Morocco – Page 4 – Stuck in Customs
28
Jan 2016 : Thursday
filed under  chefchaouen, Morocco, Travel

The Pink Hood

Viewbug HDR Cityscapes Photo Contest!

Macphun, Viewbug and I have all teamed up to bring you a series of contests called Explore HDR! There are 6 contests in the series and there are amazing prizes for each contest! This is the first of the 6 contests in the series, and it’s all about getting out there and exploring your inner HDR.

Prizes:

  • The Grand Jury winner gets G-Tech 1-TB drive and a Serge Ramelli Complete Package
  • Amateur winner gets 1 month free Arcanum and a metal print from Bay Photo – Gallery Series frame
  • People’s Choice winner gets $50 Amazon Gift Card and a metal print from Bay Photo – Gallery Series frame

Entries for the first contest in the series close in 19 DAYS! So get out there and start taking photos!

At the end of the series, I will select an overall Series Winner from the best of each previous 6 contests. The overall winner gets a NEW DJI Phantom Vision Advanced Quad!!

You can read more about it over on the Viewbug competition page 🙂

Quad Love?

I was thinking about making a quadcopter-centric screensaver… I’m still trying to figure out if this is a good idea!

Daily Photo – The Pink Hood

I tried to maximize my exploring in Chefchaouen to see every possible nook and cranny. It’s small enough where 10 hours on foot can get you to photograph the whole town, or at least, the colorful parts of it. The whole place is a soft powdery blue, so you can imagine my surprise when I found this pinky area!

The Pink Hood

Photo Information

  • Date Taken2014-03-06 01:58:33
  • CameraILCE-7R
  • Camera MakeSony
  • Exposure Time1/750
  • Aperture9.5
  • ISO200
  • Focal Length12.0 mm
  • FlashOff, Did not fire
  • Exposure ProgramAperture-priority AE
  • Exposure Bias

Comments
22
Jan 2016 : Friday
filed under  Camera Gear, Fuji XPro 2, Morocco, Rabat

Standing Guard at the Tomb

Aurora HDR Pro 1.2 is here!

Check it out, Aurora HDR Pro 1.2 has been released with a whole lotta improvements and some sparking new features! 🙂


Here’s one of my favourite recent photos from my family trip that was done in Aurora HDR Pro! Look at all that glow action!

NEW FEATURES:
1.Photos for Mac editing extensions support
2.Leica M Monochrome (type 246) RAW file support
3.Open/Save for .HDR and .EXR image formats

IMPROVEMENTS:
1.Better RAW file handling for Panasonic, Olympus and Fuji images
2.Updates to Adobe Lightroom and Photoshop plug-ins
3.Enhanced masking brush
4.Improved clipping results for overall HDR effect
5.Improved chromatic aberration reduction
6.Better UI support for 11″ and 13″ displays
7.Improved performance and various bug fixes

Well, this day started out great

You’ll read more about it below, but about 30 minutes after this I was in a car crash! My taxi hit another car in downtown Rabat that had run a red light. We t-boned it and I had on no seat belt! Half of me ended up in the front seat with a super-bruised right knee! Everyone jumped out of their cars and it was like a crazy Moroccan street fight. I was thinking I GOTTA GET THE HELL OUTTA HERE! So I jumped out very clumsily, pulled my suitcase from the trunk and limped away for about half a km till I was way out of that area… jumped in another cab, then hit the train station to exit stage left!

Daily Photo – Standing Guard at the Tomb

I was only briefly in Casablanca before moving on here to Rabat, Morocco. The first place I visited here was the Mausoleum of Mohammed V. I arrived way too early and it was closed. So I kind of loitered around… it was my first real day in Morocco so I was just wandering like a babe in the woods… it was so awesome. I made friends with the other guards that were waiting to get in, then I was able to be first and get a few choice shots while everyone set up for the day of guarding the tomb!

