The Last Teaser Video

No need for more teaser videos… since the Kickstarter is less than 48 hours away! Check out https://stuckincustoms.com/links/kickstarter

The Chinese Visa System

You have no idea how much trouble I’ve had getting visas into China. Visas are such an antiquated system, and I can’t believe they still exist in today’s world. I know they are ways to get extra money and keep track of you, but there are much more efficient means for doing this nowada

Daily Photo – Alone in China

This is absolutely one of my favorite photos from the past year, but I don’t think anyone else likes it as much as I do.

Alone in China

Photo Information

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• Date Taken2014-05-26 16:16:07
• CameraILCE-7R
• Camera MakeSony
• Exposure Time1/5
• Aperture7.1
• ISO125
• Focal Length14.0 mm
• FlashOff, Did not fire
• Exposure ProgramAperture-priority AE
• Exposure Bias+1

Another Teaser

Here’s another… what are we about to release with Peak Design? Less thank a week now! 🙂 To see the latest, pop over here!

Where exactly is this place

100 points to whoever can figure out the name of this store! 🙂

Daily Photo – Crazy Model and Curio Shop in Beijing

I have a bad habit of walking by a lot of stores that would probably be interesting to explore. I’m often out shooting in the streets, the architecture, the everything… and once you pass a few storefronts, you end up passing more and more. But this place was a real treat — I’m glad I decided to go inside!

Crazy Model and Curio Shop in Beijing

Photo Information

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• Date Taken2011-09-17 01:19:28
• CameraNIKON D3X
• Camera MakeNikon
• Exposure Time10
• Aperture22
• ISO100
• Focal Length14.0 mm
• FlashNo Flash
• Exposure ProgramAperture-priority AE
• Exposure Bias+2

Best Cirque de Soleil?

Which one is your favorite, or which ones have you seen?  After a while, they all kind of blend together or me.  I guess my favorite was “O” that I saw at the Bellagio in Vegas a few year

Daily Photo – Crazy Chinese Opera-Circus-Thing

I was invited to this crazy scene in Beijing. I knew it was gonna be intense before I went, but I did not anticipate the weirdness of it. And it wasn’t a good-kinda weird like Cirque de Soliel. It was the strange-kinda weird where you feel like it was designed by somebody completely insane. Everything was happening all the time… a lot of dangerous stuff too — I have a feeling the Chinese have less stringent safety standards than in the west.  

Crazy Chinese Opera-Circus-Thing

Photo Information

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• Date Taken2013-05-26 08:44:06
• CameraNEX-7
• Camera MakeSony
• Exposure Time1/125
• Aperture5.6
• ISO1600
• Focal Length104.0 mm
• FlashAuto, Did not fire
• Exposure ProgramProgram AE
• Exposure Bias

35mm F/1.4

I was able to get this focus trick working with the Leica 35mm F/1.4. Be sure to check out the Leica Lens Buying Guide here on the site!

Daily Photo – Super Massive China Dot Com

Okay this is a really stupid title for this photo but I still like it! Haha! Yeah here we are back in the Beijing Planning Museum. All the big cities in China have these museums that are open and free. They are always totally empty too, allow tripods, and have limitless photos inside… one of my best possible hot tips for China.

Super Massive China Dot Com

Photo Information

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• Date Taken2014-05-25 14:45:20
• CameraILCE-7R
• Camera MakeSony
• Exposure Time1/250
• Aperture
• ISO640
• Focal Length
• FlashOff, Did not fire
• Exposure ProgramManual
• Exposure Bias

Another place I got in trouble

This is the first place I got in trouble for flying the quadcopter. But it was worth it because I got some amazing photos and videos from the air. There are really no laws about them in this area because nobody owns one. So, since it’s impossible to get permission for something they don’t understand, I just went for it. It’s such a new “category” that many remote places don’t have any rules about them at all…

Daily Photo – Watching the Dancers in Beijing

I was invited to a special event in the Summer Palace where we got to see a traditional Chinese theater show. These girls would dance around and do all sorts of things. I was wondering a pole would come out at some point, but then it occurred to me this would probably not happen. But if it did, boy my camera was ready for action!

Watching the Dancers in Beijing

Photo Information

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• Date Taken2014-05-26 22:32:42
• CameraILCE-7R
• Camera MakeSony
• Exposure Time1/6000
• Aperture
• ISO500
• Focal Length
• FlashOff, Did not fire
• Exposure ProgramManual
• Exposure Bias

Come Watch Live on Thursday!

Here’s the event (Click!) and where you can watch Live!

Live Photo Event – Organize Your Photos! – Thursday 6 PM PST, 9 PM EST (or check your local time on the event page)

Join me as we do a live Google+ Hangout soon. It’s a free event and I’ll be talking about how I organize my photos —I have a pretty good system I think that I believe would work for anyone because there are a few levels of “extremity” depending on how organized you want to be!

