Unique Photography for Unique People
February 1st, 2010 | California, Hearst Castle, Nikon D3X, Travel |
The Azure Blue Indoor Pool at Hearst Castle

See you all today at Google!

I’m excited to meet a lot of my Google friends in person!  The talk is today, and I’ve got everything ready for it.  For reference, here are a few links I will mention during the talk:

  • HDR Tutorial – Free tutorial here on the site – you’ll be up and running with a pretty pic in an hour!
  • Jill Bolte Taylor – about the Right and Left Brain on TED
  • HDR Spotting – a site with the Attention Distribution Engine to drive more traffic to other HDR Artists sites (still in beta – you have to get an invite code from existing member)
  • Textures Tutorial - The textures and a video showing how I got those textured-photos
  • Videos – A collection of free videos showing how I take HDR Photos in the field…
  • Twitter and Human Evolution – A longer treatise on what it suggests…

Daily Photo – The Azure Blue Indoor Pool at Hearst Castle

I mentioned yesterday that I was able to get a private tour throughout Hearst.  It was a long and great day!  Thank goodness I had a mass of memory cards… I got so much footage it was crazy!

I could have picked a bunch of shots to be the “first”, but I thought this one was particularly wonderful.  There are two enormous pools at Hearst Castle, and this is the indoor one.  This is a nice vantage point because this spot is actually quite difficult to reach!  There is no door behind me… so I had to “shimmy” along that edge you see… It was NARROW… the shimmy was like a video game, except while holding a $10,000 camera!  Sketchy!  But I just had to get over here because I could visualize the shot before it happened…

Here’s a cool fact about this pool.  Nearby, there is a huge room that was intended for a gymnasium that Hearst never constructed. The State then made it usable for IT and Archive area, so the water cools the computers…  wild, eh?

The Azure Blue Indoor Pool at Hearst Castle

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January 31st, 2010 | Big Sur, California, Nikon D3X, Travel |
Driving Up the Pacific Coast Highway

Destination Google!

On Monday Feb 1, I’m speaking at Google for their Authors@Google program. The whole thing will be recorded, so I’ll be able to share it back with the world here once it goes up. You can find out more by following @GoogleTalks. And thanks to Mike Wiacek @MikeWiacek who is the head of the Google Photog Club and to Cliff Redeker @mcrsquared for getting the whole thing set up… I am excited!

Later that afternoon, I’m giving a private photography workshop to people at Google back in one of their secret rooms… That should be a lot of fun too. I’ll be going through, in person, what I have in the HDR Tutorial here on the site.

There is a public photowalk on Thursday, Feb 4 at Stanford.  We’ll meet at 4 PM at the The Oval. There may or may not be a talk after — it depends on if we can secure an auditorium!

Private Tour at Hearst Castle

I’m driving up the coast towards Silicon Valley, and I decided to take my time and leisurely drive up Highway 1.  I’m doing my best to fill the trip with planned and unplanned adventures.

I spent a big chunk of the day up at Hearst Castle.  I was given a private tour whilst guarded by one of LAPD’s finest, who is now a security guard at the castle.  I had carte blanche to go anywhere and shoot everything – it was totally amazing!  I got into the wine cellar, into the top two spires where there are tiny bedrooms, and all over the place.  It was just amazing — I have not had time to process the photos yet… but… you won’t believe it!

Daily Photo – Big Sur in the Morning

5:30 AM.  Alarm goes off.  It’s always painful.  People that say they are “morning people” — I think they are lying.  But, when in a beautiful place, I always force myself, military style, to pop out of bed.  There are hikes to be made and photos to take!

I stayed at the Ragged Point Inn.  My room had a little fireplace and everything (which made it even harder to get out of bed!).  After I got downstairs, I started a little hike to get a good vantage of the coast and the sunrise.  Of course, there was a fence blocking the best bit, so I jumped over it like Carl Lewis (a much older, whiter, and less jumpy Carl Lewis), and edged along the rocky coast to get a good spot.  I forgot to put on my hiking shoes and mistakenly donned my Cole-Haans while in the dark.  Big mistake.  Those don’t make for good hiking shoes, especially after five minutes of getting soaked in morning dew from the foliage I was ripping my way through.

But, I had on my earphones and was blasting away music…  all was good… the sun came up, the clouds were perfect, and I took this photo.

Big Sur in the Morning

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January 30th, 2010 | Nikon D3S, Travel, Washington DC |
Nikon D3S Review is up – with sample video

Want to see other popular reviews?

The Reviews section of the site is filling up fast! I only review stuff that I actually use, but I find myself using more and more stuff! Also, I figure that most people don’t have time to wade through a hundred reviews, and you just want the best stuff out there… that’s what I focus on – The Best Stuff!

