London PhotoWalk Reminder

In just a few days, we’ll be having the big London PhotoWalk! I look forward to meeting readers in the UK. Feel free to come on out and walk around with us, even if you are not a photographer!

Daily Photo – When the Earth was Young

This unique area of Iceland has new surprises at every turn.

The strange milky-blue water boils up from underground. There is a big part of you that wants to touch it to see how hot is is. The other part of you is scared to touch it. These two parts never stop fighting until you go ahead and touch it. Then, you discover it’s not all that hot after all, and it only reinforces a already poorly-reinforced decision matrix for the next time.

Thinking Like Da Vinci

Have you all ever heard of a book called ‘How to think like Da Vinci’, authored by Michael Gelb?  I came across some info on the web and wanted to share it.  There are a few principles in the book that boil down to:

1) Curiosità – Quest for Curiosity, both in life and learning.

2) Dimostrazione – Commitment to Test knowledge through Experience and the willingness to learn from mistakes.

3) Sensazione – Continual Refinement of your senses.

4) Sfumato – Willingness to embrace ambiguity and uncertainty.

5) Arte/scienza – Maintenance of balance between science, art, logic and imagination.

6) Corporalità – Cultivation of ambidexterity, symmetry and to be fresh and alive.

7) Connessione – Recognition and appreciation of the interconnectedness in everything you see, hear, feel and touch.

I won’t re-analyze each of them, but I think they speak for themselves…  and they are quite nice.

Daily Photo – The Secret Church

Who would have ever guessed that this immense, classically architected church is in the middle of Chicago, Il? It’s quite amazing, isn’t it?

My friend Fiona took me here around the time of the Chicago book launch party. It is a great place place for all kinds of HDR photography. It’s a fun challenge to move around these environments and see how many interesting compositions you can make out of a structure like this.

Viveza 2 Review

I have recently created the Viveza 2 Review. Have you ever heard of or used this product? You should! Check it out at that link for more.

Daily Photo – France, Through the Centuries

I’ll be arriving in France soon, and I can’t wait. There is something very comforting about some of these places where time seems to stand still through the ages. Notre Dame on the Seine is one of these places. I take photos every time I go… It’s always the same, but it shifts gently with the light and angle. I think this is very nice.

This photo was taken as part of the Viveza 2 review above. You can see a few more details about how I achieved the photo there after the link!

Taking photos of Rainbows

I’ve taken a few of these in my life… mostly out of luck! But, I wondered about your experiences with rainbows. Do you get many photos? What is your favorite lens to use to capture the whole thing? In the one below, I used a Nikon 14-24 on a full frame body (the D3X).

Daily Photo – The Rainbow After the Storm

In the afternoons in Montana, sometimes a summer storm would come rolling through the Rockies. I think everyone loves a good storm, mostly because it changes the mood. An unexpected mood change always adds a bit of spice to the day, don’t you think? And, since these afternoon storms come and go, the sun comes back out again, giving us the opportunity for rainbow shots.

All that’s missing from this one is a unicorn. This is one reason I am excited about genetic engineering. I think that some odd-ball researcher is going to make a real unicorn one day… and everyone (well, MOST everyone) will love it. Hey future-unicorn-genetic-engineer, please contact me after you successfully bring one of these to term so I can take the first photo. That would be very cool.

The Original

I know many of you have already seen the photo below of the Taj Mahal. It’s one the most famous photos I’ve taken of India. It is related to the daily photo…

Daily Photo – The Rest of the India Story

So, I took the photo above from across a slow-moving river. After shooting, I explored a bit more as the sun was setting, then returned to the same spot, rotating the camera about 45 degrees to the right. This is what I saw.

In the distance, you can see how it is a layer of smoke in the air. This is where families come from all over the Agra area to burn the bodies of recently deceased loved ones. They then throw some ashes in the river to begin the cycle again. Indians come from all over the area to visit this river, see the Taj Mahal, and visit other local temples. It’s a very peaceful place… I hope this photo helps to describe the general feeling of the place.

Beautiful Video

I tweeted this out recently… I thought it was so unique — I wanted to share it with you here.

Lilac Wine from Matthew Landa on Vimeo.

Daily Photo – Forever Skies

The beautiful and endless skies of Iceland are a constant source of inspiration. Have you ever seen that movie, “What Dreams May Come”? Do you remember how it had these flowing, impressionist scenes? Iceland is kind of like that all the time! I wonder if the people that live there get used to it over time… I can’t say for sure. But I was keenly aware of every hue and color in the sky throughout the roadtrip.

