Best TED Talks Reminder

I like to collect some of the best TED talks. I’m always adding to the page. If you have suggestions, or things you’ve seen where you think, “Oh – Trey would like this!”, please leave a comment on the “Best TED Talks” page here on the site!

Daily Photo – The Mean Streets of Tokyo

Tokyo has amazing action all the time. There is never a good time to sleep or turn off the camera! Every minute I sleep, I feel like I am missing something!

This was taken close to midnight on another evening when I was just randomly walking around the downtown streets. It’s all a wonderland of lights, colors, people, and sounds. I’ve noticed there are many kinds of “sensory overload” – and they are all on a sliding scale from good to bad. The bad sort is the “Las Vegas” type of sensory overload. That’s the kind where you just simply need quiet in order to collect your thoughts. The kind in Tokyo is completely different. Yes, it is overloading, but it’s also stimulating in a good way… so it continues to feed you until you just absolutely crash. It’s great!

Filed under the categories: Japan, Nikon D3X, Tokyo

22 Million Views on SmugMug this year!

As many of you know, I moved over my portfolio to SmugMug this year. Have you seen my SmugMug Review? The team there gave readers here the a 20% savings (!!) — use the SmugMug Coupon of “STUCKINCUSTOMS“.

So, I was recently checking stats and I was surprised at how many views we have gotten on SmugMug in such a short time. 22 million in just over half a year, compared to Flickr, which is at 21 million after 5 years! I have posted shots from SmugMug and Flickr below.

Now, most of those views are just because of the blog, but it does show how heavily I rely on SmugMug. There is one “hidden” feature that you may not know about…. and this is a little geeky, but it helps! I have big photos here on the website… you all know this. They are 900 pixels across. Well, Flickr does serve them up in many sizes, and 1024 across is on of the standards. With Flickr, I need to use the width=”900″ in the html, which forces the browser to make a costly size change.

SmugMug, instead, does the processing on their beastly servers.

For example, I can take the default Xtra Large size link from SmugMug: http://stuckincustoms.smugmug.com/photos/974189667_iqznc-X2.jpg

and change the end so that the server resizes to 900 pixels across: http://stuckincustoms.smugmug.com/photos/974189667_iqznc-900x900.jpg

This means that everything is served up super-fast. This is a minor and nerdy point… but it does make the blog a lot faster.

SmugMug has a pretty cool stat tracking system, even though they don't use commas.

I also like the Flickr Stats system, even though I'm 95% sure it is broken.

Still on Flickr

As you can see, I still post all my photos to Flickr as well. I still like Flickr a lot, but it is not where I keep my main portfolio. I find the viewing experience better on SmugMug. Now, SmugMug has less of a community, so that is kind of a minor knock against it… but it’s easy enough to put the photos in both places.

Daily Photo – A Gentle Kiss in the Hot Tub

These snow monkeys are the greatest. I spent so long with them, we almost had a three-way.

They are all wild (in the natural sense, mind you), and they come down from the mountains near Nagano, Japan, for several hours a day to play in the natural hot springs. They gallivant around, have fights, play with their kids, have a bit of sweet carnal monkey fun, check their email, and pose for my camera.

These two monkeys spent a lot of time together… they were in maximum “relaxation mode”. They lounged around in every possible position and took occasional breaks to do a bit of mutual grooming.

Video Recap – Heartbeats of Japan

We have many new people here on the blog that might not have seen this. There’s a lot more snow-monkey stuff in here for you… enjoy!

Filed under the categories: Japan, Nikon D3S, Travel

Burning Man PhotoWalk

See the Facebook event here!

You are all invited to join me at the Burning Man PhotoWalk! It’s free of course… Here are the details:

• Friday, Sept 3 at 6 PM
• Location: Center Camp: Look for all the people with the cameras, and me, possibly in Steampunk Goggles.

What we will do:

• Walk around together to take cool photos of Burning Man (for personal use only)
• Find cool art installations and activities
• Be cool (and not bother people with our cameras…)
• Learn more about our cameras
• Take some HDRs
• I’ll be there to answer questions whether you are a beginner or beyond!

