墨尔本摄影行！

活动详情点击此处！
欢迎大家前来分享摄影乐趣，相互学习！

我非常期待这次活动！一直很想去墨尔本，我保证一到马上办一次摄影行！ 期待见到大家！

技术水平：不限。从手机到单反，照单全收！
时间：1月11日晚上7:30 ——想打个招呼的可以早点来！
费用：免费
地点：信息中心外联合广场
Tag: #MelbournePhotoWalk2013
参会者：家人朋友都欢迎，小朋友也不例外！

我也会拍一组照片，并讲解设置等细节……欢迎大家提问参与！

如果提问的人比较多，我们好心的Paul Pavlinovich 也会帮忙……感谢Paul帮忙组织！到时见！

赫氏古堡：更多精彩

点击图片下方的”Hearst Castle”一栏，就会看到此处的全部美图。浏览至最下方记得也去其它页面逛逛吧！

每日一瞥——赫氏古堡：内部探秘

很久没发赫氏古堡的图片了，这张突然让我眼前一亮。这些房间从某角度看其实很离谱，对吧？我是说，纵使全世界的财富全部揽入囊中，我也不想要这么一个房间在家里！太正儿八经，太不适合居住……我还是喜欢温馨舒适的！

Filed under the categories: California, Hearst Castle, Travel

印个片片赚点钱

经常有人问我这个问题。我已经在自己的SmugMug评论上做了更新。如果你注册，记得用“STUCKINCUSTOMS”优惠码，可以省点钱。有很多摄影师喜欢用自己的照片营利，我就来向大家展示一下销售印刷版是怎么回事。在下面这个例子当中，一位顾客从我们的SmugMug在线上购买了四张印刷版。这样做是为了方便对此好奇的摄影师了解这其中的原委。大家都知道，我是个对于“分享”持开放态度的人，而且也乐于分享幕后的细节。

就个人而言，我在SmugMug 销售的印刷品都属于限量版，所以价格较高。当然，你可以选择合适你的做法，以及与大家分享印刷版艺术品的方法。

赫斯特城堡览余

点击赫斯特城堡览余专栏，别忘了点击“历史图片”浏览更多哟。

尽管下面的这张就取自旧金山南面的圣布鲁诺，开车到圣西蒙的赫斯特城堡也得六个钟头……

每日一瞥——赫斯特墓

Thomas Hawk 带我来到这片墓地。他领去的地方总是那么浪漫。

他说(也说对了)没想到赫斯特墓这么“小”。跟他盖的其它大家伙比起来，这里的确够小的。也许只想要个低调点的身后之地。难说……

当时其实是漆黑一片，随着曝光时间加长聚集了一些光线。 这是用30秒曝光及 f/6.7模式拍出的效果。

Filed under the categories: California, Hearst Castle, Nikon D3X, Photography Tips, San Francisco, Travel

帮助提醒

有很多朋友经常在我们这里买东西，从Flatbooks.com 到HDR视频辅导全都有。记住，如果遇到任何问题，就访问stuckincustoms.com联系我们的技术团队，24小时全天候服务，他们会以邮件方式尽快回复。无论什么问题，但问无妨！

每日一瞥——赫斯特的私家泳池

这是我发表的第二张这个泳池的照片，是从另一侧照的——更为开阔的角度。要能在这里开场派对那该多帅啊，大家可以计划一下！

Filed under the categories: California, Hearst Castle, LA, Nikon D3X, Travel

对不起，此内容只适用于English。

Filed under the categories: California, Hearst Castle, LA, Nikon D3X

Long-Exposure Article

When I was in Iceland with Rebekka, she set up for one of these long-bulb jobs. There was a light rain and a few drops kept getting on her lens, and the frustration ended with a wholesale slaughter of all nearby mountain-elves.

She’s gotten over it and recently posted an article on Long-Exposure Photography over at Pixiq. Follow that link to see more of her work!

Daily Photo – The Private Library

Here we are again, continuing the Hearst Castle thread. We have so many threaded stories here, yes? It’s a bit like Lost, in that there are so many story-lines that never really get resolved. Maybe at the end, we’ll all end up in a generic church together, staring at a white light out of the doors as the camera pans up and away…

There are a few libraries inside Hearst Castle, and this is the biggest. I’ve always wanted something a little like this. Maybe it doesn’t have to be quite this large, but I’d settle for a few warm shelves full of books, a reading table, and a few servants to bring me coffee.

