It was just past 10 PM on the wet streets of Paris as I was getting lost on purpose around the streets near the Church of the Sacred Heart. I bobbed and weaved through various little alleys, streets, and tiny bakeries (where I would just have to stop for a moment), before finding my way to this little faire. There was a small carousel spinning away with tiny little French children screaming wonderful things…
This photo was much harder to take than it might seem!
First of all, these sunflowers are tall – and I mean tall! They must be between 6 and 7 feet in the air. I was on the ground with them, so, of course, I was looking UP at them. No one wants to see a shot like that…
So, I put the camera on the tripod, set the timer to 5 seconds, extended the legs, set the manual settings correctly, then jacked the whole thing in the air, holding it rock steady while it took the exposure. Getting a steady horizon while holding the camera 12 feet in the air is not easy… and after a number of takes, my shoulders were just about spent for the rest of the night.
This is the road I got stuck on after my 4-wheeler caught on fire. Now, of course, I had all my photography equipment with me… who wouldn’t take a whole host of photo equipment on a 4-wheeler joyride? I don’t know! I mean, you gotta be ready just in case the dang thing catches on fire!
I found this guy in the Batu Caves just outside of Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. The Batu Caves are enormous caverns that hold various Hindu temples and plenty of fruit for monkeys. This was shot after a quarter-mile spelunk through the cave and an emergence into a geological oddity – a shaft of sunlight shining downwards through an open chamber that had been carved through the limestone after centuries of rainfall.
The day was bright and sunny, and the monkey sat alone in front of the inky blackness of the cave entrance. This was shot as a single RAW photo. It only had minor HDR adjustments, to get the texture in the wall and the details in his fur.
I think it’s probably obvious to those who read this blog, even occasionally, that I’m delving deep into NFTs. One of the more interesting aspects of the whole experience has been the negativity towards them from some people. It reminds me a lot of the negative feedback I was getting in the early stages of my journey into HDR photography. Which is great as that turned out not too bad a life choice! 🙂 Here’s one of those early HDR examples from back in 2008. Fourteen years! Yikes!
I was looking back through my photos from Milan recently and it served as a good reminder of just how much styles can change. Below you’ll find 2 images from my trips to Milan, one from 2006 and one from 2017. Ahhh… 2017, the good old days when travel was easy…
2006
2017
Just a bit different, eh?
A huge storm was washing over Java just as I arrived here at Prambanan just outside of Yogyakarta in Indonesia. One thing I’ve come to know about big storms in the late afternoon: if you’re patient, you may end up with a crazy sunset. It rarely happens, but if the sun dips below the clouds, you get incalculable layers of crepuscular light. This is an 8th-century Hindu temple that is an expression of God as the Creator, Preserver, and Destroyer (Brahma, Vishnu, Shiva, for those of you that know the Marvel superhero awesome gods of India). The complex is actually quite huge, second only to Angkor Wat, and has 240 temple structures. Most were destroyed in Earthquakes, but they are slowly being rebuilt.
From the Worship collection on Foundation.
Here’s the extended cut of the AiVATAR promo… some pretty crazy AI in here! Check out the NFT drop details over on the main site.
For avoidance of any doubt, the opinions delivered by the AiAVATARs in no way reflect the opinion of any human used in the creation of the project. All are generated by AI from the beginning to the end of the creative process.
This is one of the most dangerous areas of Buenos Aires. I didn’t find that out until a lady came up and grabbed me and said I was lucky to still be alive. I’ve never really gotten into trouble in any country like that before, but I’ve probably just been really fortunate… or maybe good karma!
