Practicing Calligraphy

I decided to record a video of me practicing Chinese calligraphy in reverse. I’m finally getting a LITTLE bit better! (Open the link to see the full-size video.)

Calligraphy level 1 trillion from Damnthatsinteresting

Daily Photo – Angkor Wat in the Morning

I used a new technique to process this old photo. I took it about ten years ago at Angkor Wat, and it was a very steamy morning. My lens was fogged up for about half an hour as I waited for it to reach temperature equilibrium. Anyway, a lot of my photos came out a bit foggy/blurry. So now that Lightroom has the Dehaze feature, I ran that on all the photos before importing into Aurora HDR 2019… that made all the difference in the world for a clean photo!

Angkor Wat in the Morning

Photo Information

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• Date Taken2007-06-02 22:43:40
• CameraNIKON D2Xs
• Camera MakeNikon
• Exposure Time1/160
• Aperture5.6
• ISO100
• Focal Length20.0 mm
• FlashNo Flash
• Exposure ProgramAperture-priority AE
• Exposure Bias

Another Passport Day!

Remember if you have our fun new offering, you’ll get all kinds of goodies. Today is one of those days where you get the bonus screencast where I edit this photo.

Behind the Scenes – Processing The Waves Crash in Iceland

Here’s the video of how I made this photo! Enjoy, and thanks again, loyal Passport holder! 🙂

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Daily Photo – The Waves Crash in Iceland

Seeing this and working on it puts me right back in the mood of Iceland! It’s so rugged and extreme there. It always made me feel quite small and insignificant. These black rocks were extremely sharp and dangerous. I believe this is the same location where Clint Eastwood shot a few of his war movies. I feel sorry for those actors having to climb around on this sharp black glass!

The Waves Crash in Iceland

Photo Information

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• Date Taken2007-02-12 12:42:51
• CameraNIKON D2Xs
• Camera MakeNikon
• Exposure Time1/30
• Aperture5.6
• ISO100
• Focal Length16.0 mm
• FlashNo Flash
• Exposure ProgramAperture-priority AE
• Exposure Bias-1

New Photo Organization

I have a slightly different workflow I’ve been toying with lately. It’s particular to me, so it may not apply to you, but here it is.

I have my desktop iMac here where I do most everything when I am home. It also is where my main library is hooked into. But I also have my Macbook, and I’ve been taking a ton of photos lately with my little RX100. Check the “Camera Recommendations” up there soon, as I may make it my entry-level pick! Anyway, I’ve made a special Library on my Macbook JUST for photos from that little device. They tend to be quicker shots, street shots, family shots, and the like. It seems better than commingling them with all the other huge photos that come out of the Sony A7 system.

If you want to learn more about how I manage my giant photo library, check out my Organize Your Photos tutorial over at the s

Daily Photo – Digging up Dinosaurs with Jack Horner

This was a great trip! That’s my son there being held by Jack Horner… what a great guy! We went up to the badlands to spend a few days digging up dinosaurs with him… what an experience!

Digging up Dinosaurs with Jack Horner

Photo Information

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• Date Taken2019-08-17 21:15:32
• CameraNIKON D2Xs
• Camera MakeNikon
• Exposure Time1/800
• Aperture8
• ISO200
• Focal Length15.0 mm
• FlashFired, Return detected
• Exposure ProgramAperture-priority AE
• Exposure Bias

This place is awesome! I love the “Blue Lagoon” area of Iceland. Before I went, I could only think of that old movie with Brooke Shields. I never saw it, but I remember being in school and some dumb kid told me it was soooo cooool because it was full of boobies. I never knew what that meant, for sure, but shades of it hung out in the back of my mind when I visited this one.

Can you imagine dipping your toes into that and getting inside for a nice warm soak? It’s wild! It’s hard to describe how wild it really is.

There is a whole complex behind there with lockers, showers, a restaurant, and this sort of thing. The design inside is all Scandinavian and modern. They have private rooms you can rent that are swim-up. I met a nice couple from Colorado and they invited me into theirs. It was filled with food and all kind of things — it reminded me of a James Bond evil lair. Next time I go, I’m gonna get one of my own! I checked on the prices, and they were relatively cheap, even back before the economy collapsed there.

