Stuck In Customs

???????? HDR???? ? ????? ??? ?? ???? ?? – Now in Arabic!

The ever-expanding list of languages continues. Thank you to Abdullah Suleiman for this translation! ????? ???????? ???? ???!

Now in more flavors! Links to the International HDR Tutorial!

• English?  Howdy! See the HDR Tutorial.
• Sie sprechen deutsch? Herzlich Willkommen zum HDR-Kurs auf Deutsch.
• Parlez-vous français? Bienvenue sur le Tutoriel HDR en français.
• Parli italiano? Leggi il tutorial HDR in italiano!
• Fala Português? Confira o Tutorial HDR em Português.
• Hablas Español? Clic Tutorial HDR en Español.
• Mluvíte ?esky? Pokra?ujte zde!  HDR Tutoriál v ?eském jazyce.
• ????? ???????? ???? ???!

Daily Photo – The Bird of Moeraki

We set up on the rocks of Moeraki just outside of Fleurs. There is this abandoned dock here that shoots out into the bay towards the sunset. I like this spot because it is one of the few places on the east coast I have found that points back west towards the sunset.

Taking photos of birds is really really really hard. It just takes a lot of trial and timing! I don’t do a lot of close-ups of birds… just not my thing… but I do like to try to incorporate them into the landscape when it feels right!

The Bird of Moeraki

Photo Information

---

• Date Taken2012-11-27 12:03:16
• CameraNIKON D800
• Camera MakeNikon
• Exposure Time1/1000
• Aperture2.8
• ISO1600
• Focal Length24.0 mm
• FlashOff, Did not fire
• Exposure ProgramAperture-priority AE
• Exposure Bias

More from New Zealand – Forgive me!

Normally I jump around the world and post photos from many countries out of order. But, I’ve been processing SO MANY New Zealand photos that I’ve got a giant backlog that is New Zealand-heavy! So, you’ll have to give me a few weeks to post a bunch of new work from NZ… I apologize for that because I know you are used to seeing more variety. But, there are some Really Pretty Images coming up from NZ that I am so excited to publish and share with you…. like the one below today! 🙂

Daily Photo – The Dirt Road to Paradise

After you pass Glenorchy, the paved road continues for a while as you approach Paradise. The paved road then turns into a dirt road. At this point, many visitors turn around, which is a shame! You can keep on rolling down this road in your rental car for quite a way. There’s even a few river crossings you can make, like Arwen on horseback. You can do it! Probably. I even see giant campervans going through here… anyway, the dirt road is in pretty good condition, so don’t let that turn you back!

The Dirt Road to Paradise

Photo Information

---

• Date Taken2013-01-17 09:34:53
• CameraNIKON D800
• Camera MakeNikon
• Exposure Time1/125
• Aperture11
• ISO100
• Focal Length85.0 mm
• FlashOff, Did not fire
• Exposure ProgramAperture-priority AE
• Exposure Bias

Paris Tutorial Videos Now Available!

Want to learn more about my post-processing and follow me around on a shoot in Paris? Even better, you get to see the same thing from Miss Aniela! Pop over to the Midnight In Paris video in the new store… I think you’ll love it – especially the post-processing bit. 🙂 And, as always, if you don’t mega-love it, you can have all your money back – no worries 🙂

Daily Photo – The Ceiling of the Paris Opera House

I stole this photo-taking idea from Matt Knisely! At first, I would lay down on my back and try to get the shot. But that was frustrating and bothersome. Then I saw Matt just put his camera on the ground with a timer then run away! So that’s what I did to get this shot… although it took a few takes to get it to line up right…

The Ceiling of the Paris Opera House

Photo Information

---

• Date Taken2012-11-09 14:36:28
• CameraNIKON D800
• Camera MakeNikon
• Exposure Time0.5
• Aperture2.8
• ISO100
• Focal Length16.0 mm
• FlashOff, Did not fire
• Exposure ProgramAperture-priority AE
• Exposure Bias

Want to see a video?

Our team is working on putting together a video now from our time here. I don’t know how much longer it will take, but you’ll find out first if you sign-up for my Newsletter. It’s free and pretty, and we promise not to spam you!

The Most Beautiful Newsletter Ever!

Daily Photo – Abandoned North Korean Prison in… New Zealand?!?

I’ve always wanted to get up to this place, but it has been virtually impossible since they closed all the roads years ago.

