Tripod as an Easel

I recently swtiched to some Really Right Stuff tripod legs. They are awesome! I have them linked up on the HDR Camera Equipment page.

So, there are plusses and minuses to carrying around a tripod. Here is a “plus” that not many people think about.

Whenever you are carrying around the tripod, it takes a bit of effort and forethought to set up a shot. You need to positing it in a special place, at a certain height, and at a particular angle. I compare it to Renoir or Monet taking their time to set up their easel and canvas in the perfect spot. It makes a big difference if you walk 10 steps closer to the target area or 10 steps further from the target area. There is an extra consideration photographers have to use because of the lens that is on board, but it’s still a similar process. So, as much as I lament the extra hassle of a tripod, I do like that it requires me to go through a thoughtful process of setting up the shot.

Daily Photo – The Storm Hitting the Barn

It was about 3 in the afternoon and things were getting over-the-top warm. You know that feeling when the weather gets so uncomfortably warm that you expect something to happen soon? This feeling washed over me about 30 minutes before these violent clouds form to sweep over the Rocky Mountains towards the barn.

The tripod was nearby, so I grabbed it to go outside and set up the easel.

Filed under the categories: Montana, Nikon D3X, Travel, Yellowstone

Where are the best places for photography in London?

Update: See the POLL here !

I’m going to start a poll soon, but I wanted to go ahead and get the list together first! I’ll be in London for about a week, and I’m excited to have that big PhotoWalk on Friday, Sep 10th at 6 PM. Exact location to be announced soon! I look forward to meeting photographers from London and going out to have some fun, and get some great shots! As usual, I’ll be talking through my process, answering questions, and all that good stuff.

But, since I will be there a full week, what are some of the best places to go for some awesome photography? You guys and gals already know the kinds of things I like to shoot, so let me have it! I don’t mind going a bit out of the city either. So rattle off your suggestions of cool spots, architecture, places at night, secret places, etc, down in the comments.  Soon, I can put up a poll in coming days to see what gets the most votes!

Daily Photo – The Falls of Yellowstone

This is a very famous waterfall in Yellowstone National Park. I was there smack dab in the middle of the day, which is just about the worst time to take photos. So be it, Jedi.

I got out the old trusty and handy 200-400mm lens to take a shot. It’s not that big. It’ll fit right in your back pocket. (BTW, see my Nikon 200-400 Review for more).

The colors of the freshly spawned earth are beautiful, especially when right up against the beautiful water from the falls. I believe I shot this with the Nikon D3S, and I got a little video while I was at it too. I’m not sure what the heck I’ll do with the video, but I have a few ideas. Mostly bad.

Filed under the categories: Nikon D3S, Travel, Wyoming, Yellowstone

HDR Tutorial now en Español y em Português!

You all know we have a free HDR Tutorial here on the site for English speakers. Well we have a few international friends that have translated it for us into Spanish and Portuguese!

• Tutorial HDR em Português – Esse simples tutorial HDR de 6-passos já ensinou milhares de pessoas ao redor do mundo, então tenho certeza que ele pode ajudar você também. E lembre-se, VOCÊ pode fazer isso!
• HDR Tutorial Español – Este sencillo tutorial HDR de 6-pasos ya enseño a millares de personas alrededor del mundo, entonces tengo seguridad de que puede ayudarlo también. Y recuerde, USTED puede hacer esto!

Many Brazilian, Portuguese, Spanish, and Mexican Bothans died to bring you this information.

Daily Photo – Morning. Coffee. Yellowstone. Fog.

My poor family. I dragged them all out of bed at 5 AM and put them in the car so I could go take this photo. I did load up on plenty of coffee to keep things fresh and warm on this cool morning, but my kids zonked out in the back of the car anyway. Well, if they’re not asleep, they’re whining, “Dad??? You stopping again!” … I rush out the door and trail off, muttering into the wind, “Yes but art must be made, you see…”

This spot is not too far from the entrance to West Yellowstone. The warm water that comes from the earth mixes with the cool morning sky. It creates a surreal layer of fog that simply rests on top of the river. It flows up, around, and through the neighboring trees. It reminds me of the dry ice that comes out of cauldrons on Halloween.