Filed under the categories: California, Hearst Castle, LA, Nikon D3X, Travel

Great PhotoWalk in London

We had about 75 people show up and had an amazing time. Thanks everyone who came out! We totally overwhelmed security at Westminster, Parliament, and The London Eye — they had no choice but to leave us be!

Before the walk, I gave explicit instructions to the crowd on what to yell in case they are accosted by the police: “Help Help! I’m being repressed!” Then, we would all work together to tweet it out and make a big deal of it… but, in the end, no one was bothered… it’s intimidating to see 75 tripods coming your way!

Below is a shot from Steve Graham (iboogaloo on Flickr).  You can visit his blog here.

Reminder about Categories and Previous Pages

There is a lot of content here on the site! I wanted to remind you that I do “categorize” every photo. At the bottom of this one, you will see it says things like “California” and “Hearst”. Clicking on any of those will take you to more of the same.

Also, the blog is only set up to show about 10-15 of the latest posts. With many categories, there are a lot more than that! So you can click “Previous” at the bottom to see more.

Daily Photo – The Grand Pool

I’ve already posted a few photos of the fabulous Hearst Castle indoor pool. This is the one that it is nearby, just outdoors. The thing is enormous and perfect.

I wonder if it ever gets used. So sad. Maybe they put on little pool parties here and there for the elite. Or maybe rappers rent it out and bring in a bunch of rap-video-girls to gyrate around the edges. I don’t know.

Filed under the categories: California, Hearst Castle, LA, Nikon D3X

Thanks Again Community!

(BTW, it sounds strange calling us a “community”.  I never really liked that word… it’s like we meet for Bingo at the sad community center that smells like old tapioca pudding or something…  maybe you know a better word?)

I wanted to take a moment to thank all of you again for all the support, encouragement, and enthusiasm! I really enjoy reading your comments, getting your emails, tweets, FB comments and more. I feel bad I can’t respond to all of them, but I still do read them all. There is a lot, but the reading is not yet overwhelming. The responding is. Something maybe people don’t realize is that comments appear all over the site every day, even on posts that are several years old. For example, someone just dropped a note on a 2-year-old post “Girl in Qatar” looking for a penpal.

I also quite like it when people post links to their websites, their photos, or whatever they find interesting. I encourage it, and it helps YOU get to know OTHER nice people here in the community here too. I know my mom will track you down (like she did Gail) whenever you suddenly stop leaving comments. She gets worried (she called me one day and said, “Do you think Gail is sick or something?”)

If you have more ideas on things you’d like to see around here to help this process, let me know!

Daily Photo – Isabella’s Jewel Box

Up high, in one of the tallest towers of all the land, in the highest castle by the sea, sits a perfect bedroom, and it shines like the inside of a floating jewel box.

This amazing place is in one of the two peak towers atop Hearst Castle. Getting up into these rooms via tiny, twisting stairways is not the easiest thing in the world. The paths in and out of these bedrooms are almost so serpentine that they seem secret. When I was inside, I felt like I was one of the few people in the world to ever experience it.

Relapse Photo – The Castle From Below

I’ve included a second photo from the outside of the castle. Towards the top, you can see the two towers, each of which contains one of these little slices of fantasy.

Filed under the categories: California, Hearst Castle, LA, Nikon D3X, Travel

Great Photo Contest!

There is a great new photo contest I encourage all of you to join!  Get the details on the OpenCa.mp page!

The prize is a fantastic metal print from Image Wizards.  I’ve had many things printed there, and you will be amazed.  Really.  I’ll be one of the judges along with Frederick Van Johnson.  So, if you don’t like the choice in the winners, please blame Frederick Van Johnson.

Daily Photo – Slipping into the Pool

This vast indoor pool at Hearst Castle is just about perfect.  The only thing that would have been more perfect is if I was actually inside of it!  If I wasn’t such an honorable guy, I would have stripped down and jumped in for a bit.  It would have taken at least 15 minutes for security to get me out of there.  But it would have been a sweet sweet 15 minutes.  I could just say that I lost my mind for a bit…  like Hearst Castle was Shutter Island and I was a bit loopy because of the drugs.

