Largest Photowalk in History?

Here’s an article on Petapixel about the upcoming event in San Francisco!

The official unveiling

I’ll be saying a few words at an unveiling of these new statues on Sunday, May 12, at The Hills here in Arrowtown. A few of you may be there! Sir Richard Taylor from Weta Workshop and Sir Michael Hill will be there for the official unveling of its newest work, ‘The Frolic and the Fancy’ by Max Patte. See more about Max here. Max liked this photo I took one day while I was out golfing, so it will be fun to be there for the official event!

Daily Photo – The Frolic and the Fancy by Max Patte

Here’s the first photo I took of these transcendant statues.

I’m surprised at people’s reaction to this photo online. So many people thought they were real! I suppose I did too the first time I saw them.

There is one other very unusual thing. I don’t know what they are made of, even though I was right beside them. Obviously, I know next to nothing about sculpture, but I have some basic knowledge of materials (I think!). Anyway, I absolutely am not sure how they are made… I’ll ask Max and report back to you!

Filed under the categories: Arrowtown, New Zealand, Queenstown, Travel

The Sony NEX Experiment in China

I’m going to spend a few weeks in China using only my Sony NEX (see Sony NEX-7 Review) I’m sidelining the Nikon D800 (see Nikon D800 Review) for the time being. It will be my backup camera in case the Sony breaks down. This is a role-reversal for my cameras! For the last year+, the Sony has been the backup quarterback, but now the coach has made a big decision.

DSLRs are a dying breed

Over a year ago, I wrote a controversial article called DSLRs are a Dying Breed. I got a lot of hate for that… but that’s cool.

Important Questions to Ask Me

Whenever you see someone come out and say something sensational like this, you should ask:

Question #1: Is Sony paying you to say this or make this move?
Answer #1: No.

Question #2: Did you get your Sony NEX-7 for free or discount?
Answer #2: No. I paid full price

Question #3: Does Sony pay you to advertise?
Answer #3: No. These Japanese companies don’t seem to care much about social media… I’m sure if I showed them the Google Analytics on this blog and that I have over 10 million followers when you add up Google+, FB, Pinterest, and Twitter that they would just give me a blank-Japanese-stare. They still care more about advertising in old photography magazines that hardly anybody reads any more. I have another article you might enjoy called “Stop Advertising in Magazines” where I did an experiment.

Anyway, if any of the answers were “Yes,” it would not necessarily make what I am saying invalid, but it should make you more suspicious. If you see other photographers in the media make a surprising change, you should ask these questions too.

Maybe if you’ve followed me on StuckInCustoms.com for the past 6+ years, you know I’m honest about what I use and say. Nikon doesn’t pay more or have any financial relationship whatsoever, and I’ve always pimped their wares. I’ve always paid full price for all my Nikon equipment. NOW, having said that, maybe things will change in the future… but they could never pay me enough to make me say something I don’t believe already. Life’s too short, you know?

Why am I able to be so honest, independent of sponsorships (and/or the sad lack thereof)? Well, the blog is very profitable and keeps our team of about ten people happily paid and rewarded. It makes money because many nice people like you visit our store and get goodies you just can’t live without! hehe… but, seriously, I don’t have to scrounge around for business and sponsorship deals so that we can make payroll. I’m very grateful for this… it keeps the website and me independent, and I’m also very glad we have so many happy customers that keep the whole circle of love going. Thank you!

Why are you switching to the Sony NEX?

For over a year, my Nikon D800 has been my Main Camera and the Sony NEX-7 has been the backup. They are now swapping places!

I’m just experimenting with this swap two weeks while in China. However, this is a pretty major decision because I don’t go to China too often. If I come back and miss shots because of a bad camera decision, then it’s all my fault. I don’t want to have any photography-regrets! I have enough other regrets in my life… I don’t need to add photography regrets to the list!