To take this shot, I set up with a tripod and grabbed 7 exposures from +3 to -3. I always anchor at even zero for these “sun shots.” I also set up for matrix metering, since you can’t figure out where in the dynamic range to hang your spot.

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Filed under the categories: Montana, Nikon D3X, Travel, Wyoming, Yellowstone

A New Mini-Documentary Video

I’m very excited to show you this little interview!

In case you don’t know of the great painter Clyde Aspevig (or you missed that bit in my book where I referenced his paintings), then this is a great chance to do so.  I was lucky enough to spend several days with him again in Montana at a ranch, and I did not waste it.  Many of you know my fascination with the French Impressionists; the idea that I was able to talk to a modern day reincarnation of one was thrilling.

Daily Photo – Clyde Aspevig in the Wild

While I was out there with the D3S (see my Nikon D3S Review) taking video, I also grabbed a number of stills.  While Clyde was in the middle of one of his paintings, I knelt down to grab this one.  I love it… I think he looks like a demigod.

Filed under the categories: Montana, Nikon D3S, Travel, Wyoming, Yellowstone

I Need a New Phone! Help, my Euro and Scandinavian Friends!

So, I’ve decided to give Android a chance for a bit. But, I want a good unlocked phone so I can pop a sim card in for any country. I like the looks of the Droid X, but it’s locked down. I figure that my European and Scandinavian friends know the models of some great new phones that run Android really well.  Here in the US, it’s hard for me to get a good grip on what the hottest Euro/Scand phone models are!

Here is what I need:

• An unlocked phone where I can pop in any Sim Card (not sure which US service I will use yet)
• The ability to use it as a wi-fi hotspot so I can connect my laptops and iPads (I can do this in Europe too, I assume)
• The menu system in US or UK English
• NOTE:  If there is an AWESOME one coming in the next few weeks or months, I can wait a bit too!

Update:

• Based on feedback and tweets, I’m leaning to the HTC Desire
• Wondering if I should wait on the HTC Desire HD in October !
• Or if there is another good one coming out between now and then…  that will let me pop in another sim card

Why I am switching from iPhone (since I know many will ask!):

• I love the apps, but, really, I use 90% of them now on my iPad.
• Because I use apps on the iPad, on the phone, I find myself only:
  • Talking with voice (AT&T is awful)
  • Looking at Google Maps (which are better on the Android)
  • Use Twitter (plenty of Android apps)
  • Light web surfing…  (and rarely, at that)

Daily Photo – Running Wild, Across the Meadow

I was just returning from one little adventure and then I stumbled onto another one!

Every day, about this time, a few dozen horses from the ranch run free across the meadow to graze in distant pastures. They stay cooped up inside the corral for most of the day, so they love the chance to run free. The cowboy rides behind them, cracking his whip. It echoes through the valley and everything seems right in the world.

Filed under the categories: Montana, Travel, Wyoming, Yellowstone

Interview on Trip Atlas

I'm making this 200-400mm lens look a lot lighter than it actually is. Shortly after this shot, I collapsed in screaming agony.

There is a new interview at Trip Atlas. We talk about this and that. How’s that for a description?

Nikon 200-400mm Review

I have put up a new Nikon 200-400 Review here on the site and sprinkled many new photos inside! I rented it from Borrowlenses.com last week while I was in Yellowstone. It was a fun lens to use and quite different. I pushed myself to do a few landscapes with it, and one of these is posted below!

Daily Photo – The Forest on the Mega Volcano

I would guess about 50% of people know this, and I should not take it for granted that everyone does.  But Yellowstone sits on top of a giant caldera, and it’s due to go off any time (at least, geologically due!) If you look at a map of Yellowstone from above, you can see the clear outline of the caldera.  When the mega-volcano strikes, it’ll be a doozy!

