Stuck In Customs

Milford Sound Lodge

At the end of this scene, you end up at the Milford Sound Lodge. I’ve stayed there about 6 or 7 times now! You can get a few different types of accommodations… from hardcore backpacker to something with a bit more space. The prices are very reasonable, and you’re right in the middle of the action for the next morning for those sunrise photos!

Daily Photo – Waterfalls on the way to Milford Sound

There is a good question that will never be answered: Is the drive to Milford Sound equal to the epicness of Milford Sound itself? No one knows!! I can’t figure it out. But, one random element that comes into the equation is the rain. When it is raining (or a recent rain), there are over 100 waterfalls that decorate the steep valley.

It’s kind of hard to shoot waterfalls in the rain. Actually, it’s really hard. I usually amp up my ISO and drop my F-stop very low to make sure I get a quick picture before the rain settles on my lens.

Waterfalls on the way to Milford Sound

Photo Information

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• Date Taken2012-10-27 04:43:45
• CameraNIKON D3S
• Camera MakeNikon
• Exposure Time1/500
• Aperture2.8
• ISO200
• Focal Length82.0 mm
• FlashNo Flash
• Exposure ProgramAperture-priority AE
• Exposure Bias

Amazing Small World Story about Flatbooks.com

Justin Balog wrote an amazing little story on his blog.

Justin is one of the authors over at Flatbooks.com and he was randomly down in Belize. A local named Marvin walked up to him and they started talking about cameras. Marvin then actually mentioned the book that Justin had written! It is a small world!

And, as a bonus, Justin also wrote a story “Why Flatbooks Will Make The World A Better Place” !!

Daily Photo – Frogs in the Paris Opera

Can someone explain this to me? I cannot figure it out. Maybe they are just being quirky.

I took this with a fisheye lens inside the Paris opera. I can’t imagine what the internal bureaucracy is like within the Paris Opera for various art displays inside. And I can’t figure out how this one got through. But maybe there is a major art meme that I missed that includes well-dressed amphibians.

Frogs in the Paris Opera

Photo Information

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• Date Taken2012-11-09 15:39:13
• CameraNIKON D800
• Camera MakeNikon
• Exposure Time1/4
• Aperture2.8
• ISO200
• Focal Length16.0 mm
• FlashOff, Did not fire
• Exposure ProgramAperture-priority AE
• Exposure Bias

Fun Show Last Night!

Last night’s show was a lot of fun. Be sure to check out Kate Russell from the BBC, Thomas Hawk, Brian Matiash, Don the Snowflake guy, Ollie Dale, and Gino Barassa… and Dave Veffer as always! We do the show every Monday night at 7 PM PT, 10 PM ET !

If you come here to the website just before the show, you’ll see the embedded player up and ready to run… and you can see last night’s show in the post below this one! You’ll even see a sneak preview of a documentary that I am in from Ollie called “Virtually Famous”.

Daily Photo – The Towering Medieval Hotel

I’m sure Europeans find this kind of architecture to be quaint and banal, but I rather like it. In fact, I’d say it’s just about one of my favorites! Whenever I see old buildings in this style, it makes me a little bit happy.

This one was in the village of Mont Saint Michel. It was one of very few hotels that are tightly woven into the old medieval walled complex. I didn’t go inside, but it felt like it was right out of Skyrim!

The Towering Medieval Hotel

Photo Information

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• Date Taken2012-11-12 20:48:27
• CameraNIKON D800
• Camera MakeNikon
• Exposure Time1
• Aperture8
• ISO100
• Focal Length14.0 mm
• FlashOff, Did not fire
• Exposure ProgramAperture-priority AE
• Exposure Bias-2

A few days left for the special pre-sale event!

You can go buy it now and save money. This savings (and bonus!) only lasts a few more days. I wanted to do something special because I’m so excited about these new tutorial videos!

It’s $20 cheaper if you get it now, and you’ll get access to a special live event!

You’ll notice this photo of Clayton below in the little promo video on the site! 🙂

See you in Australia for the big Problogger Conference!

I was honored when Darren invited me to do this. You can find out more on the Problogger site! 🙂

Daily Photo – Clayton Morris from Fox News Balances

The water was slowly, slowly, slowly rising one morning in Milford Sound when we were all there together. We made a desperate retreat just as things were getting a bit too late. The last one to cross was Clayton, so I spun around quickly to get this shot while he was being all Cirque de Soliel with his tripod. And no, he did not fall into the water! 🙂

Clayton Morris from Fox News Balances

Photo Information

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• Date Taken2013-02-09 22:59:56
• CameraNIKON D800
• Camera MakeNikon
• Exposure Time1/1250
• Aperture2.8
• ISO800
• Focal Length24.0 mm
• FlashOff, Did not fire
• Exposure ProgramAperture-priority AE
• Exposure Bias-1

How about a few Family Photos?

I don’t share these very much… but I thought you might like to see a new batch! I took the family on a little road trip to visit some glaciers near Mount Cook, and then we came back home to Queenstown for a little Easter egg hunt!

By the way, these are all using some NEW Lightroom presets. I know a lot of you have already purchased the existing Lightroom Presets (thanks!). I’ll be sending these out with the new batch as a FREE update for you as a little thank-you gift. 🙂

I’ll put a little caption abve each one. 🙂

Scarlett reaches up to a huge iceberg that just flipped over, after breaking off the Tasman Glacier near Mount Cook.

