I made a little video this evening where I read negative Amazon Reviews for you. This is a one-time only event… I think the regulars here will appreciate it…hehe. Luckily, despite the negative Nancies (actually, I do appreciate constructive criticism), we still were able to sell out on Amazon in the US, UK, Canada, and Australia. Everything is back in stock now, as I understand!

BTW, I will add this to the video section — visit the Videos area here if you want to see free videos with how-tos, shooting examples, etc.

The book contest is still going on at Abduzeedo

The contest is up to about 450 entries, so if you don’t already have one, pop over there for your chance to win! While there at Abduzeedo, be sure to go look around their site some and discover other great artists. I spend a lot of time there getting inspired!

Daily Photo – Autumn in New York at Sunset

Despite my kind Tweet to The Metropolitan Museum of Art, they would not let me take a tripod on the day I arrived. So, I was forced to do a hand-held HDR shot from the roof at sunset. It was a beautiful night across central park, and I did my best to hold it steady.

In Photomatix, I did choose to “Auto-Align” images. It did a pretty good job. I always suggest that you check “Do Not Crop”, so that you can line everything up easier later in Photoshop. When it auto-crops, it resets the 0,0 x/y origin and will mix up the alignment later on for final cleanup.

We are looking at Auckland on Feb 19 and Christchurch on Mar 4.  Both events will include a talk, which you are welcome to attend.  I look forward to meeting all you nice Kiwis!  There is more information on the New Zealand page here!

Daily Photo – The Mysteries of the Boudoir

For the photo mystery of the week, what exactly is the photo below?  Be sure you zoom into the big size and poke around for clues….

I found this gem while in New York during the book launch party there.  It’s one of those times when I am happy I carry my camera almost everywhere.  It’s a real pain, especially when I had a major disaster in a tiny robot-bathroom in Tokyo.  That is a story I can’t share on the blog because it’s all too wheels-off.  But, in this circumstance, having a camera worked out well.

Isn’t this the strangest thing in the world?  But it’s so interesting….  I could not stop looking at it!

New Screenshots of Topaz Detail 2

Below is a screenshot I took while helping the define some the details in this photo. You can see more on my Topaz Detail Review here on the site. Sometimes, I find the HDR process can make some lines and contrast wash out, and the eye still likes to latch onto lines… Anyway, a longer story, but there is more info if you are interested.

I am going to mention this tomorrow during the workshop with Scott Bourne, but I get inspiration and ideas from a great variety of sources outside of photography. Unfortunately, I find that photographers stay in the bubble too much and keep reading the same sort of thing. I put together “Trey’s Book List” here on the site for you. It’s filled with all types of subject matter from genetics to physics. For example, if I ever run into a fellow artist that also has a passion for Richard Feynman, we always become fast friends!

Another Nice Testimonial for HDR Spotting

I am glad some more people are getting into the private beta of HDRspotting.com – as always, the goal of the site is to showcase interesting HDRs from all over the world to drive more traffic and attention to YOUR website. It’s built on top of something we call an “Attention Generation Engine”. As we tweak all this out and iterate, we hope to open it up to more and more people!

There are invite codes out there – just ask around on Twitter or look in the HDR groups in Flickr or FB — NOTE – I do not give them out – so sorry I can’t help you (by design!).

Here is a nice testimonial from Gaensler (see his latest amazing shot on Flickr)

Since uploading my images on HDR Spotting the attention I get on my work increases tremendous! This encourages me to upload one image every single day, which is a great challenge due to the matter of only sending my best images. So HDR Spotting is pushing me further in my work and the comments I get from the community refuels my creativity!

Daily Photo – Grand Central Station

When I was in NYC a few weeks ago for the book party, I took some time one rainy evening to invade Grand Central Station without a tripod pass. I did not even know I could get such a thing easily, because the process for picking one up requires looking in the bottom of a locked filing cabinet stuck in a disused lavatory with a sign on the door saying ‘Beware of the Leopard’. (tip of the hat to the great Douglas Adams).