More Resources:

• Photography Info for Burning Man
• Equipment Guide at Burning Man

See these cards below?  I’ll be handing them out around Burning Man…  It’s sort of a “gifting” place, where money is not allowed.  Since one of my only identifiable skills is photography, I am giving people the chance to learn more about their cameras.  I think we’ll have a good time and I hope to see you there.

Below is a Google Earth photo of Burning Man in a previous year… I think it’s pretty awesome.

See you soon at OpenCa.mp

I hope to meet a lot of you soon at OpenCa.mp in Dallas! In just a few days, I’m headed up to Dallas to begin the adventure by jumping out of a plane with the US Army Golden Knights. It’s gonna be a blast!

Daily Photo – Home of the Tree Samurai

This was my second trip to Kyoto, and I decided to return to this amazing treetop temple. At night, the delicate lights turn on and everything comes alive. It’s really brilliant… one of those scenes that makes you think the world is really a wonderful place.

This was right in the peak of the cherry blossom season. The soft pink of the blossoms grabs and reflects the light into an unbelievable prism. It’s all like something out of a dream, and I’ve done my best to bring it back to life here on the blog.

Filed under the categories: Japan, Kyoto, Nikon D3X, Travel

Interview Recap

In case you missed this interview with Ron Martinsen, a very nice fellow, you can see it over at RonMartBlog.com. Being a fellow photographer, he asked very good questions and I enjoyed the talk!

Daily Photo – Approaching Roppongi on Foot

On my last night in Japan, I was feeling restless. It sometimes comes at the end of the trip, when I feel like I just haven’t taken enough photos. Of course, that’s never the case, since I usually have thousands in the hopper by that point. But when I know that the city is full of life, I just have to get out there and capture a bit of it.

Roppongi is one of the most happening areas of Tokyo, and the rain makes it all feel even more alive. It’s pretty safe to walk around at night. On the edges, there are some unsavory types about. Typically, they are large Africans who are in the employ of various underground activities. It’s not a good idea to hang around there, so I pass through as quickly as possible, wielding my tripod like a weapon to give them a bit of hesitation.

Filed under the categories: Japan, Tokyo, Travel

New Numbered Print, Limited Edition – The Boat in Portofino

This one is definitely a big favorite, and we have gotten many emails asking about when it will become available. Well now it finally is!

Now, let’s be clear. This isn’t really Portofino, but it sure does look like it, eh? We might even make the case that it is more pretty than the real Portofino! This is a beautiful resort in Orlando, over at Universal Studios. The lake is filled with a bunch of little boats, each of which has a different little Italian girl’s name on the back.

Daily Photo – Shopping in the Rain

Today we have another street photography shot from Tokyo. It was quite late at night, quite cold, quite rainy, and quite dark! But, it certainly made for an interesting challenge.

Street life is quite vibrant and pretty in the rain at night. I always struggle with bringing what is so obvious on the scene into the final photo. Getting the feeling right in the final photo without artificial life is tough.

This businessman was strolling down the street, doing some light window shopping. The 50mm 1.4 prime did most of the work here for me, even though it did require manual focus. That bit was hard. Real hard. But, I’ll do my best to put everything together into an upcoming post on the top 10 tips in street photography.

Filed under the categories: Japan, Nikon D3S, Tokyo, Travel

Interview on PetaPixel

Good man Michael Zhang from PetaPixel interviewed me recently. Pop over there and check it out. Also, look around PetaPixel for a while… Michael has done an extraordinary job with that site.

We Computer Science majors need to stick together! So I’m happy to send traffic over his way!

A Silent Evening in Kyoto under the Cherry Blossoms

The beautiful white cherry blossoms were in full bloom and their gentle petals would fall down like snow, collecting on the ground.

To get here to Kyoto, I took the bus from Osaka — and this was not the most simple thing in the world. I’m used to traveling in strange places and getting around confusing transport systems, but that doesn’t mean it is always easy! The Japanese transportation system is particularly perplexing. The train system is the easiest to figure out. The bus system is second. The subway is last — dead last.

Many of these places I end up have no one that speaks English, so there’s a bit of guesswork involved. After I’m on a bus for 5-10 minutes, I start to have a sneaking suspicion that perhaps I am on the wrong one! With no one to ask or no one to call, it’s a bit more uncertain than I prefer it!