I know some of you have enjoyed the “Organize Your Photos!” tutorial and even if you already have it, you’ll enjoy seeing this, as I’ve added a bit of stuff! Some of it has to do with merging photos I take “on the road” back with the mother lode. I’m also putting together a strategy around the new all-encompassing Photos app for the Mac.

As always, there will be a live Q&A. I’ll also be looking at questions in the Stuck In Customs community — it’s always great to watch the activity in there!

Here’s a little video that shows what we’ll be talking about a bit!

https://www.youtube.com/wat

Daily Photo – Late Night in Beijing

This place is always mega-crowded and a place most everyone visits when they come to China. It’s hard not to ignore with that huge photo of Chairman Mao floating up there. It’s amazing, actually, how popular Mao has become once again, especially with young people…I’ve heard many talk about what a great man he was, apparently not knowing he killed an estimated 40-70 million people during the revolution. Many carry his photo or come here to pay homage. Can you imagine huge photos of Stalin in Moscow or Hitler in Berlin? My goodness…

Late Night in Beijing

Photo Information

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• Date Taken2014-05-26 02:35:21
• CameraILCE-7R
• Camera MakeSony
• Exposure Time1
• Aperture6.3
• ISO160
• Focal Length18.0 mm
• FlashOff, Did not fire
• Exposure ProgramAperture-priority AE
• Exposure Bias+1

Upcoming Photography & Yoga retreat in New Zealand!

New Events:

*New Zealand Autumn 2015* – Sold out
*New Zealand Photo & Yoga Adventure* – https://stuckincustoms.com/photography-workshop-yoga-retreat/
*Venice* – Not yet announced, watch our Newsletter at https://stuckincustoms.com/news

Here’s a video that talks more about our workshops!

Daily Photo – Two Chinas Together

I found this old monastic area of Beijing that was right in the middle of the city. Inside there was really no one but monks. If you look close here, you can see that it is “resupply day” and the monks were carrying goods from the entrance back towards their living quarters. I looked inside one of the boxes, and I’m not kidding you, it was full of Red Bull!

Two Chinas Together

Photo Information

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• Date Taken2014-05-31 15:16:26
• CameraILCE-7R
• Camera MakeSony
• Exposure Time1/1600
• Aperture4
• ISO200
• Focal Length25.0 mm
• FlashOff, Did not fire
• Exposure ProgramAperture-priority AE
• Exposure Bias

Beijing From Above

Today’s photo is related to this video I made below! 🙂 You can read the whole story about the incarceration here on the blog!

Daily Photo – A windy day at the Forbidden City

Here’s my assistant in China, getting wind-blown and umbrella-inverted at the Forbidden City. As much as I like to tease her for being a rather useless assistant who could carry little more than an African swallow, she did get me out of incarceration with her fast-Chinese-talkin’. It wasn’t too long after this that we ended up behind lock & key for flying the quadcopter in the video above…

A windy day at the Forbidden City

Photo Information

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• Date Taken2014-05-25 20:46:24
• CameraILCE-7R
• Camera MakeSony
• Exposure Time1/125
• Aperture9
• ISO160
• Focal Length15.0 mm
• FlashOff, Did not fire
• Exposure ProgramAperture-priority AE
• Exposure Bias+1.3

The video behind it

I happened to have on my Google Glass while doing some photography here. When these nice people came up, I just kept it rolling!

Daily Photo – “Everyone check out the white dude!”

I don’t know if this is how it translates exactly from Chinese to English, but I’m pretty sure that is what these people were saying when they surrounded me in Tiananmen Square. I find the vast majority of people around the world to nice, smiling, and very happy to meet new people. This is one of those patterns I see time and time again and it gives me faith in the whole human race — this was kind of one of those shining examples!

“Everyone check out the white dude!”

Photo Information

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• Date Taken2014-05-25 16:49:12
• CameraILCE-7R
• Camera MakeSony
• Exposure Time1/250
• Aperture
• ISO100
• Focal Length
• FlashOff, Did not fire
• Exposure ProgramManual
• Exposure Bias

Drought in California

I keep hearing about how bad the drought in California — is it as bad as people say? I saw these amazing pictures, taken three years apart.

Even though I’ve been to Beijing many times now, I’m often confused as the relative distance of one thing to the next. Here, at the Summer Palace, it turns out is very close to almost all the key stuff along the Central Axis (which is kind of a spiritual line that goes north-south through Beijing. But the first time I came here, it took over a 2 hours, and not just because of lousy Beijing traffic! So, I had this thing in my mind that this place was really super far. I was low on time but decided to try risking coming back again. This time it literally took 5 minutes. I’m still confused by the whole experience!

The Summer Palace, late in the day

Photo Information

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• Date Taken2014-05-26 23:46:48
• CameraILCE-7R
• Camera MakeSony
• Exposure Time1/1500
• Aperture
• ISO160
• Focal Length
• FlashOff, Did not fire
• Exposure ProgramManual
• Exposure Bias