A friend was looking at my other photo of this pool (You can access it by clicking on the Hearst Castle category below.  He remarked that he thought it was a slick, reflective floor and not a pool!  I had never thought of it like that, but then I noticed… and I could also see it like that.  A bit like a Necker cube!

Filed under the categories: California, Hearst Castle, LA, Nikon D3X, Travel

New Book on Book List!

As some of you know, I’ve had the pleasure of getting to know Matt Ridley and his wife, Anya Hurlbert. I knew of Matt previously because I’ve always been a fan of his unique science/genetics books; these have delightful and unexpected hooks into economics, anthropology, history, and critical thinking. And then I found out his wife was also of a different sort of scientist, with a concentration in Visual Neuroscience. If you saw my Google Talk, then you’ll know that is also a big interest area for me! Follow her link above if you want to read more.

Matt has a new book that just came out called “The Rational Optimist“. If you want a taste of it, read Matt’s recent Wall Street Journal article.

Anyway, here on the site, I have “Trey’s Book List“, that has all sorts of suggestions. There is surely something for everyone in there!

Bonus Book Suggestion!

I just finished listening to the Audio Book of Daemon. You gotta get it! I haven’t heard anything this good in a while… and, as opposed to most books, I really do recommend the audio version. Jeff Gurner does an amazing job with the voices, and hearing the computer voices talk is more than entertaining! The author, Daniel Suarez, really knows his stuff. And, I would not be surprised if he has read some of Matt Ridley’s books — particularly “The Red Queen”.

Daily Photo – Sunset at Hearst Castle

Maybe people in California get spoiled by good sunsets. Not living there, I don’t know! But, when you are sitting up high on a mountain, in a castle-mansion, overlooking the Pacific Ocean, how could you not get spoiled?

And this isn’t even the main castle. This is just one of the guest-houses. Hearst had several guest houses there, each one as stunning as the next.

If you are enjoying these Hearst photos, I’ve now published six so far. You can see all the Hearst Castle Photos. Note: These are also accessible via the “Categories” down on the right side of the page.

Filed under the categories: California, Hearst Castle, LA, Nikon D3X, Travel

Any Problems with New Server?

We’ve recently moved over the entire website to the Rackspace Cloud.  This was done because our traffic is growing like crazy, and we wanted things to be nice and speedy for everyone.  Also, from time to time, Twitter can cause big surges in traffic that brought the whole thing to a grinding halt.

Let me know if you see anything is awry.  It’s hard for me to test anything, and there are always niggling little problems…  Like, for example, I found out that Firefox didn’t work because of some silly Facebook <iframe> code that still broke it even though it was commented out!

I’ll put together a full review on Rackspace soon enough… along with a whole list of all the backend stuff that keeps the site humming along.  I know we have lots of technical people that come to the site, and we all like geeking out about the specs and “how things work”!

Daily Photo – Hearst Castle in San Simeon

Did you know that Hearst Castle is only a few hours north of LA? If you ever end up in LA for a trip, be sure to set aside a few hours for a trip up to see this place. After you get out of the LA city-scape-area, the terrain totally changes – so does the “feeling”.

Towards the end of the day, all the tourists had left. I had an escort with me for most of the day. This gentleman was a retired LAPD officer who spends a few days per week working up at Hearst Castle. There are several of these guys and gals that help keep the place secure. They take the job pretty seriously, as you would expect from any LAPD-type. After a few hours, I was able to wear them down with humor. I found they responded very well to anti-lawyer humor, btw. So keep that one in mind in case you ever get in a pinch.

Everyone there was extremely nice, and I loved the opportunity to capture Hearst as it is meant to be captured. I kept returning to this fountain time and time again — until the skies and light was just right…

Filed under the categories: California, Hearst Castle, LA, Nikon D3X, Travel

Yet another Book Contest!

Michael over at PetaPixel (he is a good Tweeter – I rewet a lot of his stuff @PetaPixel) is running a contest to give away the book. Head over there to see how to enter!