Some recent popular reviews include the Nik Software Review, the Woopra Review, and the still-growing Nikon 85mm Review.

Nikon D3S

It’s a great camera. It’s so great I bought one to be a backup for my D3X. Truthfully, it’s more than just a backup — well, rather than repeat myself, you can read the full thing on the Nikon D3S Review page.

Here is a sample video taken with the Nikon D3S.

The D3S is very fast with low noise, so it makes for a great hand-held HDR weapon in your arsenal… and, with that, here is a new photo for the day:


Enola Gay

This is a 5-exposure HDR of the Enola Gay at the Air and Space Museum in DC.  It was shot with a 14-24 lens and the Nikon D3S.  The aperture was F/8 and ISO 200.

Last, here is a picture of my daughter Isabella in very very low light, where the D3S really excels

d3s review (4 of 4)

Here is my daughter in downtown Tampa.  How’s that for low-light performance?  Shot with an 85mm 1.4 lens.  This is ISO 1250 on an 85mm lens shot at f/1.4.  1/90th of a second.

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January 29th, 2010 | California, LA, Nikon D3X, Travel |
The secret lair of Hans Zimmer, from where he inspires the world

I Approach my Quarry!

Six days ago I was up at 3 AM, listening to Hans Zimmer while editing photos, and then I had an idea for a project with him, so I made a blog post. Now, less than a week later, I was in his studio in California!

For those of you that don’t know who Hans Zimmer is, he’s, like, the Liger of composers. He did the soundtrack for The Dark Knight, Pirates of the Caribbean, The Lion King, Gladiator, Sherlock Holmes, and many more! In fact, back when I was in college and had a double major in Computer Science and Geophysics (I dropped the Geophysics bit after a fight with the professor), I commandeered the SGI machine in the Geology department to make a computer animation, and I set the whole thing to one of Zimmer’s songs from Backdraft called “Burn it All”. So, in short, I’ve had Hans Zimmer’s music in my head for about 20 years.

The Story of How I Got Into Hans Zimmer’s Studio

It’s because of you! We have millions of visits here on the blog every month, and you all know how thankful I am for your repeat patronage. It’s tough to get a pretty photo up every day, and I thank you for all your feedback! So, when I put out the call in my newsletter, I got a ton of responses. My math-guess was that I was one or two degrees away from Hans, especially since there are many creative-types that are regular visitors.

Also, many of you hyper-active types (like me!) talk to me, ask questions, and follow me on Twitter — thank you for being responsive to real-time requests and news.

About an hour after I sent out the newsletter at midnight, I got a response from a German gentleman (name private) who is friends with Hans! In fact, he told me he was going to see Hans the next day at his studio near Hollywood! He did a few things to help out, and, although I could not meet Hans today, I did get an amazing opportunity to take photos of his studio. I knew I could make his studio look the way it feels — I had a sublime confidence I could make it happen. Anyway, I was like a kid in a candy store. I got a ton of shots… I only had time to process four of them.

Hans Zimmer’s Studio

I don’t know if words do it justice, but I hope these photos do.

The studio is even bigger than I thought, and I was reminded of the Crimson Lounge in Chicago. In fact, I pulled up the image on my laptop there on the table to compare textures and light. I thought everything worked well together — the decadence and richness of the decorations integrated with the technology. I don’t know if there is a word for such a look… It’s something out of a Phillip Pullman novel, somewhere between Steampunk and Techno-boudoir. Again, words fail.

The first two photos I have placed on Flickr. You can click on them to go to Flickr and then zoom into the full-res size.  Amazing details — especially in the chair photo. I’ll post more in coming weeks, months, and years, as usual.  So, stay tuned… my ongoing quest continues!

The secret lair of Hans Zimmer, from where he inspires the world

The Chair

Skulls

The Back Room

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January 28th, 2010 | Japan, Kyoto, Nikon D3X, Travel |
1,000 Red Gates – and Photo Mystery of the Week

Great Photowalk in San Clemente!

Thanks to everyone that came out for a beautiful sunset in San Clemente! I was happy to meet you all and hope you had a good time. Victor from Typical Shutterbug put up a post with a link to a Flickr group where you can share your photos.

Photo Mystery of the Week

What is the mysterious blue light in the photo below?  Who can guess?

Daily Photo – 1,000 Red Gates

What a wonderful and unique place on earth this is! In Kyoto, Japan, there resides the unique shrine of Fushimi Inari. It consists of thousands of red gates that wind up and down the mountain. I walked through it deep into the night…. I was the only one around and it was downright eerie. Every now and then, the gates would stop and there would be a mini-shrine off to one side or a graveyard to another. Both of these added to the creep factor.

