TechCrunch – Video Interview – The Rise of Social Photography

Visit the video and article.  I’ve posted a lot of videos here in the last few days!  Sorry I know some of you may get tired of hearing me say variations on the same thing… well… I hope not… BUT, right before our Austin PhotoWalk, I did this interview with Colleen Taylor from TechCrunch TV.

Daily Photo – Father and Daughter in Beijing

I was in one of my favorite artsy/bohemian areas of Beijing with my D3S doing some people-photography.  It’s some of the best people-watching in the world around there.

This area is full of all sorts of galleries, shops, curio-stores, antique shops, and other various unique Chinese shopping.  The crowd ranges from the wildly artistic to families out on a little escapade.  While I was weaving through the crowd myself, I spied this father and daughter walking in my direction…

Filed under the categories: Beijing, China, Travel

Category and “Previous” Reminder

I’ve been taking photos of different places around the world for many many years now, and you might enjoy a few deep dives into the history of it all!  To see more of any particular country, go choose it from the lower right.  Try, for example, Argentina.  After you scroll down through a page of photos, click “Previous” to see another page.  Most regular readers here know this, but new people pop in all the time — so there you go!

Daily Photo - Little Beijing

While at the top of one of new towers built for the Olympics, I was able to get a good vantage back towards different parts of the city.  Beijing is so spread out — there does not seem to be a central focus in the traditional “skyscraper” sense.  I’ve taken a few other downtown shots you might recall (click on the”Beijing” category), but this spot was kind of cool and unique because of this tower I was in.

I happened to be outside with Joe McNally, after we finally convinced the officials to let us get beyond the inside and dirty windows.  We were out in the “5th ring” where many Olympic venues were built.  And so, here was this huge tower in the outskirts, looking back towards the city.  It seemed like a good situation for a zoom-in compression shot.

Filed under the categories: Beijing, China, Nikon D3X, Travel

Hawaii PhotoWalk!

This one will be fun – for all the details, see the post from Tom Anderson on G+.

How to Remove Soundcloud App from FB?

A few weeks ago my friend Peter Gorges sent me a FB link to listen to some music, and I accidentally ended up installing the Soundcloud app into my FB stream.  Now, even though I keep deleting the updates, it keeps re-appearing.  I can’t figure out how to remove the dang app!  Any ideas?  (so annoying…!)

Daily Photo – Walking in the Park

Instead of describing this photo, I’ll talk about a little trick.  See how the background is all blurry and quite flat (not complex)?  This happens when you use a very low number for your F-Stop.  In this case, it was 1.4 on the 50mm 1.4 lens – although this would have also worked with the less inexpensive 1.8 lens.  Anyway, if the person (or object) you are shooting is a lot closer to you than the distant background, the entire area back there will be very washed-out and flat.  Behind her, there was actually a lot of complexity.  There was a park with trees and sky and lights and everything, but it all gets washed away with this technique.

Filed under the categories: Beijing, China, Nikon D3X, Travel

Renting a House in the Caribbean

I’m looking to rent a house for my family for a few weeks in April.   Any suggestions?

Daily Photo – Boat in Feng Huang

It was a cool and calm afternoon in the ancient and impossible town of Feng Huang. It’s an old town, wreathed in many legends.

On the old river, you can occasionally see a boat passing here and there. The boatmen come in all shapes and sizes, but many wear the same hat and style. It is absolutely like a warp of time…

Filed under the categories: China, Feng Huang, Nikon D3X, Travel

Patrick Rothfuss, Charity, The Show

So, regular friends around here will know that my inspiration comes from the world outside of photography.  I read like a madman.  And look, I’m not bragging when I say I’m very well-read in Fantasy.  That’s just a fact.  And so, maybe it carries a lot of weight when I say that Patrick Rothfuss is teaching us all.

Now, before I tell you more about that bit, first let me point you to Pat’s charity team at Worldbuilders.  I’ve donated, and you might like to also.  There are all kinds of rare signed books that will be given away as part of the fund-raising effort.

And…. Patrick will be joining me for Trey’s Variety Hour #22 on Monday night.  How cool is that?

What Do You See?

And… which eyes are mine?  Yes, I’ll be back at EG in Monterey this year…

Daily Photo – The Mysterious Creatures Among Us

While in the southern town of Lixiang, I came upon this creature in the evening.  Maybe you know the legend of this…  maybe it is better to make up your own legend than to have me tell you everything about it… or, perhaps one of you intrepid explorers in the community can tell us all what is going on here!

Filed under the categories: China, Lijiang, Nikon D3S, Travel

100 New Effects to Instagram and More Updates

The new version (iTunes Link) was released yesterday.  We have 755 reviews at a 4.5 star average – that is incredible, so thank you very much.  Now, what is new?  We fixed many issues with Flickr and Dropbox, added memory fixes, and integrated the new Twitter for 5.0.  Enjoy!

That link is to the iPad version, even though we also have one for the iPhone. I recommend the iPad version if you have a choice — it has many more features than the iPhone version… you will see what I mean!

Daily Photo – Deep into the Jungle Mists

I was many kilometers down this river away from the town.  I got off my little boat to do some hiking up through the hills through the jungle. It was dense.  Even when there was a little opening, it still felt like leaves and vines were pressing in on me.  On occasion, I would see a wider break that let me see into the mysterious beyond.

