Benedict Cumbarbatch-athon

So, ever since I started recently watching the BBC Sherlock, I’ve become a huge fan of Benedict Cumberbatch. Either you know who I’m talking about or you don’t! If you haven’t seen this amazing series, I cannot recommend it any more. I’ve since been watching more his work. Of course he was in the new Star Trek, but many people know that. Two other great recommendations are a Vincent Van Gogh series from BBC called “Painted with Words” and another is Stephen Hawking BBC movie. I’m now kind of hoping that Benedict appears in every show I watch!

Daily Photo – The Monuments of the Earth

Here’s yet another amazing place in Utah that I’ve never been until just recently. You know how politicians try to gerrymander the county lines so they get votes from certain kinds of people? I think Utah did this back in the day to make sure all the awesome geographical anomalies were inside their borders! They are kind of spread out, however. I did spend a small eternity driving from one place to the next, so they are not exactly tightly packed together.

The Monuments of the Earth

Photo Information

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• Date Taken2013-08-22 12:40:45
• CameraNEX-7
• Camera MakeSony
• Exposure Time1/50
• Aperture5.6
• ISO100
• Focal Length30.0 mm
• FlashOff, Did not fire
• Exposure ProgramAperture-priority AE
• Exposure Bias

Getting Light Trails

I’ve recently changed how I get light trails. It’s a minor change, but I’ve had more success with it. I used to take a series of bracketed photos when cars go by and just hope for the best. This actually worked quite a bit, but sometimes the very short and very long exposures in a bracket would be useless. The short one would be too dark and the long one would be too bright. Anyway, now I turn off the autobracketing and switch over to manual.

It honestly takes a lot of guesswork, but I usually get my f-stop quite low and my ISO around 100 or 200. I play with these so that my exposure is at least 5 seconds. Sometimes 5 seconds is all you need for a car going by. But if I want a lot of cars and need 20 or 30 seconds, I’ll keep moving the f-stop to a higher and higher number to balance. It’s actually kind of fun to guess and then experiment with different settings. You can simply press play after you shoot to see if you guessed right, then make the adjustments accordingly.

Daily Photo – Night in Arches National Park

Okay well here is yet another amazing place in Utah. Yes, I know all you people in Utah are saying, “Yes we know Utah is awesome, Trey — it’s about time you figured that out for yourself!” Well I have… and now I lament that I was only in Arches National Park for a day. But I tried to make the most of it, even squeezing all the light out of dark here after an amazing day of sightseeing.

Night in Arches National Park

Photo Information

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• Date Taken2013-08-21 02:59:07
• CameraNEX-7
• Camera MakeSony
• Exposure Time30
• Aperture4
• ISO100
• Focal Length11.0 mm
• FlashOff, Did not fire
• Exposure ProgramManual
• Exposure Bias

New Photomatix Discount Code

Since I used Photomatix on the photo below, I thought this would be a good time to give you the updated news. Maybe a few days ago you saw there is a new algorithm coming with Photomatix 5, which is very interesting.

Aurora HDR for Mac

Do you primarily use a Mac to edit your photos? If so, then check out Aurora HDR Pro! I worked with Macphun for over a year to build the ultimate HDR software!

Stay inside during rain

So I stood out in a thunderstorm to get this shot. It wasn’t one of my best ideas, but apparently, it’s probably the worst idea in this area. After I got back in the car, I saw some signs warning against the dangers of doing what I had just done.

Daily Photo – Bryce Canyon National Park

I love Utah! How have I lived so many years but never really taken the time to visit Utah? This is a major oversight on my part, but now I have corrected it. I’ve just gotten back from a very very long trip and am processing all my photos, and here is one of the first ones out of the hopper – the amazing Bryce Canyon National Park. What a place this is!

Bryce Canyon National Park

Photo Information

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• Date Taken2013-08-20 00:35:32
• CameraNEX-7
• Camera MakeSony
• Exposure Time0.4
• Aperture22
• ISO100
• Focal Length16.0 mm
• FlashOff, Did not fire
• Exposure ProgramManual
• Exposure Bias