I had a serious worry about an hour into the hike through these gates — what if they turn off the lights? I had no flashlight! I considered my two options — I could strobe my SB-800 to find my way out, which would be a totally surreal experience through these gates. Or, I could do what one of my Israeli hiker friends did in Argentina, use the back of my camera display for light (he actually used his to set up his tent)!

1000 Red Gates

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January 27th, 2010 | France, Paris, Travel |
The Church in Limelight – Stanford Speech & Photowalk Finalized

Open Photowalk and Speech at Stanford, between San Jose and San Francisco

Come join us!  It starts at 4 PM on Feb 4.  We meet at The Oval on the Stanford campus. We may or may not have a speech after the photowalk – my man there is having trouble setting up a venue – we will see!

Daily Photo – The Church in Limelight

This is Le Sacre Couer in Paris. It’s a beautiful old Catholic church that sits in the Montmartre section of Paris. I tend to walk around these places 5-10 times as the light is falling… looking at various angles and the like. I see some of the same tourists on every trip around the horn, and they always wonder what the heck I am doing. Of course, this doesn’t bother me, since they’re just annoying tourists, and they barely register as human beings.

The Church in Limelight

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January 26th, 2010 | Nikon D3S, Virginia, Washington DC |
The Shuttle in Spacedock

Workshop review from Jim Caldwell

At the Florida workshop, a nice gentleman named Jim Caldwell came up to interview me on camera during the first lunch break.  He was a heck of a nice guy, and today he sent me this HDR workshop review that he just released.  Thanks Jim!

First Nikon D3S Photo

I’m still writing my Nikon D3S Review, so get ready for that.  I think I’ll give the first look to people that subscribe to the newsletter.  So, far, I’m very impressed.  In prepping for the event, below is an HDR photo I took yesterday with the new camera.

Daily Photo – The Shuttle in Spacedock

I finally got to see the Space Shuttle!  It’s one of those things a young boy always dreams of seeing, don’t you know?  I’m still waiting on that phone call from NASA where they invite me to see one blast off.  I’d love to do a creative shot there…

This was shot in the new Air and Space Museum on DC.  Yes, not that old one that I used to think was cool when I was a kid.  This is a new and improved center that is completely unbelievable. I had a small argument with a security guard that would not let me take my tripod.  He said I needed a “blue card”.  I asked how to get that and he said the only person that could possibly give it to me was probably at home.  There were a number of bureaucracies where I could have filed a series of complaints, but only if such complaints were filled out in a way as pre-approved by other bureaucracies.  I did send out a self-serving Tweet to @Smithsonian asking them for special dispensation — I hoped to sway them since, after all, one of my photos did hang in the Smithsonian.  They did indeed respond, but one day late. So, I’ll still keep @Smithsonian on one of my Five Twitter Lists.

So, I was forced to take my HDR shots with a hand-held pose.  How barbaric and depressing.  I would try to wedge myself up against a beam or a foreigner when possible, but that rarely works out as good as a tripod.  Those things are never placed in the right compositional spots, sadly.

But, I did have the Nikon D3S as a backup, and I fired this one off.  It was a 4-exposure HDR from -2 to +1.  ISO 400, 23mm, f/6.7 and 1/6 second shutter speed. The +2 exposure was too blurry, and I got most of the light I needed out of the +1 anyway.

The Shuttle in Spacedock

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January 25th, 2010 | Nikon D3X, Travel, Washington DC |
The Raised Bones of Arlington National Cemetery

Newsletter Soon

I’m working on a new newsletter… all sorts of interesting stuff. I try to give newsletter people sneak peaks, and I have a few things in mind for this time. As always, it’s free… something pretty for your inbox!

Add your info so you don’t fall behind!
First Name:
Last Name:
Email:

Silver Efex Pro

The shot below is a black and white HDR that had some treatment in Silver Efex Pro. I posted one of these not too long ago, but here is a pointer to my Silver Efex Pro Review for you. Even if you think you are not into B&W photography, you will be after using this! The coupon code of “STUCKINCUSTOMS” saves you money too, in case you decide you love the free trial and want to get it.

Daily Photo – The Raised Bones of Arlington National Cemetery

My friend John P from One Man’s Blog suggested that I visit this place while I am on my little trip to DC. It was already on my list, but he bumped it up! I went there to shoot at sunset, and got back to the hotel in enough time to process.

To be honest, it’s quite difficult to make 365 images per year that pass my quality standards! Really! Maybe it looks easy or something… but I assure you it is not! Hehe…

Anyway, it was just my young son and I wandering around the cemetery for a few hours as the sun was going down on a dreary and rainy day here in Washington, D.C. Arlington National Cemetery is considered hallowed grounds around here, and it was a life-changing experience for my son.

