Passport Vault – Page 4 – Stuck in Customs

Passport Vault

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11
Apr 2021 : Sunday
filed under  Camera Gear, DJI Phantom, New Zealand, Passport, Te Anau, Travel

Driving from Te Anau to Kingston

Early Look at Machine Elf – We Are Made From Stars

If you’re a Passport Member then today you get a look at all 16 minutes of its glory. This is absolutely one of my favorite pieces from Machine Elf, and we have custom music from Joshua Ryan. Enjoy!

Early Look at the New Machine Elf

Man, this one just might be my favorite so far. It’s hard to keep track of all of them! My friend Joshua Ryan did the music for this one… I still have a lot of work to do on it, but this is pretty much 95% complete!

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Daily Photo – Driving from Te Anau to Kingston

It’s about a four-hour drive to go all the way from Queenstown to Milford Sound, but it is incredibly beautiful. There are parts where you are passing and just kind of thinking… blah… yeah, I’ve seen all this before. But, at those times, I try to jump out of the truck and get the quad up to see if there are any cool scenes. This is one of those!

Driving from Te Anau to Kingston

Photo Information

  • Date Taken2017-02-19 16:41:38
  • CameraFC6310
  • Camera MakeDJI
  • Exposure Time1/500
  • Aperture6.3
  • ISO100
  • Focal Length8.8 mm
  • FlashNo flash function
  • Exposure ProgramProgram AE
  • Exposure Bias

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4
Apr 2021 : Sunday
filed under  Camera Gear, New Zealand, Passport, Queenstown, Sony A7R 3, Travel

After the Photo Shoot

Passport Sunday Fun

If you’re a Passport Sunday Member then you’ll see some selects from the recent photo shoot and how I processed them. Enjoy

Editing the Shoot Photos

You’ll see that I had incredibly challenging lighting conditions for this shoot… but I did the best with what I had. I was maybe being a bit hard on myself, as I like the way the photos turned out.

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Daily Photo – After the Photo Shoot

Here are Monni and Sue hanging out just looking awesome and stuff in front of The Remarkables. This was a shoot for her clothing label at Monni.co just in case you want some silky clothes or something. Full disclosure, I get 0.0001% of every sale.

After the Photo Shoot

Photo Information

  • Date Taken2021-03-16 23:21:00
  • CameraILCE-7RM3
  • Camera MakeSony
  • Exposure Time1/4000
  • Aperture4
  • ISO400
  • Focal Length76.0 mm
  • FlashOff, Did not fire
  • Exposure ProgramManual
  • Exposure Bias

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28
Mar 2021 : Sunday
filed under  Camera Gear, Glenorchy, New Zealand, Passport, Sony A7R 3, Travel

The Nunatak

Passport Sunday New Photoshop Trick

Hey if you’re one of our awesome Passport members then today you’ll see a new video that shows how you can 4x the number of pixels in your photos. Fun!

Quad Size that Photo!

Here’s a cool video I made and here are some details from Adobe:

Raw Details, previously called Enhance Details produces crisp detail and more accurate renditions of edges, improves color rendering, and also reduces artifacts. The resolution of the enhanced image stays the same as the original image. This feature is especially useful for large displays and prints, where fine details are visible. The supported file types are raw mosaic files from cameras with Bayer sensors (Canon, Nikon, Sony, and others) and Fujifilm X-Trans sensors.

Super Resolution, introduced in Camera Raw 13.2, helps create an enhanced image with similar results as Raw Details but with 2x the linear resolution. This means that the enhanced image will have 2x the width and 2x the height of the original image, or 4x the total pixel count. This feature supports the same file types as Raw Details, plus additional file types such as JPEG and TIFF. Super Resolution is especially useful to increase the resolution of a cropped image.

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Daily Photo – The Nunatak

Ready for a fun, nerdy geology fact? Sure you are! That pyramidal structure in the middle is called a nunatak. I used to have a double-major in comp sci and geophysics, but quit the latter after a fight with a moronic tenured professor. It wasn’t a fist-fight… an intellectual one, a fight with which I contend I won. I just studied geophysics it because I love the Earth and I think rocks and landscapes are super-interesting, not because I wanted a job drilling for oil or anything (the career path for many geophysicists… reminds me of a great Alan Watts lecture that it’s frowned upon for people to study things in universities unless they are looking to fit a cog in a machine) – anyway, this nunatak was formed when the two glaciers from the Dart and Rees from the left and right side came together to carve out that perfect triangle. Technically, it’s not a triangle or pyramid, but a sloping triangular prism… okay nerd talk done. Who cares? It’s pretty. Okay, a little more nerd talk… nunatak is one of the only Greenladish words in our lexicon if you’re into etymology. I got this pic on a fun helicopter ride a few weeks ago with Joann and some friends from Over The Top Helicopters.

The Nunatak

Photo Information

  • Date Taken2021-03-04 09:20:45
  • CameraILCE-7RM3
  • Camera MakeSony
  • Exposure Time1/1000
  • Aperture5
  • ISO200
  • Focal Length43.0 mm
  • FlashOff, Did not fire
  • Exposure ProgramManual
  • Exposure Bias

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21
Mar 2021 : Sunday
filed under  Camera Gear, New Zealand, Passport, Queenstown, Sony A7R 3, Travel

Passport Sunday Model Shoot!