Filed under the categories: China, Guilin, Li River, Travel

New Authors Coming Online

We have many new authors over at Flatbooks.com (as well as many new ebooks!).  Check out the Authors section to see who is working on upcoming books.  Very exciting!

Daily Photo – The Forbidden City

Early one morning I decided to hike up the biggest hill in the middle of Central Axis to get a shot of the Forbidden City.

Once up there, it was an amazing view of the old city.  There’s not many cities in the world that have kept such a huge area so well preserved.  It’s about as close as you can get to time travel in the real world (so far).  And then, when the light is right in these strange hours, it is a completely transportive experience.

Filed under the categories: Beijing, China, Nikon D3X, Travel

Schemer

Have you heard of Google Schemer?  I believe it is in beta.  That is a link to my personal page… It’s a fun way to find things to do “in the real world” and I’ve been using it from time to time.

If you want an invite, watch my Google+ Stream later today for a little giveaway…

Daily Photo – From The Top of the Great Wall

Far in the north, this area of the Great Wall has been overgrown with vegetation.  Birds and little creatures are all over the place.  A path has been made over time, and it weaves in and out of these overgrown bits.  The wall is so wide that it’s sometimes easy to forget that you are standing on top of a huge structure.

Filed under the categories: Beijing, China, Nikon D3X, Travel

Live Hangout Thursday Night!

Topic: DSLRs are Forever? Subtext: You don’t always need DSLRs now or in the future to get DSLR-quality photos…

• NEW Guests: +Romain Guy from Google, one of the minds behind the camera phone for the new+Android Galaxy Nexus… maybe can goad him into hot tips! +James Brandon from Digital Photography School; +Gordon Laing from CameraLabs.com ; +Frederick Van Johnson from This Week in Photo ; +Kelli Seeger Kim from Behind the Lens; and +RC Concepcion from Kelby Media.
• Time: Thurs at 8 PM PT – Your World Time
• Where:  Watch my Google+ Stream for the embedded player.

Daily Photo – The Bird’s Nest From Above

I was at the top of this tower late one night in Beijing.  It’s a cool tower (I don’t have a photo of it), but it’s the kind of tower that will look awful in about 10 years.  Anyway, this photo is not about the tower.

The famous Bird’s Nest stadium was spread out beneath me.  When I saw this scene, I knew I was going to shave off the top and the bottom.  The bottom was kind of interesting.  The top was dreadful.  It’s a bit painful to take a photo when I know I’m going to be cutting out so much, but I do it quite often anyway.

Filed under the categories: Beijing, China, Travel

Amazing New eBook!

Check out FlatBooks.com to see “Photographing the Fourth Dimension – Time” from Jim Goldstein.  I think you’ll love it…  And, I hate to say judge a book by its cover – but – go ahead!

Lijiang is a Photo Holiday!

This turned out to be an amazing place for photos! If you’d like to see all the photos from this area, click on the Lijiang Category here or at the bottom of the post.

Daily Photo – Walking Blind through China

As Tom Anderson and I were leaving the old area of Lijiang one evening, we saw these two coming towards us in the opposite direction. One of them was blind (perhaps both), and one played a small stringed instrument while the other held out a bowl for donations.

I squatted down and waited for them to enter a little pool of light from a nearby shot before I took the photo. And then I walked over and put a little donation in the bowl.

Filed under the categories: China, Lijiang, Nikon D3S, Travel

Announcement! A Photography Workshop at Google Giveaway!

Are you in LA and want to join me for a great day at Google for a photography workshop? Watch my Google+ Stream today for instructions on how to win the giveaway. It will be an amazing time!

Textures

This photo below, like others you see on occasion, use a texture method that I get a lot of questions about. We have a popular Textures Tutorial here on the site that comes with a ton of different textures in case you are curious to learn more…

Daily Photo – The Long Path to the Temple of Heaven

It was a beautiful morning in Beijing. It was cool and crisp, and I walked around this historic area while locals were doing yoga and various other exercises. There are many ancient, repeating structures that cover the grounds in a very orderly manner. This is one of the many long structures that helps to connect various areas of the complex.

Filed under the categories: Beijing, China, Nikon D3X, Textures, Travel

Just in! I took a quick photo here... it's still warm!

Running Out of Calendars

It looks like this will be sold out by the end of the year. I suppose that is good timing, since 2012 is pretty soon!

It’s a great gift for you, for your family, and for your friends.  Our little team of elves is standing by to pack everything up for you!

$19.99 (U.S. and Canada)*

Stuck in Customs 2012 Wall Calendar Full calendar with high-quality-saddle-stitched page High-quality glossy one-hundred-pound cover with eighty-pound pages inside 12 beautiful images from around the world

Daily Photo – Ascending to the Temple at Night

There is a temple atop a huge hill in Lijiang that has several “staging areas” for rest along the way. This is one of them.

This is an area where I took a lot of photos of the old town below. That area is kind of behind me here in this photo, although that is hard to tell from this vantage. It is a good resting place to recharge your batteries before finishing the rest of the hike up the stairs to the top. There’s also a little shop here that sells snacks and drinks… To me, a true adventurer never passes up a good snack.

Filed under the categories: China, Lijiang, Nikon D3X, Travel