After a long walk in a nearly empty cemetery, we made our way to the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. The entire facility was closing, and the guard told us it was time to leave. I talked to him for a moment, and he let my son and I through. We went to the steps of the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier and sat there for a long time. We were totally alone except for the solitary Honor Guard who was guarding the tomb. There was a light rain and not much day remaining. The Honor Guard walked towards one end of the path, clicked his heels, checked his gun, stood guard, then strode back and forth along his short route. It was completely amazing to be there alone in the rain… just watching this happen again and again.

The Raised Bones of Arlington National Cemetery

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January 24th, 2010 | Angkor Wat, Cambodia, Siem Reap, Travel |
The Lotus Mystery

What’s in my bag?

I try to get into my suggested equipment area in the Digital SLR camera secion to keep it fresh every few months.  I added a few new things this weekend and generally cleaned it up.  Maybe you will see some goodies in there!  It’s sort of a text-version of what’s in my bag.

Bamboo Forest Print, Finally Available!

This has now joined the small selection of Limited Edition Numbered Series prints.  We only do these in series of 250, so that they remain scarce and unique. In fact, this is now the only way we release prints..  You can get a smaller on fine art paper for as low as $99, and then it scales up from there.  I suggest the stunning 72″ giant canvas size that will go in your living room. Look, I don’t really want (or need) to oversell these things… If you want it, then you can easily get it… I just post soft reminders every week to let you know which new print has come available, and this one is a highly anticipated release.

The Bamboo Forest and some great Twitter Lists to follow

Daily Photo – The Lotus Mystery

You perhaps have seen this “lotus” shape on the top of many SE Asian temples (and India as well as many more places).  It’s a peaceful and beautiful shape that has deep meaning to many of these cultures.  There is something naturally soothing about its contours.

While I took this photo in Cambodia, a small Thai girl would come bring me hot Vietnamese coffees every 15 minutes or so.  These are strong coffees that are mixed with sweet condensed milk.  They are thick, sweet, and tasty. I remember it all fondly…

On most of these little trips, nothing goes as planned… but I go into the adventure knowing this will be the case, so I effortlessly roll through most of the mishaps because interesting and unexpected things always end up happening.

The Lotus Mystery

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January 23rd, 2010 | California, San Luis Obispo, Travel |
Los Angeles Visit, Photowalk, Hans Zimmer, and Talks at Google and Stanford!

Los Angeles Photowalk, Sponsored by Bay Photo, evening of Jan 27!

You are all welcome to meet me at 4 PM on at the San Clemente pier! We will have a nice photowalk through sunset, which is around 5:20 PM. All skill levels, from beginner to master are welcome. A photowalk is just a laid-back event where we stroll around, take photos, and discuss the art of life and whatnot… I was considering giving a talk that night as well, but we don’t have a nearby venue in mind. Maybe one of you has an idea for this…

A big thanks to Bay Photo, who is sponsoring the event. I’m going to be looking deeply into their metal prints very soon and give you a full report.

If you want to come, please leave a comment below… all are welcome – no charge! A big thanks to Candice Cunningham (her twitter) for organizing the event. I first met her when we and Jason St. Peter invited me to speak at the first Smugmug event in Austin.

Hans Zimmer, we Must Meet!

Has anyone read Atlas Shrugged and remember the great composer therein named Richard Halley? One of the heroes of the book mysteriously follows him around the world… I envision this dream-state with Hans Zimmer. In fact, I have a most wonderful project in mind that would be unique and right up his alley.

I saw this Hans Zimmer Video Interview about his new Sherlock Holmes soundtrack. It was very interesting to hear him talk about this stuff… I have all of his music starred and in special playlists, depending on my mood… In fact, I made a Hanz Zimmer iTunes iMix there on the right for you of some of my favorites. On occasion, I meet a fellow photographer that also loves Hans, and we have an instant connection that is difficult to describe.

Look at Zimmer’s recording studio (Thanks @Tatorandtots for the link).  Amazing.  Of course, I could take a much better photo of it… but that is neither here nor there.  My photography studio (only on paper for my upcoming home in New Zealand) will make a wonderful attempt to be a tiny bit cooler, only insofar as I want a window that looks at a beautiful landscape (which can be closed for absolute darkness whilst the post-processing is in full swing).

See my other mixes on Trey’s Music List – Coming up soon – Ambient New Age, World Music, and other unexpected things…

Speaking at Google HQ, Stanford, and errrrr – something in the “Cupertino area”

The topic is “The Unexpected Art and Science of HDR Photography”.