Filed under the categories: Japan, Kyoto, Nikon D3X, Travel

Iceland News on Twitter

Since I only update the blog daily, if you want the absolute latest on the Iceland trip, along with surprise pics, be sure to follow me on Twitter.

New Print Unleashed!

Recently I mentioned the California PhotoWalk in San Clemente where I met David Arkenstone. I listened to his music all the way up the famous Pacific Coast Highway. Here, in Big Sur, I got up early one morning to grab this amazing scene just as the sun was coming over the mountains to the east.

This Limited Edition Numbered Print is accordingly called “Sunrise in Big Sur“.

Daily Photo – Modern Techno Life in Tokyo

What happens in hyper-techno places like Japan and Korea seem to be the techno-canaries in the coal mine for the future of technology and behavior in the west. Several years ago, almost everyone walked around their ultra modern-cities with their heads buried in their mobile phones.

I was asked by many English-speaking Japanese there several questions that amounted to, “What do you think of Japanese people?”

I always had a hard time answering that. I love Japan, obviously… I find the people interesting, different, and wonderfully unique. There is one overall thing about the “general” mannerisms of the average person… it would be “robotic”. I don’t know why this is always in my head, but I often get a robotic sense from strangers, as if they are going through the day, devoid of any outward-facing emotion, buried in technology.

Filed under the categories: Japan, Tokyo, Travel

My family of course. But, after I have that, why not ask for a few more goodies? It’s good to have hobbies to keep us productive, after all…

So, here is a great list of…

Photo Toys and Gifts for Father’s Day

Some of this stuff I have… some of this stuff I want.  Either way, it’s a great list of goodies!  If you want more, see my full list of HDR Camera recommendations or Photography Gadgets.

The Awesome Green Cube – Approx $7 See Amazon’s current pricing – The Green Cube Everyone Asks Me About Mini Review – This is a clear, greenish 3-D bubble level.  I use it almost all the time and people always ask me about it.  It’s useful and cool-lookin’.  Even better than a fish-tie.

HyperMac Portable Battery – $199 and up See latest pricing - HyperMac Battery Page Mini Review – If dad has an iPhone, iPad, or Mac laptop, chances are one or all three are always running out of batteries!  This is a fantastic extra battery that powers all three.  I keep one in my bag all the time.  More than handy!

A Very Good Camera for HDR Shooting (or any kind of photography, really) The Nikon D90 – Approx $700-$900 See Amazon’s current pricing – Nikon D90 Body Only with No Lens See B&H’s current pricing - Nikon D90 Body Only with No Lens The Nikon D90 with Excellent Starter Lens - 18-105mm – Approx $1,100 See Amazon’s current pricing – Nikon D90 with excellent starter lens See B&H’s current pricing – Nikon D90 with excellent starter lens Mini Review – I recommend this wonderful camera because it does auto-bracketing, can hold a variety of lenses, and is an amazing camera now and for the future.  You’ll be able to have this be your main body as you slowly build up a collection of lenses in the future, as you get to better know your camera.

The Nikon Lens Coffee Cup - $40 and up, depending on auction price See Latest Prices on Ebay – Lens Coffee Cup – All Mini Review – How could not this be the best thing ever? I can’t think of anything more ridiculous or wonderful!

Daily Photo – My Camera in Tokyo

As you saw in the video a few days ago, I did a lot of night photography in Tokyo. Since I now often carry around two cameras, I sometimes use my second to take a photo of the first! Sometimes, I’m doing timelapse stuff which can take a looooooong time… so I get bored and start taking pictures of taking pictures!

I also included this because it has that green cube thingy mentioned above!

The Awesome Green Cube Everyone Asks Me About

Filed under the categories: Japan, Nikon D3S, Nikon D3X, Tokyo, Travel

Video on YouTube – Japan: Heartbeats of Time

A little tweety birdy told me that smooth operator Frederick Van mentioned this video on This Week in Photography. So, I thought I would use the YouTube occasion to bump it back to the top!

If you want to know how I did this, visit the Stuck In Motion page.

