The Arcanum Photo Critique and Make-Over

Here is the Event Date and Time. This thing is kind of a special event where Lisa Bettany, Rick Sammon, Dave Cross, and I will critique some photos on video.

As we march toward opening the doors to TheArcanum.com, you’re invited to participate in this special event just for our community! Through participating in this event our community will get a taste of The Arcanum Experience – learning through constructive critiques, which is just one of the many things that happen inside the hallowed magical doors!

The Arcanum Photo Critique and Make-Over event is a Google+ Hangout On Air, open to the public, scheduled for Monday February 10th at 7pm.

To Participate:
You must submit a single candidate photo by Sunday, February 9th to be considered for the random selection. You can submit any photo to The Arcanum Google+ page.

Since you already applied to The Arcanum – we truly hope you’ll submit a photo to be critiqued. If not, no worries at all! Either way, you can watch the live event! 🙂

And if you’re wondering when the doors will officially open for The Arcanum, the answer is as soon as magically possible! We’re doing a test run right now with all the Masters to work out any kinks. Also, we are a bit (!!) overloaded with Apprentice applications, so it will take a while to ramp up. It may be a good opportunity for you to pop over and update your application!

Daily Photo – Horseshoe Bend

This place is amazing, but quite scary. It was very hard for me to be here. I am not personally scared of heights, although I would not say that I’m a big risk-taker. I don’t get super-close to the edge, and if I do, I make sure that there is at least a smaller dropoff so I don’t go all the way to my death quickly.

But the other people here would just walk right up to the edge. They’d run along it, sit there with their legs dangling, and all other sorts of crazy things. I spent most of my mindspace worrying about everyone else, which is certainly not like me. I’m usually in my own world. I think I was perhaps worried because I didn’t actually want to see anyone fall. This was both altruistic and selfish. Naturally, I don’t want to see anyone die like that. But also, I don’t want to see anyone die like that. You know, it would just kind of stick with you.

Well, it was a truly beautiful place. I hate to be so morbid in my description… I would have much preferred not to see anyone else there in a scary position, though.

Horseshoe Bend

Photo Information

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• Date Taken2013-08-23 02:06:21
• CameraNEX-7
• Camera MakeSony
• Exposure Time1/80
• Aperture8
• ISO100
• Focal Length10.0 mm
• FlashOff, Did not fire
• Exposure ProgramAperture-priority AE
• Exposure Bias+1

A recommended Lens

If you click up there on the top to see Trey’s Gear, you’ll see I have a bunch of different recommended lenses. One of them I used for today’s shot – the Sony 55mm FE f/1.8 lens. It’s really been quite remarkable and fun! It’s nice to have a full-frame lens like this with a great depth of field for shots of this nature (if you forgive the pun!).

Daily Photo – Lavender in the Fields

While driving up towards Mount Cook, I finally saw my first endless field of lavender. I’ve seen these before in photos and thought it would be fun to walk amidst them, which I then ended up doing for about an hour. I got all sorts of shots, from the close-in stuff below to wide vistas. I’ll publish some of those soon as well!

Lavender in the Fields

Photo Information

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• Date Taken2014-01-05 12:36:40
• CameraILCE-7R
• Camera MakeSony
• Exposure Time1/500
• Aperture2.4
• ISO100
• Focal Length55.0 mm
• FlashOff, Did not fire
• Exposure ProgramAperture-priority AE
• Exposure Bias+2

I know many of you are excited for the doors to open on The Arcanum! Many masters are making “intro” videos so that their 20 Apprentices (and everyone else in The Arcanum) can get to know them. The vast majority of the videos inside are private, but we are releasing a few here and there for fun, like this one from Dallas!

Daily Photo – La Défense de la Matrix

This whole area in and around La Défense in Paris is an amazing area for photography. Everyone knows that Paris is a delight for artistic reasons, but the area in and around this building is relatively quiet. I didn’t really see many other photographers around here, so it was free and easy. I did get in trouble a few times for using a tripod from some security guards. But it wasn’t anything too rough, and I just moved away till I could not be seen any more and kept taking photos. They would just ride around in golf carts and be a little frenchy-mean. You know the type… while they talked to me, they would just shake their head with haughty, disapproving eyes…

La Défense de la Matrix

Photo Information

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• Date Taken2012-11-11 21:04:06
• CameraNIKON D800
• Camera MakeNikon
• Exposure Time4
• Aperture11
• ISO200
• Focal Length14.0 mm
• FlashOff, Did not fire
• Exposure ProgramAperture-priority AE
• Exposure Bias

Pandora Radio

Any of you out there listen to Pandora? What are some of your favorite stations?

Daily Photo – A Flock of Cows

And here we have a small vortex of cows that I saw on a farm on the way to Lake Ohau. The day was a bit stormy and threatening on the horizon, but there was a bright and brilliant New Zealand summer sun just beating down on these fields. All these cows were quite young and they were walking in such a tight little bundle. I’m not sure I’ve ever seen that before. They reminded me of a tight little flock of sheep!

A Flock of Cows

Photo Information

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• Date Taken2014-01-05 13:23:41
• CameraILCE-7R
• Camera MakeSony
• Exposure Time1/500
• Aperture6.7
• ISO100
• Focal Length18.0 mm
• FlashOff, Did not fire
• Exposure ProgramAperture-priority AE
• Exposure Bias

Newsletter

Be sure to check out our new Newsletter signup thing there on the right! If you haven’t signed up, be sure to do it so you can hear about the secret new stuff first! 🙂

Daily Photo – Looking Across the Lake

We visited this lake in the late afternoon on one of the final days of shooting for the new HDR Video Tutorial. This is actually getting edited together right now and it’s gonna be amazing! Anyway, this is not one of the shots that is in the actual video, but just one I took along the way. We walked all the way around the lake, and there were very few openings to get a shot. You’ll see in another one how I had to slide down a rock to get into position — in fact, I almost fell right in the river during the shoot!

