That there is a special audio commentary along with this photo? You can see it over at http://www.treyratcliff.com/ — hunt and espy this photo to hear it!
Daily Photo – The less populated bits of China
The city grew without changing its core growth algorithm. I don’t even feel that old, but in my few visits to China, I can actually see the logarithmic growth. From shrubbery and farmland to concrete and stacking, there seems to be a pre-programmed mushroom-time-lapse strangeness to the shaping. It is all supposed to make sense with perspective and from above, and I suppose it sort of does, but in moments of doubt, it makes no sense at all.
If you haven’t seen this, it’s pretty funny! 🙂 I was reminded of this because, during the filming of this show, I took the photo below… you can see Kai and I standing in that circle.
Daily Photo – The Landing Pad in Hong Kong
I don’t actually know the purpose of this circle. I don’t think it’s a helipad, but as you can see above, Kai and I definitely used it for one! 🙂
Here’s yet another installment of Facebook Live 🙂 We did this one right BEFORE the one you saw in yesterday’s blog post with Sir Michael Hill.
The Boilerplate:
We’re doing several of these per week. They’re fun and interactive and you can ask me questions live. Be sure to come to my Facebook Page and up at the top where it says “Like” click the down arrow choose “See First” — Also if you like these videos, share with your FB friends! 🙂
More from this scene
You might remember this scene from the video below! That’s my assistant there, Adi, carrying the umbrella. Many Chinese girls carry around umbrellas to keep their skin as white as possible.
Oh, and here’s another picture when her umbrella suddenly got inverted on a windy day!
Daily Photo – Adi with Umbrella
Here we are exploring the ming tombs… In many ways, actually, in MOST ways, she was a terrible assistant. She was super duper skinny and had virtually zero arm strength. She couldn’t carry my quadcopter or camera or bag or anything! She said that just carrying the umbrella exhausted her. It was the strangest thing… it was almost comical in its strangeness. It wasn’t like she was malnourished or anything. She simply preferred not to carry anything because she found it tiring.
One of my favorite parts of this video below is when Alan Watts talks about China.
Daily Photo – Happy Guy in China
This was the happiest guy in the monastery! I had never been to this one before in Beijing, and I arrived on the day that all the monks we re-supplying with fresh groceries and drinks. This guy was taking all the groceries in, load after load after load. He was so happy the whole time. And then I looked what he was carrying on the last load, and it was a huge crate of Red Bull!
A few people have told me that they can’t access Stuck In Customs from mainland China. Can anyone confirm this?
Daily Photo – This guy doesn’t seem so confident in his proposal
I come across so many strange wedding-photography scenes in Beijing. Each one is so quirky and funny… strange outfits, signs, props, everything you can imagine! Since I tend to visit some of the most photogenic places, so do the wedding photographers, but they’re always clogging up all the scenes with these strange setups. It’s not so bad, I guess… always entertaining to watch. Here’s one of those in-betweener shots!
This guy doesn’t seem so confident in his proposal
Don’t forget to check out the Aurora HDR Tips page that I created here on the site. I’ll keep adding more videos in the future! 🙂
Daily Photo – Walking through Ming’s Tombs
One day in Beijing, I drove about an hour north of the city to visit Ming’s Tomb. It was really a nice trip… and more like a walk in a 5km park than visiting a mausoleum or something. I expected crypts or catacombs or something with a name in “Ming’s Tomb” but it was nothing like that… There were beautiful garden paths and many of these sorts of structures, all aligned along the central axis that connects everything from The Forbidden City to the Summer Palace and countless other Chinese monuments around Beijing.
I now use Screenflow Pro almost exclusively for editing videos. It’s really great! It took me a while to get my head around using it for editing all video and not just screen capture. I used to use iMovie/Final Cut X/Premiere for editing video, but those are so clunky for the basic edit. Anyway, I really recommend it if you wanna quickly edit video. It’s easy, fast, and fun!
Daily Photo – Pai Zoomy
I spent an evening in Hong Kong with my friends Pai and Lee. We walked randomly around the city doing some bar-hopping. It’s very hilly there, so there are countless public escalators from point to point. I started a new technique where I set up the tripod on the escalator to do a long exposure to achieve this effect. It looks cool, but it’s actually really hard to set up a tripod on steps that are moving… but I did achieve Level 4 Tripod Ninja when I got this photo.
I’ve ended up with a lot of really cool aerial footage from around the world… I was thinking of making a screensaver that randomly shows different scenes. Maybe I should do it? I dunno… have a lot of projects in the works but that one sounds particularly fun!
Daily Photo – Bad Ass Bird Guy from China
This guy was so cool. That bird was like is familiar… they go out fishing all the time, so I guess they get to know a lot about one another. And that bird can clearly see that his fisherman human is a total bad ass. If I was that fisherman, I could not even manage to stand up on that bamboo raft… probably I’d be falling in backwards while the bird was pecking my eyes out.
Has anyone else noticed that Lightroom gets REALLY slow sometimes? It’s driving me nuts lately… sometimes it’s quick. Other times, I click on a preset and it takes like 10 seconds. I can’t figure it out! I have a fast computer and stuff… Oh Adobe!
Daily Photo – Exploring the Karst Rock Formations in China
I spent a lot more time on boats this time around in China. Isn’t the water a strange color? It’s sort of an oily, thick green, isn’t it? I don’t think it was really dirty with human waste or anything… just a massive amount of silt and organic runoff from this area in the Li Valley. It was sort of a hypnotic because these long thin boats would make these long horizontal wave patterns through this strange viscous fluid… I watched the waves for like 5 minutes in a row like I was stoned or something!
If you like turn-based games, I have a suggestion! Go check out a great game from Doublefine called Massive Chalice! Okay, there’s my game suggestion for the month! 🙂
Daily Photo – Going Vertical in Hong Kong
I’m not sure there’s any bad views from the top of anything in Hong Kong. You can just sort of aim the camera in a random direction, and you’re good to go! I was at a rooftop bar here that had incredible views! I think I shot in all four directions and the hardest thing was choosing which photo to edit first. I do like the way this one came out very blue and Blade-Runnery.