So, I have a dumb question for all you video-smarties out there! I first put this video on Vimeo. By default, it has HD and seems to produce a smooth, HD signal. YouTube, on the other hand, has a more tricky HD Embed option. When I choose it, YouTube tries to force it to 1300 pixels wide, which is wider than this page. I’d be happy with 900 across. Any ideas?

Daily Photo – Traditional Japanese Woman in Tokyo

A few weeks ago I said I was working on some tips and tricks for taking photos of people. I haven’t forgotten about that promise! I’ve just been super-busy. And now I will be in Iceland for about two weeks… but it is still on my to-do list!

Japan is of course a great place to take photos of people… and, if you are like me (I suspect you are, since you are a regular), you like watching people. It’s especially nice to watch people when they look a little different and their mannerisms vary slightly from what we expect. Making that whole experience even more intense is the pure fun of trying to capture a whole person with a single photo.

Tokyo was full of all sorts of pedestrians. Most of them are modern — or, rather, neo-modern. They sport the latest fashions and are as flamboyant as any nation that is comfortable with itself. But, on occasion, you see a traditional Japanese woman gliding through the streets. These sorts of anachronisms are wonderful subjects.

You may also notice her traditional two-toed shoes.  I wore these a lot inside ryokan — the big toe goes into the first slot and the rest of your nonsense toes go into the other part.  They’re a bit like mittens… strange but quite comfy.  How she kept hers dry and clean in the wet streets remains a mystery!

Filed under the categories: Japan, Nikon D3S, Tokyo, Travel

Many new HDR offerings!

This HDR Software area is really heating up… I know Nik has something new coming soon, as does OnOne and many others. What do you guys and gals think? Are you playing with these? Send me a Tweet (@TreyRatcliff) or leave a comment — I look forward to your feedback!

Note on Photomatix Pro 4.0

It is not available to the public yet — but if you get Photomatix Pro 3 (use the Photomatix Coupon Code STUCKINCUSTOMS to save the most money), then you will get a FREE upgrade to Photomatix Pro 4.0 when it comes out… I don’t know when that will be, but I am guessing in the next few weeks. You can download it from the HDRSoft website.

Adobe Photoshop CS5 is available.  I own it and think it is amazing.  If you want to buy it, or get a free trial, you can see if you can get a good special offers from Adobe on that link.

New to HDR?

If you are new to HDR, you can enjoy my friendly, easy-to-use HDR Tutorial.  I’ve taught tens of thousands around the world how to do it… I’m sure I can teach you too!  The tutorial is free!

Quick Verdict

Photomatix Pro 4.0 is the clear winner.  Photoshop CS5 Merge to HDR is much better than CS4, and it has a few redeeming qualities.

Advantages of Photomatix Pro 4.0:

• Faster (MUCH FASTER – see the chart below)
• Upgraded noise-reduction just for HDR
• Better ghosting control
• and more image control for higher quality images

Advantages of Photoshop CS5 Merge to HDR Pro:

• Having one integrated solution right inside Photoshop
• Easier to learn because there are less controls

Photoshop CS5 vs. Photomatix Pro Comparison

* Photoshop CS5 Gives you a warning about not using JPG photos to make an HDR.  You have to click “OK”, but I did not include that wait time in my timings.

Test Subjects and System: I chose a 7-exposure session from a lake at sunset near Nikko, Japan.  The exposures ranged from -3 to +3.  I shot them with a Nikon D3X a few weeks ago. I have a speedy 17″ MacBook Pro.  I bought it about 9 months ago — the specs are to the right. In the Photoshop CS5 test, the only things running were Photoshop CS5 (in 64-bit mode), Bridge CS5, and Skitch for taking screenshots.   In the Photomatix Pro test, I kept those running + Photomatix Pro.

Special Conditions:

Now, the Photoshop Merge to HDR Pro option does not allow me to turn on and off Auto-Alignment, Cropping, or anything else.  Normally, I turn that off in Photomatix because I use a tripod. To keep the tests fair, I turned on the Align Source Images, Cropping, and Reduce Noise in Photomatix Pro. That way, it was doing the same tasks as Photoshop.  

However, in my normal conditions, I don’t have those turned on, which makes Photomatix even faster. Also, as you can see I processed with RAW and JPG files. I preach in my HDR Tutorial that using JPGs is just fine.  I don’t see any difference in quality. But, I do notice that JPGs are much faster. This is important!