If you recall, I also used to double-major in Geophysics, so I am into the geology of all these places. But, I end up getting frustrated when I can’t recognize different formations. Like, for example, that wonderful mountain-plateau there on the left… not sure how that was made. It’s different than all the other bits of these glacier-carved fjords. Anyway, I’m sure that one of the clever people in this audience can tell me what it is!

Composition-on-the-scene

I did not include this photo below in my most recent eBook, but maybe I should have! It’s a pretty good example of setting up a composition on the scene… you can only do some things while there, and no amount of Photoshop can save a bad placement of the camera.

In this case, there was actually a big boring block of space in the sky. I kept moving my camera around until the string of lights ended up bifurcating the sky. Also, this gave us another leading line that stopped at a phi point, to help the eye travel around.

Frankly, I don’t like to over-analyze photos too much in text… it makes them lose their magic a little, don’t you think? But, on occasion, I will provide a little bit of play-by-play analysis!

Daily Photo – The Ultimate Carnival

I’ve been to Disney World many many times, but this is my first time as a grown-up to Disneyland. I always feel strange, by the way, calling myself a grown-up!

Disneyland has two parks on the premises. This one is from California Adventures, the second and newer park. Towards the backside, there is this perfect street, full of carnival-like activities. As most of you know, I’m a big fan of graphic design, so it was great fun to look at the delicious details in all of these signs.

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.

Having a Great Time at OpenCamp!

I gave a little talk yesterday called, “Clever Tricks for Making Your Blog More Beautiful and Popular”. We had a good time, and I hope the crowd enjoyed it! If you want to know more about OpenCamp and the other speakers, including Chris Pirillo, Cali Lewis, and more, see this Open Camp Day One writeup by Phillip Coxwell.

Daily Photo – The Golden Knights are Bad Ass

I have not had much time this weekend to process new photos, but I did take a moment to process this one.

This was taken during an evening demonstration on the night before OpenCamp began. It was an unforgettable night with the Knights! After falling a few miles from the sky, the skydivers would open up their chutes & pyrotechnics and let loose. Since I had jumped with them the day before, they let me get up close on the landing to get some tight shots.

I also may go out to Fort Bragg, where they are based, and do a bunch more shots in the future. I look forward to that very much!

Visit the Golden Knights on their website, and follow them on Twitter at @ArmyGK.

New Ebook!

I’m very proud of this new eBook!

Jump over to the “How to Compose Photos: Creating Order from the Chaos” page here on the site and have a look!

I look forward to getting into your hands to see what you think. We have several reviews that have already rolled in on the page. Thanks everyone for the positive feedback.

Here are just a few examples of what is inside the 50 page eBook!

• A detailed how-to about how to Compose Photos
• Countless examples of the how/when/why of setting up a shot on the scene
• Postprocessing:  the how/when/why to crop your image for more meaning and power
• Deep discussions on how viewers react to different compositions
• There is an equal emphasis on composing landscapes and composing people

On the way to the Jump!

This is what I look like right before I live this mortal coil.

Giovanni (@Giovanni) grabbed this shot of me on the way to my parachute jump with the Golden Knights… more to come soon… but I know many people were asking, so here is a quick one for you.

Best TED Talks Reminder

I like to collect some of the best TED talks. I’m always adding to the page. If you have suggestions, or things you’ve seen where you think, “Oh – Trey would like this!”, please leave a comment on the “Best TED Talks” page here on the site!

Daily Photo – The Mean Streets of Tokyo

Tokyo has amazing action all the time. There is never a good time to sleep or turn off the camera! Every minute I sleep, I feel like I am missing something!

This was taken close to midnight on another evening when I was just randomly walking around the downtown streets. It’s all a wonderland of lights, colors, people, and sounds. I’ve noticed there are many kinds of “sensory overload” – and they are all on a sliding scale from good to bad. The bad sort is the “Las Vegas” type of sensory overload. That’s the kind where you just simply need quiet in order to collect your thoughts. The kind in Tokyo is completely different. Yes, it is overloading, but it’s also stimulating in a good way… so it continues to feed you until you just absolutely crash. It’s great!

I jump from a plane today!

This is a big lead-up to OpenCa.mp on Saturday and Sunday. I am speaking on Saturday at 11:30 AM — I hope if you are in the area you can stop by!

We’re giving away some awesome prints at the show as well. I’ll try to snap some shots of the event so get can get the vibe.

