun night in LA.

I went up to the Griffith Observatory with Tom to grab a photo. I had always heard about this spot, but never made it up there to take photos of my own. The conditions are very difficult, and the parking was quite rough. After a long walk and deciding on a shot, I set up for what you see here…

Maybe I’ll have to go back here with my Genie!

Filed under the categories: California, LA, Travel

Diablo III anyone?

What’s your Battletag? I thought it might be a fun way for you guys to play with other community members… put yours below, and then go add others! People around here are generally pretty cool… And yes, I’ve been enjoying the game a lot! I don’t get a lot of time to play…. but I do really dig it!

Daily Photo – Yosemite in Late Afternoon

I spent about a week in Yosemite, and every day had slightly different light. I was quite sad there was no snow the entire time, but I am excited to go back and see it!

Even though there was no snow, I was quite cold. I tried out a new set of gloves which were quite crappy. I think the only kind of situation I like when it is cold is those mittens that flip up so I can use my fingers. I had the perfect mittens, but then I lost one of them, so now I only have one mitten, and this is a sad thing.

Filed under the categories: California, Travel, Yosemite

Father’s Day Deal – 20% off

Let’s say you disagree with the negative nancy below and you don’t think post-processing is the devil. And if you want to join the cause to “hurt the integrity of photography” to learn great post-processing tricks, then use “STUCKONDAD” to save 20% on the HDR Video Tutorial. (The code also works for eBooks on FlatBooks.com which may or may not be injurious to the artform of pressing a button on a chunk of iron and glass.)

What do you think of this guy?

So, I wouldn’t necessarily call this guy a “troll” — but perhaps a hobgoblin or some lesser fantasy creature that you have to defeat 10 of before reaching Level 2. I find people like this endlessly fascinating, and I enjoy observing them like mold in a petri dish.

He’s been popping around the site lately, distributing comments on the “About Me” page and countless other places. Here’s a few little jewels that he has dropped. Emphasis is my own.

…your cliched travel images and horrendous post-processing combined with your unfortunate popularity has probably done more to hurt the integrity of photography than anyone else in the world in recent years. You have made it incredibly difficult for millions of honest photographers trying to produce honest images. Please reconsider the effect you are having on photography.

And sprinkled into my India photos:

Sorry but these are all pedestrian images that tell us nothing about India. There are so many hundreds of other photographers producing interesting, informative, beautiful images of India. Don’t be fooled by Photoshop.

Daily Photo – A Dishonest Image of San Francisco

And with this image, I am once again launching full-out-assault on the hallowed traditions of photography. You know what I did with this image? I post-processed it! Oh yes, I really did. And I had so much fun doing it… at least as much fun as Dexter in his kill room.

I guess if I was to be really “honest” and take a photo of San Francisco and keep with the tradition of the greats of photography, it would have to be black and white photo, right? I mean, the world really is black and white, isn’t it? Oh wait, no… it’s in color. Wait, now I’m confused.

Oh no, look what I’ve done now. I’ve gone and upset people that think one form of artistic expression is superior to another form of artistic expression. How could I be so callous and open with my thoughts and techniques?

(and thanks everyone — pop back tomorrow for a wonderfully dishonest photo of an amazing cave in the Carribean.)

Filed under the categories: California, San Francisco, Travel

Father’s Day Special!

For Father’s Day, which I am partial to, we have a 20% off across-the-site special discount! Just use “StuckOnDad” at checkout and you’ll see the discount! It will work on the HDR Video Tutorial, eBooks on FlatBooks.com, the Textures Tutorial (where you can just get the textures) and more!

Trey’s Variety Hour #38: What’s in your bag?

Eric Cheng, Ron Brinkmann, Mike Wiacek, Michelle Robinson, and Angela B Pan join me as we do a little show and tell with what is in our camera bags. Eric wins right off the bat and even Tony Wang and Dave Veffer get in on the fun too. We discuss bags, gear, and show off some of our recent photos.

Thanks to Leo Laporte, Tony Wang, and Dave Veffer for helping out with the whole production! To see the full video of What’s in Trey’s Bag, click here.

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 – The Starlight in Downtown Los Angeles

Here is a crazy spot I found thanks to sweet sweet Stuck On Earth. I’ve been to downtown LA many times, and there are many good angles, but I think this one is just about one of the best.

There was a lot of waiting around, however. I had to wait for big busses to pass me on either side so I could set up for the long exposure.

Usually, I’ll take 5 exposures in these situations, but I do something a little special. I’ll take the quicker exposures right away (often 1 or 2 seconds). And then I’ll pause and wait for a bus or something before taking the longer exposures. I create the HDR then mask in the tail lights from the photos where I get the best trails. I made that sound easier than it is, I think.

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

Toad Hall in the British Virgin Islands

I know some of you that watched the live hangout already knew I stayed here a few weeks ago – I finally put together a whole video so you can see more of it. My friend Justin Troupe told me about this place and is friends with the owner, so I wanted to make this little video so more people find out about it! If you want to see more photos of this place, I dumped a ton on this Toad Hall Page here on the site.

You can also see Toad Hall’s website and Facebook page if you’d like to learn even more.

What do you say to Journalism students?

A few weeks ago I went to go give a talk to a Journalism class at UT.  Robert Quigley invited me over.  I gave a bunch of ideas and advice… I’m not sure how readily it was absorbed… but then I got to thinking, what DO you tell journalism students nowadays?  What kind of advice would you give them?  What would Thomas Edison say if he was going to give a talk at the local university to a group of students studying candle-making?

Daily Photo – Sunset over Forest in Yosemite

I had the best sunsets on one of my first evenings in Yosemite.  I drove down a long road from the Tenaya Lodge to Tunnel View alone.  The road is about a 45-minute twisty set of curves that is perfect for scenery and listening to audiobooks.  Every few minutes , the sun would pop out from the forest cover, and I would hunt and peck for a place to pull over to get a clean shot.

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