Overall Speed

In these tests, Photomatix Pro 4.0 was much much faster.  There’s almost no comparison. Photomatix Pro processed the images in 1:05 — Photoshop CS5 did the same job in 2:48.  It was more than twice as fast!

There are two intense “Computer Processing” periods. The first is when you load the images into the program.  After this is done, the human takes over and adjusts the sliders.  Then there is a second period of processing.

I will discuss each of them in turn now.

Speed – Loading the Images

Photoshop CS5 Merge to HDR was slow.  Painfully slow!  

During the loading of the images, it give a few indications of why it is so slow.  After a period of time it says “Aligning”.  Then, after another bit, it says. “Transforming”.  Then for another longer period, it says “Crop”.  I did not touch the computer at all during this time…  I kept the timer on my iPhone going to watch. In these tests, the only thing I had running was Photoshop CS5 and Bridge CS5.  This is not typical.  Note that I am usually running Google Chrome, Tweetdeck, Mail, and iTunes for music.  So all the times you see in the chart are actually much higher, and the delta between CS5 and Photomatix Pro grows even more.

Note that I do not think there is a way to turn off the automatic aligning of images, stretching of images, and subsequent cropping. If you could disable that, I am sure Photoshop would be faster.

There is another feature that I did not test — the “batching” of images. I know this functionality very well in Photomatix. I am sure you can make scripts to do this in Photoshop, but I do not know how. If you know any easy way to batch load in HDR images and process them, let me know (I don’t think you can).

My first broken test: What I had running in the background for all the tests before the reboot:

• Tweetdeck
• Google Chrome with about 6 tabs (gmail, websites, nothing too taxing)
• iTunes playing music
• Photoshop CS5
• Bridge CS5
• Apple Mail & iCal
• Skitch

The first time I ran it with Merge to HDR Pro, it took 6:05 (six minutes and five seconds) to load.  Just amazingly slow!  Then, I thought, “Well, I do have it in 32-bit mode,” since I was also running some old plugins.  So I tried it again in 64-bit mode.  I shut down Photoshop and re-opened.  Then I did the Merge to HDR Pro option through Bridge again.  The second time it took 13:10.  THIRTEEN MINUTES.  I was just about to Force Quit the program — I was sure something was wrong!  How can this be — in 64-bit mode?  Isn’t it supposed to be faster?

So I decided to reboot and try again. I was worried that maybe there had been a memory leak or something had just gummed up the works.  Because thirteen minutes just didn’t make sense!  Now, I am using big images from a Nikon D3X.  And these were RAW files, but that still seems like way too long… After I rebooted, I loaded NO OTHER PROGRAMS expect for Photoshop CS5, Bridge CS5, and Skitch.  I did not like doing this for the test, because this is not a “normal” environment for me. I usually have several things running.  This time, it was much faster and clocked in at 1:54.  

After this, I decided to restart the whole test and have nothing else running to keep the results as clean as possible.

Speed – Processing the Images

After you make your slider changes, you can process them.  There is a period of waiting whilst the image processes.  Again, Photomatix Pro was not just a little faster, but way faster.

For the RAW files, Photomatix Pro took an average of 8 seconds and Photoshop CS5 Merge to HDR Pro took a whopping 51 seconds (two tests at :50 and :52). And remember… I wasn’t doing anything else on the computer… I wasn’t checking the mail or tweeting or anything… just watching the water boil…

Photo Quality and Control

I’ve been using previous versions of Photomatix for years, so I am familiar with the sliders.  Because I am a private tester, Photomatix would not allow me to post screenshots of the new GUI.  However, it is very similar to previous versions.

The new Photoshop CS5 Merge to HDR Pro dialogs are very similar to that of Photomatix Pro.  However, they do not have nearly as fine control.  There are about 1/3 as many sliders, which is good and bad.  It’s good in terms of simplicity, but it is bad it terms of flexibility. I find that there are so many different sorts of HDR shooting conditions.  The more sliders you have to adjust one part of a photo for one condition and another for a different condition — the better.  

I’ve processed a bunch of images with both now, and I prefer Photomatix Pro.  I get much more fine-grained control. More importantly, I feel like I get more “pop” with the Photomatix Pro controls.  It’s tough to explain… what do you think?  What’s your experience with these tools so far?

