If you make it down to Glenorchy in the southern island of New Zealand, be sure to find this amazing walking path through the wetlands. It’s particularly beautiful in the morning just as the sun comes over the mountain to light everything with a yellow light. Another great reason to come in the morning is that it’s much more likely that the water will be smooth and reflective.
These are the incredibly awesome wolves at The Hills country club. I met the artist in Beijing, and we had a fun tea and crackers together in his studio. He didn’t speak a lick of English and I didn’t speak a lick of Mandarin – but we had a few translators, so it kinda worked. Besides, we would show one another art and we would ooh and ahh at it all 🙂
When Derek came down to visit, we spent a lot of time rolling around in grass of various heights. On this particular day, we decided to find some grass that was just a little higher than Derek when he was supine. It was the horses over there that gave us this ingenious idea.
Those guys from South Park have made a new comedy that uses Deep Fake tech to re-create Trump, Zuckerberg, and a ton more… super funny…
Daily Photo – Gaudi’s Masterpiece
I kind of wish I had a wide-angle lens for this photo, but I had a new Hasselblad and I only had a limited number of lenses. But, that’s okay because it forced me to find the most interesting thing to fit inside of that rectangle. You may notice that it has a 3:2 ratio, which is the default for the Hasselblad (I believe). I kept it in that original ratio rather than re-cropping it.
Here’s awesome Rene doing his thing. Whenever he’s near water, most of his clothes come off and he becomes this amphibian kinda guy. This reminds me of a story he told me where he was trying to be cool on some rocks around a girl and then he stepped on a sea urchin and screamed, falling into the ocean.
A few times each night, they alight this super hardcore searchlight from the top of the Eiffel Tower and it scans the skyline. Getting a solid shot of it wasn’t the easiest thing in the world because I had to make sure the shutter speed was fast enough but keep the ISO high enough to make sure you could get all the rest of the light. Okay, camera nerd talk over.
I don’t know if this is a new installation or not but I’ve never seen it until my most recent trip to Paris. It’s less than a 5-minute walk from the Louvre and I guess I just never walked this way before. I do like how a lot of the art in the world now is interactive… I probably got a lot of that appreciation from Burning Man. Sometimes they look kind of dangerous… I can only imagine the injuries!
The Pena Palace is a must-visit if you ever visit Portugal. It’s an absolutely amazing place and you can actually reserve the whole place to yourself ahead of time if you want to take photos. It’s pretty inexpensive and you’ll be able to spend plenty of time getting all the photos you want. Even better, they are totally cool with drones to get some unique shots.
We went to a cool beach area near Lisbon and had a fabulous lunch before beginning the whole European tour. Just off the coast were these three boats, perfectly spaced with some dramatic lighting. At this time, I was still getting used to using the Hasselblad and this is one of my favorites!
That clever team has come up with something I’ll probably use even more than all their cool camera and bag gear – this slick case and mounting system for your phone and a bunch of accessories to go with it! I’m actually pretty good when it comes to using my phone… I’m not on it all the time, but I’m still on it quite a bit. I’ve tried a few mounting systems, but they all seem a bit janky as if they were designed by someone that might possibly be a bit insane. Well, when you watch this video, you’ll see how they have thought about this system in the same kind of 360, detailed manner as they did their bags, camera straps, and everything else they make. I know you’re wondering if it will work on YOUR phone and the case will if you have the iPhone 11 or 12 or a Samsung S20. For everyone else, or at least most of you, there is a Universal Mount… that’s one of the cool things about joining the Kickstarter community there because you can get into all the design discussions to see what models will be officially supported. The community there is incredible because you can ask any question (and they will answer), and you can provide any sort of feedback or ideas they have. This is probably one of the reasons that Peak Design makes such incredible products… they really listen! Go see now at Kickstarter.
Check out the Kickstarter here.
Daily Photo – After the Photo Walk in Kyoto
Just after we finished the big photo walk, I decided to take a few photos of this cool temple at dusk before sunset. It’s always a bit awkward after photo walks because a few people end up hanging around as long as they can. I don’t mind it, really, because I’m a super-nice guy! But I don’t always know what to say after the official thing is over… I am just kind of taking photos by myself, and I kind of feel the need to explain to them what I am doing… so it is kind of hard to turn off that mode, you know?