Although I can’t discuss the latter, I can describe the talks I have at the Google HQ and Stanford.  If you know someone at either institution, perhaps they can get you in.  These are all closed, private events, but if you have some good Silicon Valley contacts, maybe you can make it happen. The presentation will be quite different than one might expect… I think it might prompt everyone to see the world from a slightly different perspective – I think we are finally getting to a spot where art and science can come back together in a natural way.

The talk at Google will be recorded in High Def and put on YouTube (thanks @GoogleTalks!) for the you all to see after everything gets edited together. I’d like to thank Mike Wiacek @MikeWiacek, who heads the Google Photog Club and Cliff Redeker (@mcrsquared) for setting this up.  I’ll be giving a short workshop there on the Google campus that afternoon…

Daily Photo – California in the Morning

I woke up early one morning in the hotel to drive down to the seaside in San Luis Obispo to catch the sunrise.  It’s really beautiful and peaceful there.  I’m not really a morning person — this much should be known… more of a night-owl.  But, maybe if I lived in California I might actually wake up early to catch the light of these sunrises.

I know I get many requests to be my assistant — but you don’t understand how bad it would be… I’d make you do things like wake up even before me, get me coffee, warm up the car, and all other sorts of things that you’d probably resent after a while…  People seem to get over-enthusiastic about being my assistant, so I try to tell them bad things like this to dissuade them!

Los Angeles Visit, Photowalk, Hans Zimmer, and Talks at Google and Stanford!

And below is a shot from a hotel I stayed in last time I was in LA… they have this cool outside firepit. I need more firepits in my life….

A Warm Fire by the Pool at the Custom

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January 22nd, 2010 | Georgia, Nikon D3X, Savannah, Travel |
Wormsloe, the Endless Forest of Savannah

My Biggest Photo Ever and Flickr can’t handle it

The TIFF of the photo below is 984 megs, and the JPG is 124 megs! It’s about 16,000 pixels across and very fun to zoom in on as you go down the lane. I dropped it to 12,000 pixels so I could upload, but, I feel a little short-changed!

You can see the Original Size below, zoomed into 100% down the middle of the lane…

I wish Flickr would offer a premium subscription where I could post huge photos. I’d gladly pay $200 a year for a premium subscription that gets me all sorts of extra features, like big photos, high quality videos like my Vimeo sub, tier 1 tech support, and all sorts of other goodies.

Another Forest Photo, Hanging at HQ of Flickr Competitor

The fine people at Smugmug (see my portfolio there at StuckInCustoms.smugmug.com) have chosen my Bamboo Forest photo to hang inside their headquarters in California.  They are actually building a 60″ lightbox behind it.  I’ll see it in person in a few weeks when I go visit the crew there.  I’m looking forward to it!

Daily Photo – Wormsloe, the Endless Forest of Savannah

My friend Scott Kublin (who made it to my Favorites page on my iPhone… he was at the bottom, but I just moved him up above the babysitter) lives in Savannah, so it was good to visit him on my little road trip. He commented that regular visitors to Stuck In Customs would probably like to see current shots while I am traveling around!  So, here it is! However, this one took about 3-4 hours to edit, five cups of coffee, and several pieces of pie. Did you see my little “Buy Trey Chocolate For Energy” there in the right column? Yes, I burn through copious calories to create these things. This one almost broke my back, but I am very happy with it.

Some of you may remember this place from Forest Gump… A lot of it was shot down in Savannah. Besides Wormsloe, I also visited some amazingly moody cemeteries, draped in mossy trees. I’ll get to editing those photos another time… maybe when I get back home to Texas!

Wormsloe, the Endless Forest of Savannah - 16,000 pixels wide!

Wormsloe Full Zoom

The photo above, zoomed to 100% in Photoshop, right down the lane…

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January 21st, 2010 | Agra, India, Travel |
The Taj Mahal from Akbar’s Palace

Another Nice Workshop Review

Thanks for all the nice emails and tweets everyone; I’m glad you had a good time. That is right, I still have no plans for future workshops, but I do appreciate all the feedback and kind requests.

Chris Stamper wrote an HDR Workshop Review on his blog that was very nice. Thanks Chris – I am happy you enjoyed it! Keep up the good HDR work and fight the good fight for us! :)

Nikon D3S Review Continues

I have a Nikon D3S still on loan from BorrowLenses.com, and I’m putting together some images for my Nikon D3S Review.  I don’t have it finished yet…. these things take a while, but, so far, I am very impressed!