In the meantime, the ultra-thin crust of this area gives way to some remarkable geothermal events. There is a period of the morning when the air is cool and the earth is hot.  It creates an exceptional amount of steam in some areas.

I woke up about 5 AM to go catch this morning steam.  I use the D3S as my backup camera, and I had the 200-400mm affixed.  I challenged myself to capture some compressed landscapes, and this area seemed just about perfect.
This is a single-shot HDR that came from a RAW file.  These RAW files contain a lot of light information nowadays.

Filed under the categories: Montana, Nikon D3S, Travel, Wyoming, Yellowstone

Amazing Time with the Wounded Warriors

Last night I had the chance to meet and present to a group of wounded soldiers that have recently returned from combat.

I’m still here at this ranch in Yellowstone, and we had some recent arrivals. There is a program called the Wounded Warrior Project, and many groups of soldiers come out to Montana to do a bit of fly fishing.

I sat by Dave Kumlien at dinner tonight (read about Dave here), who helps lead the Warriors & Quiet Waters program. He’s a master fly-fisherman (we call him the “Trout Whisperer” around here). He told me a bunch of different stories about this program over the last four years. He’s worked with over 150 vets and has 150 stories about how they have changed. I’m trying to convince him to write a book about it!

Anyway, after the big dinner, we all retired to the Great Room, and I gave a little half-hour presentation on photography. We had a great time during and afterward — and I was happy to meet and talk to them all.

Daily Photo – The Gentle Eye of the Beast

I gave a little impromptu workshop a few days ago.  I took a group of friends for the afternoon and we went out for an instructional photowalk, followed by a hardcore critique.

On the short walk, we visited a barn and a stable.  I gave assignments to people to all gather photos of the same subjects, find unique bits, and then submit a few photos for critique.  I’ve done this sort of thing many times before, and I’m always surprised at what I see.  Everything from the mundane to the stunning.  However, I am always impressed at what people find that I did not see.  I sometimes like to think that I can find many of the cool tidbits and angles, but then I am humbled when “newbies” find things that I completely missed!

Anyway, we had a great time milling about and comparing notes.  I did the whole assignment myself, and submitted this one into my own critique.

Filed under the categories: Montana, Nikon D3S, Travel, Wyoming, Yellowstone

Daily Photo – Our Night Under the Stars

I’m in the middle of a great trip to a ranch in Montana that I’ll never forget.

The nights here are always strange and different.  I’ve only gotten outside a few times to take photos, mostly because of inclement weather.  During the first week or so, the moon so high and bright that it caused everything to get blown out.  That’s no good and makes for a boring night.  Who needs a boring night?

The moon was just about to rise behind the mountains, and the night air was crystal clear. The soft cloud from top left to bottom right is the Milky Way, and it gave the night a nice texture.

Filed under the categories: Bozeman, Montana, Nikon D3X, Travel, Wyoming, Yellowstone

The Geothermal Genie on Boing Boing

Xeni Jardin and Cory Doctorow at Boing Boing have always been supportive of the site here and are big proponents of Creative Commons. I’m speaking about this subject and more at Wordca.mp in Dallas in a few months, in fact.

Xeni recently ran a story about Iceland being a safe haven for new media, and they used this photo of the genie below.

Daily Photo – Prismatic Steam in Yellowstone

The photo above reminded me very much of this one below, which I had yet to release. This is the beautiful grand prismatic spring, which you have probably seen featured here before. This is the same scene from ground level.

Getting to this exact spot is not easy. There is about a one-mile hike to get to this area. The little trail is surrounded by trees, and there is no way to get a clear shot through the trees. So I had to bushwack to get through and then stand on fallen trees that jut out into this broiling lake.

Filed under the categories: Wyoming, Yellowstone

I’ve been working on this for a small eternity, and I am happy to finally release it. It turned out to be a much different experience than I ever imagined.

