One morning along the coast of Gisborne was incredibly serene. It was one of those nice long mornings where I just listened to music and walked alone, seeing the morning pastels softly moving from one palette to another.
For those of you interested in the fun world of NFTs, the latest drop closes in a few hours on Makersplace. Check it out here.
There’s a huge area here between Queenstown and Arrowtown with rolling hills, lakes, little streams, and tons of different trees that change color in the Autumn. (Autumn is happening now in the southern hemisphere, btw – I know that’s always confusing to all you “others” in the northern hemisphere!) – The mornings are crisp and cool but the sun comes out in the middle of the day to warm everything up and help the colors to really glow.
I don’t know if I ever would have visited Pittsburgh if it wasn’t part of the USA tour, and that’s a shame because it’s a really cool city. The city is great to shoot and the bridges always make for a good subject matter. It’s also a great walking city where you can just criss-cross the river as many times as you need to find some interesting shots.
I’ve always wanted to visit this Stairway to Nowhere in Hudson Yards, so I was sure to block off an entire day for it. There are literally no bad photos of this thing, so it’s what I call a high-target environment! In these situations, I challenge myself to get as many “different” kinds of photos as possible. This one is probably one of my favorites.
One day, we jumped out on a boat to go through the archipelago to visit some floating markets. These places are totally unique and they sell a wide variety of things, only half of which I can identify. Some of the veggies and fruits and stuff look a little sketchy, so they are definitely the sorts of things you need to prep and cook well when you get home.
After I dropped off my son Ethan for Outward Bound in Picton, I drove the long way back to take some photos. I got the quad out to get this one of these cool boat houses. Obviously, it was low tide, so I don’t totally love the photo, as I think it would be incredible at high tide with still water to make a cool reflection shot. But, you gotta take what you can get.
Welcome to a very different Machine Elf creation! All my latest ones seem to be my favorite, but this one definitely gives a new perspective on the cinematic quality and storytelling of fractals. This creation was incredibly complex and took about a month for the visuals and another month for the music from Joshua Ryan. We’ve been collaborating on this one forever and now it is finally ready for release!
This creation explores how incredible complexity and the fabric of the universe could possibly be boiled down to a few combined fractal equations. I’ve always been fascinated by the fabric of the reality around us. Maybe it’s just math, or a higher order of mathematical formulas that collide with different sorts of energies. It’s really hard to say, eh? All these Machine Elf creations explore different facets from the same jewel of the reality that is being built around us all the time.
To see all the Machine Elf videos on YouTube, check out the Machine Elf playlist.
Also, we’ve put a few of these Machine Elf creations in 360 for a cool VR app called TRIPP. If you have an Oculus Quest, Go, Rift or Playstation VR you can download TRIPP which features guiding experiences to make you happier, calmer and more focused. Grab that here.
For more Machine Elf creations, including physical installations, check out the website: https://the-machine-elf.com/
What an amazing place to watch the sunset. Malaysia is a brutally hot and humid place, so any chance for a swim is welcome. This is the pool there at the Ritz-Carlton and, even better, we jumped in the pool right after a fun cocktail-making class. Some of those bartenders seem to have such a good time. I think it would be an awesome job, but I don’t think I could do it and keep all the drink recipes straight in my mind…
I was surprised to see all the semi-religious buildings and structures in Sanya. You don’t see a lot of this sort of stuff in mainland China, but because Sanya is on an island of their own, they seem to have a bit more of a different history and architecture. It was a welcome relief, because after you’ve seen about 10 Chinese temples of traditional design, you’ve seen them all.
For Passport Members today you’ll see the How To of today’s photo. It was a fun one to edit from my 50th birthday partay!
In today’s video, you’ll see how I combined three images and then removed the ghosting. In a final step, I do some things to make the lighting a bit more dramatic and focused on Matt.
Here’s my friend Matt Bowden who is always up for a photo or two. He stood right outside the little awning that we built outside of the mobile sauna for the party. This is before dozens of us stripped down to jump inside the heat! Those photos will come later!
One of the many unexpected benefits of drone photography is to create a sense of 3D depth by catching shadows in new ways. If you have some of this very clear water, then you can often see shadows that you can’t normally see from the shore. I also like how you can get up a little higher and get the kayak in the middle of a minimalist background, rather than having it be mixed up with the horizon.
