Stuck In Customs

Monterey PhotoWalk

See the Monterey PhotoWalk Plancast page for more info. And here is the route we will walk along together!

Want to see a video of a PhotoWalk to see what it is like? Follow that link!

Daily Photo – The Singularity Device

This photo is strange isn’t it?

Even when I was standing there, I had to wait longer than expected to grok it. And maybe photos like can help you understand how technologically advanced the Chinese have become. In fact, they are absolutely bathed in it.

This screen in “The Place” (great name, huh?) that faces downward is supposed to be one of the biggest in the world. I don’t know if it’s bigger than the one in Texas Stadium, but it must be longer.

SmugMug is using Amazon S3 to serve all these up... and I feel like I'm kind of eating too much at their all-you-can eat buffet of data!

175,000 Photo Views a Day

You guys are crazy! It’s been a while since I checked the SmugMug stats, so I was surprised to see the ever-steady increase in the daily photo views.  When you combine this with the 22 million from Flickr, we are well past 60 million views.  I guess the photos are good enough to keep people coming back – so thank you very much!  I’m still very happy with SmugMug — if you are thinking of switching to put your portfolio and photos there, I still highly recommend it.

See my full SmugMug Review for more.

Daily Photo – Deep into the Patagonia Glacier

This is where my Russian friend first produced a bottle of cognac from his inside breast pocket. And it was not a small bottle.

Even more baffling, during at least ten other major photography moments, he would pull a brand new cognac bottle from a different pocket. He was like a clown with endless streams of hidden tardis-like pockets. On one of the final nights of the hike, in fact, we were running low on food and there was nothing to drink. Upon hearing this, he simply raised his eyebrows and pulled out three full bottles of cognac and set them upon a log.

This is the Perito Mereno Glacier, and this thing is over two miles wide. Unfortunately, everything is so huge in the photo that you can’t get a sense of the scale. When you see huge chunks cleave off, it all happens in slow motion, just like the movies. And the sound is like an icy thunder.

See the Argentina category for more shots from this area!

Austin Awards Ceremony!

Thanks to all the nice people that came to the awards event tonight in Austin. We had people come in from Dallas, Houston, San Antonio, and Katy! It was a great crowd, and I think I got a chance to talk to everyone there at least for a little bit. At least, I tried my best! Thanks again to all the judges and coaches and Jack Hollingsworth especially. The PhotoWalk (click to see recap and video) was really a special event, and it was fun to cap it off with this little awards event.

Daily Photo – Late Night in Old China

The town of Feng Huang in Hangzhou district is as old-fashioned as can be. But at night, a few of the side streets and secret alleys light up with a vibrant night life. No one was surprised as me!

I went out to get a late night bite, sit by the river, and work on some sketches. I figured the light would be too low for anything of interest. But luckily, I brought my big rig just in case. And then I found this little street that was totally full of life. I could hear noise from a few streets away, so I felt my way over there until I stumbled into this.

Special Photos – Dinner in Akureyri

Normally, I do one new photo a day, but today I wanted to do ten of them! Something a bit different to keep things fresh, perhaps!

So, when I was in Iceland, I went to visit my friend Helga Kvam who lives on a fjord in the far north near a town called Akureyri. She lives in a farmhouse right up against the water. Helga was with her long-time boyfriend Völundur Jónsson, who is also a photographer. Even though they live in a beautiful place, I don’t think they ever take it for granted… this is a nice side-benefit of being a photographer. You can read more about them on their About page on their website.

I slept in their basement one day, and woke up in time for dinner time (I stay awake all night to take photos and sleep during the day). Völundur and Helga were hard at work making a fantastic meal! I pulled out my camera and took some photos of the evening, so I can share it with here below.

If you’d like to see some other photos I took in and around this area, check the Iceland category!

Völundur is outside getting the grill ready. The weather was perfect and Helga opened the windows so we could smell everything. You can see the fjord behind Völundur...	Helga, for being a photographer, is very shy about having her photo taken! So I took this one of her sitting with her nephew in the window sill, as they watched the food cook outside.
While dinner is cooking, Helga's nephew goes outside to play and shows me where he built his tree house earlier in the day.	He prepared a ton of amazing and fresh food. I think the only time they get to cook outside is the summer, and they take full advantage of it.
Helga was telling me about what things have been like after the economic crisis in Iceland recently. She said people have gotten back to the basics, and she knitted these gloves for herself. I tried to convince her to make finger-flapped knit gloves for photographers and I would help her promote on the website! But I don't think I convinced her...	Her house has all sorts of nice details and colors. Even before I met her, I knew she was very into rich textures and colors.
Helga and Völundur go into her kitchen to make last-minute preparations for dinner.	This meat was incredibly tasty and tender. I won't tell you what it was... since people often seem overly judgmental (or stuck in customs, the second meaning of the blog that few people ever get).
Fresh vegetables on skewers. They tasted as good as they look.	And for dessert, we had these insane bacon-wrapped dates. These things are amazing. I did find them one other place -- at a tapas restaurant in San Antonio. But anyway, stay on the lookout for these things!