Standing Guard at the Tomb

Photo Information

  • Date Taken2014-03-01 21:26:41
  • CameraILCE-7R
  • Camera MakeSony
  • Exposure Time1/400
  • Aperture
  • ISO100
  • Focal Length
  • FlashOff, Did not fire
  • Exposure ProgramAperture-priority AE
  • Exposure Bias

Comments
14
Oct 2015 : Wednesday
filed under  Morocco, Sahara Desert, Sony A7R

The Remnants of Tatooine

Annoying Lines from Star Wars

I’m super excited about the upcoming Star Wars movies, and I have total faith in JJ Abrams to resurrect it! Remember that one line from Episode 2, I think, when Anakin Skywalker said, after growing up on Tatooine, “I hate the sand! It gets everywhere!” I mean, Jesus dude… you’re Darth Vader! Darth Vader doesn’t complain about sand! And don’t you kinda get used to the sand if you live

Daily Photo – The Remnants of Tatooine

How cool is this? Right before I started trekking through the Sahara, I stopped at this Kasbah. The day was unmercifully hot, but I decided to go on a little reccy around the outside anyway. And look what I found! I’m not actually sure what it is… looks like an old jet or something.

The Remnants of Tatooine

Photo Information

  • Date Taken2014-03-08 03:27:28
  • CameraILCE-7R
  • Camera MakeSony
  • Exposure Time1/350
  • Aperture8
  • ISO100
  • Focal Length14.0 mm
  • FlashOff, Did not fire
  • Exposure ProgramAperture-priority AE
  • Exposure Bias

Comments
10
Aug 2015 : Monday
filed under  chefchaouen, Morocco, Travel

Blue City of Morocco

I’ll be in Chicago Tonight!

Come on out to the Chicago Photo Walk tonight! It’s a free event, and it’s gonna be amazing… So many great prizes and m

Daily Photo – THE BLUE CITY OF MOROCCO

You may notice that I hardly ever take photos in the middle of the blue day. But I thought it was fitting here, as it was the same tones as this magical city below. This is in Chefchaouen — and if you ever get to Morocco, be sure to get here. It’s hella inconvenient, but you’ll be so happy once you’re actually there. Plus, you’ll be one of the only photographers. Well, except for all the other people that read this!

THE BLUE CITY OF MOROCCO

Photo Information

  • Date Taken2014-03-17 21:15:59
  • CameraILCE-7R
  • Camera MakeSony
  • Exposure Time1/400
  • Aperture5.6
  • ISO80
  • Focal Length16.0 mm
  • FlashOff, Did not fire
  • Exposure ProgramAperture-priority AE
  • Exposure Bias+1.3

Comments
19
Jul 2015 : Sunday
filed under  Camera Gear, Morocco, Photography Tips, Sahara Desert, Sony A7R, Travel

Coming Over the Hill to Find Relief in the Sahara Desert

And here are the new city Photo Walk Rankings! Don’t miss the Photo Walk Tour Website for the latest.

#1 San Francisco
#2 New York (was in 3rd place!)
#3 Washington DC (slipped a notch)
#4 LA (BUT ONLY BY 1 person ahead of Chicago)
#5 Chicago (was #6, just passed the strong Philly group!)
#6 Philly (and I just watched a Sunny last night, and you slipped!)
#7 Miami (these numbers will go up when we find the party spot!)
#8 Dallas (my home town…)
#9 Atlanta
#10 Phoenix
#11 Nashville
#12 San Antonio

Those ranks are based on the number of people that have signed up for the FB events. From past experience, about 4x that many people actually show up… so it’s gonna be a great party!

We’re about to update all the city pages to point to Google Communities for photos to be shared for each city. Stay tuned for that.

Here’s the Facebook Groups below.