Wouldn’t it be nice to live in a place like this? I like these old European streets where great restaurants line edges… Let’s all move there… we can just go out and dine on the streets every night, eat fab food, see street performers, talk about photography, geek out, etc etc. Yes that sounds quite wonderful.

As you can see, I left in the HDR ghosting. Sometimes I quite like it, especially in these scenes where there is motion and feel like that’s part of the gestalt. I think these sorts of words are okay to use, even when not standing on a German street.

I am very appreciative to all the eyes out there scouring the intertubes! I had a nice girl who gave me the heads up on someone using images without permission. Her name is Shannon, and you can see her Flickr stream here. Thanks Shannon 🙂

Just outside of Yogyakarta in Indonesia are the ruins of Prambanan. Getting to this place is a long way from home, so we tried to take advantage of everything in and around the city. Prambanan is a Hindu temple that was first built in 850 CE.  It began a painstaking reconstruction in 1918.  I can’t imagine what difficult work that must be.

Actually, it was quite nice to get out of the crowded city.  Will and I had spent a long night walking around down near the markets.  The streets were so crowded in the busy night streets that it was unbelievable.  I had always known that Indonesia had hundreds of millions of people, but when stuck in the throngs, you can really feel it.  Also, that was a disconcerting night because it was the first time I stepped over a dead body.

I have a few new reviews for you too! These were mentioned in the most recent newsletter that went out a few days ago.  Both of these are short and sweet, since they are simple but great products.   The first one is for sharing large files with others and moving files around between computers easily. It’s called DropBox and you can read a short DropBox Review here.

The second tool I’ve been using is for backing my files up onto the Internet (the cloud). This gives me peace of mind in case there is a fire and my local backups are also destroyed. Even if you don’t have a ton of photos and just want to back up your family digital photos, it’s a smart idea. And it’s super-cheap. You can read more at the Backblaze Review page.

I had a hard-edged rule that I am now considering breaking. Who am I kidding? I’m gonna break it for sure.

Now that Ethan is eight, we’ve been able to take him to Disneyworld a few times. Isabella is three and she has never been. I had a rule that it is silly to take kids on vacation before they are five, since you really can’t form long-term memories before that age. Yes yes, I know… Some people disagree with this. Like my wife. She says it is not good that there will be a missing child from our family vacation photographs, no matter how good I am at photoshopping Isabella’s head on a stunt-body. I try to offer the counterargument that a sub-five-year-old can have the same quantifiable amount of fun (within an acceptable margin of error) while at home with Disney movies. This, then, is thrown back in my face with my three-year-old having a dangerous fascination with Cinderella’s castle. She can hardly believe that it is a real place.

So now we are going to take her to Disneyworld. Not for her, but for us. Well, also for her. Okay it’s kind of for all of us. Rule broken.

This is Humayun’s Tomb in Delhi. It’s a wonderful place full of a rich bouquet of textures and light. There isn’t a bad shot of it to be had in this well-preserved Moghul tomb, and these light levels were made for HDR.

I’ve put another image of this tomb in the upcoming book. I talked a little more about the shot and some additional explanation about how it was made. When I go around and give talks, get feedback, and hear all the comments here on the blog, flickr, and facebook, I get a lot of repeat questions. I think the book will be a good chance to get them all in a nice definitive place where almost everything can be addressed. At least, I hope so!

Lyon is one of those wonderful European cities where things look romantic and timeless from either side of the river that inevitably flows down the center.

Here is a view from one side looking across and up the hill to where the Notre Dame de Lyon resides.  I’m glad they take the trouble to light it up… it gives the city a lot of character at night I think!

When I was in Iceland, I made a visit to the dock area. The edges of the dock were just beginning to freeze and occasional snow would blow in and pile up. All the ships were giant, metallic, and cold. I thought about what a hard life it would be to work on one of these ships. I don’t really like being too cold and I’m not sure if the old “dress in layers” trick would work so well when out on one of these ships in the north Atlantic. Those guys that do that every day are tough!

On this one, I kept the aperture pretty wide open to minimize ship movement on the rolling water. I don’t normally tell the software to automatically align images (mentioned in the HDR tutorial), but this time I did.