Links in Comments

I know a lot of y’all post links to your own work, your websites, articles of note, and the like.  I encourage it!  Don’t be shy about doing that.  Watch out — however if you put more than 3 links into a comment – the filter will think that it is spam and it will get held up for moderation.

New Newsletter went out!

If you are on the free newsletter list,  you recently received it!  You can sign up now on the Newsletter page, and you’ll be good-to-go!  There is some fun stuff in this latest edition!

Daily Photo – A Parting Shot of the Temple

Sometimes while on a little afternoon / evening / night photo adventure, I literally run out of energy at the end.  This is bad news!  I put so much effort into running around, getting all the shots, carrying around all my equipment, fully concentrating, and the like…  at the end, it’s all I can do to get back to home base.  However, this night, as I was leaving this beautiful complex of temples in Kyoto, I stopped to take one look behind me.

I had first passed this place in the afternoon when there was no rain.  During my shoot, rain fell and changed everything.  Of course, the lights were totally different, so I just had to muster up a little more energy for a final shot.  For these sorts, I usually put my tripod on its lowest-leg setting and fire away for maximum reflectivity.

Thanks again Kiwis!

I had a great time on our photowalk down here and met some very nice people. I think my kids were a little drained! At the end, during the talk, both of them fell asleep in a back room… We hoisted them into the campervan after that, drove to the beach, and then they were surprised to find where they woke up! Fell asleep during dad’s boring talk — wake up at the beach! Woo!

It was great to meet so many nice people from all over Auckland. There were even a few Aussies at the event! I haven’t had time to process any photos yet, but I will soon.

Daily Photo – The Harmony Garden

Kyoto was filled with thousands of these tiny gardens with ponds and little rivers. Which one to take photos of first?!?

None of them seemed to have artificial pumps that moved the water around. I always think of that whenever I see little gardens with water features in the states, or like they sell at Sam’s. Somehow, it seems, Japanese garden-masters are able to constantly refill their ponds by keeping the appropriate amount of dew forming on surrounding leaves, which then drips into the pond, which then goes down a perfect little waterfall, and ends up at another perfect pond about 50 paces away.

Great Photowalk in San Clemente!

Thanks to everyone that came out for a beautiful sunset in San Clemente! I was happy to meet you all and hope you had a good time. Victor from Typical Shutterbug put up a post with a link to a Flickr group where you can share your photos.

Photo Mystery of the Week

What is the mysterious blue light in the photo below?  Who can guess?

Daily Photo – 1,000 Red Gates

What a wonderful and unique place on earth this is! In Kyoto, Japan, there resides the unique shrine of Fushimi Inari. It consists of thousands of red gates that wind up and down the mountain. I walked through it deep into the night…. I was the only one around and it was downright eerie. Every now and then, the gates would stop and there would be a mini-shrine off to one side or a graveyard to another. Both of these added to the creep factor.

I had a serious worry about an hour into the hike through these gates — what if they turn off the lights? I had no flashlight! I considered my two options — I could strobe my SB-800 to find my way out, which would be a totally surreal experience through these gates. Or, I could do what one of my Israeli hiker friends did in Argentina, use the back of my camera display for light (he actually used his to set up his tent)!

New Weekly Print Now Available

There is a new Limited Edition Numbered Print available. As always, prices start at $99 for the smaller paper numbered print and then go up if you want a giant canvas on your wall at home. We just got done showing a bunch of these amazing canvases at the book party in Chicago – they always look so impressive in person!

The print today is a summer reflection of the Grand Tetons in Wyoming across a high-running stream. While I was shooting this, a buffalo snuck up on me from behind. Those things are so big and quiet, it is a little unnerving! There is more info about the process on the Prints page as well.

Daily Photo – Red Temple in the Moon Forest

Most people don’t know this, but I wrote a novel about 15 years ago. The reason no one knows about it is because it was so awful that no one would publish it. I printed out the first few chapters of the book, sent them to countless publishers, and then received countless rejections. I should have saved of them. It was quite depressing at the time, and it only took me 14 years to get over it.

Anyway, I bring this up because part of the story was based in Kyoto, Japan, where this temple is located. I had never been there before, but this is exactly how I always pictured it: peaceful, still, natural, ancient, with the soft sounds of the woods echoing around the old wood. It’s a wonderful place. I’ve done my best to capture the feeling of the place. I only hope I’ve come close to succeeding.