But even with my illegal tripod in hand, and in cool and casual defiance of the three-legged police, I strode around Grand Central Station taking photos with reckless aplomb. I really wanted to get on a train and go somewhere! But, I didn’t… I just walked out the exit and right into another amazing photographic situation!

I started HDRSpotting.com (and see the Editor’s Picks too) with a friend to help bring more attention to other HDR photographers out there. We developed a cutting-edge “attention generation engine”, designed to increase traffic for new and old artists all over the world. The site is still in beta, and thus, invite only. You have to know someone to get an invite (don’t ask me – I don’t hand them out). But you can pick up extra in the HDR group on Facebook, Flickr, and keep searching Twitter for when people have extras to give away.

Here is a testimonial from Brian Matiash:

I was first drawn to HDR Spotting because of the high quality HDR images that were shared by some very talented photographers. Since then, posting my best HDR images to HDR Spotting has become a natural part of my post-processing workflow. When a shot is finalized and ready to share, one of its first stops is at HDR Spotting. Now, most of my images average at least 1,500 views and my Editor’s Choice shots average between 7,000 – 8,500 extra views!! I really am loving this added visibility to my work. Great job with the site, keep up the great work!

Smashing Magazine Book

Do you guys know Smashing Magazine? It’s a great design resource, and they were kind enough to run this controversial piece by me called “10 Easy Steps to Advanced Photography Skills“.

They have a new book out that is doing very well. It’s called the “The Smashing Book“, and if you are a designer or just interested in the subject matter, it’s a great resource!

Daily Photo – Grand Central on a Rainy Night During the Holidays

I took this about the same time I went into Grand Central Station and performed my unique star-pattern maneuver to evade security guards. I described it in detail the next day when I spoke at B&H.

I’ve perfected a panoply of techniques to circumnavigate and befuddle security guards who don’t like tripods. Maybe I will write a little e-book on this some day.

Yesterday, I recommended a bunch of the best iPhone Games and Apps for the holiday season. Now, if you have a fresh new Amazon Gift Card or Kindle and are looking to fill it up, here are some great suggestions. For more, visit the full “Trey’s Book List“.

Daily Photo – Christmas at The Rock in the Rain

Beautiful Rockefeller Center in New York has one of the most amazing Christmas displays in the world. It’s famous, and always presents a majestic scene right in front of the ice skating rink.

As soon as the guards see me with a tripod, they come over and escort me away. Damn them! Actually – it’s not their fault – it’s the goddamed lawyers who feed off a tort-happy system. The tripod may trip someone, you see. And then they can file a law suit against the property owner. We increasingly live in a world where you have to second-guess the most natural of actions for fear of being looted by the organized wealth redistribution system of tort-happy lawyers.

Anyway, to spite them all, I kept coming back and setting up my tripod in the thundering rain until I got the shot. Let them try to arrest me some day – I’m obviously a real threat to society as a photographer. It’s amazing how hard we all have to work in the USA, land of the free, to be creative and capture beauty… just another reason I’m Coming to New Zealand, where there are no tort lawsuits!

Our free newsletter goes out live today! There is mention of a secret trip to New Zealand… but shh… don’t tell those Aussies because they get all upset about this talk. I have no desire to earn their ire, even though they are generally too laid back to do anything about it.

Isn’t it the prettiest newsletter in the world? All I ask is that you share it with your friends, family, and other people that you think like beautiful things.

My Favorite Software products of the Year

Two great tools out there for you: See my Nik Review and my Topaz Adjust Review.

And, of course, I am sure most of you have already seen my Photomatix Review. That thing is awesome and I use it all the time! In fact, just the other night during the SmugMug event, I gave people a quick 15-minute demo.

Daily Photo – Cartier in New York during the Holidays

I shot this a few days ago when I was in New York City. It was a cold and rainy night, so shooting with this bulbous 14-24 mm lens is an exercise in frustration! If you aim it just slightly in the air, it gets soaked in about 2 seconds! So, I set the aperture to 2.8 so the 5 exposures would be as fast as Nikonably possible.

Fifth Avenue in New York is amazing at Christmas. It’s everything you imagine. I’ve done my best to capture the spirit of it here, and I have a lot more shots in the pipeline… stay tuned!

