Since today’s photo is of one of the founders, it’s a great chance to mention Plotagraph Pro! I continue to make quite a few of these, and I’ve been releasing about one new one a week on social media.
Also don’t forget to check out my new Class on Kelby all about this cool tool!
Daily Photo – Sascha in LA
Here’s a very rare modeling photo from yours truly. Note that I should clarify that I am not actually the model in this photo. While I was in LA, Troy and Sascha (owners of Plotagraph and our biz partners) came over to say hello. We used the opportunity to take a few photos! Troy used to be a model photographer, and, surprise surprise, she used to be a model.
This was one of my most popular and controversial Facebook Lives of recent past. I didn’t mean for it to be so nutty, but, well, have a watch/listen and maybe you’ll see!
Today’s daily photo features one of the founders of Plotagraph! If you look around the Plotagraph site, you’ll probably see even more photos of her… the full story below! 🙂
Daily Photo – Pool Time in Beverly Hills!
One day while we were staying at one of my art collector’s homes in Beverly Hills, we had the team from Plotagraph over, Troy and Sascha. We were having a little catch-up session on Plotagraph, and my friend Tom Anderson was there too (you know, MySpace Tom!). Anyway, we were both ready to take some photos, and since Sascha is a model, she offered to slink around the pool a bit. Troy was really funny – he’s a Photographer as well – but he knows how to talk to models… so he was yelling out this and that and cracking me and Tom up… I’ll get a recording next time!
Yes, I’m still hosting all my images on Smugmug. They’ve been a great partner and service for us through the years. Thanks Smugmug!
Daily Photo – Hollywood Hollywood!
I’d like to sincerely thank my good friend Caleb for taking me behind the Hollywood sign one evening for a beautiful photo session. The only thing missing was some of his yoga instruction! It’s really hard (as in pretty much IMPOSSIBLE) to get into this position. He told me the incredible and unbelievable story about how he got access. Just amazing. This place has so much security… we’re talking Dept. of Homeland Security level activity. We got waved through so many guards to get back here… I’ll never forget it!
I really like it when Japanese girls dress up in crazy ways. It just makes me smile for some reason. In fact, I don’t know why Japanese girls don’t wear something like cat ears or rabbit ears all the time just to keep people around them more happy.
Daily Photo – Sneaking Back Behind the Hollywood Sign
I’ll be forever grateful to my friend Caleb for getting me back here! Actually we didn’t sneak in, as he has some insane level of connections… I was so impressed how he got us in here — really remarkable. And then being here was like a waking dream. I can’t tell you how those LA lights sparkled like jewels under the sea…
And it was Really Steep and Dangerous too. I had no idea. Just trying to move around to get different angles was a trial in itself! But boy, it sure was fun… I’ll never forget it!
The Google Science Fair – Free educational event – The Science of Photography
I know some of you were able to watch the Google Science Fair event a few weeks ago, but be sure to check out that website for some of the other videos. I wish I had all these resources when I was a kid!
Daily Photo – A view of the city from the Hollywood Hills
One night, Tom and I went up to the top of Runyon Canyon to shoot the city. On the walk up, I liked the view of one of the palatial Hollywood Hills homes through the valley. I zoomed in with my 28-300 mm lens to get this shot.
If you’re ever in LA and looking for some new types of city shots, take a hike around Runyon during the sunset. You may find some cool scenes!
Since you got into HDR photography, do you tend to seek out more abandoned, creepy places like this?
Daily Photo – The Abandoned Boiler Room from the Queen Mary
Here’s the next photo from the amazing ghost ship! Well, I don’t know if that is what it is really called or not, but we did walk into this room during our little ghost tour aboard the Queen Mary in Long Beach. It was very creepy, alright… mostly alone in this huge old ship from the war… and these vast interiors felt very hollow and eerie in their emptiness. I enjoyed taking the photos… and then I enjoyed getting out of there!
The following bit is from Wikipedia: “Anecdotal reports of paranormal activity have included children crying in the nursery room, used as the third-class playroom, and a mysterious splashing noise in the drained first-class swimming pool.”
Facebook events seem to pale in comparison to Google+ events. I’ve planned countless events in both, and the Google+ events have better results.