And yes, it’s right here in Queenstown, New Zealand, atop Deer Park Heights, a huge mountain that can be seen from pretty much everywhere in the valley. It might not look like a mountain next to the Remarkables, but it is huge. Everything in New Zealand is so epic that you lose track of the scale of things. For example, did you know that they make Cinderella’s castle in Disneyworld look bigger by using a forced perspective trick by making the upper spires much smaller than they would normally be? This is what happens with the relatively “small” mountains around here. So you’ll see Deer Park Heights and think, “Oh, I could climb that thing myself!” Well, maybe you could, but you won’t make it down by nightfall.

So, WHY, I hear you wondering, is there an abandoned North Korean prison in Queenstown? It was actually built as a movie set for a movie in the 80’s by Disney. It was called “The Rescue” — and it was horrible. The plot involved a bunch of young boys who had to rescue their dads who had gotten themselves imprisoned in North Korea. I think it skipped the theaters and went straight to airplanes, along with Miss Congeniality 4.

How was I able to get up here and take about 20 new friends? I cannot say! 🙂

Abandoned North Korean Prison in… New Zealand?!?

Photo Information

---

• Date Taken2013-02-08 12:39:49
• CameraNIKON D800
• Camera MakeNikon
• Exposure Time3
• Aperture4
• ISO320
• Focal Length15.0 mm
• FlashOff, Did not fire
• Exposure ProgramAperture-priority AE
• Exposure Bias-1

Back to Normally Scheduled Broadcasting

Now that the crazy two weeks has ended, we will begin regular broadcasts of the Trey’s Variety Hour. They appear here live on the blog every Monday night at 7 PM PT, 10 PM ET. And they’re all available to watch afterwards on YouTube.com/StuckInCustoms!

Daily Photo – Two Dolphins in Love in Milford Sound

While we took the boat out of Milford towards the Tasman Sea, a pod of bottle-nose dolphins came to visit. They turned and jumped and spiraled in a double helix, twisting endlessly like a playful cyclone.

Two Dolphins in Love in Milford Sound

Photo Information

---

• Date Taken2013-02-10 00:11:30
• CameraNIKON D800
• Camera MakeNikon
• Exposure Time1/200
• Aperture6.3
• ISO640
• Focal Length14.0 mm
• FlashOff, Did not fire
• Exposure ProgramAperture-priority AE
• Exposure Bias-1

Ice Hotels

I’ve always wanted to visit the Ice Hotels (did you know there are a few now?), and after visiting this place below, I’m even more interested. I had a list of places to visit one day, but the list was getting a little long and texty. I decided to take a few hours and re-build the list on Pinterest. I’m much happier with it now… it’s very visual and a more fun way to keep a list of places to visit. Anyway, I have a special board there you may enjoy called “Oh the places I’ll go!” (there are three Ice Hotels in there!)

4.5 Mil on Pinterest

And it looks like we just passed 4.5 million followers on Pinterest! It has officially passed Google+, which is keeping close at 4.4 million. I’m actively posting on both, so thanks again! 🙂

Daily Photo – The Ice Bar, Below Zero

We ran around all week preparing for the event here in Queenstown. We took a break to go visit the famous Ice Bar with Eden Brackstone. Just beforehand, he had met Karen Hutton, Scott Kublin, and Curtis Simmons on the rainy streets after a chocolate blow-out at Patagonia (none of this sounds like we are actually working does it?).

Anyway, the Ice Bar was very cool. You actually drink out out of cups made of ice, and when you are done, you get to smash them like plates at a Greek wedding.

The Ice Bar, Below Zero

Photo Information

---

• Date Taken2013-02-03 13:10:36
• CameraNIKON D800
• Camera MakeNikon
• Exposure Time0.3
• Aperture6.3
• ISO200
• Focal Length14.0 mm
• FlashOff, Did not fire
• Exposure ProgramAperture-priority AE
• Exposure Bias

Going Back to China Soon

I’ll be heading back to China… Now that I am in New Zealand, I need to figure out the process for getting my Chinese visa. I think I have to send it into the American consolate in Wellington, but not too sure! Getting visas is still such a pain… the cost isn’t the annoying thing as much as the time and procedures associated.

Daily Photo – Birds in the Nest

This is the famous “Bird’s Nest” building from the Olympics in Beijing. After the Olympics are over, these special buildings all seem a bit lonely. I know they still hold events in them from time to time, but that seems more like the exception than the rule. Also, this location is so far away from the center of the city that it is extremely inconvenient. Once you arrive to have a look, you are interested, but always thinking of getting back to the main part of the city… this gives it even more of a forlorn feeling… but maybe that is just me.