The work is just below, and under that are a few zoom-in details of various areas, in case you have further interest.

More about the work

Since seeing a painting over the internet is sort of difficult, I have a few zoom-in shots, both directly overhead and from the side with a 50mm prime, in case you are interested in the details.

My goal was to deliver the feeling of a fire and a sunset, one in the same I think all the blues turned out really well. I was inspired by, among others, the work of Clyde Aspevig. I found the water very hard to perfect. I remixed my paint about 100 times before I got deep colors I did my best to make the edge clouds a mix of fire, clouds, and smoke This signatures ensures that it will be worth more when I am dead I repainted the transition clouds time and time again until they felt right. Half my life, it seems, is spent staring at clouds. I did my best to show various layers of clouds in the atmosphere — from the high, wispy, icy clouds to the low, full, clouds of tumult. The canvas gave everything a nice texture… feels and looks good close up and far away I kept trying not to sing “Happy Little Trees” during this bit This was one of my favorite bits of the work – it came more easily than the rest

Filed under the categories: Montana, Travel, Wyoming, Yellowstone

Server Upgrades Almost Complete

My sincere apologies that this has taken four days so far.  I’ve got the full team working on it… all in an effort to make things faster and better!  Please be patient, and we’ll see how fast we can get this perfect.

Daily Photo – The Wall of Fog

The morning in Yellowstone had the most unusual weather!

While I was driving in, the Earth-heated river was steaming in the frigid morning air.  It looked incredibly awesome, but I knew it was the kind of thing that was really tough to capture in a photo.  After a bit more exploration and random turns, the road approached a giant wall of solid fog.  I popped out of the car for a shot before getting back in to drive into the wall.  Inside, the morning light was strange when it came in at sharp angles through the trees.  Since I had to drive so slow, I pulled over to the side and took out my pack for a morning hike into the trees…  I have more of those shots to post in the future!

Filed under the categories: Montana, Travel, Wyoming, Yellowstone

Internet Trust and Sharing

I catch a lot of flak from other photographers for my views on sharing photography and art on the Internet. That’s okay… by now, most of you know that I don’t mind going against the grain (especially when I am right). This new way of sharing art on the Internet has been expounded upon by Matt Brandon from Digital Trekker – click to see his article. Matt is a really nice guy, and I enjoyed my conversation with him.

Of my many points, I am convinced that legitimate companies do not steal. And just because my stuff is Creative Commons, it does not mean they have commercial rights to it. They simply contact licensing@stuckincustoms.com and work out a deal — our licensing team entertains dozens of emails per week. It clearly works in our situation.

I have put a little video before that I found on Matt’s site on Creative Commons, in case you are not familiar with it…

Daily Photo – Beyond the Dome

This was one of those perfect days where I woke up and had no real responsibilities. I was able to drive aimlessly around Yellowstone to explore places I had never been. I took the road up north and went down as many side-roads as I could. After a bit of driving, and listening to some good audio books, I found this remarkable place.

I have a bunch of other images from Yellowstone. As always, you can just click on that link or the category at the bottom to see more from that location.

Filed under the categories: Travel, Wyoming, Yellowstone

Great Reads for 2010

Thanks to Abduzeedo who listed “A World in HDR” as one of the Great Reads for 2010!  Thanks Abduzeedo!

The Third and the Seventh – An Awesome Video

Here is another thing I found on Abduzeedo that I just HAVE to show you.  It’s so awesome.  I could watch this thing again and again – in fact, I have!  You can go see it on Vimeo at The Third and the Seventh.  Can you believe the whole thing is computer generated?  I can’t get over it…  I think you’ll see why I like it so much!

Daily Photo – A Scene from the Super Volcano

These charred dead trees jutting out of the strange deposits at Mammoth is quite a place.  I’m sure that maybe you’ve also heard that Yellowstone is just a simmering super volcano, waiting to erupt at any moment.  This always makes me a tiny-bit edgy as I move around the environs.  But, I figure, that if I am in any of those states around there while the volcano exploded, I’d probably be dead anyway — so why not be right in the center of the sucker where it is the prettiest?  This is not the best logic I have ever used, but it is a subtle use of it, I suppose.

