Newsletter Special

Those of you that sign up for the free Newsletter not only hear about specials, but you sometimes get to see videos early! Like this one below… Happy subscribers got to see it first!

Behind the Scenes in the New Zealand Forest (silly video warning)

I ran around in the forest in New Zealand with Curtis, Karen, and Scott. We decided to make a video after we got to a stopping point… Anyway, here’s something fun (and maybe a tad useful) for you

Daily Photo – Exploring the old Village

If you ever get to Mont Saint Michel, give the whole place a full circle on the curtain wall. It’s easy to get up on the wall (and quite safe to walk on… even though walking on a wall sounds dangerous). There are stairs to get up there and everything. Anyway, the wall circumnavigates about a third of the old village and monastery. There are countless good angles. It’s also worth walking this route at least three times – Sunrise (or sunset), mid day, and night!

Filed under the categories: France, Mont Saint Michel, Nikon D800, Travel, tutorial

Downton Abbey

This is a pretty good show. I recommend it! I feel like I’m watching Masterpiece Theater, and that makes it sound rather boring, but it is not. Every one of the actors on here is very good… anyway, give it a chance if you want to watch The Most British Show Ever Made!

Daily Photo – Mont Saint Michel at Sunset

Oh my god getting to this location at the last second was difficult and lucky.

I started the wild car ride about 30 minutes beforehand inside that walled city. I looked on Google Maps to figure out how to get to this exact spot. Now, I had no mobile internet, so I basically had to memorize the way here. It required going through, and I kid you not, about seven different roundabouts, each one exiting in a strange, non obviously spot. Anyway, to my and Tom’s surprise, I exited each one perfectly and made it here with ZERO mistakes. Note that I am not nearly always this flawless, but it worked out and we got here just in time for sunset!

Filed under the categories: France, Mont Saint Michel, Travel

Fun Show Last Night!

Last night’s show was a lot of fun. Be sure to check out Kate Russell from the BBC, Thomas Hawk, Brian Matiash, Don the Snowflake guy, Ollie Dale, and Gino Barassa… and Dave Veffer as always! We do the show every Monday night at 7 PM PT, 10 PM ET !

If you come here to the website just before the show, you’ll see the embedded player up and ready to run… and you can see last night’s show in the post below this one! You’ll even see a sneak preview of a documentary that I am in from Ollie called “Virtually Famous”.

Daily Photo – The Towering Medieval Hotel

I’m sure Europeans find this kind of architecture to be quaint and banal, but I rather like it. In fact, I’d say it’s just about one of my favorites! Whenever I see old buildings in this style, it makes me a little bit happy.

This one was in the village of Mont Saint Michel. It was one of very few hotels that are tightly woven into the old medieval walled complex. I didn’t go inside, but it felt like it was right out of Skyrim!

Filed under the categories: France, Mont Saint Michel, Nikon D800, Travel

Small Rental Car

If you’re going to rent a car in France (or most other places in Europe), you had better not say you want a “small” car. If you do, the car will be smaller than you expect. In fact, it will be smaller than both you and your bags expect. It’s best to ask for 4 doors, otherwise you may not have room for anything other than yourself and a small espresso cup. I found this out the hardway on a roadtrip here through Bordeaux with Tom! Anyway… a little word of warning there!

Daily Photo – The Towering Old Village

Aren’t medieval places the best? Yes! I wonder what it would be like to live here all the time. Maybe you’d get tired of how charming and Hansel & Gretel everything is all the time… I doubt it though!

Around this old monastery of Mont Saint Michel is a curtain wall where you can easily walk along the top. It’s quite cool because every few steps there is a good view of the village and the tower above, each view offering another good photo op.

Filed under the categories: France, Mont Saint Michel, Nikon D800, Travel

Want the info on any of my shots?

Every day, I upload the max rez image along with all the EXIF info to SmugMug. To see the EXIF for yourself, just click through the image to the SmugMug page where you can see a little “i” when you hover over the image. Click that to get the info!

Daily Photo – The Cemetery in the Monastery Castle

I know that purists tend to call this place more of a monastery, but I call it more of a castle! To me, after all, it just looks like an almighty castle (said in Bob-Ross-voice), doesn’t it?

For this one, I got down pretty low with the Nikon 14-24 lens. I had the engines pushed to Warp 10 at 14mm! The rest of the EXIF is ISO 100, f/8, 15 seconds for one of the exposures.

Filed under the categories: France, Mont Saint Michel, Nikon D800, Travel

Rankings in NZ

This is a funny post from New Zealand photographer Jason Law: NZ Photographers more popular than our Prime Minister on Google+… Pretty funny to see that myself and a few other close photographer friends here in Queenstown/Central Otago are more popular than our Prime Minister.. Perhaps +Todd Sisson or +Stefan Haworth should run for Prime Minister next term?.. Check out www.circlecount.com for some interesting stats.. http://www.circlecount.com/nz/profileslist/

Daily Photo – Exploring the Medieval Mont Saint Michel

I think if you ever go to Mont Saint Michel that you should really try to stay up on the island. Hotel space is extremely limited, but it gives you the chance to walk around the old walled city deep into the night. All the tourists are gone, and the only people around are the supposed 46 people that live there, according to Wikipedia.

