Photomatix 4 is out!

Of course, I edited the photo below with the new Photomatix 4. To read the Photomatix Review, which is pretty much the same as before except I added a few bits for Photomatix 4. I hope you enjoy it!

Daily Photo – Sunset in Ibiza

Ibiza is a fabulous island off the coast of Spain that is the “in” destination for all the Euros that like to get trashed, party, dress in white, do medium-level-drugs, and stay on the beach without many clothes.

It’s also a great place for photography! We were having lunch one day and the waitress saw my D3S sitting on the table. It turns out that she was a photographer too, and we pulled out a map while she marked great places for photos on the map. That’s just what I like! Finding out all the secret places from the locals… and this was lucky in this case!

So we ventured out to this remote beach on the western side at sunset. It was pretty deserted while I snapped photos, except for a few of the ever-present women that prance around like they are in shampoo commercials all the time.

I saw this girl bouncing around and very happy about something, so I went over and said hello, introducing myself. She didn’t speak much English, but I managed to ask her if I could take a photo of her. She enthusiastically said yes, and I explained the sitch as we walked over to the water, mostly using interpretive dance to span the language gap. She was Italian and her name was Wendy. I think that is a strange name for an Italian, but I didn’t question it. Anyway, I asked her just to walk off into the ocean and I would take a photo. She did just that, and I grabbed this shot just as the sun was dipping below the horizon.

Filed under the categories: Ibiza, Nikon D3X, Spain, Travel

对不起，此内容只适用于English。

Filed under the categories: Barcelona, Spain, Travel

Topaz Adjust

The photo below uses Topaz Adjust for a bit of sharpening. I find that my photos can still come out blurry, even though I use a tripod. For more info, be sure to see my Topaz Adjust Review here on the site!

Your thoughts on rain?

How do you feel about shooting in the rain? Too much of a hassle, or worth it? I’m interested in your perspective… you can read more about mine below!

Daily Photo – Ginza, alive at night

Rain is good. Rain is bad. I can’t decide!

You have no idea… (or maybe you do !!) how hard it is to carry around two cameras, a tripod, AND an umbrella. I already have every one of my 10 digits fully employed with handling everything. But… an umbrella! Well that really requires five fingers! I can usually get by with 5 on my tripod/camera too. I walk around with everything hooked together. However, a problem ensues when you have to expand and retract the legs of the tripod. That is really a two-hand operation. So what do you do with the umbrella during this time? The neck/shoulder pinch is right-out… the umbrella gets caught in the wind and it is a recipe for disaster.

And, you have to keep the umbrella over the lens at all times. If you put on the lens cap, it can cause fogging (in most wet-weather conditions). And you can’t let the lens get drops on it, of course. So, I have to keep myself and the lens dry the entire time.

But, once you get everything set up… then… well, nothing beats the effect of wet streets in the night… just wonderful.

Filed under the categories: Japan, Nikon D3X, Tokyo, Travel

Join me in the Peachpit Photo Club Tonight!

Register now (Free!) for the Peachput Photo Club event!

The event is on Tuesday, September 28, 2010 from 8 to 9 p.m. ET (5 to 6 p.m. PT). See you soon!

A Great Day with Fabien!

Thanks again to the great Fabien Barral for showing us around Nimes for the day!  I’ve always been “internet-friends” with Fabien, and he is the designer that does this website as well as my book.  You should visit his website above to see some of his other amazing work.

We had a great day and evening together… I always enjoy meeting artists from all around the world and hearing their perspective on things.

Daily Photo – The Roman Gladiators of Gaul

Nimes has some very well preserved Roman ruins.  There is a huge park area that has stone walkways over ancient Roman waterways and this colosseum structure in the middle of town.

One of the coolest things about this colosseum is that it is still used on a regular basis!  When we were there, they were having a bullfight inside the arena.  I have some pictures of the aftermath, including trails of blood in the sand…  It’s fairly graphic, but you’ll have something new to see in coming weeks when I get around to processing those!

Filed under the categories: France, Nikon D3X, Nimes, Travel

Join me in the Peachpit Photo Club Tomorrow!