Looking Across the Lake

Photo Information

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• Date Taken2013-11-07 05:49:11
• CameraNEX-7
• Camera MakeSony
• Exposure Time1/13
• Aperture7.1
• ISO100
• Focal Length21.0 mm
• FlashOff, Did not fire
• Exposure ProgramAperture-priority AE
• Exposure Bias

SmugMug Review

Don’t forget to go check out the SmugMug Review — I’m adding to it all the time

Daily Photo – Boats in waiting

Along Beihai Park in Beijing is a collection of boats that wait for passengers. Some of the touring companies are so strange. I walk by these, and there is absolutely no one there. It’s not staffed and I’ve never actually seen anyone in a boat. If I wanted a boat ride, I would have no idea how to go about getting one! This is one of the strange things about some of the consumer-facing operations that are still under the full domain of the government — general confusion! Many (probably most that you see in public areas) are not under the thumb of the government, so they operate in the way you’d expect a normal business to operate…but not these boats… oh no, there’s no way you’re getting on them!

Boats in waiting

Photo Information

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• Date Taken2013-05-27 08:47:23
• CameraNEX-7
• Camera MakeSony
• Exposure Time1/5
• Aperture1.8
• ISO100
• Focal Length24.0 mm
• FlashOff, Did not fire
• Exposure ProgramAperture-priority AE
• Exposure Bias

All About the New Stuck In Customs!

Here’s a quick video I made that talks about some of the new features around the site here. Enjoy! 🙂

Daily Photo – A One-Man Roadtrip

I took a very nice photo road trip up to the north for a few days recently. I was lucky with the weather, except for the time I decided to sleep outside and got rained on at 3 in the morning. That’s about the worst time to get rained on, btw. I was so confused!

Anyway, there was no rain here, as you can see. If you look into the far distance, however, you can see some moisture beginning to boil over the mountains and coming my direction…

A One-Man Roadtrip

Photo Information

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• Date Taken2014-01-05 14:35:10
• CameraILCE-7R
• Camera MakeSony
• Exposure Time1/500
• Aperture8
• ISO100
• Focal Length16.0 mm
• FlashOff, Did not fire
• Exposure ProgramAperture-priority AE
• Exposure Bias

I need a life-sized sheep that is not real

Does anyone in Queenstown know where I can get a full-sized or nearly-full-sized sheep? I need it for this Rather Strange Charity Thing I committed to with Patrick Rothfuss. Here’s a link right to the fundraising page.

Philip K. Dick Books

What’s your favorite? I’m on a new PKD kick thanks to a new friend. He is recommending book after book, and I am drinking them all in voraciously!

Daily Photo – Asian Blade Runner

Speaking of PKD, the Blade Runner city was based on Los Angeles, but I think it is probably the asian cities that are more likely to move into that future. Whenever we hit that, “Okay, this is absolutely Blade Runner” moment will be from some place like this. For example, this is Beijing. And it’s kind of a tight race between here, Tokyo, Shanghai, Hong Kong, and maybe a few others. Which city will be the first to escalate itself to this sci-fi ending???

Asian Blade Runner

Photo Information

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• Date Taken2013-05-25 09:20:48
• CameraNEX-7
• Camera MakeSony
• Exposure Time6
• Aperture6.3
• ISO100
• Focal Length83.0 mm
• FlashOff, Did not fire
• Exposure ProgramManual
• Exposure Bias

Don’t forget about the freebie version of “Organize Your Photos!”

On the day we announced the new blog, we did a huge giveaway of this video series to local camera clubs! Be sure to pop over there to see all the details. It’s only valid for two more days, so check it out! 🙂

Daily Photo – The Double-inner Cloister

When touring the fortified monastery inside Mont Saint-Michel, one of the final areas after many twists and turns opens into this charming cloister. The arches and craftsmanship is remarkable and makes for at least a few hours worth of photos. It’s one of those amazing places where you just take a few steps then resign yourself to taking yet another photo!

Unfortunately, this place is not open at night, which was too bad because I was really looking forward to one of those sorts of shots. I think this place would be so moody in low light!

The Double-inner Cloister

Photo Information

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• Date Taken2012-11-13 17:38:41
• CameraNIKON D800
• Camera MakeNikon
• Exposure Time1/60
• Aperture8
• ISO200
• Focal Length14.0 mm
• FlashOff, Did not fire
• Exposure ProgramAperture-priority AE
• Exposure Bias-2

A new video!

This video was made for The Arcanum — but decided to release it to the public for fun! For those of you that have signed up and are enjoying The Arcanum (or are still on the waiting list for a Master) — thanks!

This is kind of a strange video, but it talks about how to take photos from the air in high-speed conditions. I stayed in Aperture Priority and let the camera figure out the shutter speed. This worked out great everywhere except at landing where the speed delta and shake was too intense. I was using a Sony A7r with the NEX 10-18mm lens — you can see the full Sony A7r review.

I was shooting in Autobracketing not for HDR but just for some exposure variety in the shots. I was not totally sure at the time, so I figured having some exposure coverage would be smart. In post-processing, I appreciated having three different photos to choose from.