It was fun to hang out with my friend Liz in Malaysia! We visited this mosque and they force women to cover their hair and other parts that may be enticing to men. I suppose that is the reason. I’m not a Muslim or anything, but it does seem a bit weird to suppress the human form to reinforce a mutually agreed-upon fiction. Anyway, after this, we went out with the team and had an amazing meal, sans silky self-sheeting.
Here’s a cool video I hope you like! While I was on tour across Europe a few years ago, I would give art talks at different Ritz-Carlton hotels along the way. One of the gentlemen there that helps run the show, Nick Teare, asked me if I’d be interested in making the video for the new Ritz-Carlton Yacht Collection. It was a very fun project! I ended up with about 22 iterations before we finally ended up with what you see now. If you end up staying at some of the Marriott Luxury locations, you will probably see this video playing in your room on a loop! Also, a big thanks to Sam Mehrtens for composing the music!
If you’re headed to any Muslim country, I always recommend you go visit a few mosques. They are great for photography and generally very interesting places. You don’t have to worry about dress too much (well, don’t wear shorts) because most of them have a little station in the front where you can put on the appropriate garb.
Here’s a little video I made for my friend Jose in Porto, Portugal! You can find his //photo tours here/..
It was fun to go back to Kuala Lumpur after being gone for over seven years. You still can’t go wrong with a photo of the amazing Petronas Towers and the KLCC area. This one I tried shifting the temperature over into the Incandescent area. This is a good trick to try for a few of your cityscape shots. When you go into that area (called Tungsten in some white balance settings), you get this cool Blade Runner kind of feel.
I should do more of these! Here’s one from a few weeks ago when I went live on Facebook to stream my screen while editing some photos. (If you click through to Facebook you can read the comments.)
I think the bar on the top of the Traders Hotel has the best view of the Petronas Towers. I tried a few other rooftop bars in the area, but this one is still the best. While I was there, you can see that dark, foreboding Four Seasons hotel on the right. Maybe it wasn’t open yet? I can only imagine that because not many lights are on and the sign on top is not lit up.
I now have five 360 Podcasts I’ve created and another four that are being edited. I’m figuring out this new format as I’m going along. Check out the new Playlist on YouTube and subscribe/hit the bell to get the newest when they come out!
KL in Malaysia is one of those cool cities in the middle of worlds where they have most of the world’s main religions represented. It’s predominantly Muslim, so there are more mosques than anything, but you’ll also see Christian churches, Hindu temples, and Chinese temples like this one. I asked my driver if there was a temple for Atheists, and he said he could not think of one.
I recommend a show called Mr. Robot. It ranks up there in the Westworld category as being somewhat confusing, but I sort of like that, I think. You really have to pay attention… but it’s a cleverly written show.
I visited the National Mosque in Kuala Lumpur between services. I would not be allowed to take photos otherwise. But, mosques are almost always open to anyone that wants to come in to pray or relax, like this gentleman is doing. Sometimes, on very hot days in these Muslim countries, I will go into mosques to relax too. They are often air-conditioned and I just sit on the floor with all my equipment and relax/meditate. Running around all day long in the heat can really get to ya.
Be sure to check out the latest backpack on Kickstarter! The campaign has been doing very very well, and I’m very happy for those guys and gals over at Peak Design!
Oh, and I’m giving some of these bags away! To be in with a chance of winning, step 1 is to subscribe to my YouTube Channel. Be sure to check out this video which explains step 2:
Join me and Tane on this early morning flight! 🙂 Don’t forget you can grab the screen and move it around.
While we were in Malaysia, something possessed Tane to shave his head on the same day we went to go visit a Mosque. I think he was trying to trick his dad into thinking he was converting from Atheism to Islam. I don’t think he actually tricked anyone, but he certainly played the role well.
Hey it’s my birthday and all that stuff. No big deal; just an arbitrary radian around the sun, but I can come to you, my 48th, with a nice birthday message. When I turned 35 is when I initially got into photography… so it’s never too late! The best time to start trying something you think might be a calling for you is Right Now! Speaking of that, here’s a promo of our new Beginning Photography Tutorial.
I know I’m getting old and everything, but when I was at KL Tower seven years ago, I don’t remember an “outside” area. I remember shooting through a window and having a terrible time with the glare. Now, of course, I use a Lens Skirt, but I didn’t know about it back then. Anyway, this time I went to a new level that had an outside area where you could get unobscured shots of the city.
This is a video that shows how I enhance reflections using Aurora HDR 2018. I took this photo at a cool outdoor shopping area in Singapore. Believe it or not, they air-condition the OUTSIDE, which seems like a ridiculous waste of money… but hey, Singapore is a pretty wealthy spot!
It was fun to spend some time with Liz out of New Zealand! She joined me as part of the #80Stays tour in Kuala Lumpur. Boy, was it hot while we were there! It was probably over 90 degrees when we went into this mosque where we had to put on these heavy robes. Outside, there was a little bit of a breeze, at least. It had recently rained and left a thin layer of water on the marble… so it made for a nice reflection shot. Find out more about Liz’s story from her visit on her blog.
I just put the finishing touches on a really awesome new video tutorial series on drones/quadcopters. If you’re a Passport Member, you get free access to that as well as a bunch of other tutorials and goodies. Here’s a little trailer below. The whole thing will be available for sale soon to everyone else if you just want the standalone version. Below is the trailer for it!
I realized that I don’t talk enough about all my failures. They are numerous and disastrous! Anyway, here’s one for you.
I know my Phantom has a mode that allows it to take a photo every five seconds. I thought I could maybe make an elevated timelapse. You know, launch the quadcopter on a fairly windless day and leave it up there till the battery runs out. Good idea, right? Well, it didn’t really work out. Below are the two videos.
Video 1 is the initial capture:
Video 2 is after stabilization. It still looks bad! So, anyway, there’s a few hours down the drain! 🙂
Well, it’s not really a rock band, but maybe some day! I was in the Batu Caves outside of Kuala Lumpur, which is a famous Hindu temple. There is a massive cave network there, and this was inside one of the biggest chambers. As you can see, there is plenty of graffiti and all kinds of scrawlings. There’s a huge staircase to get to the top, so people often like to take a little rest. I saw these four resting and went over to take a quick photo.