Today (Thursday), I’ll be jumping from a plane with the Golden Knights. It’ll be very exciting… I’m jumping out with Cali Lewis, Frederick Van, John P, George Ruiz, and several others… it should be a great time. Watch Twitter for live updates from the event!

The Horse of Sagas Print

I got so many requests to make this a print that we changed around our planned list of releases. This is my favorite HDR of an animal I’ve ever shot. These Icelandic horses with their wild hair prance around all night long, probably thrown off by the strange day/night cycles. This was taken around 1 AM, very near the summer solstice. The photo was totally blown out from behind, and I did not use a flash. Flash tends to upset the animals a bit… so I used the HDR technique instead on the RAW to bring out the true colors and light on his face. Of course, these were the actual colors and light levels I saw when I was there… it just reminds you of how limited a camera is by itself.

More Favorites of Icelandic Horses!

Aren’t these horses awesome? I wanted to take the opportunity to put together my other favorite two horse photos from Iceland below for you. Enjoy!

22 Million Views on SmugMug this year!

As many of you know, I moved over my portfolio to SmugMug this year. Have you seen my SmugMug Review? The team there gave readers here the a 20% savings (!!) — use the SmugMug Coupon of “STUCKINCUSTOMS“.

So, I was recently checking stats and I was surprised at how many views we have gotten on SmugMug in such a short time. 22 million in just over half a year, compared to Flickr, which is at 21 million after 5 years! I have posted shots from SmugMug and Flickr below.

Now, most of those views are just because of the blog, but it does show how heavily I rely on SmugMug. There is one “hidden” feature that you may not know about…. and this is a little geeky, but it helps! I have big photos here on the website… you all know this. They are 900 pixels across. Well, Flickr does serve them up in many sizes, and 1024 across is on of the standards. With Flickr, I need to use the width=”900″ in the html, which forces the browser to make a costly size change.

SmugMug, instead, does the processing on their beastly servers.

For example, I can take the default Xtra Large size link from SmugMug: http://stuckincustoms.smugmug.com/photos/974189667_iqznc-X2.jpg

and change the end so that the server resizes to 900 pixels across: http://stuckincustoms.smugmug.com/photos/974189667_iqznc-900x900.jpg

This means that everything is served up super-fast. This is a minor and nerdy point… but it does make the blog a lot faster.

SmugMug has a pretty cool stat tracking system, even though they don't use commas.

I also like the Flickr Stats system, even though I'm 95% sure it is broken.

Still on Flickr

As you can see, I still post all my photos to Flickr as well. I still like Flickr a lot, but it is not where I keep my main portfolio. I find the viewing experience better on SmugMug. Now, SmugMug has less of a community, so that is kind of a minor knock against it… but it’s easy enough to put the photos in both places.

Daily Photo – A Gentle Kiss in the Hot Tub

These snow monkeys are the greatest. I spent so long with them, we almost had a three-way.

They are all wild (in the natural sense, mind you), and they come down from the mountains near Nagano, Japan, for several hours a day to play in the natural hot springs. They gallivant around, have fights, play with their kids, have a bit of sweet carnal monkey fun, check their email, and pose for my camera.

These two monkeys spent a lot of time together… they were in maximum “relaxation mode”. They lounged around in every possible position and took occasional breaks to do a bit of mutual grooming.

Video Recap – Heartbeats of Japan

We have many new people here on the blog that might not have seen this. There’s a lot more snow-monkey stuff in here for you… enjoy!

Burning Man PhotoWalk

See the Facebook event here!

You are all invited to join me at the Burning Man PhotoWalk! It’s free of course… Here are the details:

• Friday, Sept 3 at 6 PM
• Location: Center Camp: Look for all the people with the cameras, and me, possibly in Steampunk Goggles.

What we will do:

• Walk around together to take cool photos of Burning Man (for personal use only)
• Find cool art installations and activities
• Be cool (and not bother people with our cameras…)
• Learn more about our cameras
• Take some HDRs
• I’ll be there to answer questions whether you are a beginner or beyond!

More Resources:

• Photography Info for Burning Man
• Equipment Guide at Burning Man

See these cards below?  I’ll be handing them out around Burning Man…  It’s sort of a “gifting” place, where money is not allowed.  Since one of my only identifiable skills is photography, I am giving people the chance to learn more about their cameras.  I think we’ll have a good time and I hope to see you there.

Below is a Google Earth photo of Burning Man in a previous year… I think it’s pretty awesome.

See you soon at OpenCa.mp

I hope to meet a lot of you soon at OpenCa.mp in Dallas! In just a few days, I’m headed up to Dallas to begin the adventure by jumping out of a plane with the US Army Golden Knights. It’s gonna be a blast!