Something that honestly drove this decision is that I’m without my 14-24mm Nikon lens. But I’ve been without it now for 6 weeks, and another 4 weeks in the past year because of a fault with the lens that Nikon could never really fix correctly. During that 10+ weeks, I’ve been using the Sony NEX-7 a lot, and I think it can pretty much do everything I need.

Update: Nikon just offered to send me a free loaner 14-24mm lens, but I declined. It’s problematic to ship it to me since I’m on the move, and I’m happy to go forward with my Sony experiment. Also, I’ve been without the 14-24mm for so long, I’ve gotten quite used to a Nikon-less way of life. It’s not so bad.

I’ll include a bunch of photos from NEX-7 so you can see the quality and judge for yourself.

Okay, but, still, what are the main reasons I have made this decision? Here they are:

• The new 10-18mm lens on the Sony NEX-7 is amazing. It’s a cropped sensor at 1.5x, so I’m really getting 15-27mm, which is not that different than the 14-24mm that I am used to. I love landscapes, so just backing up a few more feet is quite easy most of the time.
• The camera is SHARP. Oh god… that mirrorless sensor system is just so sharp… never blurry.
• It has all the basic lenses I need (which are not many – a wide angle and a telephoto)
• 24 megapixel — more than enough. Sure, the D800 has 36 megapixel, but, that doesn’t translate into many more horizontal pixels… Since I’ve been shooting with the D800, I haven’t been printing any bigger or doing any different licensing deals because of the higher resolution.
• Smaller. The NEX-7 is 5.9x smaller! Let’s just say SIX TIMES SMALLER for the sake of argument. Six Times. 6X. 111x49x38mm for the NEX-7 vs 146x123x82mm for the D800. It takes up hardly any space AND is…
• Lighter – 2.9x lighter (350g vs 1,000g) – I like measuring things in grams… I feel like a drug dealer.
• Faster at shooting 10 fps vs. 4 fps
• Screen that flips around – That is more useful than I ever knew…
• I have a Leica lens adapter on my NEX-7 that lets me use amazing Leica lenses, like this sweet f/1.2 that sometimes makes a surprise appearance !

Sample Sony NEX-7 Photos

While my Nikon has been in various states of disrepair (my fault, I assure you) I have been left with my Sony NEX-7. Here are some photos that I took. I’m very happy with them! Note that most of these are with the kit lens! Also note that I post-process a lot of my photos unapologetically.

Why the Sony NEX-7 and not another mirrorless system?

The micro-four-thirds are another very good system. There are also a lot more lenses available for that system rather than Sony’s new E-Mount system. But, I just really like the NEX-7 better than any of the micro-four-thirds cameras right now. Note all of that could change relatively quickly. But, really, the micro-four-thirds cameras are just fine and really cool. There are a lot more manufacturers making cameras and lenses for that system, and I know it has a huge following.

How will you determine if the “China Experiment” is a success or failure?

Well that is a good question. I wish I had not asked it. I’m quite scientific and analytical, you know? So I don’t know how I will know if this was truly a good move.

If I could do some sort of quantum experiment, where a parallel-universe-Trey made the opposite decision to use the Nikon D800 instead and happened to visit all the same places — and then I could quantum-combine the results and compare the photos from A and B — well that would be a good experiment, but I won’t do that. Well, I would, but I can’t think of a way to bring together multiple universes at the moment.

Another way would be if I took both cameras for two weeks and took the same photos of the same things. But that is overkill. I’m pretty Type-A go-getter, but I’m still kinda lazy. I’m not gonna do all that mess.

Here’s the thing, I’ll come back from two weeks in China with a ton of photos from the NEX-7, and either I’ll be happy with them or I won’t. If I come away with a lot of winners, then I’ll consider the whole thing a nice success! If I’m happy, then it will be a successful experiment. It’s quite a holistic analysis, and I am at zen peace with this.

Want to watch the live results roll in?

Subscribe to my YouTube Channel to see my videos that I’ll post while using this camera in China. BTW, thanks for the 2.4 million views on the channel! I’ll upload videos there. Even though China blocks a lot of Google and YouTube, I have a VPN so I’m gonna be sweet-sliding around the Great Firewall of China.