Also, I just got a note from Helga that her mom has started an Icelandic skin care company called Urtasmidjan. So there you go… you can vist to get some Icelandic products… looks like a girly thing 🙂

TWIT Photography Show 2

Here’s another show for you full of helpful tips! It was a good one with Lisa Bettany and Leo Laporte. We talked a lot about mobile photography, and I spoke a lot about creativity. We also touched on things like the Space Shuttle launch, some fun gear from my bag, and more. If you have comments for the hosts, it’s best to leave the on the YouTube page.

And… shhh… this isn’t officially announced, yet, but it is available in the App Store. Version 3.0 of 100 Cameras in 1 is out — featuring a brand new camera interface! (see screenshot)

Daily Photo – Four Horses

It was one of those long summer afternoons when you are sure it must be 5 PM, and you check the clock and it’s only 2 PM! You know these days. Anyway, I decided to pick up my camera and walk around the ranch in Yellowstone for a little while The stable area is always a target, rich environment, so I headed right over there to find these four horses lined up so nicely.

EG Conference

This is the first print release of the new year. This is the stunning azure blue pool in Hearst Castle.

I know we’ll have a few people attending the EG Conference in Monterey next week, so be sure to come up and say hello! If you’re not coming to the conference but are in the area, maybe you can join us at the PhotoWalk on Sunday (see below)!

Free Monterey Area PhotoWalk

This will be on Sunday evening on April 10th at 6:30 PM. See and contribute to the details at PlanCast! I don’t have a path figured out yet… so please drop your ideas there into the PlanCast!

Carmel Area suggestions for lodging?

After the conference, I’m staying a few extra days and wondered if you had some suggestions? Perhaps a few nights in Carmel and one down in Big Sur. I usually find my own places, but I find that YOU are such a tremendous resource for suggestions, that I should ask your opinion!

New Print Available!

This is the first print I have released in 2011. As you can see on the Prints page, these are all available in unique numbered series on paper, canvas, and metal.

This photo, like the one below, was taken on a trip up the California coast. I stopped in Hearst Castle for an amazing private tour of the facility. While there, I visited the indoor pool area and had to sidle along a wall to get to this spot. I had a feeling it would splay out some nice shapes for me.

Daily Photo – Off the PCH at Sunset

Whenever I go to California lately, I have meetings in both Los Angeles and San Francisco. Rather than fly between the two, I like to take my time and drive up the Pacific Coast Highway. It’s such a famous highway, but it’s usually fairly empty. There is always a beautiful sunset… it’s pretty much a guarantee. I popped out of my car and hiked through the brush a bit to grab this one so you can see what it looks like.

Peter Takes Times Square

This is a weird one. Now, I don’t know Peter Lik, and I can’t figure out why in the world he would do this on his Facebook page I got a ton of tweets and emails about it. Anyway, it seems like a pretty sorry thing to do.

I don’t really understand. Peter’s photos are just fine on their own… he (and/or his team) should not need to do something like this. What do you think?

Also, see this video of Lik’s new TV show.

All my photos are Creative Commons Noncommercial. It means anyone can use them with proper credit, as long as it is not for commercial purposes. So, kind of two strikes here. No credit AND this is a commercial purpose. The Internet Knows All. For reference, the original New York City shot is here.

Update:
1) A rambunctious discussion started on Facebook, and then
2) Peter Lik’s team removed the post (a copy for reference), and then
3) A gentleman from their social media team apologized on our Facebook wall.

My Facebook Page

Lest you be confused, pop over to good ol’ “Trey’s Facebook Page”, where you are welcome to continue sharing your own work and I can leave comments for you!

365 New Photos a Year

This is tough! A daily photo that I consider worthy! I’ve kept it going at a good 99% rate here for the past few years, but it takes a lot of work. I’m not gonna lie. This came up in the recent Mostly Photo show with Leo Laporte and Lisa Bettany (PS Leave comments there on YouTube for feedback). I guess people might think it is easy to do this every day… or maybe I am accidentally making it look easy. But, rest assured, it’s hard as hell.

Daily Photo – The Pier at the End of Times

Here is a good tip for you when it comes to sunsets. It also works if you have something in the center worthy of attention, which is commonly the case with sunsets.

When you use a wide-angle lens, like this 14-24, you will automagically get a feeling that everything is pointed to the middle. That is obvious, but you can “help the cause” and make the effect more pronounced by doing the following. If the there are repeating elements of roughly the same size (in this case: 1- slats of a dock and 2- blobs of clouds), then those elements will create leading lines to the horizon as they get logarithmically smaller towards the infinity point. In a sense, the slats only do part of the job, but the clouds do the rest of the job. Then, this allows you to have leading lines that take people in and out and back around the work.

So, one thing to look for when shooting with the wide angle lens is multiple objects of roughly the same shape. After that, you can try to set up so they repeat ever smaller towards the horizon.

This particular photo was taken in Ibiza one evening, just after the sun dipped into the Mediterranean.

100 Cameras in 1 for iPad – Finally Available!

You can Get it Now in iTunes!

A Video from Robert Scoble

As you can see in this video below, we rebuilt the whole app specifically for the iPad.

Photo Editing on your iPad to a whole new level!

Here are some sample shots for you!

How does the camera work? (iPad 2 only)

We’ve used an innovative “popup camera” system that lets you take a photo very quickly when you press the camera button. It will switch to portrait or landscape, depending upon how you hold the iPad. When you take the photo, you immediately get all 100 versions, or you can choose to “retake” the photo. Simple!

And here are a few more screenshots!