Here, an old man walks home after a day at work.

Filed under the categories: France, Mont Saint Michel, Nikon D800, Travel

New Zealand Photographers hangout today

Today’s live show will feature some New Zealand Photographers. Tune in live at 7 PM PT/ 10 PM ET! We’ll also give some background on the softlaunch of the new HDRSpotting.com!

Daily Photo – The Secret Room, Deep in the Abbey

Once you make it all the way up to the monastery at Mont Saint Michel, you have to pay to get inside and take the self-guided tour. It’s totally worth it, and you’ll be amazed by all the various rooms that are scattered throughout the interior.

While walking around, Tom told me that there is an Assassin’s Creed level that is based on this place. I need to find that so I can run around it the way I really wanted to!

Filed under the categories: France, Mont Saint Michel, Nikon D800

HDR Tutorial and More for the Christchurch Photo Event

I know we have many people coming to Christchurch this week for the big event! For anyone new or just getting into post-processing photos, here’s a collection of links and stuff from the HDR Tutorial here on the site.

Software I use (in order of importance):

• Photomatix Pro (required) – Save money by using the code ”STUCKINCUSTOMS” – grab it from the Photomatix website (there’s also a free trial version that leaves a watermark).
• Photoshop (recommended) – You can buy Photoshop (click) right from the Adobe website, and begin the download. You can also use Photoshop Elements, although I do not recommend it in my Photoshop Review because it does not allow other robust plugins. Now, if you follow the tutorial to the final steps, you will see that I suggest using Photoshop to “clean up” problems from Photomatix above. So, it is not absolutely necessary, but it is recommended.
• Noiseware Professional (optional) – I have tried a multitude of “noise reduction” software packages. You’ll notice that the HDR process can create a bit of noise, to say the least. I use Noiseware Professional.  Online, you can order the Full Suite for Windows or the Full Suite for Mac to get all their products and save money (I use them all – see my Reviews).  Or, you can just go to the Imagenomic website and just choose Noiseware Professional.
  • Note:  After you “Proceed to Checkout”, use the Imagenomic Coupon Code “STUCKINCUSTOMS” to save even more money!
• Topaz Adjust (optional and awesome) - You can grab it from the Topaz Website. This product can help bring some contrast and pop into the final product. I have a Topaz Adjust Review here on the site if you want to read more. If you can afford a little more, I suggest the whole Topaz Photoshop Bundle since it comes with a lot of other goodies too!
• What else do I use? – I use many tools and have a blast with them all. If you want other amazing pieces of software that I use, then I suggest you see my Nik Review and my onOne Plugin Review. Both are great!

Daily Photo – The Streets of Mont Saint Michel

I miss this place already!

I had a magical time exploring this place night after night. It never got boring and there were hundreds of little nooks, crannies, staircases, doors, and other mysteries to discover! I even got in the middle of a cat fight while two medieval cats duked it out… the whole place was dead quiet up until the point. That sound of fighting cats is hard to ignore… and then it all went back to quiet after that.

By the way, if you ever come to this amazing place, I suggest you sleep up inside the walled city. There aren’t a lot of rooms up there, so plan ahead. I think it’s better than staying outside of the city, because you get to roam around inside of it at night…

Filed under the categories: France, Mont Saint Michel, Nikon D800

Social Media How-To

Here is something MANY people have been asking for – a primer on social media! So, I’ve (somehow) gotten over 8 million followers on Google+, Twitter, Facebook, and Pinterest combined, and I just did this interview below about this. Many people ask me about social media, so now I am pointing you to Frederick Van’s Site to find out more.

If you find the talk below interesting, you should go check out more free stuff on Fred’s site or sign up for his course. If you enter STUCKINCUSTOMS, you’ll get $50 off he says – so go for it!

I don’t personally sell any ebooks or videos about social media, but you should really pay attention to Frederick Van here. I trust him, and you should too. If you’re looking to grow your knowledge and expertise in this area, Fred will get you set up! I know the course is called something like “Social Media for Photographers”, but I think it’s probably applicable to many disciplines… I should get him to change the name to make it more broad!

Daily Photo – Mont Saint Michel

After Paris, I rented a car with Tom and we drove off through France through Normandy. We finally arrived at this magical place — an amazing location I’ve always wanted to visit.

It’s a huge fortified monastery atop a fortified and walled city. At low-tide, you can walk out across the sand to get there, but in high tide, it becomes an island. Is there anything more awesome? I don’t think so!

Filed under the categories: France, Mont Saint Michel, Travel