French Polynesia – Page 3 – Stuck in Customs
10
Nov 2014 : Monday
filed under  Bora Bora, French Polynesia

New Weekly Show! You Heard it here first!

Day-Of-Critiques!

See the Live Critiques that are happening today on my Facebook Page as a special promotional event for the New Thing We Are Announcing Today! Come join the party, and thanks for your support!

The New Photography Competition Show – The Creation Wars

Come see the new show and support us! (this launches TODAY!). This is something totally new we are doing, and I think you’re gonna love it. We did about 100 of the “old” shows and then I went away with the team to re-group and come up with something Completely Different, but with enough of the old magic formula.

Daily Photo – The Peaceful and the Stormy Blues

On the day in Bora Bora when we went out to swim with the sharks, it was perfectly beautiful and calm. Then, out of almost nowhere, this angry storm started rolling in. We were in quite shallow, shark-ridden water at this point, and the sun was still hitting it from behind. And then I had this somewhat terrifying thought that above me was death, below me was death, and the only thing keeping me between the two was a few thin pieces of wood!

The Peaceful and the Stormy Blues

Photo Information

  • Date Taken2014-06-27 11:34:51
  • CameraILCE-7R
  • Camera MakeSony
  • Exposure Time1/2000
  • Aperture4
  • ISO100
  • Focal Length37.0 mm
  • FlashOff, Did not fire
  • Exposure ProgramManual
  • Exposure Bias

Comments
8
Nov 2014 : Saturday
filed under  Bora Bora, French Polynesia

To the Island in Morning Fog

Latest Prices and Links for Macphun Stuff

I used Tonality Pro to make this — be sure to read the Macphun Review to find out more.

There are only three packages I’ll list here, since these are the ones where I have the most familiarity. For other camera or software recommendations, see Trey’s Gear and Tools.

For a limited time use the coupon code “stuckincustoms” to save 10% on all Macphun Pro products.

TRY MACPHUN TODAY!

Daily Photo – To the Island in Morning Fog

The weather was almost always perfect in Bora Bora, but one day there was a very heavy morning fog. I thought everything looked so awesome and monochromatic, especially this tiny little island. I took the photo and ahead of time I had the idea that it would look cool in just black and white — I’m glad my idea actually worked out!

To the Island in Morning Fog

Photo Information

  • Date Taken2014-06-28 11:11:04
  • CameraILCE-7R
  • Camera MakeSony
  • Exposure Time1/5000
  • Aperture4
  • ISO320
  • Focal Length70.0 mm
  • FlashOff, Did not fire
  • Exposure ProgramAperture-priority AE
  • Exposure Bias

Comments
2
Nov 2014 : Sunday
filed under  Bora Bora, Camera Gear, French Polynesia, Photography Tips, Sony A7R

Another Night in Bora Bora

EXIF Info

Remember, there are two ways to see the EXIF info for each of my shots. You can hover the mouse over and see them, or if you click through to SmugMug, you can click on the little “i” and see this information! BTW, I don’t even know what some of that means… like “Brightness -24026/256”??? Maybe one of you smarties can tell me what that means!

Camera SONY ILCE-7R (Sony A7r)
ISO 800
Exposure Time 25s (25/1)
Name The Bungalows at Night.jpg
Size 7837 x 5884
Date Taken 2014-06-29 19:55:35
Date Modified 2014-07-04 08:47:18

File Size 23.88 MB
Flash flash did not fire, compulsory flash mode
Metering pattern
Exposure Program manual
Exposure Bias 0 EV
Exposure Mode manual
Light Source unknown
White Balance auto
Digital Zoom 1.0x
Contrast 0
Saturation 0
Sharpness 0
Color Space sRGB
Brightness -24026/256

Daily Photo – Another Night in Bora Bora

Was every night in Bora Bora this pretty, or just the ones where I took photos? It was EVERY NIGHT! It was so pretty every night, how could you NOT go out and take photos? With that mountain and the amazing architecture over the water… it was so awesome and a real treat to be here.

Another Night in Bora Bora

Photo Information

  • Date Taken2014-06-29 19:55:35
  • CameraILCE-7R
  • Camera MakeSony
  • Exposure Time25
  • Aperture
  • ISO800
  • Focal Length
  • FlashOff, Did not fire
  • Exposure ProgramManual
  • Exposure Bias

Comments
12
Oct 2014 : Sunday
filed under  Bora Bora, French Polynesia, Photography Tips, Sony A7R

Wild clouds in Bora Bora

Wide-Angle Tip

If you like these kinds of shots where everything seems to be pointing towards the middle, try a wide-angle lens! I first shot this a bit tighter. It was a cool shot, but then when I put on the wide-angle everything got so much more amazing! I even sometimes forget this effect, and it’s so fun to look through a wide-angle lens and see it happen!

