Join me in the Peachpit Photo Club Tonight!

Register now (Free!) for the Peachput Photo Club event!

The event is on Tuesday, September 28, 2010 from 8 to 9 p.m. ET (5 to 6 p.m. PT). See you soon!

A Great Day with Fabien!

Thanks again to the great Fabien Barral for showing us around Nimes for the day!  I’ve always been “internet-friends” with Fabien, and he is the designer that does this website as well as my book.  You should visit his website above to see some of his other amazing work.

We had a great day and evening together… I always enjoy meeting artists from all around the world and hearing their perspective on things.

Daily Photo – The Roman Gladiators of Gaul

Nimes has some very well preserved Roman ruins.  There is a huge park area that has stone walkways over ancient Roman waterways and this colosseum structure in the middle of town.

One of the coolest things about this colosseum is that it is still used on a regular basis!  When we were there, they were having a bullfight inside the arena.  I have some pictures of the aftermath, including trails of blood in the sand…  It’s fairly graphic, but you’ll have something new to see in coming weeks when I get around to processing those!

Renting a Car in Gaul

My current plan is to rent a car in Montpellier and then drive around the south of France a few days before driving to Barcelona. This may be one of my worst ideas, best ideas, or something the vacillates wildly between the two. We’ll see.

Daily Photo – Young girl on a bridge in Paris

I woke up one morning around 5:30 AM to go out and grab the sunrise on the Seine. I had a loose plan to criss-cross bridges all up and down the river and catch light at various moments. There is a delightful pedestrian bridge by the Louvre and Rue Bonaparte. It’s a strange little bridge that has thousands of tiny padlocks attached to the fence. Each one has a set of initials upon it. I’m sure it would take me 15 seconds on the internet to figure out what they mean… but for now, I’m just trying to figure it all out and holding 10 different romantic possibilities in my head simultaneously.

After a shooting a set of shots with the sun rising over Notre Dame, I saw a few girls on the bridge with me. It was a little cold this morning, and they were in coats, laughing and playing with their own camera. With my tripod still set up, I grabbed my D3S and 50 prime on my sling. I pulled it up quickly to grab a shot of one of the girls as she covered her face from the cool wind of the morning.

Join me in the Peachpit Photo Club!

Register now (Free!) for the Peachput Photo Club event!

If everything works out, I’ll be coming to you live from Beijing in a few days and we’ll have a nice gathering! There is a fabulous prize and I hope you all can come! All you need is your internet browser and, perhaps, a good cup of coffee or other edgy beverage.

The event is on Tuesday, September 28, 2010 from 8 to 9 p.m. ET (5 to 6 p.m. PT). See you there!

Daily Photo – Another Summer Day in Paris

I’m having an amazing time in Paris. As usual, it’s off-the-rails perfect. The weather has been remarkable, the sunsets amazing, and the chocolate flows like mana from heaven. I made it over to the Eiffel Tower for a big night of shooting, and arrived there just as the sun was setting. I have a few little special spots I like to visit around the tower that are not full of tourists and the like.

This shot looks much more delicate, perhaps, than I did while achieving it. Unfortunately, this was one of those tricky ones where the tripod legs were splayed out like a flattened armadillo. I looked beyond redonkulous while taking it… but I felt pretty good the result would work out well. As opposed to most shots, when I go into the sun and only use +3 to -3, this one was 9 exposures from +4 to -4. This helped to get some of the gentle colors under the flowers.

Renting a Car in Paris

No, I’m not renting the car below. But I am a little flummoxed. I’m taking the train from London to Paris, then spending about a week in France before going to Spain. I can’t decided if I want to go through the trouble of renting a car, or if I should just take trains everywhere. I don’t have quite as much time as I would like to explore the French countryside, so maybe I will stick with trains. My current plan is to spend some time in Paris, then go to Nimes before heading over to the Cote d’Azur. After that I’ll head to Barcelona by train for sure… but… in between, I just can’t decide.

Whenever I travel, I usually go into it with half-a-plan, as you can plainly see. I sometimes like to just figure things out on the fly and be flexible. Sometimes if things are overly planned, they lose some of the spontaneity of the adventure and the required intuitive creativity in dealing with new situations. I don’t know… maybe I am just rationalizing being a hit-and-miss planner.

Daily Photo – A Mercedes in Paris

While walking along the Champs-Élysées in Paris, I came across this really slick Mercedes dealership. I don’t even want to think about what the lease for this space is… but it is super cool.

I wonder if they would have let me walk in and take it out for a spin. I mean, you’re allowed to test-drive cars, right? I wonder if they’d be alarmed if I brought it back with a big Slurpee in the drink holder.

Viveza 2 Review

I have recently created the Viveza 2 Review. Have you ever heard of or used this product? You should! Check it out at that link for more.

Daily Photo – France, Through the Centuries

I’ll be arriving in France soon, and I can’t wait. There is something very comforting about some of these places where time seems to stand still through the ages. Notre Dame on the Seine is one of these places. I take photos every time I go… It’s always the same, but it shifts gently with the light and angle. I think this is very nice.

This photo was taken as part of the Viveza 2 review above. You can see a few more details about how I achieved the photo there after the link!

Barn Of Your Dreams now Avail for Collection!

We have another Limited Edition Numbered Print that has just come available. It’s called “The Barn of your Dreams”, and if you are a regular around here you probably remember this wonderful place in Wyoming. I hope you like it as much as I do!

Thanks for the comments on the prints I’ve received via email, btw. I’m glad you find these affordable and unique. I wanted to ensure that each one remains collectable and has a particular number – this seems to resonate well! Thanks again!

