New Speech at SmugMug

I’ve been using SmugMug for years (see my SmugMug Review!) – and they invited me up to give a talk. Since I’ve given many hardcore tech-talks, I decided this time to tell a few traumatic and embarrassing stories about when I was growing up and how I ended up in the world of photography…

Daily Photo – A Tropical Sunset

I did a lot of snorkeling out in that bay. This whole area of Virgin Gorda is called The Baths, and it has some of the best beaches in the world. There are basically no waves of any consequence. So, if you’re just learning to snorkel, it’s a perfect environment. The kids had a lot of fun here too… lots of private little alcoves and caves!

Filed under the categories: Caribbean, Travel, Virgin Gorda

Sony NEX-7 in Virgin Gorda

I recorded this video with Curtis on Virgin Gorda. You can see more about the Sony NEX-7 Review on that page!

Daily Photo – The rocky beach near dusk

And here is the final photo from the video above. As usual, you can click on it to zoom in and see more details… Every day I upload the full-rez version to SmugMug so you can download the full size version for personal use… that goes for any photo!

Filed under the categories: Caribbean, Photography Tips, Travel, Virgin Gorda

More from Amateras

I’ve posted a few photos from this amazing place we stayed. If you’d like to see more, visit the Amateras website!

Daily Photo – A View From our Balcony at Amateras

We stayed in two different places on Virgin Gorda while we were waiting to move to New Zealand. This is one of the two places, and this outdoor area was a magical place to come out and read each night. I remember I was reading a physics book then called “The End of Time” by Julian Barbour. I recommend it if you’re into geeky science stuff like me!

Filed under the categories: Caribbean, Nikon D800, Travel, Virgin Gorda

Behind-the-Scenes Video

When I shot this down in Virgin Gorda, I also made a behind-the-scenes video with Curtis that you may enjoy!

Daily Photo – The Ruins of the old Copper Mine

Here’s another view of the ruins at sunrise. I was down on the island for about two weeks, and it was very nice to have a guaranteed nice sunrise every morning! The skies were never dull… always clouds and drama. I don’t know if it is like that 365 mornings a year, but it definitely was in the middle of the summer!

Filed under the categories: Caribbean, Travel, Virgin Gorda

100 Cameras in 1 going crazy!

Ever since the Instagram debacle with their TOS, sales of 100 Cameras in 1 have been going crazy – I was quite surprised! We were recommended in the top Instagram alternatives from countless websites, like Gizmodo and Fast Company. Here’s what Fast Company had to say about it:

“With a very attractive interface, 100 Cameras in 1 might be a photographer’s favorite–and its quick-search array of filters (each with a nice sentence describing what it does) makes for swift photo snapping. You can even layer effects one atop each other to go totally filter crazy.”

Photomatix Sharpening

I’ve started sometimes using that Photomatix sharpening “Final Touch” at the end… i did it with this photo below, and it does quite a remarkable job!

Daily Photo – Painting the Sunset

It’s strange to have multicolored coral so close to the beach, but it gave this whole sunset and turquoise water an even more dynamic palette. I’ve been getting used to using a wide-angle lens and aiming it down at the surf. It really distorts everything, but it’s hard to see the distortion in the final shot. Also, I like the effect — it tends to make everything point a little bit towards the center.

Filed under the categories: Caribbean, Nikon D800, Travel, Virgin Gorda

Episode 1 for Free

No, not episode 1 of Star Wars. This one is better! Hehe… Anyway, here is the full episode 1, and you can pop over to the Art of Photography page if you want to see the rest!

HDR Stuff in Episode 4

The tutorial above only has a tiny amount of HDR at the end. The tool I use in there is Photomatix, just like the tool I used to make the sunset photo below.

Daily Photo – Sunset over Island

I don’t make a lot of these vertical, portrait-mode sunsets. I don’t know why! Whenever I do make one in this orientation, I’m often quite happy with it… and I say to myself, “I should do this more often!” But then I come back after a hardcore sunset session, and I realize 90% of my shots are in landscape mode.

My wife likes these orientations better too. She prefers these to be kind we hang in the house… Maybe this is just because she’s heavily into Pinterest!

Filed under the categories: Caribbean, Nikon D800, Travel, Virgin Gorda

Huge new Google+ Feature: Google Communities! The Photo Community

Come see The Photo Community (Google+ should activate it at some point here…) – Come join as soon as you can!

What are communities? They are very similar to regular Google+ accounts, except they are not tied to a person — they are tied to a passion or an idea. This will allow threaded conversations to begin and live independently in the world of Google+.

Think of a piazza in Italy where the whole community comes to hang out, eat gelato, watch artists, have coffee, and talk about the world as it goes by. To me, this is what a Google+ community is.

Besides making The Photo Community, I am also going to make a private community just for people involved in the Stuck In Customs (my website). That will be a private one — invite only. This will replace the Sorry 1990′s Forums that currently run on the website. I’m so sick of that old style of forums… aren’t you? I assume everyone will be able to make public and private Google+ Communities soon.

You’ll notice that The Photo Community has categories on the left. This is a cool thing that allows conversations to be established within certain buckets. Here are a few of the categories I set up, with more to come:

General Discussion – a place for everything… it’s sort of a catch-all for everyone just to hang out.

Critique Me! - Do you have a photo that you would like critiqued? Just post it in a new thread here, and you’ll get it analyzed. I can’t promise it will all be rosy, but we would prefer it if the feedback is civil and constructive!