Update: Sony has contacted me now. They asked if they could loan me anything to try, so I asked for the lesser cousin to the NEX-7 — the NEX 5n. I’m interested in trying the new OLED display attachment. It’s also a good deal cheaper than the NEX-7, and I’ve gotten many questions about it… I’ll play around with it and then I can answer.

Filed under the categories: Travel

Recent Interview with Kate Russell

You may remember Kate from the BBC; many years ago when she did a story about this site. She helped to make the site very popular in the UK — so we all have her to thank for that!

Kate has launched a new book called Working The Cloud, where she just posted a recent interview with me. There is a lot about business and this sort of thing, not so much about the photography. But maybe you’ll still enjoy it if you want to hear about those sorts of matters. Here is a little snippet from it:

Pinterest is another huge success for you, but is there any reason for non-visual businesses to engage with it?

TREY: Pinterest is awesome. I think I have about five million followers there and it is 90% women. Women connect the world and make it work! I know this because I was raised by my mom and sister… so I am sensitive to these things, you see. Anyway, even if, as you say, someone has a “non-visual business”, then they should still use Pinterest to build a brand around people and passions associated with the product or service. Let’s say for example, err… maybe a non-visual-business is something like… errr… let me see here, thinking out loud… well it’s hard to think of one… okay how about an accounting firm. I can’t think of anything more boring or non-visual than that. You could post photos of things that people in the accounting firm are passionate about… and you can build a personal connection that way. Let’s say that Steve, who is an expert in Irish Intellectual Property Tax Law is really into collecting steampunk stuff. Well he could pin a lot of steampunk gizmos. And Sally, who is a real killer when it comes to Inheritance Law in the Isle of Man is into candle-making. She can pin a lot of pretty candles and nonsense like that into the firm’s Pinterest with her own little personal note. That will give the accounting firm more of a human face and a bit more personality.

Daily Photo – The Pink Sea Spray at Sunset

Behind this exploding wave at Big Sur is something that I have never seen before. Why didn’t I take a photo of it? It’s because taking a good photo of a pod of whales from the beach is almost impossible! At least, it appears to be impossible for me. I’ve never seen whales so close into the beach. Maybe it happens all the time around there, but I was quite surprised. Have you ever seen a pod of whales from the beach?

Filed under the categories: Big Sur, California, Nikon D800, Travel

Watch online for the Google Science Fair, Live from Wakatipu High School in Queenstown

Well, “today” is confusing in New Zealand. It’s May 8 in NZ and May 7 in the US + Europe, and, well, + everywhere.

First is the Google Science Fair, which you can see below.

Second is with NZIPP this evening. Check this post to find the local time.

The Google Science Fair – Live Today

Here is the embedded video from Wakatipu High School in Queenstown. This was a really fun event for the Google Science Fair!

Daily Photo – Queenstown from the Air

I’m happy to be back home in Queenstown!

It’s strange to me to come “home” to the kind of place I used to go on vacation. I don’t know if I’ll ever get used to it. There is a very nice feeling when the airplane approaches this place. If you ever have a chance to fly in here, then you will know what I mean.

Airplane pilots have to go through some kind of special training or planning before an approach here. They have to spiral down and get between the mountains. I don’t know much about it, obviously. But I do know there is a very nice pilot on Air New Zealand that is a frequent reader of the blog! He came up and said hello to me when I was on his plane one day. Hi Captain!

Filed under the categories: New Zealand, Nikon D800, Queenstown, Travel

The Giant PhotoWalk Event

This will be an amazing PhotoWalk event in San Francisco soon! It’s officially sanctioned by Google and everything, and yes, I’ll be giving away Glass to one lucky person! It all takes place on May 14 in San Francisco. Sign up here on the the Official Google+ Event Page!

Just announced on the Live Show!