Books are still hitting the warehouses and causing a light holiday panic!  Cool!  I put up some new images of how gorgeous the book looks on the inside on the HDR Book page.  Here are a few quick samples for you!

An Interview at Scott Wyden’s Blog

Scott sent me a very nice interview, and he has just published it.  It’s a quick read for you!

Daily Photo – The Edges of the Flatiron (and yes, B&W HDRs are fun!)

This is the famous Flatiron building in NYC.  I shot it a few weeks ago when I was scouting the location for the book party.

One of the topics we will cover in the HDR Workshop with Scott Bourne in Florida is the topic of creating HDRs in Black and White.  I also have a new article coming out soon about that very subject on Scott’s blog.  I’ll be sure to give everyone a heads up before that hits!

I have a few cool events and appearances coming up. The first one is the book party in SOHO in New York this Monday on the 14th. We shut off all invitations, and if you simply must get in, don’t ask me — It’s best to ask the June Arunga, the event organizer. You can contact her at akinyiarunga@gmail.com.

Other Upcoming Events:

• New York, Dec 15th – B&H Photo Event Room – A Firehose of HDR with Trey Ratcliff.  (Free) More info.
• Austin, Dec 16th – Smugmug Meeting – Guest Speaker Trey Ratcliff. (Free)  More info
• Tampa, FL, Jan 16/17 - HDR Workshop with Scott Bourne. (Not Free, but almost) More info.

The Moments Between Episode 3: 140 seconds in New York

The Nikon Festival (please leave comments there too!) is a fun thing where anyone can submit a video of “My Day”.

I recently spent a day in New York and recorded many of the little things I saw in between the moments. The real title, should perhaps be “14 Seconds in New York”, because a lot can happen in those 14 seconds.

For more info on this technique, and to see other videos, visit the “Stuck In Motion” page.

And here are a few of my favorite New York shots:

I hope everyone that came to the event had a nice time and had some good stuff out of it. I enjoyed meeting you and thanks for the encouragement! We had a few people pick up their books early, and that is cool.

We’ll endeavor to get the other pre-orders sent out as quickly as humanly possible! It takes a long time to sign all the books, get them together with the prints, and then re-ship everything out… but we are doing our best!

You can see the Driskill fan page on Facebook, where you can submit photos for the contest. I talked with Brett and he confirmed with me that only the winning photo will be granting rights so that the Driskill can use it… Not all submissions – so no worries about that!

Interview on CBS

I was on the CBS news yesterday here in Austin about the new HDR book. Jason Wheeler was a cool guy and a traveler himself, so we got along quite well… at least for those wild five minutes that we met. That sounds bad.

Austin is cool

Austin is one of those cool places where the favorite past time seems to be “talking about how cool Austin is”. That’s it! There’s never anything specific… just a general “cool” feeling, and that’s kinda nice. Below are a few shots from around the environs…

I know most of you are not on Twitter yet, or perhaps you just are following people who tell you what they just ordered at Starbucks, but those of you that follow me get to see amazing links like this one to the Big Picture.  I try to post several links a week to other photographers, art, and other inspirational things I find…  It’s a good medium for quick finds where I don’t have time to write a whole blog post.

If you are new to Twitter, try out my Twitter Lists to find some good people to follow!

Interview on ReadyPhotoSite

A new short interview went up yesterday over at ReadyPhotoSite.  It’s a short and sweet one.

Daily Photo – An Amazing Day at the Met

On Sunday, I set aside about six hours to spend alone at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.   Most of you may know by now how I am obsessed with the Impressionists.  Don’t ever go to a museum with me, because I will bore you for hours on end with strange tidbits.  Anyway, the Met has a fantastic collection that kept me busy most of the time…  It’s rather nice of them to hang on to my paintings for me.  One day, when I get some time, I’m going to make a little page here and show some of my favorites.

The Man would not let me take a tripod inside, so that was unfortunate.  I did manage to do a few hand-held HDRs however… here is one that I have processed thus far.