Daily Photo – Wild clouds in Bora Bora

Just before I took this, I was hand-feeding a puffer fish! It was one of the strangest things I had ever done. First I picked up a sea urchin off the bottom and held it loosely in my hand. Then the puffer fish came over and started tearing into it! Puffer fish don’t care! It was so awesome to watching him tear it apart. They have big and hard teeth, those guys… kind of freaky really. It’s the first time I’ve ever done anything like that.

Anyway, after feeding the fish, I looked up through the water and saw these crazy clouds. I got out of the water, nabbed my camera, and shot away!

Wild clouds in Bora Bora

Photo Information

  • Date Taken2014-06-25 14:44:45
  • CameraILCE-7R
  • Camera MakeSony
  • Exposure Time1/640
  • Aperture7.1
  • ISO100
  • Focal Length16.0 mm
  • FlashOff, Did not fire
  • Exposure ProgramAperture-priority AE
  • Exposure Bias

Comments
14
Sep 2014 : Sunday
filed under  Bora Bora, French Polynesia

Heading to Africa

Cape Town, South Africa PhotoWalk on Oct 7th at 5:30 PM!

Pencil in that evening! Here is the Event Info on Google. We’ll get you more specifics soon — really looking forward to it!

On the Way to Africa!

I’m about to come to Africa for a month! I’ll be in Namibia, Botswana, and South Africa. I’m super-excited about this trip! This Africa trip is Sold Out, but you can check that page to sign up for the newsletter to find out about future adventures!

Since I’m on a bunch of small planes while there, I had to pack everything and it ALL had to be under 20KG. Here’s a quick video I made about what I am bringing!

Daily Photo – Paddling Over

I swear — everyone in Bora Bora must know each other. No matter where we went, everyone knew our boat captain. Everyone would just randomly paddle over and they’d start talking and telling all kinds of stories. It was really amazing and cool! One of the coolest things was actually when our captain would steer the boat with his feet while singing to us on a ukelele ! Everyone loved it… he was really good too. I have a photo of that somewhere. I need to find it! 🙂

Paddling Over

Photo Information

  • Date Taken2014-06-27 11:40:12
  • CameraILCE-7R
  • Camera MakeSony
  • Exposure Time1/2000
  • Aperture4
  • ISO100
  • Focal Length24.0 mm
  • FlashOff, Did not fire
  • Exposure ProgramManual
  • Exposure Bias

Comments
6
Sep 2014 : Saturday
filed under  Bora Bora, French Polynesia, Sony A7R

A private Island

The Video

You’ll notice this island from above in at least two scenes in the video below. I made this with my quadcopter — see my DJI Phantom Review for more!

Daily Photo – A private Island

This was our favorite little island on the trip. You might remember a kayak photo from last month where I made my daughter paddle the kayak to get to this little island. It was hard work, but the whole time I told her it was character building!

A private Island

Photo Information

  • Date Taken2014-06-29 16:38:03
  • CameraILCE-7R
  • Camera MakeSony
  • Exposure Time1/100
  • Aperture18
  • ISO125
  • Focal Length26.0 mm
  • FlashOff, Did not fire
  • Exposure ProgramAperture-priority AE
  • Exposure Bias-1

Comments
29
Aug 2014 : Friday
filed under  Bora Bora, French Polynesia, Sony A7R

Dinner on the Beach

Newsletter Update

Thanks for all of you that are subscribed to our Free Newsletter! We recently switched over to Mailchimp and have a whole new design. Maybe you’ve seen it? Anyway, the whole thing is much more mobile-friendly now, prettier, and, well, all kinds of stuff. Be sure you sign up for it to get the latest and hear a few secret things from time to time!

Daily Photo – Dinner on the Beach

One evening when we were there at the Four Seasons, we walked along the beach and saw this little scene unfold. It seemed like quite a civilized little spot for to have a spot of dinner. I thought about sitting down there just to see if anyone would bring me any food, magically, but I decided that would probably be in bad form.