Gear Talk – If you have a particular penchant for the hardware side of things, this is a great place to have these discussions and ask questions.

Newbie Photo Zone – Are you just getting into photography and have a question? This will be a great area for you… don’t be shy!

Moderators

Google+ Communities can also have moderators, which will be very helpful. I’m going to start setting those up today to take the burden off of me as an individual. As a rule, we’ll try to make sure the community is a positive happy place… Back to that Italian piazza example above, these will be the kind old-lady-shop-owners that come kick the cretins out of the piazza.

Features to come?

Here’s a few features I’d like to see in upcoming iterations. Google has a tradition of quickly iterating on design to improve the user experience.

- Allow commenters to embed photos in a thread — this is especially handy for photographers, and I think it would also be handy over on the food-related groups!

- Allow moderators to have a “sticky” or community-news post that doesn’t get pushed down the stream.

- Any other ideas you have? Put them in the comments!

Daily Photo – The Rising Setting Sun

I’ve tried to detect pattens for when you see these streaming bits of sun at sunrise and sunset. At first, I thought it was just related to moisture and particulate in the air. Then I thought it was related to clouds five+ miles away that are naturally broken up with gaps between them of several hundred meters. Now I think it’s a combination of the two. Maybe this explains why it is so rare.

Now that I live in the mountains, I never see the horizon any more. It doesn’t bother me so much, but it is harder to get these kind of shots. Those of you that also live with no horizon know what I mean!

Filed under the categories: Caribbean, Travel, Virgin Gorda, Virgin Islands

Textures Tutorial

We broke apart the Textures Tutorial so that people could JUST get the hi-res textures. That was a common request, so we recently made that available for you.

Daily Photo – Evening on the Beach in Virgin Gorda

This is the beach that was just a short walk from Toad Hall, the place we stayed during our fun trip down to the islands. The sand was so soft and powdery, and the water was like a warm bath. I guess that’s why this area got the name “The Baths” although I am not sure.

Do you like this painting effect? I think I like it sometimes… depends on my mood.

Filed under the categories: Caribbean, Travel, Virgin Gorda

Early Bird Pricing on Paris Event ending soon

Current pricing of €1,190 EUR to join me at the chateau in Paris only lasts a three more days! After Friday, the pricing goes up to €1,290 EUR, so grab one of the last available slots quick.

Expanded HDR potential for the NEX-7!

Check out the Sony NEX-7 Review page to see what the new firmware can do! Basically, it gives you expanded auto-bracketing range from -3.0 EV to +3.0 EV – very cool.

Nikon and Canon Firmware

Why doesn’t Nikon or Canon release new firmware to give people more options for autobracketing? It’s confusing… I don’t think that those of us that enjoy HDR are such edge-cases any more, right? So hurry up, Nikon and Canon — take some notes from what Sony is doing here!

Daily Photo – The Swirling Seashore

Every now and then you see some rocks along the coast that are not smooth, but covered with moss and clinging vegetation. It’s kind of strange how nearby rocks are worn smooth and slick, while others, like this one below, look like they could be in some deep jungle freshwater river.

Filed under the categories: Caribbean, Travel, Virgin Gorda

Camera Reviews

Many of you have seen the Camera Reviews page, and I take time to figure out the best recommendations for “Good,” “Better,” and “Best.” There are always new cameras coming out and new specs to consider. It’s an ever-complex problem!

There are a few new cameras that I’m analyzing, but I don’t really have enough info on them. These are the Sony RX1 (Adorama Link) and the Nikon D600 (Adorama Link). Believe it or not, Nikon offered to send me a free D600 to play with, but I told them I was too busy! I’m not really a hardcore camera review guy, and I already bought the D800. This is just a busy time for me… otherwise I might have taken them up on their offer!

Daily Photo – The Golden Disc Descends Behind the Island

I could watch one of these every night I think!

It is hypnotic, isn’t it, watching this massive fireball slowly dip into the sea? I notice that the sun seems even bigger when there is another object of significance in the distance. You can’t always plan for that, but it sure is nice when it happens.

I took these photos from the balcony at Amaterus.

Filed under the categories: Caribbean, Nikon D800, Travel, Virgin Gorda

The Cloud Whisperer

Someone called me the Cloud Whisperer on a recent PhotoWalk and I thought it was kind of funny. I do watch the clouds a lot and analyze them like Kvothe thinks about the wind… and I do sometimes see things that are coming before they come.

But I’ve also noticed that some places have amazing clouds on a consistant basis. One of these is here on the south island of New Zealand. Where have you noticed a fairly regular supply of interesting clouds?

Daily Photo – A Beach for your Thoughts

Another night on Virgin Gorda… another perfect beach and sunset…

Since it was so perfect every night I was there, I simply could not go without taking a sunset/beach photo. I simply could not deny myself! And then every night I would think to myself, “Well I’m glad I got that because tomorrow night there will be bad light and no clouds.” But I was always wrong. Every single night had a crazy light/cloud situation!

Filed under the categories: Caribbean, Travel, Virgin Gorda

Sony NEX-7

I still use this camera quite a bit and I’m adding new photos to my Sony NEX-7 Review. So if you haven’t popped over there in a while, you might see some new things!

Daily Photo – A Simple Wave

I don’t know what to think of this photo. I took it with the NEX-7 and did not process it at all. I find it a little bit interesting, but I am not sure why. I’ve stared at it for longer than I care to admit, trying to figure it out.

Filed under the categories: Caribbean, Nikon D800, Travel, Virgin Gorda