New SmugMug Film

Our friends over at SmugMug have released a new film about this cool photographer named Bella Kotak. Hope you like it!

Daily Photo – Shadows of the Southern Alps

If you get out to Glenorchy early enough in the morning, you can see these amazing shadows from one set of mountains projected across the lake onto another set of mountains. One of the more stunning things about the mountains around Lake Wakatipu is how they have very steep faces jutting out of the water. It’s basically the same mountain shapes as in the fjords not too far away. If I’m not mistaken, all of this used to be a fjord at the beginning of the most recent ice age.

Shadows of the Southern Alps

Photo Information

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• Date Taken2014-05-01 09:08:11
• CameraILCE-7R
• Camera MakeSony
• Exposure Time1/30
• Aperture9.5
• ISO100
• Focal Length67.0 mm
• FlashOff, Did not fire
• Exposure ProgramAperture-priority AE
• Exposure Bias

Machine Elf – Creator of Worlds

The actual work is a physical installation at 75 inches across, embedded in a wall, running in a continuous loop forever (this is only the first 15 minutes).

The soundscape you hear is how a baby hears its mother’s heartbeat as it reverberates through her organs along with theta waves. There’s an even better version of that in the works, but I thought it was good enough for now. The piece explores chaos and order and creation from nothing. It is created with mathematical fractals that are changing, growing, and being destroyed over time and then recreated from the void.

Daily Photo – Machine Elf – Creator of Worlds – on the wall

And here’s a photo of what it looks like on the wall… Only making three of these, and as of the time of writing this, there is one remaining. If interested, contact [email protected].

Machine Elf – Creator of Worlds – on the wall

Photo Information

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• Date Taken2020-01-06 15:04:12
• CameraPixel 4
• Camera MakeGoogle
• Exposure Time1/50
• Aperture1.7
• ISO46
• Focal Length4.4 mm
• FlashOff, Did not fire
• Exposure ProgramProgram AE
• Exposure Bias

Passport Sunday Fun!

If you’re a Passport Member then you know it’s Sunday, that special day when I release a new how-to video! Now we’re at well over 150 videos, so you also have access to a massive back catalog. Enjoy!

Processing a photo from a Queenstown Helicopter

This is a fun little lesson and the photo turned out fantastic! It once again reminds me that I should take more photos from the portrait orientation! Today’s was processed from a single RAW.

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Photo Workshop!

Photo Workshop party in New Zealand! We do have a formal photo workshop coming up in April, but yesterday I did a personal one with this gentleman, Brandin Cooks. He first visited me a few years ago at my studio here, then became an art collector, and then we started going on photo adventures together! He’s a really good photographer and a hungry student that asks lots of good questions. Brandin is one of the nicest guys I’ve ever met too… if any of you follow the NFL, then you probably know who he is. I think he’s actually carving out a very interesting niche by being the only pro photographer who is also becoming a pro photographer. Anyway, we had a fun little one-on-one day here in Skipper’s Canyon, then met his wife at Ferg before heading out to take sunset photos in Glenorchy.

Daily Photo – The Milky White Waters of Aruba

The water was like this each and every day. Not only was it this unusual color, but it was super warm and perfect. On our first day there, we went out paddleboarding, which was perfect for beginners because the water was so smooth. There was a lot of falling off anyway, mostly because Ethan was going around like a battleship trying to sink everyone else.

The Milky White Waters of Aruba

Photo Information

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• Date Taken2017-01-19 13:15:23
• CameraPixel
• Camera MakeGoogle
• Exposure Time1/2500
• Aperture2
• ISO51
• Focal Length4.7 mm
• FlashAuto, Did not fire
• Exposure ProgramProgram AE
• Exposure Bias

Upcoming Queenstown Photo Workshop!

The image from today’s video was taken during our Queenstown, New Zealand Photo Workshop which is coming in soon in just a few weeks! It’s going to be a great time and this is one of the many locations we visit together. If you’re a Passport Member then you get to see the edit of this video… If you were there at the workshop, you got to see it live!

Queenstown Gardens Edit

This was a fun edit. I really enjoy these situations where you get to mix together soft areas with defined areas all in the middle of a soup of pretty colors. Enjoy! 🙂

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How LSD Created the Internet

Here’s an interesting and short documentary about something you may not know about!

Daily Photo – On the way to Haast

How beautiful is the West Coast of New Zealand? It’s foggy and moody and full of mystique. I absolutely love it here. This makes me want to do more road trips all over the South Island… I’ll try to do a few a year! Next time, I think I want to get a little more drone action going because the views from up high are even more spectacular.

On the way to Haast

Photo Information

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• Date Taken2019-05-24 01:44:55
• CameraILCE-7RM3
• Camera MakeSony
• Exposure Time1/30
• Aperture6.3
• ISO3200
• Focal Length96.0 mm
• FlashOff, Did not fire
• Exposure ProgramManual
• Exposure Bias

Funny Wax Figure Prank

This was a great concept and even better in execution.

Daily Photo – Exploring Hobbiton

The Hobbiton tour is definitely worth a visit if you’re up on the North Island of New Zealand. After you go on it, I find it impossible that you would not actually want to live in a hobbit hole. I also suggested to the management team there that they open up a few of the hobbit holes for people to sleep in at night. I’m sure that they could charge whatever they wanted. I’m a diehard LOTR fan, but there are people that are even way more hardcore than me!

Exploring Hobbiton

Photo Information

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• Date Taken2013-10-19 02:29:30
• CameraNEX-7
• Camera MakeSony
• Exposure Time1/1250
• Aperture8
• ISO100
• Focal Length10.0 mm
• FlashOff, Did not fire
• Exposure ProgramAperture-priority AE
• Exposure Bias-2

Passport Present for the new Year

Thanks again to all the subscribers to Passport! Since it’s Passport Sunday, it’s time for another how-to video to add to the 150+ that are already there!

Home Photo Edit

I’ve been working on taking photos of my own home a lot lately because of the AirBnB thing. In today’s video, you’ll get to see one of the edits!

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Great Interview with Richard Dawkins and Sam Harris

I listen to almost all of Sam’s podcasts, but here is a recent one that was very interesting with Richard Dawkins.

Daily Photo – Floating over Kinross

Sometimes, we take our workshop out to the Gibbston Valley area so they get to see this beautiful area near Queenstown. There is a semi-new place there called Kinross where they have wine and food and of course amazing views. This is a shot from above I got with the Mavic.

Floating over Kinross

Photo Information

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• Date Taken2019-04-23 22:32:58
• CameraFC2204
• Camera MakeDJI
• Exposure Time1/160
• Aperture2.8
• ISO110
• Focal Length4.4 mm
• FlashNo Flash
• Exposure ProgramProgram AE
• Exposure Bias+0.3

Passport Sunday!

If you’re a Passport Member then today you’ll see a little how-to explaining how I built the website for renting out my New Zealand home. It was a really fun project and I figured out a few more things about the process!

Using Adobe Spark to Build a Website

I think you’re going to really enjoy seeing how easy it is to build a website nowadays! Adobe Spark is included with most of the basic memberships, and I use quite a bit to make a variety of websites. When I decided to rent out the other house on my property, it was an obvious choice. Anyway, in this video, you’ll see how I made the “Secluded Paradise” (that’s the new name haha) website.

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