New York (Facebook Group Link)

Philadelphia (Facebook Group Link)

Washington DC (Facebook Group Link)

Chicago (Facebook Group Link)

Nashville (Facebook Group Link)

Atlanta (Facebook Group Link)

Miami (Facebook Group Link)

Dallas (Facebook Group Link)

San Antonio (Facebook Group Link)

Phoenix (Facebook Group Link)

Los Angeles (Facebook Group Link)

Burning Man (Facebook Group Link)

San Francisco (Facebook Group Link)

Daily Photo – Coming Over the Hill to Find Relief in the Sahara Desert

I can easily see how people can die in the desert. From movies and things, you kind of get the sense that you might be able to cross 50 or so sand dunes per day. But I think you’d be lucky to cross 5. And you can’t ever see anything coming… just and endless sea of sand. I came over the crest of this hill (luckily I was on a camel) and saw the edge of this welcoming-looking tent!

Coming Over the Hill to Find Relief in the Sahara Desert

Photo Information

  • Date Taken2014-03-08 03:50:44
  • CameraILCE-7R
  • Camera MakeSony
  • Exposure Time1/640
  • Aperture10
  • ISO100
  • Focal Length85.0 mm
  • FlashOff, Did not fire
  • Exposure ProgramAperture-priority AE
  • Exposure Bias-0.3

Comments
12
Jul 2015 : Sunday
filed under  Fes, Morocco, Photography Tips, Sony A7R, Travel

The Intricacies of Morocco

Local Facebook Events

If you’re coming to one or more of the PhotoWalks across the USA, here are the local Facebook events you can join! 🙂

New York

Philadelphia

Washington DC

Chicago

Nashville

Atlanta

Miami

Dallas

San Antonio

Phoenix

Los Angeles

Burning Man

San Francisco

Quicky Tricky – Photography Tip

Here’s a hot tip, although it’s a little hard to pull off sometimes. When I took this photo, there were two very annoying tourists who would not move on the left side. But when you’re shooting something symmetrical, I see no problem with getting rid of them by taking the part they were occluding, and using the horizontal inverse of the opposite side to cover them up

Daily Photo – The Intricacies of Morocco

I shot this inside Fes. As you walk through the tight streets, you’ll occasionally see mysterious little places off to the right and left. Some are mosques, which are hard to get into. Others are little enclaves like this. It only cost a few dollars to get inside, but it was quite beautiful, and they have no problem with tripod shooting, which is even better!

The Intricacies of Morocco

Photo Information

  • Date Taken2014-03-04 04:11:17
  • CameraILCE-7R
  • Camera MakeSony
  • Exposure Time1/60
  • Aperture8
  • ISO100
  • Focal Length15.0 mm
  • FlashOff, Did not fire
  • Exposure ProgramAperture-priority AE
  • Exposure Bias

Comments
10
Jul 2015 : Friday
filed under  chefchaouen, Morocco, Sony A7R, Travel

Night Streets of Chefchaouen

Now up in New York

Are you in New York or near the Hamptons? Come on out to Art Southamption in New York. The work is the one below and it’s printed at about nine feet across (3 meters). We used a very special printing process for it that you can see below. When you get there, look up Dranoff Fine Art or to find out more, you can email him at [email protected]. Here’s a photo he got of it yesterday…

It also ended up in the Online Gallery for Blouin Art Info. Thanks guys!

HDR Photo

Blog Posts

I notice I have absolutely no regularity at all about when I write these blog posts. This one I am writing at 9:17 PM. Most I write quite early in the morning. But it’s really pretty random… I always enjoy it. It’s never a chore… but some days I get a bit busy and it’s hard to squeeze it in! But I think I’ve been pretty good in the past 2-3 years, never missing a day. Sometimes there is a photo mess-up or a strange error repeat, but not too bad, I must s

Daily Photo – Night Streets of Chefchaouen

At night, all the colors of this little mountain town became much more intense. In the daytime, these were kind of a light powdery blue, but at night they seemed much more saturated and intense. It was pretty much like a Disneyland of colors — something new to see around every bend!