Filed under the categories: Montana, Nikon D3X, Travel, Wyoming, Yellowstone

See you today at B&H Photo for the Talk!

Hey, for all those not in New York, can I pick you up anything? Just dump your whole Christmas list in the comments! hehe…

I’ll be speaking today at B&H Photo in their Event Space. It starts at 12 noon sharp, and I’ll be talking about HDR as well as giving a short tutorial… If you have your own book or want a new one signed, I’m happy to do that too!

The Yellowstone How-To Video on Grand-Prismatic

Here is another free video for you all. This one is a bit different than the others, and I go into more details of everything that went into the shot of the Grand Prismatic Spring, which you can see below. Enjoy. And let me know if you want to see more videos like this in the future!

Daily Photo – The Grand Prismatic

This place is awesome and huge. Want to know how huge? Look at those people standing there on the boardwalk towards the top. Amazing, eh?

Getting this shot (and all my others!) was no cake walk! But I am happy with the way it turned out. One thing you don’t see in the video is how dirty I got on the way down the mountain when I decided to take a “short cut”. It was a bad idea for both me and my jeans.

Filed under the categories: Montana, Nikon D3X, Travel, Wyoming, Yellowstone

All Prints Going Offline – Going Dark

We are changing the way we handle prints here. In the past, we have done what everyone else does, which is dump a ton of prints into an online printing service. I’m not convinced that’s the best way thing for our customers. We are going to do something different and bold, and we are launching in a few days. I think it will be much more meaningful for fans, collectors, and everyone in between.

For now, we are taking all printing options offline. Stay tuned for Friday for the big announcement!

Photoblog Awards – Come Vote

Thanks for all the votes already!  There are just a few days left, so now is the perfect time to vote.  If you do enjoy the images here and think the world should know, then I would certainly appreciate it!

Daily Photo – Entering The Forest Alone

It’s not often I use a zoom lens to do landscape photography (this is 125mm), since the conditions have to be just right (at least, for me).  You do get this strange thing called “compression”, which will be a new concept for people that come here not familiar with photography techniques.  Maybe you have seen this in horror movies…  You know, someone gets some shocking news, and then the camera does this strange thing where it pulls out and the background flexes while the actor remains still.  Well, compression is kind like that, but not really.  But it can bring things in the far distance “forward” to appear bigger than they really are, as is the case with the distant blue forest in this shot from Yellowstone.

Believe it or not, I was so exhausted after I took this shot, I pulled over and slept for two hours in the backseat.  There is nothing worse than waking up, groggy in the backseat of a strange car, and a tripod jamming you in the small of the back.

Filed under the categories: Montana, Nikon D3X, Travel, Wyoming, Yellowstone

New York, New York

I’m coming to Manhattan very soon! Rick Sammon gave me his ultimate secret spot for shooting some HDR, so I’m excited about that. I’m also going to be making another Stuck in Motion style video while there, so I’m looking forward to that. Keep an eye out for me if your in those parts! I’ll be the one with the camera.

Previous Videos

I’ve been adding a lot of videos in the last 6 months eh? There is a new one below, and I’ll be adding more soon with the upcoming book. It makes reference to a few unreleased videos here on the site, so I’ll be sure to get them up soon. If you want to see previous one, just see the “Videos” section there on the right!

Daily Photo (and bonus video!): The Shapes in the Shire

This is another shot from Yellowstone accompanied by a little video I shot with my Flip video camera. It’s not a high quality camera, and it’s awfully shaky. Sorry for that. But, I hope the content is good for you. I know people always like to know how many exposures I’m taking… this and that… so I’ve got all that info in there.

In the video, I show another photo, which you can see large right here.

Filed under the categories: Montana, Nikon D3X, Travel, Wyoming, Yellowstone