Birds in the Nest

Photo Information

---

• Date Taken2011-09-19 00:00:00
• CameraNIKON D3X
• Camera MakeNikon
• Exposure Time6
• Aperture5.6
• ISO200
• Focal Length116.0 mm
• FlashNo Flash
• Exposure ProgramAperture-priority AE
• Exposure Bias+2

“A Life Worth Living is a Life Worth Recording”

I’m giving a featured talk at SXSW – “A Life Worth Living is a Life Worth Recording” (links to SXSW website with more info).

The day after that is a big photowalk! See All the Event Details Here.

Bring your camera (even mobile phones are cool!) and bring your sense of adventure and discovery! We’ll walk around the streets of Austin together and grab some cool photos to share with one another. If you’ve never been to one of these events before, then this is your chance. Bring a friend or bring the kids — it’s a family-friendly event and all are welcome! 🙂

I’ll be giving lessons and teaching how I set up for various shots. Anyone can ask me anything at any time… sort of an in-person AMA! 🙂

We’ll also have many great prizes and other fun announcements. More info soon!

Previous Speech on this topic

I’m going to be doing a variation on this talk that I gave at Google Zeitgeist. Here it is below!

Daily Photo – Bendemeer Estates

This is the final place we ended up on the final night of the New Zealand Photo Adventure. Thanks again everyone that came! We’ll get a group photo up very soon so everyone can see. We took it in the woolshed at the bottom of this hill… it was really a remarkable place. I should have gotten a little video of these red-gold grasses blowing in the breeze. I think Curtis Simmons got that… I’ll ask him to put it in the comments! 🙂

Bendemeer Estates

Photo Information

---

• Date Taken2013-02-10 11:21:11
• CameraNIKON D800
• Camera MakeNikon
• Exposure Time1/80
• Aperture16
• ISO200
• Focal Length24.0 mm
• FlashOff, Did not fire
• Exposure ProgramAperture-priority AE
• Exposure Bias

Working on some new videos

I’ve been working hard on a bunch of new videos to share soon. The editing is the part that takes the most time! I have a plan (half-baked) to get an assistant here to help me edit together these videos so that I might better be able to share more stuff with you… little behind-the-scenes… more screen-casting, and this sort of thing. I edit so many photos per week… I’d like to capture more of it to share. I’ll get on this…

Daily Photo – In The Sun

I was working on some photos from Argentina (one from yesterday you might have noticed, and this was in the batch. Most of my Argentina shots were of rugged landscapes… so I thought maybe you might something a little less rugged here… 🙂

In The Sun

Photo Information

---

• Date Taken2020-07-08 15:42:32
• Camera
• Camera Make
• Exposure Time
• Aperture
• ISO
• Focal Length
• Flash
• Exposure Program
• Exposure Bias

In the Store

Some of you may have noticed that we dropped a few new camera straps into the store! I just got done shooting with them here in NZ for the past several weeks and I can vouch for them! One of them in particular (the higher-end one) is actually super-cool because you can have the strap over your shoulder and it slides OR attach to your tripod without needing it to be unattached! So, the sliding attachments are where the regular strap normally goes, which opens up the bottom for your tripod bracket.

Store Feedback

The store is almost out of beta, and it’s been interesting to watch how everything is working. It’s a totally new system. Our previous system kinda sucked — sorry about that. I felt like it used to be quite sloppy and the UI was a mess. The cart was confusing and so was checkout. But now everything feels quite smooth! And we are seeing lots of people put a lot of different things into the basket. For example, sometimes people buy a some Lightroom Presets AND the Photomatix Presets. Anyway, if you have any feedback, please let me know – I’m curious! 🙂

Daily Photo – The Cool Fresh Water

This is maybe some of the freshest water I’ve ever had! It was so icy cold, it was like a blast of frigid freshness into my mouth… I got in the habit of not filling up my water bottle until I visited this glacial lake… I was here for about three days… just relaxing, taking photos, and camping… it was very nice!

The Cool Fresh Water

Photo Information

---

• Date Taken2009-04-01 08:32:39
• CameraNIKON D3X
• Camera Make
• Exposure Time1/4000
• Aperture4
• ISO400
• Focal Length50.0 mm
• Flash
• Exposure Program
• Exposure Bias