Night Streets of Chefchaouen

Photo Information

  • Date Taken2014-03-05 08:10:10
  • CameraILCE-7R
  • Camera MakeSony
  • Exposure Time4
  • Aperture8
  • ISO200
  • Focal Length13.0 mm
  • FlashOff, Did not fire
  • Exposure ProgramAperture-priority AE
  • Exposure Bias

Comments
6
Jul 2015 : Monday
filed under  Essaouira, Morocco, Sony A7R, Travel

Beautiful Blue Boats in Essaouira, Morocco

Before you plan a trip to Morocco

Be sure THIS place is on your list: Essaouira. Yes I know it seems like too many vowels in a row, but you gotta go anyway. It was one of the most beautiful areas of Morocco, and you never think of that country as having a vibrant port-city, do you? Well all the more reason to go… Great photos, great food, amazing weather… it’s just amazi

Daily Photo – Beautiful Blue Boats in Essaouira, Morocco

This whole medieval town is awesome, and it is more than enough fun getting lost inside the little streets and rampart walls. But I found the most interesting part was the harbor. There were maybe three different sections (or more), but each one featured an amazing array of different blue boats. Talk about endless photo ops… it never ended!

Beautiful Blue Boats in Essaouira, Morocco

Photo Information

  • Date Taken2014-03-14 07:09:34
  • CameraILCE-7R
  • Camera MakeSony
  • Exposure Time1/3000
  • Aperture4.5
  • ISO1600
  • Focal Length70.0 mm
  • FlashOff, Did not fire
  • Exposure ProgramManual
  • Exposure Bias

Comments
28
Jun 2015 : Sunday
filed under  Casablanca, Morocco, Sony A7R, Travel

The Rails to Casablanca

Morocco Video

I should have a cool video from Morocco to share with you soon! 🙂

Daily Photo – The Rails to Casablanca

Technically, I suppose, these are the rails between Casablanca and Rabat in Morocco. I shot this out of the back of the train, looking towards Casablanca where I had just left. That’s where the main airport is, and I was disappointed that Casablanca was not a more awesome town! I had just watched “Casablanca” for a second time on the plane on the way there, and I had high expectations, but I’d say it was by far the most disappointing of the places I visited in Morocco. I’d rank it last among the 7-8 cities I stayed in during my three weeks there!

The Rails to Casablanca

Photo Information

  • Date Taken2014-03-01 07:34:50
  • CameraILCE-7R
  • Camera MakeSony
  • Exposure Time1/250
  • Aperture4
  • ISO1600
  • Focal Length17.0 mm
  • FlashOff, Did not fire
  • Exposure ProgramAperture-priority AE
  • Exposure Bias

Comments
9
Mar 2015 : Monday
filed under  chefchaouen, Morocco, Photography Tips

In the Streets of Chefchaouen

Manual Focus Street Photography

Now that I use a lot of Leica lenses with my street photography, they require manual focus. It’s really not that bad, and I used to dread it. But with focus-peeking, it makes everything quite a bit easier. I’d say that I definitely get a better sense of getting things in focus than ever before. It’s also a great challenge. I do miss a FEW shots that I would have gotten with a fast auto-focus, but I also believe I get other ones I would have missed when the autofocus would have messed up!

Daily Photo – In the Streets of Chefchaouen

I saw this gentleman walking down the middle of the roads slowly. He would occasionally hold out his hand slowly and the first time I did it, I put a small pile of coins into it. He then quickly slid the coins inside his jilaba. I saw him again a shade later and took his photo as he was walking right at me.

In the Streets of Chefchaouen

Photo Information

  • Date Taken2014-03-17 05:29:51
  • CameraILCE-7R
  • Camera MakeSony
  • Exposure Time1/750
  • Aperture
  • ISO100
  • Focal Length
  • FlashOff, Did not fire
  • Exposure ProgramAperture-priority AE
  • Exposure Bias

Comments