Register now (Free!) for the Peachput Photo Club event!

The event is on Tuesday, September 28, 2010 from 8 to 9 p.m. ET (5 to 6 p.m. PT). See you there!

Portfolio Question

I wanted to ask your opinion before I did this about my portfolio at stuckincustoms.smugmug.com.

Personally, I really like when I see photography slideshows set to music. But I also know that it is annoying when this happens on the web. I understand that it is actually more than annoying — because most people are already busy listening to something else. Switching to my music or turning off my music immediately starts out with a negative experience. That’s not good…

So, having said all that, should I add music to my portfolio?

Daily Photo – The Labyrinth Rocket

Isn’t this a beautiful and unique church? It’s been so long since I’ve posted a photo of it. It’s called Hallgrimskirkja. This is much easier to say if you are a dolphin. And drunk.

On my last trip, I made my fourth visit to this spot. I was graced with good clouds to complement the monotonemapping of the scene. The doors were locked, so I could not get inside. I had some bizarre visions of possibly climbing up the rock face to clamber in through the windows, but then remembered it wasn’t a video game… dangit.

Filed under the categories: Iceland, Nikon D3X, Reykjavik, Travel

The International HDR Tutorial!

Here is a reminder that we have our tutorial in 3 different languages now!

• Fala Português? Confira o Tutorial HDR em Português.
• Hablas Español? Clic Tutorial HDR en Español. (and an upgraded version coming soon)
• Speak English?  Howdy! head to the HDR Tutorial.

Daily Photo – The Grand Entrance

This is the entryway to the Portofino Hotel at Universal Orlando. It’s a pretty posh place. I get nervous when I see young kids running around these places at full speed. I get really nervous when I see my own kids doing it!

We stayed here a few nights and it proved to be a perfect location for accessing Universal Studios. There is a little lake/canal system in the back that connects to the main park so you can take little boats back and forth. More importantly, there are a ton of interesting things scattered around for photography!

Filed under the categories: Florida, Nikon D3X, Orlando, Travel

Four Hours in Helsinki

So, I am connecting from Ibiza to China through Helsinki, Finland.  Does anyone have any suggestions on what to see and photograph in that time?  Keep in mind that I’ll have to jump in a taxi (or train?) and get to-and-from these locations and get back in time to go through security again.

The Private Room

It was a dark and mysterious set of serpentine stairs that brought us to this room. Where could it be? Who can identify it? You all are so hard to trick… None of these has ever stayed mysterious for more than 24 hours… but maybe, just maybe, we can have this one stay a mystery!

And I know people zoom into 100% on these to look for clues… this one is a little messy at 100%, so I am a little embarrassed by that… I do figure that 98% of people look at it in the default “blog size”, where it looks okay.

Filed under the categories: Chicago, Illinois, Travel

New Podcast Interview available

You can now listen to Digital Convergence Episode 33 – thanks again to Carl Olson for the nice interview.  Here is a snippit from his website:

In today’s episode, Trey and I talk about a wide range of topics. For filmmakers, Trey discusses his interest in how the human brain responds to high speed video. He has conducted a number of interesting experiments using low cost point-and-shoot cameras that can record video at high frame rates.

We delve briefly into the topic of HDR photography and then discuss a number of topics on the “edge” of visual arts. Trey manages to fool me into thinking he has taken up oil painting. Find out how he accomplished that!

We move on to the topic of “the decade of the artist” – how business models have changed for visual artists in the 21st century. Trey candidly talks about his business model and why he chose to go the route he did.

Daily Photo – Searching For Water

The amazing Ta Prohm ruins of Cambodia have secrets around every turn.  These enigmatic trees grow up and over everything.  I was amazed by the girth and length of this lateral root system, as the trees search everywhere for water.

I would LOVE to see a timelapse of this tree growing.  Wouldn’t that be the coolest thing in the world?  If you have ever seen a good simulation of this in video, please let me know… Some of these things we find in the real world are almost impossibly awesome.