Join me and Thomas Hawk on the 14th. We talk more about it here when we first announced it…

Filed under the categories: California, San Francisco, Travel

It’s here!

We already had a super-closed beta a few days ago. All systems go. More systems coming online with each build!

You can get this closed beta for free in the Stuck In Customs Store (free download). When it actually launches, we will of course have it in the Google Play store. I’m targeting a day or two before Google I/O next week! If you have any bugs or suggestions, please email us at support@stuckincustoms.com !

We recently passed One Million updates on the iPad-only version! Amazing! If you don’t already have that one, you can jump over to the StuckOnEarthApp.com website to get the iTunes store link!

What makes Stuck On Earth so much better than Google Maps with photos? FOUR things. At least!

I built this thing for ME because I could not find a tool that helps me find the best locations quickly to take photos and save them offline for photo adventures. Here is why it is better:

1) Pin Clustering! Google Maps Photos does equal weighting to all locations. When you look at Stuck On Earth, like in the photo below of Death Valley, it clusters the pins to show you the best places to go take photos. So, without even clicking the thumbnail, you know where to go!

2) Pulling from _millions_ of geo-located photos on Flickr that are algorithmically sorted by awesomeness. It ensures (well, mostly, kinda) that most of the photos that get served up to you are primo locations chosen by photographers that know that area well.

3) A very important “human” element that is missing from Google Maps. Are you pinching and zooming near San Francisco? Then you may see Thomas Hawk’s Secret Spots in San Francisco. We have human editors around the world submitting their top 50 spots in their cities. Even better, you can submit YOUR OWN top 50 list from within the app itself by making a trip! Then you don’t just have to depend on the algorithm – *you can depend on local photographers you know and trust!*

4) Offline trip saving! I know that in the middle of a good photo-outing, sometimes internet is the last thing you have! So, whenever you create a trip, it is available for you offline. We save the photos for you, the maps, the descriptions, everything!

Above, no matter the zoom level, like this spot in Death Valley, the app will algorithmically cluster pins around the most interesting spots!

Not sure what Stuck On Earth is?

Watch this video below!

Filed under the categories: Travel

Fully re-vamped HDR Tutorial!

I removed and rebuilt the HDR Tutorial from the ground up! Now it is tighter, more focused, and has all my latest techniques. Those of you that purchased the latest HDR and Post-Processing Tutorial on Video from New Zealand will see a consistency between the online free version and the paid version. They got out of sync there because my technique evolves pretty fast!

Some B-roll from the video below

I’m sure many of you have seen this video below already — but you might notice during the video that you can see some of the scenes that brought today’s photo to life!

Daily Photo – The Ghostly Spirits in Milford Sound

We had a lucky morning in Milford Sound! In retrospect, it was really dumb to bring so many people to Milford when the weather could have been horrible! But man, we really lucked out! I would say there is good weather there (shootable weather) only 50% of the time.

There are many favorite little things about this photo. One of them is that little greenish island out into the bay… that has a good feeling to it, I think.

Filed under the categories: Milford Sound, New Zealand, Nikon D800, Travel

Queenstown Speaking Engagement with NZIPP

Join me in Queenstown on the 8th of May! All are welcome!

This will be a fun event! Thanks to the NZIPP for setting it all up. There is limited space, so please contact photography@emilyadamson.com to hold a spot for you. Here is more info below:

Beautiful hidden gem in Big Sur

I bet most people drive by this place at 60 MPH and never notice – but they should! I ended up staying here a few nights recently while I was taking photos all around the area. It’s a perfect homebase for all the hotspots in the area. Plus, the rooms are really nice, comfy, and swanky… I took a bunch of other photos I’ll share soon, but you can also see some good ones at their website. One of the photos is below: the Forest View cabin.

Daily Photo – The Cabin in the Forest at the Glen Oaks Big Sur

These trees are huge! I’ve visited these huge redwoods along the coast of California many times, and I don’t think I could ever get used to how gigantic they really are. It’s almost like an alien planet!