Daily Photo – Home of the Tree Samurai

This was my second trip to Kyoto, and I decided to return to this amazing treetop temple. At night, the delicate lights turn on and everything comes alive. It’s really brilliant… one of those scenes that makes you think the world is really a wonderful place.

This was right in the peak of the cherry blossom season. The soft pink of the blossoms grabs and reflects the light into an unbelievable prism. It’s all like something out of a dream, and I’ve done my best to bring it back to life here on the blog.

Video from The Tech Guy

We have some fun video from the appearance on Leo Laporte‘s The Tech Guy yesterday. When I was out at Leo’s cottage a few weeks ago, he brought up the idea of doing a photography podcast on his network. I gave him the thumbs up and said I thought it sounded like a good idea! He said he wanted to put it together with me, Lisa Bettany, and Ray Maxwell. If you want to hear the latest in those discussions, fast-forward to the 12:30 mark.

Otherwise, we talk about HDR, the DVD, we critique on of his HDR shots, and this sort of thing. As far as links we mentioned, you can go to the HDR Camera Recommendations and the free HDR Tutorial.

And, after the interview, I forgot I was still on Skype!  So, he caught me carrying my computer back to the office… but I did capture some more behind-the-scenes stuff that you may enjoy…hehe.  You may enjoy seeing what happens during the commercial breaks of these shows… !

If you want to subscribe to more of Leo’s podcasts, just visit his main TWIT site. He has everything from the hit weekly show This Week in Tech that has John Dvorak as a regular to my fellow Austinite Brian Brushwood on NSFW. They have it all there!

Daily Photo – The Giant Sun Sinks into the Tasman Sea

Despite what I said in the podcast, sometimes you do want to go beyond +2 to -2 !  I can’t go through every caveat in those short soundbytes… but this exemplifies such a case.  In this photo of the sunset over the Tasman Sea, off the coast of New Zealand, I did take 7 exposures form +3 to -3.  Whenever you aim the camera right into the sun, you need to expose even more range than normal.

I am going back to New Zealand for about a month in October. It will be a blast! This time, I’ll be spending most of my time on the South Island, exploring around… I hope to bring back more wonderful finds from the wild for you!

This was shot with a Nikon D3S and the Nikon 50mm 1.4 Lens. This particular one was shot at f/5.6 (f/1.4 would have made the sign blurry beyond recognition). Other particulars are: ISO 800, 1/500 sec exposure.

Join me live on Video today at 1:30 PM PST

EDIT: See the video recorded here.

On Sunday, tune in to live.twit.tv and join up the chat (click Popout Chat at the bottom) to join in the fun! I’ll be answering photography questions, HDR stuff, and the like.

I’ll be on with Leo Laporte on his big show, The Tech Guy, which goes to over 100 US Cities and XM Satellite. Leo is a real photography enthusiast — plus, he’s cool because he’s into a lot of my other interest areas of science/tech/emergent sociology/etc. If you are looking for some good podcasts, check out some from his network!

The TWIT Cottage

For those of you that don’t know, Leo has established an incredible lineup of podcasts, all of which eminate from this unassuming cottage in Petaluma, California. I’ve been over to the cottage twice, and I grabbed a few photos on my most recent trip.

Most of his guests come in via video skype, but sometimes they come there to the cottage. I was on The Tech Guy a few weeks ago, and while I was there, I took these photos.

In the larger one down below, you can see some of the fudge my mom made for Leo. She said, “He seems like a very nice man.”

And he is! You always wonder… if these people are actually jerks in real life. But he isn’t… just as nice as your instincts hope he is. It’s a good indicator that talent + good karma is a winning combination for the future. Back in the olden days (especially in media), talent and good karma were practically useless. Now, thanks to the internet, clever guys like Leo have no need to succumb to the Machiavellian nonsense of corporate media structures. Even better, he has a direct feedback loop to the audience he serves. Smart.

Daily Photo – Leo, Hard at Work

This photo below is a 5-exposure HDR. It was shot with a Nikon D3X (see my Nikon D3X Review) in aperture priority. The five shots were at -2, -1, 0, +1, and +2. Of course, Leo was moving around betwixt the exposures, so there are some tricks to fix that. It’s all there inside the free HDR Tutorial.

But you don’t need a big expensive camera like that to make HDRs. I have good/better/best suggestions on my HDR Camera recommendations page.

Chat Room friends who like all the details can click to zoom into the original sized version. Just click on the "O" (for Original) on the top of the SmugMug page.