In fact, I’m so impressed, that I am going to B&H Photo tonight to buy the full thing as a backup to my D3X! (You can see more info there on my Nikon D3X review)

The Taj Mahal from Akbar’s Palace

This image below was made with some textures from my Textures Tutorial. This is the only time that I “color” photos. Many times, I think people might think that I “paint” on top of my photos, but I do not. Sometimes, however, when I have an image that came out, ummm, a little more boring that it should be, I will give it a texture treatment. Maybe you are like me, and, on occasion, you take what you think will be a great shot. Then, you get home, and it just came out sort of boring.. that is always a bummer feeling. To get around that, I often use textures that I have collected from around the world.

Akbar’s palace has about one-tenth the number of visitors of the Taj Mahal, and it is almost just as stunning for photography. There are so many interesting and fun compositions, you just can’t go wrong. I recommend a full day here and a full day in and around the Taj Mahal. Besides these two major locations, the city streets, alleys, and everything in between are also highly recommended!

The Taj from Akbar's Palace

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January 20th, 2010 | Chicago, Illinois, Nikon D3X |
The Olde Organ, Guessing Game, and my Secret Music List

My Music Playlist – What are some of your favorites?

As I travel around the world, I’ve picked up an amazing collection of unique music. It’s not for everyone, but if you like eclectic stuff that gets you in a right-brain mode, I think it’s great.

This first list I am releasing is my “World Lounge Mix” – I made an iTunes iMix of it and added the mix to Trey’s Music List!

Coming soon are some of my favorite songs from other categories, like Ambient New Age, Spanish Guitar, World Music, and more.

What are some of your favorite songs? Share them with me – I’d like to know!

Daily photo – The Olde Organ

Okay, if you were in one of my workshops, you are not allowed to guess, because you heard the unexpected answer.

But, of the rest of you, who can guess where this photo of this ornate organ was taken?  Those in my workshop know because I worked on it during the festivities.  It’s so funny whenever I zoom into 100% and people ooh and ahh at the details.  It’s funny because I do the same thing!  I know a lot of people say that 24 megapixel is overkill, but… well… it’s just cool.

I plan for the future when many people have 70 inch wall displays at 10,000 pixels across.  I want to make sure my images are ready for them!

The Olde Organ

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January 19th, 2010 | Florida, Nikon D3X, Orlando, Travel |
The Portofino Bay

Lengthy HDR Workshop Review

First, I should make it clear that I don’t have any more plans to do more workshops. I know there is a lot of demand all over the world — and these two previous ones have been ultra-successful. I may end up doing a few exclusive workshops in select cities around the world, but nothing is currently planned. I get approached all the time for this and that – and I’m looking at everything… but nothing is decided yet.

For sure, you should get ready for the HDR DVD to come out. It’s being worked on currently. It will be ready when it’s ready, but you can sign up there to be sure you find out first.

As for the Florida weekend workshop, Terry Reinert wrote a lengthy review on his blog. He was a nice guy, and I enjoyed meeting him. After the workshop, RC Concepcion asked Terry and Vanelli (his site) to take me out to shoot the sunset. Well, it was probably a top 10 sunset. It was one of those perfect sunsets where the sun was twice as wide as the skyscrapers in downtown Tampa. Even better, it was a perfect half-circle on top of a cloud.

The only bad thing is that we were in a car the entire time. I’m not sure what the heck happened, but I am sure what the heck didn’t happen. I had a chance to get the greatest photo of Tampa ever made, but I was stuck in a car. I have not yet ruled out conspiracy.

After that, Vanelli, Terry, and I ended up at Tampa University. Or maybe it’s the University of Tampa. We moved around there and they used a few of the new tricks from the workshop. I got some great shots that I haven’t had time to process yet… But I was happy to hang out with those two guys. RC tends to be a good filter on these sorts of matters!

Daily Photo – The Portofino Bay

Today, I drove to Orlando and decided to put myself in charge of a sunset shot. Of course, since those two jokers where many area codes away, it worked out well.

We stayed here at the Loews Portofino Bay Hotel at Universal Orlando. This place is gorgeous. I never know how I feel about these “recreations” of other real-world places. The REAL Portofino is very pretty and unique, of course, but this recreation is also really nice. I mean, it’s actually pretty here, even though it is just a facsimile. It’s not the same as being in Italy, of course. But, it’s better than being at a Walmart in Ft. Lauderdale, you know? Okay, it’s a WHOLE lot better. There are six Italian restaurants, a pretty boat that takes you back and forth to Universal Studios and Adventure Island, and a very nice staff that is helpful and attentive.

The Portofino Bay

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January 18th, 2010 | Iceland, Reykjavik, Travel |
Zen Peaceful Iceland at Dusk

Blog now on Amazon Kindle!

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We’ve had this available for a bit, and I have been testing it and all systems are go!