The two above images are from Photomatix Pro 4.0 (left) and Photoshop CS5 Merge to HDR (right). Although it is probably hard to tell at this resolution, I believe the Photomatix Pro one has finer control. Both tools allow you to move the sliders around until you are happy with the image… so there is not really a one-to-one comparison possible here… Also, I did not show the new GUI for Photomatix Pro 4.0 at the request of the developer.

Better Ghosting Control

I remember when CS5 Merge to HDR Pro was announced that it had this cool feature for repairing ghosts.  Ghosts are those nasty bits where part of an image is moving around in the various frames.  A dog running across the bottom of the frame would be a good example. Well, Photomatix Pro 1-ups CS5!  It allows you to control various ghosts around the frame at the same time!  

Basically, there is an intermediate step where you can drag the mouse around one area and select a new single “source” image for that area, and then do it again for another section.  For example, you may want to pick the dog from one exposure and the blowing tree from another.  It’s great flexibility and very smart.

Noise Reduction for HDR CS5 did make some very nice changes with Noise Reduction, but that is part of the RAW import process.  Since the Merge to HDR Pro option goes around that, you don’t get any of the good Noise Reduction for HDR images inside CS5. Photomatix Pro 4.0 has a newer, more robust way to reduce noise.  It even allows you to adjust the noise in the “input” images before they even begin the processing period.  Smart. The image there to the right was taken from a single RAW. As most of you HDR veterans know, noise at night is a big problem. The new Noise Reduction in Photomatix (which works even for a single RAW photo) really saved me a lot of time. You can click on the image there to go see the full size on SmugMug. You’ll notice little white bits… they almost look like stars that I drew in, but they are falling sparkles from previous explosions.

Photoshop CS5 Merge to HDR Pro Advantages

There are a few good things about the Photoshop CS5 HDR Pro features.  

For one, it is a totally integrated solution.  You don’t need a separate program, so that is quite nice.  Also, the controls, sliders, and whatnot are consistent to the Photoshop experience.  I quite like that.

The other thing that is good about it is that their solution is more “simple”.  There are not as many sliders or controls, so it can be less intimidating.  That is indeed a good thing.  There is a “bit” of power there with the curves adjustments, and that is nice.

 Personally, I am a little jaded and I like to have more sliders and more control to make the image how I want it — and I found the simplicity to be a bit annoying.  I don’t like complexity for the sake of complexity — I like it for power and control. The last good thing about Merge to HDR is that it is “Free”, in that once you have paid hundreds (or even over $1,000, depending on the suite), all the HDR functionality is included.

HDR Toning – Are you kidding me?

I was also intrigued by another little feature in CS5 that all the videos were raving about.  It is called “HDR Toning…” and it allows you to take your image inside Photoshop and give it an “HDR Look”.  Cool, I thought!

 Well, I got in there to try it, and it told me that I had to Flatten the entire image first!  That means, basically, that you have to take all of your layers and make them one. This is another reason not to HDR Photoshop.  This is a deal-killer for me, since I like to have several layers open while I am working on an image.

Worse, it makes no sense!  Most of the other Photoshop filters and controls work on a single layer without requiring the entire thing to be flattened.  What’s up Adobe?  You gotta fix that up… it’s sloppy.

What are Your Results So Far?

I’m sure many of you already have Photomatix Pro 3. Now, I understand that the tonemapping algorithms are the same. So I am pretty sure that you will get similar speed results. We have a lot of great HDR Photographers that hang out around here… so I’m interested in hearing your feedback. Am I off my rocker? All I kept hearing about is HOW AWESOME Adobe CS5 is with HDR… but I just don’t see it. Am I living in a fantasy world? I’ll keep on testing, and will slowly update the full Photomatix Review when I have time. I swear I must have watched about 30 videos when Photoshop CS5 came out — they were all about how amazing CS5 Merge to HDR Pro was. But, really — is it? It’s a big improvement over CS4, but that is like saying WW2 is a big improvement over the first one. Okay… that’s too harsh… but CS4 HDR was really really bad. CS5 is much better, but I just can’t come up with any compelling reasons to use it… from speed to image quality – I think Photomatix Pro 4.0 is a better product all around.