For example, if you look at the upcoming Austin SXSW Photowalk event in Google+, we have well over 500 people RSVP’d for the event. Compare this to the PhotoWalk I put as an event in Facebook for Paris (a much bigger city) a few months ago where a very lame 19 people RSVP’d. I mean, the people weren’t lame. The number is.
Now, I have 430,000 subscribers on FB compared to over 4.5 million Google+. So that is could be part of it, but I don’t think so. I know that a bunch of those 430,000 subscribers from Facebook LIVE in New York City (at least more than 19) and would have liked to be informed of the event, but I doubt they even knew it was going on if it wasn’t for Google+.
The only time I got any traction on a Facebook event is when I posted a link to the FB event to my 4.6 million Pinterest followers. As soon as I did that, a bunch of people signed up. I’m sure there is a big overlap in Pinterest and Facebook users, but none of those Facebook people would have found out about it unless I posted it on Pinterest!
There a few other x-factors in Google+. One is that it is integrated with the whole Google email and search world. So, if people use Gmail (who doesn’t???) or do a search in Google (who doesn’t???) then it is easy to find events that are happening near you and get invites from your friends. There is much less friction to sharing an event.
And Facebook search is horrible! It took me forever even to find my previous event. I did a search for “Paris Photowalk” and mine did not appear — another one appeared. Plus, I know there have been many many photowalks in Paris, and only a random one appeared.
The recent PhotoWalk Event in Melbourne is a good example of how vibrant and alive the event system is with Google+. It’s growing and growing as they add more features, and it is certainly the most “fun” place to share photos during and after the event.
Another X-factor in the Google+ events is the live sharing of photos. If you’re at an event with Android and have “Party Mode” toggled on temporarily, then all the photos you take automatically upload to the event page so you can watch it live from many different perspectives. I think this will be a fun way for everyone to interact with our SXSW PhotoWalk in Austin even if they can’t be there with us.
There is one little bug with G+ events. Whenever I +mention people or pages, it loses the hyperlink whenever I have to edit the event. That bit is annoying… so hoping they fix that soon.
Anyway, if you are putting events in both places, what are your thoughts? Or, if you are JUST putting them on Facebook, have you noticed them being less effective? It’s possible that maybe only the Facebook event was being shared with my friends and not subscribers. It’s a black box and I have no idea what is going on… but I do see the results… and event after event gets better response and engagement through Google+.
Another Indoor Situation
Since I’ve run about 25,000 photos through Photomatix, I’ve gotten to know the software pretty well! 🙂 One thing I have noticed for sure is that these kind of situations are where Photomatix really shines. You can take the result of Photomatix from these indoor, shiny situations to the bank. What comes out of photomatix needs very little adjustment.
The Photomatix Review here on the site shows more about this tool in case you’ve never tried it before! Also, if you use a Mac to edit your photos, check out Aurora HDR Pro! I worked with Macphun for over a year to build the ultimate HDR software!
Daily Photo – Across the Floors of Union Station
This room is closed to photography for some reason! Actually, it’s totally closed to all human traffic. I’m not sure if this was a one-time thing, but I got the feeling it was because the ropes and whatnot that told me not to go in here seemed like they had been there for a while. You know the feeling. Perhaps they only open it for the rare events…
But I went through the silly ropes and took a photo anyway. The security guard came to get me, but he was pretty nice about it. I just told him that the ropes confused me and I figured they must surely be a mistake.
Have you added a tripod to your camera-carrying situation? Once you make the jump… you kind of make the jump and that is it. You kind of just accept that a tripod is part of your gear, and that makes it easier. I wondered if there’s many of you that used to never (or occasionally) carry a tripod — and now you almost always have a tripod?
Daily Photo – The Ghost Ship in Long Beach
The Queen Mary ghost-tour is a must! It’s a great way to see the whole ship while having a cool story wrapped around it. Even better, you can set up for photos and bring a tripod! Some of these places are soooo dark and creepy that there is no way to get a good photo without a tripod.
The old pool still had sort of a blueish glow that fought against the orange glow from the lights above. Both together were quite surreal!