Great workshop weekend! Here is Silver Efex Pro

We had a great one – thanks everyone for coming! I hope you enjoyed it as much as I did. I got a real kick out of seeing people’s results from the night before. People went home and tried all of this stuff for real and got some stunning results. On Twitter, check the the has #HDRWorkshop for a few samples. Thanks again for all the enthusiasm when you come to the classes – that is really nice of y’all.

Towards the end of the workshop yesterday, I showed off Silver Efex Pro. I like how this turned out! You can see more in my Nik Review here on the site! Below is one of the shots that I whipped up towards the end of the workshop to show off how cool (literally) Silver Efex Pro is!

Daily Photo – Zen Peaceful Iceland at Dusk

The soft magnetic blue of dusk lasts a good hour or more in Iceland. It’s a nice time to relax into your right brain, move around freely, and take photos until you collapse in exhaustion.

In Reykjavik, there is a lake that freezes solid, or, at least, it appeared to be solid, every winter. I started walking slowly across really give it a test. Why not? During my scoot-fest, I found this wonderful little bridge.

I’m thinking of going to Iceland this year for the summer solstice (that day when it is 24 hours of sunlight)… sounds awesome! I can’t imagine a 5 hour sunset followed IMMEDIATELY by a 5 hour sunrise!!

Zen Peaceful Iceland at Dusk

Comments appear to be broken on this one post – strange! As always, you can click through to the Flickr comments if you want to say something – I read them all :)

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January 17th, 2010 | Disney World, Florida, Nikon D3X, Travel |
Another Magical Disney Fireworks Show

New Print on Sale

Every week a new print comes available in Limited Edition Numbered series. This week it is “The Fallout Bunker”, the unique and wonderful airport architecture in Thailand. This is the sort of print may not work so well in a traditional home (like my others), but for the right environment, it will be a real stunner.

Stuck in Customs in Space

Daily Photo – Another Magical Disney Fireworks Show

Disney has a very cool “Pirates and Princess” party where they really take their fireworks to the extreme. I worked hard to find a nice reflective surface, even though I had to elbow a few little princesses to get this spot. They started to complain, and I just said, “Stop being such a princess!”

Now, if I can only convince the Powers That Be at Disney to fire off these fireworks at dusk – now THAT is a photo. The thing is… everyone shoots off their fireworks in pitch black, well, because everyone ELSE does. However, I can make a strong case that fireworks look better when there is a bit of ambient light in the air. The fireworks are still bright and beautiful — they do not have to be against a pure black backdrop to “pop”.

Another Magical Disney Fireworks Show

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January 16th, 2010 | New York, New York City, Nikon D3X, Travel |
Grand Central Station and a Workshop Weekend with Scott Bourne

For Artists and Photographers that want to follow another path

I am going to mention this tomorrow during the workshop with Scott Bourne, but I get inspiration and ideas from a great variety of sources outside of photography. Unfortunately, I find that photographers stay in the bubble too much and keep reading the same sort of thing. I put together “Trey’s Book List” here on the site for you. It’s filled with all types of subject matter from genetics to physics. For example, if I ever run into a fellow artist that also has a passion for Richard Feynman, we always become fast friends!

Another Nice Testimonial for HDR Spotting

I am glad some more people are getting into the private beta of HDRspotting.com – as always, the goal of the site is to showcase interesting HDRs from all over the world to drive more traffic and attention to YOUR website. It’s built on top of something we call an “Attention Generation Engine”. As we tweak all this out and iterate, we hope to open it up to more and more people!

There are invite codes out there – just ask around on Twitter or look in the HDR groups in Flickr or FB — NOTE – I do not give them out – so sorry I can’t help you (by design!).

Here is a nice testimonial from Gaensler (see his latest amazing shot on Flickr)

Since uploading my images on HDR Spotting the attention I get on my work increases tremendous! This encourages me to upload one image every single day, which is a great challenge due to the matter of only sending my best images. So HDR Spotting is pushing me further in my work and the comments I get from the community refuels my creativity!

Daily Photo – Grand Central Station

When I was in NYC a few weeks ago for the book party, I took some time one rainy evening to invade Grand Central Station without a tripod pass. I did not even know I could get such a thing easily, because the process for picking one up requires looking in the bottom of a locked filing cabinet stuck in a disused lavatory with a sign on the door saying ‘Beware of the Leopard’. (tip of the hat to the great Douglas Adams).

But even with my illegal tripod in hand, and in cool and casual defiance of the three-legged police, I strode around Grand Central Station taking photos with reckless aplomb. I really wanted to get on a train and go somewhere! But, I didn’t… I just walked out the exit and right into another amazing photographic situation!