Stanford Photowalk

We had a great one in Stanford! There were 40-50 people there, and the weather was downright lousy! When I arrived, everyone was taking cover under the tree, so that was kind of amusing to see… a bunch of people with tripods in the middle of a green expanse, all packed under a tree with tripods sticking out in every direction!

I believe we spent about two hours together or so. We walked around, talked, and geeked out with HDR! It was great fun, and I met some really nice people. At the end of the evening, we ended up in a Stanford eatery and I gave away a bunch of Smugmug prizes!

If you were there, come share your photos in the Stuck in Stanford group on Flickr!

Open Photowalk and Speech at Stanford, between San Jose and San Francisco

Come join us!  It starts at 4 PM on Feb 4.  We meet at The Oval on the Stanford campus. We may or may not have a speech after the photowalk – my man there is having trouble setting up a venue – we will se

Daily Photo – The Church in Limelight

This is Le Sacre Couer in Paris. It’s a beautiful old Catholic church that sits in the Montmartre section of Paris. I tend to walk around these places 5-10 times as the light is falling… looking at various angles and the like. I see some of the same tourists on every trip around the horn, and they always wonder what the heck I am doing. Of course, this doesn’t bother me, since they’re just annoying tourists, and they barely register as human beings.

The Church in Limelight

Photo Information

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• Date Taken2020-07-08 14:34:39
• CameraNIKON D2Xs
• Camera MakeNikon
• Exposure Time1.6
• Aperture4.2
• ISO100
• Focal Length11.0 mm
• FlashNo Flash
• Exposure ProgramAperture-priority AE
• Exposure Bias+1

Renting a D3S from BorrowLenses

I have a Nikon D3S Review coming soon, but, in the meantime, I am renting the lens from Borrowlenses.com while waiting to buy one! I’m going to use it as a second camera to my D3X, since it is often a good idea to have a second camera around. I haven’t written the full review yet, but I started it a bit, so you can see why I made this decision.

The team from Borrowlenses told me they have a short promotion going on — 10% off rental with the code 2010. It’s like Netflix for camera stuff! I have a review up on the Lens Rental page here.

My Music Playlist

The other night while I was editing photos in front of the class for “bonus time”, I turned on some of my music that I have collected from around the world. People always ask me for that playlist! Well, I have a lot… I think I am going to put them together here soon so you can see too. I’ll get that up and going within the next few days!

Daily Post – La Cremaillere

Ahh, the streets of France. If I could stroll them every night and find a new place to eat, I think I would be forever happy.

Anyone want to go with me? Looks like there are a bunch of seats there. We can just hang out and talk and munch on all kinds of things. But, I warn you, I simply can’t travel with picky eaters. I need adventurous eaters that aren’t easily scared of the unfamiliar. Not that anything in France is too strange… compared my Asian dalliances with live goldfish, durian, fried insects, live octopi, and live flounder. Okay, maybe I don’t need you to be as extreme as me, but I get drained when people around me only want burgers. Maybe this is just me!

New How-to Video coming within a week

I have a nice long video that I shot while at Yellowstone.  It discusses an interesting shoot of an awesome geothermal location and the trouble I went through to get it.

It will be available in the Videos section, along with all the others

Daily Photo – Where the Impressionists Haunted the Streets

Montmartre, in the north of Paris, is a very artsy place and I would love to open a little photography studio there, even if it is a bit touristy now. I don’t think they had neon paint-palettes hanging in the streets when it was frequented by Monet, Pissarro, Renoir, and the whole cast of bohemian characters.

I’m halfway through a book now called “The Judgment of Paris”, about all these guys had to go through to get their paintings shown in the Salon. Old-school judges would only approve paintings that showed historical scenes and the moral teachings of antiquity. Consequently, dozens of today’s priceless paintings were stamped on the back with a big red “R” for “Refused”.

After the Impressionists’ paintings were refused by the selection committee, the artists would gather at cafes here, drinking wine that tasted of “mountwash and soot”, and lament about the state of the art, so to speak.

Where the Impressionists Haunted the Streets

Photo Information

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• Date Taken2020-07-09 12:11:25
• CameraNIKON D2Xs
• Camera MakeNikon
• Exposure Time2.2
• Aperture5.6
• ISO100
• Focal Length20.0 mm
• FlashNo Flash
• Exposure ProgramAperture-priority AE
• Exposure Bias+2

HDR Spotting invites still going out

I understand invites are still going out on HDRspotting.com. This was started with the simple idea that we can all increase the amount of attention for other HDR Photographers and drive traffic to their respective sites. The site always has new content on it, and more improvements come every week. For some of the best, see the Editor’s Picks!

Jason St. Peter from www.fiftypercentchanceofrain.com sent in this nice testimonial:

“I think HDRspotting has been a tremendous success and I am lucky to be part of it. It’s so cool to see so many great hdr artist in one spot. Being affiliated with hdr spotting and the stuck in customs brand has also helped drive much more visibility to my own blog. HDR Spotting quickly became my top referring site behind google and my top 10 images have over 35,000 views on the HDRspotting site. This is awesome in such a short time.”

Fan Page on Facebook

We made a few updates to the Fan Page on Facebook.  A new landing page and more FBML stuff on the way.  If any of you are FBML experts, drop me a note – I’d like to add some cool stuff to it!

Daily Photo – Impressions of Paris

I had a nice conversation with a friend this evening about the Impressionists of Paris and all they had to go through to get their work seen. The old-guard painters than headed the selection committee for the Salon of the late 19th century had a distaste for the Impressionists, and their work was continually rejected. I feel lucky that we all live at a time where our own impressions of the world can freely be shared. I hope sites such as HDRspotting can help everyone get their work better exposed to the world.