The cabin there is one of the many varied rooms at the Glen Oaks. They are all different, but each one is nicely appointed. I’m recommending this place to my friends who are looking for awesome lodgings in the Big Sur area!

Filed under the categories: Big Sur, California, Travel

New Video – Behind the Scenes in Japan

Here’s one I just edited together from my trip last week! It shows what happened while I was taking a few different photos around Mount Fuji. The video has a bunch of different tips and tricks, shows how I set up my camera, how I change lenses, how I struggle with putting on the lens hood, and lots of other goodies. Enjoy!

Daily Photo – Approaching Mount Fuji from the Old Village

What a perfect place this is!

I’ve been to Japan many times, but I never had the chance to visit Mt. Fuji! This time, Tom and I made a point to do it, and this was one of our fist stops. You can see much more about it in the video above!

Filed under the categories: Japan, Mount Fuji, Nikon D800, Travel

Gather the kids and join me online soon!

I’ll be broadcasting live on YouTube for the Google Science Fair! You can watch online on the Event Page Here. This is a free educational event, aimed especially at kids. It’s all about science and photography.

It’s on May 7 (May 8 in some parts of the world) – check The Event Page for your local time. I’ll be joined by schoolkids from all around the world. It should be great fun!

Here is info from the event:

The Science of Photography

Digital photography offers amazing flexibility to capture and modify images. But how does the science of photography actually work? What are the basic principles of light, and how do they affect how photographers shoot? How do different cameras and lenses capture images differently? And how do software tools change the way those images are ultimately viewed?

Come to this Hangout On Air with Trey Ratcliff, the world-class photographer whose work is displayed at StuckInCustoms.com. He will be interviewed by well-known blogger, technology analyst, and amateur photographer Robert Scoble, as well as by Google Student Ambassadors. Here’s your chance to learn about the science behind those amazing images.

Tuesday, May 7, 2:00PM PT / 4:00PM CT / 5:00PM ET / 2200 GMT / 2300 CE / 900 NZDT (8 May)

Daily Photo – Close Encounters over Big Sur

I went out to take photos of the shooting stars in Big Sur last week, but I only saw a few. I took a few shots of the night skies, but I think the most interesting one was this. It reminded me of that opening scene from Close Encounters! This is what it looks like in the middle of a long exposure when a car comes up over a hill towards you…

Filed under the categories: Big Sur, California, Nikon D800, Travel

Do you know about Stocksy?

Here is our friend Kate Russell talking about Stocksy, a new stock agency that now reps a selection of my photos. You can read more about it too on Kate’s new venture “Working The Cloud”!

Daily Photo – View from the Google Offices in Downtown Tokyo

It was a great event at Google that day and night! After my tech talk, we stayed up in their skyscraper till dark, drinking and eating and taking photos. Luckily, the office windows aim in directly the right direction out of the Roppongi Towers.

The windows were all crowded with photographers, and it was a great time. Between shots, I got the chance to talk to a lot of enthusiastic Japanese photographers. I even set up a future-photo-date with the great Takahiro-san… and he would take me to one of his secret bridge locations in Tokyo! That photo will be coming up soon…

Filed under the categories: Japan, Nikon D800, Tokyo, Travel

Reminder on The Stuck in Customs Community on Google+

Last week I mentioned the Private Clubhouse that people can access when they purchase one of the tutorial products. But, also, there is a public Stuck In Customs community where you are welcome to join, share your photos, and see a bunch of other work from fellow community members! It is a fun way to get to know more people from around here!

Daily Photo – The Lonely Chair

This is a nice little object here, yes? I think it’s hard to find things that stand by themselves in the middle of an area that is normally cluttered.

The chair was found in one of the many decrepit and ghostly rooms inside that chateau I mentioned a few days ago. I tried to squeeze my way into every possible room, but some were too full of junk to get around. This one was well lit and ideal!

Filed under the categories: France, Nikon D800, Paris, Travel