Isabella gets ready to take our zodiac over to the next iceberg.

Scarlett begins the Easter Egg hunt in while the wolves chase her.

Isabella runs across the fairway on the 18th hole to try to find some eggs in the bunkers.

Scarlett walks along the path near the forest.

Isabella shows her sister a new stash of eggs

Scarlett takes a break to check how many eggs she has found.

Scarlett runs full speed to the next woods to get more eggs.

Android Development of Stuck On Earth

Want to see some screenshots of the progress so far? Visit this thread on Google+ to see! 🙂

Daily Photo – The Amazing Bridge in Sydney

I think I took this during the Sydney photowalk – I am not sure! But those clouds seem very familiar. I took So Many Photos in Sydney… thousands… and I’ve processed hundreds so far. But I just can’t remember exactly when I took this one! Maybe someone from Sydney can confirm that I took this that evening.

I really wanted to get up there on the bridge, but they don’t let you take your camera, which is a real bummer. I wish I could get special permission some time. Whoever can get me special permission can go with me – that would be a blast! 🙂

The Amazing Bridge in Sydney

Photo Information

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• Date Taken2012-09-25 05:10:04
• CameraNIKON D800
• Camera MakeNikon
• Exposure Time0.5
• Aperture2.8
• ISO100
• Focal Length21.0 mm
• FlashOff, Did not fire
• Exposure ProgramAperture-priority AE
• Exposure Bias

Another shout out to the QT Sydney

Thanks again to the QT Sydney (a photo of my room) for hosting Tom and I! Stephen Howard did a great job showing us around and getting us here into the State Theater where we took the photo below.

Daily Photo – Tom in Sydney

That’s Tom Anderson there (the MySpace Tom). We had a very fun time running around Australia together, and especially here in the State Theater. It is an amazing place! The entryway, as you can see, is insanely ornate. And then once you enter, you go through one hall to the next, each as grand as the previous one.

I’d love to have an event here one night… I don’t know what I would do… maybe just bring in a bunch of people and we can all post-process all night together! 🙂 That sounds lame but also kinda awesome.

Tom in Sydney

Photo Information

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• Date Taken2013-01-09 07:32:41
• CameraNIKON D800
• Camera MakeNikon
• Exposure Time0.5
• Aperture8
• ISO100
• Focal Length14.0 mm
• FlashOff, Did not fire
• Exposure ProgramAperture-priority AE
• Exposure Bias-3

I’m still enjoying Pinterest too!

I go to Pinterest almost every single day to pin a few things. I think my ratio there is I pin about 20% my own work and re-pin 80% other work. I know lots of people pin here too! If you like, drop your Pinterest page link below so others can find you ! 🙂

Daily Photo – Trees in Yosemite

I’m not really an “expert” on Yosemite by any means! I’ve only been there once, and I know there are many photographers that have been there 5 or 10 or more times! I spent most of my time driving around the main roads and going off on little mini-hikes. But I didn’t really know the best places to go… so I would hike along little creeks and get shots like this.

I remember I did a little walk to a place called “Mirror Lake” or something. It sounded so awesome from the name! But then I got there, and it was just a puddle of ice. I felt ripped off! They should change the name of it every hour depending on what it currently looks like. There’s no way I would have walked to “Dirty Ice Ugly Lake”.

Trees in Yosemite

Photo Information

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• Date Taken2011-12-31 10:59:49
• CameraNIKON D3X
• Camera MakeNikon
• Exposure Time1/20
• Aperture4
• ISO100
• Focal Length36.0 mm
• FlashNo Flash
• Exposure ProgramAperture-priority AE
• Exposure Bias+2

Exciting!

Thanks again for all the enthusiasm about the new video that you can sign up for now on the Landscape and Travel Photography Tutorial: New Zealand page! You can probably get the idea there that this thing is super-high quality. And, you’ll get to watch me do all kinds of hi-rez edits of many photos, including the one I am posting below today! 🙂

Daily Photo – Rowboat at the Still Lake

We walked around The Hills one morning, and we came to this place after the sun was beyond its “sunrise” phase. The sky was the peaceful morning infinite blue and the water was still as ice. There were many good angles to shoot across this peaceful scene, and most of us chose this view! 🙂

It was cool to do this and be with so many other nice photographers that were taking similar shots. I liked seeing their versions as well.

Anyway, if you end up getting the video series mentioned above, you’ll get to see me edit this photo from beginning to end! 🙂

Rowboat at the Still Lake

Photo Information

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• Date Taken2013-02-07 22:59:42
• CameraNIKON D800
• Camera MakeNikon
• Exposure Time1/2000
• Aperture7.1
• ISO100
• Focal Length24.0 mm
• FlashOff, Did not fire
• Exposure ProgramAperture-priority AE
• Exposure Bias-3

It’s finally ready for pre-order!

Pop over to the new Landscape and Travel Photography Tutorial: New Zealand to sign up! Sign up now, and you get several goodies… you’ll save $20 and you’ll get to join a private video Q&A group after launch.

This is really the coolest video we’ve ever made. I think you’ll find the quality and the content to be second-to-none. Really. Just by watching this preview below you’ll get a great idea of the content. Basically, you get 2.5 hours of post processing and an additional 1.5 hours of live-action footage, following me around while I set up for photos.

And… there is the new puppy in the beginning! hehe 🙂