This is one of the first images I edited with Photomatix Pro 4.0 — I was very happy with the result!

Daily Photo – The Lake at Nikko

This place was Cold with a capital C, as you can plainly see.

And worse, I had forgotten my special little gloves with the flip-up fingertips.

So I was goin’ finger-commando while trying to line up this shot. The wind was pretty stiff in my face. The wind always seems to be against you, eh? I think I just never notice it when it comes from any other angle.

By the way, there is only one place that is convenient to quickly warm up your fingers.

There is an older, historic part of Nikko that is about a 30 minute drive away. The drive is practically straight up a mountain, through a series of switchbacks. During the entire time up the mountain, I was surrounded by clouds. I thought it would be quite miserable at the top. But once I poked out, everything was free and clear. I was between cloud layers, exactly where this chilly lake sat at sunset.

Filed under the categories: Japan, Nikko, Travel, tutorial

Free Breakout Session at Vanelli’s Workshop!

I’m giving away a few goodies at Vanelli’s Workshop.

• All members of his workshop get a free copy of my new Workflow eBook
• One lucky winner will get to attend a free breakout session with Randy Van Duinen

To sign up and see if you are winner, visit Vanelli’s Workshop page!  Now, that session will be in St. Augustine, Florida… so I suggest that you only register if you are in that immediate area.

Daily Photo – Mikimoto

It wasn’t until my third trip to Tokyo that I finally got to explore more of Ginza. It’s a pretty high-toned area that is filled with the best of the best. Every elite store you can think of is fully represented, and the designers have pulled out all the stops to make sure they get noticed.

Although not on the main street, this amazing Mikimoto store grabbed my eye. I walked around the building a few times to find an interesting angle and shot away!

Filed under the categories: Japan, Nikon D3X, Tokyo, Travel

New eBook – First goes on sale to Newsletter Subscribers! For the past few months, I’ve been working on a new eBook. It’s very cool — a very detailed description of a best-of-breed digital workflow. Are you starting to feel like your digital photos are a little unorganized? I’ve put together a great system for you! The first shot at it will go to Newsletter subscribers. It’s free to sign up, so just do it below! First Name: Email: 5 Tips for Photographing People in Public I’m working on an upcoming post that gives some practical and easy-to-follow-through-on advice on taking photos of people in public. I get a ton of questions about it in Twitter and whatnot, so I am happy to share these tips. You’ll notice a lot of this activity in the new video below…. and I know everyone enjoys and wants to take pictures of people in public, but are sometimes unsure of how to go about it.

New Video – Japan: Heartbeats of Time

I spend a lot of time thinking about the way memory and sight work together. I don’t think we remember in “pictures” or long videos… but something in between. Perhaps we also sense, at times, more than 30 fps, and unexpected parts of the brain fire when we are presented with certain objects and forms.

If you want to know more about how I did this, visit the “Stuck In Motion” section of the website. Good news – the best bits now only require a $200 camera!

Also, you may enjoy seeing my free HDR Tutorial, which describes how I accomplish some of the other favorite photos below, which were also shot around Japan.

A Few of my Favorite Photos from Japan

Filed under the categories: Japan, Kyoto, Nikko, Nikon D3S, Tokyo, Travel

Big Video Event on May 21

I posted a new photo from the streets of Tokyo tonight in celebration of the completion of a new video work (which is Japan-centric).  The video will be released on May 21.  Stay tuned here and we’ll all have a good time together!

Daily Photo – In the Rain in Tokyo

Most of my walks around the city streets had me carrying two cameras.  I keep the D3X on my tripod, and have that ready to go for serious HDR work.  But over my right shoulder, I carry the D3S with a fast lens.  In this case, I was using the 50mm prime (see my Nikon 50mm Review) to capture quick scenes in the streets.

I carry two cameras because it takes much too long to change lenses.  Also, it’s a real pain to do that sort of thing in the rain.

There are often questions about how I go about taking photos of strangers.  I have a post coming up in the future with five great tips for this sort of thing… I’ll try to get everything into one spot for you, since I know we all want to be able to better capture interesting people here and there as they pass through our worlds.