Continue Discovering New Photographers and Artists!

Be sure to look at the Smugmug Portfolio Contest to see some of the nice entries there. I think you will see some stuff that appeals to you… and it will be a good way to discover some new photographers!

The Great Room at Hearst

I was able to get up through a somewhat secret door into the upper area of this room. It was a little sketchy up there with a sharp dropoff, so I had to keep my wits about me!

The greatest challenge at Hearst is getting set up, composing, and executing all the shots before the next wave of tourists come through. I was usually able to get this done, and there was always a gentle pressure to shoot fast and then move on! One time, however, I just could not finish in time.

They strode in and began randomly shooting away. I think it is so interesting (and somewhat depressing) to watch how tourists take pictures. Really, they are just “documenting” and “collecting”. Why? This is an interesting question! These people are not dumb or vapid… They are not doing it because everyone else is doing it. But I do think people like to softly record their lives. They do the best they can, and I guess that is okay. I do get flummoxed that people don’t go out of their way to take “better” pictures. They seem satisfied with lackluster, predictable, “scientific-documentary” shots that are just not interesting. Not that every photo has to be a work of art, but why not try a little? Why not do a few things here and there to improve your personal photography. It’s not that hard to improve, and anyone can improve! I suppose I just get bummed out that people don’t even try to improve… they just expect and then become satisfied with mediocrity.

Also at Hearst there is a “no flash” rule. Thank goodness! Of course, they do it to protect the works of art there, but I am happy that people do not use their flash because I normally see people do it in silly conditions. As far as I know, this “no flash” in Hearst Castle (and other museums) is a good policy. I always hear that flashes can damage paintings and whatnot — is this scientifically true? Maybe it is. I know if you leave art in bright light all day that it can become discolored… but are a bunch of instantaneous flashes the same thing? I don’t know… I’d love to see a full study on it if anyone has a link. As with all things, the policy certainly sounds solid, but I am skeptical about “common wisdom”.

Personally, I would institute a “no Dumb Use of Flash” rule, which would tell people not to use their flash to take photos of things that are over 15 feet away. Like, for example, did you see the opening ceremonies of the Olympics? Thousands and thousands of clueless people using their flashes! Aren’t any of those thousands of people somewhat curious — wondering if the flash actually does anything? Or maybe this mass flash-delusion is only negatively reinforced by seeing all the other flashes going off? I don’t know…. but it is interesting to think about.

Filed under the categories: Big Sur, California, Hearst Castle, Nikon D3X, Travel

Google Buzz is great for photography and friends!

Follow me on Google Buzz here. And, if you are a Photographer, come add a sample photo to this Buzz Thread – so that people can follow you too if they like what they see!  For the first photo I released on Buzz, I decided to add a brand new unpublished work of boats at sunset at the Portofino Hotel.

Here is why Google Buzz is great for photography and conversation and friends:

• The photos go Full Screen and can be viewed in their proper glory
• I get to see people’s photos as soon as they go up and scroll through them in a nice lightbox
• It’s very simple and built right into the GMail interface
• Conversations are real-time and it has all the “fun” of a chat room without the pressure

What do you think about Google Buzz?

Book Giveaway on Abudzeedo!

The editors over at Abduzeedo (who, by the way, attended my talk at the Google HQ) launched a book contest to give away a free copy of “A World in HDR“.  Even before I mentioned it, there are already over 300 entries, so pop over there and leave a quick comment to enter.  Easy and fast!

Daily Photo – So Many Wonderful Things at Hearst, So Little Time

Hearst Castle is indeed one of the most beautiful places in the world. It’s just a trafficless hour north of LA, but it seems a world apart. It worked out as a perfect stopping-point for my little road trip from Hans Zimmer to Google!

I grabbed a lot of photos of this pool. And I mean a lot. I had great trouble in choosing the “best”, and there are many winners that I will be sure to include in coming weeks, months, and years!

I wonder if WF Hearst ever had one of those crazy house parties with rap video girls dancing and grinding all around the edges of the pool? I can’t imagine college girls doing jello shots and big floatees that have beer-holders. This is all just a tad too classy for that…

Filed under the categories: California, Hearst Castle, Nikon D3X, Travel