Dinner on the Beach

Photo Information

  • Date Taken2014-06-24 16:42:39
  • CameraILCE-7R
  • Camera MakeSony
  • Exposure Time1/5
  • Aperture16
  • ISO125
  • Focal Length24.0 mm
  • FlashOff, Did not fire
  • Exposure ProgramAperture-priority AE
  • Exposure Bias

Comments
25
Aug 2014 : Monday
filed under  Bora Bora, French Polynesia

A romantic dinner on a deserted island inside the lagoon in Bora Bora

Whale Watching

I had someone here at the resort tell me that Bora Bora is extra special because there is a very steep dropoff on the edge of the island. This means that all the whales can come breach right along the edge of the island. That means you can walk over, knee deep, and reach over and touch the whales as they breach. I didn’t get to experience this myself, but maybe next time!

Daily Photo – A romantic dinner on a deserted island inside the lagoon in Bora Bora

There’s a nice little story in this photo! You see this man paddling away from the island? If you look closer, he left a woman behind to stand in waiting. The man then paddles over to pick up a romantic couple from their bungalow and then delivers them back to the island for their private dinner. They do this kind of stuff all the time here at the Four Seasons… so over the top awesome!

It turns out the woman on the island is a Bora Bora native named Vaihea. I found this out the next evening by accident because I was working on this photo in the sunset bar and she came over and said, “Hey that’s me!”?

A romantic dinner on a deserted island inside the lagoon in Bora Bora

Photo Information

  • Date Taken2014-06-25 16:37:09
  • CameraILCE-7R
  • Camera MakeSony
  • Exposure Time1/160
  • Aperture4.5
  • ISO250
  • Focal Length31.0 mm
  • FlashOff, Did not fire
  • Exposure ProgramAperture-priority AE
  • Exposure Bias+2

Comments
4
Aug 2014 : Monday
filed under  Bora Bora, French Polynesia

Across the Sunset Bar

China Drone video interview on New Zealand TV

I was interviewed on NZ Television recently. It’s now up on their website with the funny title “Kiwi photographer baffles Chinese authorities.”

Internet Kerfuffle

Hey thanks to Matt Granger who sent me and the team a nice email explaining the situation. Apparently he did not mean to use my photo of London to commercially advertise his London Workshop. It was his web designer who put up the image quite a while ago and it was assumed to be legit. Anyway, all is good and nothing more of it to come. And since we’ve been talking quite a bit behind the scenes about the whole thing, and we’ll probably end up doing something together soon – would even be happy to have him join The Arcanum. We’ll both keep you updated on that, but, in the end, everything is cool.

Daily Photo – Across the Sunset Bar

Here’s a photo of the Sunset Bar at sunset! This was taken in Bora Bora on my recent trip there. What an amazing place… I think every night there was a great sunset! I don’t know what it is about those island conditions, but it was really wonderful. This Sunset Bar there at the Four Seasons was actually also a sushi restaurant! We went there a few nights for a little bit of that action! 🙂

Across the Sunset Bar

Photo Information

  • Date Taken2014-06-27 16:57:30
  • CameraILCE-7R
  • Camera MakeSony
  • Exposure Time1/6
  • Aperture5.6
  • ISO200
  • Focal Length15.0 mm
  • FlashOff, Did not fire
  • Exposure ProgramAperture-priority AE
  • Exposure Bias+1

Comments
31
Jul 2014 : Thursday
filed under  Bora Bora, French Polynesia, Sony A7R, Travel

Kayaking to the Deserted Island

Repeats of the Videos

Here’s two of the videos I made on Bora Bora – the main video then the Behind-the-Scenes! I have these on these also on the DJI Phantom Review page!

Flying the Quadcopter – behind the scenes

Sorry it starts out with some stuff about my Sony A7r, so you can just skip that bit if you wish! 🙂

Daily Photo – Kayaking to the Deserted Island

Here’s a photo I took from the back of the kayak where my daughter was rowing in the front. She’s only 8, but I was making her do all the work while I took this photo haha! We rowed over to that little island with the palm tree. After we got there, you can see some of the footage I got with the drone while there!

Kayaking to the Deserted Island

Photo Information

  • Date Taken2014-06-29 11:45:15
  • CameraILCE-7R
  • Camera MakeSony
  • Exposure Time1/500
  • Aperture8
  • ISO100
  • Focal Length24.0 mm
  • FlashOff, Did not fire
  • Exposure ProgramAperture-priority AE
  • Exposure Bias

Comments