Filed under the categories: Angkor Wat, Cambodia, Nikon D3X, Siem Reap, Travel

Straight Outta Lightroom

I’ve use Lightroom all the time. It’s great. This shot below came straight out of Lightroom with no Photoshop adjustments at all. Lightroom is extremely powerful, and I know lots of people that use it exclusively. I do use it all the time, although mostly just to organize my photos — not edit them.

Daily Photo – The Yellow-Eyed Penguin

These are the rare yellow-eyed penguins of New Zealand.  I think they are rare.  I don’t know.  It seems like all animals are rare or endangered, so those words kind of lose their punch after a while, don’t they?  I mean, if most everything is rare, then it becomes quite common, linguistically speaking.  Anyway, they said it was rare, so there you go.

And I know why they are rare!  They just stand there.  It’s no wonder humans had a field-day on New Zealand.  These giant, meaty, tasty birds just stand around.  They are like Cheesecake Factories that are open all night and always free.  I’m sure they are pretty hard to resist when you are hungry.  Mmmm… Penguin-Flavored-Cheesecake.

Filed under the categories: New Zealand, Nikon D3X

Renting a Car in Gaul

My current plan is to rent a car in Montpellier and then drive around the south of France a few days before driving to Barcelona. This may be one of my worst ideas, best ideas, or something the vacillates wildly between the two. We’ll see.

Daily Photo – Young girl on a bridge in Paris

I woke up one morning around 5:30 AM to go out and grab the sunrise on the Seine. I had a loose plan to criss-cross bridges all up and down the river and catch light at various moments. There is a delightful pedestrian bridge by the Louvre and Rue Bonaparte. It’s a strange little bridge that has thousands of tiny padlocks attached to the fence. Each one has a set of initials upon it. I’m sure it would take me 15 seconds on the internet to figure out what they mean… but for now, I’m just trying to figure it all out and holding 10 different romantic possibilities in my head simultaneously.

After a shooting a set of shots with the sun rising over Notre Dame, I saw a few girls on the bridge with me. It was a little cold this morning, and they were in coats, laughing and playing with their own camera. With my tripod still set up, I grabbed my D3S and 50 prime on my sling. I pulled it up quickly to grab a shot of one of the girls as she covered her face from the cool wind of the morning.

Filed under the categories: France, Paris, Travel

Video Interview on Splashmedia

Have you all heard of Renay San Miguel? He was an anchor on CNN, CBS, and CNBC… You’ll probably recognize him in the interview!

Thanks to Chris Kraft and the team over at Splash Media for the interview! I hope you enjoy it…

New Prints – The Adventure Tree and The Falls of Yellowstone

We release one new print a week, and I’ve been a bit remiss in mentioning them with all the travel. My bad. I can remedy that right now…

You can click on each print to go over and get details. As always, each one is part of a numbered limited edition series. Enjoy!

Filed under the categories: Dallas, Texas, Travel

Join me in the Peachpit Photo Club!

Register now (Free!) for the Peachput Photo Club event!

If everything works out, I’ll be coming to you live from Beijing in a few days and we’ll have a nice gathering! There is a fabulous prize and I hope you all can come! All you need is your internet browser and, perhaps, a good cup of coffee or other edgy beverage.

The event is on Tuesday, September 28, 2010 from 8 to 9 p.m. ET (5 to 6 p.m. PT). See you there!

Daily Photo – Another Summer Day in Paris

I’m having an amazing time in Paris. As usual, it’s off-the-rails perfect. The weather has been remarkable, the sunsets amazing, and the chocolate flows like mana from heaven. I made it over to the Eiffel Tower for a big night of shooting, and arrived there just as the sun was setting. I have a few little special spots I like to visit around the tower that are not full of tourists and the like.

This shot looks much more delicate, perhaps, than I did while achieving it. Unfortunately, this was one of those tricky ones where the tripod legs were splayed out like a flattened armadillo. I looked beyond redonkulous while taking it… but I felt pretty good the result would work out well. As opposed to most shots, when I go into the sun and only use +3 to -3, this one was 9 exposures from +4 to -4. This helped to get some of the gentle colors under the flowers.

Filed under the categories: France, Nikon D3X, Paris, Travel