Filed under the categories: Japan, Nikon D3S, Tokyo, Travel

Newsletter Torpedo Away!

The Newsletter has left the building. It should arrive in your Sunday morning email box, shiny and happy. I hope you love it…

Good Night with Jack and Brian

I had a nice evening last night with Jack Hollingsworth and Brian Matiash. We went out to do a bit of HDR shooting, talked for a while at Mozarts, and then had some great BBQ at Rudy’s. After that, I brought them over to my place and showed them a secret new video (which you all will see as soon as it is done!). They are both very nice guys… and I am going to get Brian to do a guest post very soon.

Daily Photo – Ancient Nikko

I have a bunch of these textured shots (See my Textures Tutorial) that I will be posting over the next few weeks. I showed this one to Jack this evening when he came over, and he seems to like the look as much as I do!

This is my first shot from Nikko, Japan. Nikko is famous for all the incredible temples from the Edo period. I woke up early (violently early, let us say) to go out and visit all the sites before the tourists came. You guys know I don’t like tourists in the shots… Actually, to tell the truth, I don’t like them around at all. I like to listen to my strange music and roam around these ancient places by myself, stopping to take photos when I am ready.

Filed under the categories: Japan, Nikko, Nikon D3X, Travel

Technical Problems

Some of you have mentioned on Twitter that the site is slow and is having some memory errors. I’ve got a few people looking at it and I hope to get it fixed up soon!

Daily Photo – Akihabara Street

It took me many days in Tokyo before I finally made it over to one of my favorite areas – Ahikabara. This district is famous for its pure technology insanity! If you are a geek, then this is geek heaven!

Every street is filled with huge towers, each one flowing over with all sorts of technology, gadgets, games, robotics, toys, and scantily-clad-women. The streets are filled with girls that dress in… hmmm… how do I explain it? Imagine a grown woman wearing little-girl clothes, with puffy-laced mini-skirts, giant bows, and comely dispositions. They stand around, handing out little flyers, trying to get you to come into a shop, a cafe, or something in between.

There is even a cafe there with monitors built into the table. When you order a drink, your waitress goes over to the soda fountain, where a camera lies in the floor pointing upward. Upon pressing a special button, an extra blast of air is strategically blasted to increase your viewing cone.

Filed under the categories: Japan, Nikon D3X, Tokyo, Topaz Adjust, Travel

Newsletter Goodies – Sign up now

These newsletters (sign up for free!) take a long time to put together! But, here are some goodies that are coming for you in the next few days… really, we have beautiful newsletters and send them out about every 4-5 weeks or so. You are missing out!

In the next one, some first looks to subscribers:

• Two New Videos – behind the scenes on the North and South Island of New Zealand
• Two New Unreleased photos of the Snow Monkeys…. (scroll down in case you missed the first!)
• A 20% discount on the Textures Tutorial that will only last one week.
• And the usual other goodies that regular subscribers are used to!

Updated Nikon D3S Review

I’ve updated the Nikon D3S Review with the new video from japan as well as the new photo below. I occasionally pop into previous reviews to update them with new information so they stay fresh. In a way, they are sort of “living documents”, especially as my experience and opinions grow and change over time.

Daily Photo – The Lamps and the Sakura

Sakura is the Japanese word for the Cherry Blossom. I don’t know if I can explain how crazy the Japanese people are about this yearly bloom! For one thing, every local newscast has a big “Cherry Blossom” report that has in-depth descriptions of exactly where the trees are blooming in the country and upcoming predictions. The wave sweeps across the island of Japan and rich graphics cover the screen like a cold front, assaulting the countryside.

I took this photo with the Nikon D3S. I’ve recently taken to carrying two cameras with me. I take the Nikon D3X with me, and it’s usually attached to the tripod. This is the one that I use for 90% of my landscapes. While I carry that, slung around my neck and shoulder, Chewbacca-style, is the Nikon D3S, which I use for people shots, DOF shots, and videos.

This was taken at F/1.4 with a 50mm prime lens. The shutter was 1/8000 and the ISO 200. As always, this “EXIF” information is available on the SmugMug site if you click through and do a tiny bit of investigative clicking!

Filed under the categories: Japan, Kyoto, Nikon D3S, Travel