Win A Free Book!  Twitter Contest is Live!

We have a new Twitter contest to win some free copies of “A World in HDR”, hosted by the team at @Peachpit.  It goes for three days and will be a ton of fun.  Anyone can enter, and you can enter as many times as you like!  For full details, see the Twitter Contest Page!

Peachpit (the publisher) is giving away three copies to some of the best photos found on Twitter.  Submit as many and as often as you like.  Note that my photos are not eligible — let’s use this as a way to find other great new photos and artists out there!  Again, all the details and info on The Judge can be seen on the Twitter Contest Page!

Daily Photo – Finding Dinner in the Alleys of Kyoto

After exploring an area (and era!) of ancient temples in Kyoto, I was absolutely starving.  I tend to get in a “shooting mode” where I do not undertake basic human necessities like eating, sleeping, and making regular bathroom breaks.  In fact, Nikon makes this great set of diapers you should try.  They’re Japanese so there are little buttons that dispose of everything and leave you fresh as a daisy.

Anyway, after shooting, I headed down into the old part of Kyoto to find a traditional Japanese dinner.  I sat there for a long time, enjoying myself thoroughly.

Twitter and Facebook Contests!

Tomorrow, I’ll be posting some of the best and most successful Twitter and Facebook contests I have seen. We are going to be having the good people at @Peachpit run a few contest to give away copies of the book after release! I’d like you guys and gals to pick your favorites. So please, if you have more suggestions, let me know. I’ve got a great list already, so let’s keep ‘em comin! Note that I don’t want to do just boring, obvious contests. I’d like them to be fun, different, and engaging. Know what I mean? So, if you’ve seen some that are successful, please pass them along!

Today’s Photo

I think I could stay in Kyoto for a few years and go out taking photos every day and night! What a picturesque place… I feel like someone designed it a thousand years ago just for HDR! Now, I think this is a pretty darned good example of HDR. When you are there, you do see all these colors and light levels. Absolutely! Thank goodness for the sweet lady HDR and all her little tricks.

Today’s daily photo was taken while exploring the wilds outside of Kyoto a few weeks ago. It was a beautiful place! The walk took me into this giant bamboo forest. After strolling through it for a short eternity, I set up for shot. This is a standard 5-exposure HDR; it was shot with a 14-24mm lens. For those of you new to the site, you can find out more about my process in the HDR Tutorial.

Some Twitter Lists for You!

As you guys know, I’ve been using Twitter for the past 27 years or so. Over that time, I’ve built up a good list of people to follow. Now, I can share this list and more very easily with you. When you visit the links below, you can “Follow” the list. Or, you can also go through and follow the individuals. Any questions? Just ask below!

• Stuck In Customs Community – This is a list of everyone around here!  This is a great “channel” to listen into to hear everything that’s going on with all of us! If you ever need advice, have questions, or just want to share, be sure to follow the people inside and talk it up… that’s what Twitter is for! *Add yourself and make recommendations here! (yes it is totally cool to recommend yourself!)
• Art for the Right Brain – Here is a collection of artists, designers, illustrators, and the like that I find inspirational.  I didn’t really add any photographers to this list… *Make Recommendations here!
• Art Museums to Know – Did you know there are Museums on twitter too?  They talk about new exhibits,visiting artists, special events, and the like.   *Make Recommendations here!
• Funny Twitter Heads – A collection of very funny people on Twitter.  If you are easily offended… don’t look!  *Make Recommendations here!
• Wow – Nice Tweets! – A random assortment of people that I follow that send out all kinds of interesting Tweets on this and that.  *Make Recommendations here!

Do the good people on here a favor.  Follow the list, and then go through and follow some of the most interesting individuals inside.  Twitter is better once you build your own personalized list, and this will be a really good injection of inspiration into your world, I hope!

After you follow the lists and some people therein…

Then you can then easily switch to that “channel” in Twitter to see the latest. Also, very soon you’ll be able to add that List as a Column in Tweetdeck, a program I highly recommend. As soon as they enable this, I’ll come update this post!

And, of course, be sure to tell your friends the fun of lists, especially those new to Twitter.  If people start out by getting good links with nice art and funny comments, it makes it a much better experience from the beginning!