We have a nice growing community over there, and I drop in on occasion to put in little bits of news that just can’t wait on the daily blog post. I do want to keep the blog a regular once-a-day event. However, sometimes there are cool things you might want to know over on the Fan Page. I also encourage discussion, finding more friends, and the like there. So, come join and have a good time!

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I had a great time in New York!

I just got back from NYC, where I went out to get ready for the book launch party. While there, I shot a secret video with Steve Simon, which may not be secret for long… stay tuned for that.

Also, I went out with Cali Lewis to shoot some HDRs in Times Square! This was a bit of an in-person version of the HDR Tutorial here on the site. Cali is the host of Geekbrief.TV – a show you should watch for sure if you like tech and spunkiness (plus, you can see she uses my photos on her backgrounds!). Anyway, after shooting some HDRs, we went and had Italian food with Cali, Neil (her hubby), and my friend June Arunga. I handed Neil my camera and he shot this pic of us together…

Daily Photo: New York is Alive and Well

It’s been a few years since I have been to New York, and Times Square is better than before! I was actually in New York on 9/11, so it’s always good to go back to the city and see everything is still awesome. Maybe next time I come, we can all do a flash mob and hit B&H Photo for a while – that would be fun!

I have a long photo adventure scheduled for Japan, and I’m very excited! I have a rail pass and not much of a plan… other than visiting a few places I’ve always wanted to go. After seeing countless movies, I have quite a romantic vision of what it will be like out in the countryside. I just am not sure what to expect… Do you guys and gals have any suggestions for must-sees or must-dos in Japan? I’ve been to Tokyo before, but never out in the rest of the country, which I plan to do this time.

And also, I am very glad you guys like the new feature here on the site. It looks like many of you have been dragging photos to Facebook, Twitter, and the like! I hope that “mouseover” works well for you… remember that that little thing does not appear unless you actually put your pointer on top.

I also wanted to thank Cameron — a fellow photographer I met here in Las Vegas today. He works at the Lion King stage show here and he was nice enough to give my family a backstage tour after the event. It was really remarkable to see how everything worked… and my son and daughter were thrilled to meet Simba. It was quite a thrill! Thanks again Cameron — that was cool!

I shot this one from the top of the Rockefeller Center. They don’t let you take tripods up there, but I always see that as somewhat of a challenge to my manhood, and I take offense. So, consequently, I set my mind to smuggling my tripod in there, usually inside my overcoat or a big shopping bag. I mean, you have to, right? There is no other way to get a good night or evening shot without a stable surface (or a high ISO, which I don’t like).

Anyway, this was a perfect night. Later, after I shot this, I was graciously invited over to have dessert with Rudy Maxa (he has a travel show) and his daughter in Brooklyn. It was great to meet him and he was a super guy. I figured since I mentioned Rick Steves yesterday (who people on my Facebook comments were saying was not such a nice guy), today it was time for the very nice Rudy Maxa.

For those of you that have never been to New York, Central Park is that big green rectangle in the middle there. You can see a few lakes, trees, and paths scattered about.

So, a few days ago I received a letter from the Smithsonian saying that I have another one in the running for the 6th Annual Photo Contest!  Cool!  Two years ago, I had 2 winners in the 4th Annual Photo Contest , and one of those ended up hanging in the Smithsonian castle in DC.  I know a few of you out there got to see it on road trips – maybe we can make another pilgrimage this year!.  I didn’t win anything last year in the 5th annual contest…  It was a bad year for me, what can I say?

The one that is in the finalist pool this year is the Times Square one that I have placed below.  Just below that, I have placed a NEW photo of Rockefeller Center that I have been working on over the weekend.  I hope you like it.

I will be speaking in Austin, Texas next week at the Digital Photography SIG on Thursday night, Feb 26 (next week).  It’s free to come – please do – I’d be happy to meet you in person!  I’ll be talking about photography and going through a tutorial.  If you are in Central Texas, be sure to stop by — it should be a good time!

Also, over the weekend, I was interviewed at the Pro Photography Show, which is a podcast that should be made available in the next few weeks.  I will be sure to put a link to it here whenever it goes live.