The Grand Central Station

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January 15th, 2010 | Indonesia, Jogjakarta, Travel |
Templestorm, and the Stunning Results from the HDR Workshop!

The Amazing HDR Workshop Results!

Trey Ratcliff HDR Workshop Group Photo

I told the HDR Workshop class last weekend, very sincerely, that I was quite impressed with their progress. It’s my first workshop, and I love teaching people, but I did not expect them to make so much progress so quickly. Mind you, we already had a few people that were already quite good, but even they picked up a bunch of new stuff. Without further ado, here is a random selection of some of the resulting shots from their newfound skills!

(and yes, we are making an HDR DVD of the workshop for those that could not attend the event!)

Also, a very special thanks to John P from One Man’s Blog (and especially Cali Lewis for the introduction!), Scott Kublin from ScottyCentral, and Alex Suarez, one of the aliens from Galaxy Quest.

Thanks Frederick Van for the Interview!

Hey that was a great interview! Hehe…  I just listened to it and forgot about all the HDR Controversy we addressed therein!  You can listen to it also from Frederick Van’s blog.  Thanks again for all the kind tweets and emails about the interview.  Even though I went out on a limb in many areas, I think they struck a chord… thanks again y’all.  And when I say “Internet” – I mean YOU! :)

Daily Photo – Templestorm

It’s hard to keep up with my students!  I feel they are catching up and surpassing me!  I won’t have it!  Hehe…  no no… my theory is that HDR will begin to splinter into a million different shards.  I can’t wait to see where each of them take the artform.

This is just outside of JogJakarta, Indonesia at an ancient temple called Prambanan.  It was the kind of place that has been sitting there waiting for me to bring my story-telling-machine there.  You have seen a few of my other shots of this place perhaps, just after the storm hit.  As I was leaving, I looked back over my shoulder to see this.  I sometimes forget as I walk away from things to turn around and look back, and I can see things I don’t expect.

Templestorm, and Stunning Results from the HDR Workshop

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January 14th, 2010 | Hakone, Japan, Nikon D3X, Travel |
Lonely Boats Near Hakone

This Week in Photography Interview

It’s finally here!  The nice team from This Week in Photography has put up my interview – TWIP Episode Jan 13, 2010 (you can also get it on iTunes).  I hope you enjoy it.  We talk about everything from Creative Commons to Wide Blogs to HDR Photography to Mentally Unstable People Who Dislike HDR.

Amazing Review over at Abduzeedo

Giselle over at Abduzeedo wrote a fantastic review of “A World in HDR” and I am glad she enjoyed it so much!  Head on over there for a looksee.  Also, visit the top level of their blog because they always have great design inspiration.

Daily Photo – Lonely Boats Near Hakone

There is a spiritual and peaceful place on the edge of Japan.  I had to get off the bullet train and make a series of extremely confusing train changes to get to this place, but it was worth it.

The nice thing about photography is there is no such thing as bad weather.  Every scene has its mood, and whatever the scene is, that is the mood.  You learn to roll with the situation, and whatever is happening can be beautiful if you look at it for what it is.  It was a foggy and wet afternoon, so I walked peacefully up and down the shoreline for interesting things here and there…

Lonely Boats in Hakone

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January 13th, 2010 | France, Paris, Travel |
La Cremaillere

Renting a D3S from BorrowLenses

I have a Nikon D3S Review coming soon, but, in the meantime, I am renting the lens from Borrowlenses.com while waiting to buy one! I’m going to use it as a second camera to my D3X, since it is often a good idea to have a second camera around. I haven’t written the full review yet, but I started it a bit, so you can see why I made this decision.

The team from Borrowlenses told me they have a short promotion going on — 10% off rental with the code 2010. It’s like Netflix for camera stuff! I have a review up on the Lens Rental page here.

My Music Playlist

The other night while I was editing photos in front of the class for “bonus time”, I turned on some of my music that I have collected from around the world. People always ask me for that playlist! Well, I have a lot… I think I am going to put them together here soon so you can see too. I’ll get that up and going within the next few days!

Daily Post – La Cremaillere

Ahh, the streets of France. If I could stroll them every night and find a new place to eat, I think I would be forever happy.

Anyone want to go with me? Looks like there are a bunch of seats there. We can just hang out and talk and munch on all kinds of things. But, I warn you, I simply can’t travel with picky eaters. I need adventurous eaters that aren’t easily scared of the unfamiliar. Not that anything in France is too strange… compared my Asian dalliances with live goldfish, durian, fried insects, live octopi, and live flounder. Okay, maybe I don’t need you to be as extreme as me, but I get drained when people around me only want burgers. Maybe this is just me!

La Cremaillere

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