I did a shoot for the lookbook for Monni and her new Monni.co line of clothes. I don’t know much about fashion photography, and I was probably the worst decision for this job. But, hey, I was a free resource! Anyway, I recorded some fun behind-the-scenes stuff and am sharing them for Passport Sunday Members!

NFT Fun!

Hey, I just launched two NFTs (Non-Fungible Token), Burning Embrace and In Every Lifetime, Fire Rages! Here’s a little video about the first minting! Want to know more about NFTs? See my big announcement post here!

Oh, and it’s a 24hr auction on both so keep that in mind if this fun new tech interests you…

Behind-the-Scenes of the Model Shoot

I took some extra time to record some of the behind-the-scenes of the shoot! I start the video by showing you a bit about the selection process before we go out in the field. In a future video, I’ll go in and edit a few of them! 🙂

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14
Mar 2021 : Sunday
filed under  Camera Gear, England, London, Molecules I've Ingested Podcast, Passport, Sony A7R, Travel, United Kingdom

Arcade in London

Passport Sunday Audio Fun!

Today, Passport Members will get to hear the new podcast first. This one is entitled “Molecules I’ve Ingested: Ayahuasca And Hitler.” Yeah so you’ll be getting a full dose of this story! 🙂 Enjoy!

Ayahuasca And Hitler

In this new Podcast called “Molecules I’ve Ingested” you should find something quite unexpected, hilarious, and educational. Each episode features a crazy story about different molecules I’ve tried, from legal to illegal. Mostly the latter. Anyway, episode 3 is: “Aya and Hitler” and this pod will take you on a journey through the underworld to a completely different reality. This is the full story of my first Ayahuasca ceremony (an ancient tradition from the Amazon where you swallow a combination of natural plant materials) and it’s not for the faint of heart. It is quite hilarious, though, in the sheer lunacy of what I experienced in the altered state… you can hear about different things I learned and figured out about myself, and I throw in some references to Hitler just to keep the mood light. Enjoy and Aho!

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Daily Photo – Arcade in London

Here’s another cool spot in London that I found by accident on my walkin’ around day. I try to set aside a few days where I have no responsibilities and I can just get lost. I now live in a little town in the south of New Zealand, so it’s always exciting for me to get to big cities like this. I don’t think I could live there with all that energy all the time, but it is nice to visit.

Arcade in London

Photo Information

  • Date Taken2015-02-11 04:09:28
  • CameraILCE-7R
  • Camera MakeSony
  • Exposure Time1/4
  • Aperture6.3
  • ISO160
  • Focal Length31.0 mm
  • FlashOff, Did not fire
  • Exposure ProgramAperture-priority AE
  • Exposure Bias+0.3

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7
Mar 2021 : Sunday
filed under  Camera Gear, Glenorchy, Milford Sound, New Zealand, Sony A7R 3, Travel

Joanne on the West Coast

Passport Sunday Helicopter Party

As usual, every Sunday we release a new video for Passport Members. Today, you’ll see some videos from my fun day flying in a helicopter over the Southern Alps of the South Island of New Zealand. You’ll also see 700+ terrible photos and how I made the selections of my favorites. Enjoy!

The Culling

Today’s video shows the 700+ photos I took and how I chose my favorites. I don’t do a lot of processing in here (though you do see some results), so this one is more about how I separate the wheat from the chaff.

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Daily Photo – Joanne on the West Coast

We landed at this awesome location just north of Milford Sound to jump out and take some photos. As you can see, the weather was amazing and the light was perfect. It was quite lucky, as there is often a ton of rain pouring in after it crosses the Tasman Sea (the ocean between Australia and New Zealand), so we took the opportunity to take a ton of photos!

Joanne on the West Coast

Photo Information

  • Date Taken2021-03-04 09:57:18
  • CameraILCE-7RM3
  • Camera MakeSony
  • Exposure Time1/2500
  • Aperture5
  • ISO200
  • Focal Length24.0 mm
  • FlashOff, Did not fire
  • Exposure ProgramManual
  • Exposure Bias

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28
Feb 2021 : Sunday
filed under  Camera Gear, Disney World, Florida, Passport, Sony A7R 2, Travel, United States of America

The Matterhorn at Epcot

Passport Sunday NFT Fun

If you’re a Passport Member then today you’ll get a little tour of what I’ve learned about NFT (Non-Fungible Tokens). You can think of them like bitcoin but for digital art. Strange, right? I’ll break it down for you!

A little lesson on NFTs

I’ll show you two different marketplaces and a little bit about the way NFTs work. It’s a strange world we live in, and it just got stranger! But maybe also a bit more awesome!

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Daily Photo – The Matterhorn at Epcot

As cheesy as it is, Disney World offers all kinds of great photo opportunities. I guess they are still going strong in the middle of Covid, but I haven’t been there in a few years. One of my best recommendations for a photographer is to go to Epcot and take your time taking photos, well into the night. Even after they close, the security is very nice and they let you take as many photos as you like.

The Matterhorn at Epcot

Photo Information

  • Date Taken2016-12-30 02:06:01
  • CameraILCE-7RM2
  • Camera MakeSony
  • Exposure Time1/1600
  • Aperture5
  • ISO200
  • Focal Length24.0 mm
  • FlashOff, Did not fire
  • Exposure ProgramAperture-priority AE
  • Exposure Bias-0.3

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21
Feb 2021 : Sunday
filed under  Camera Gear, New Zealand, Passport, Sony A7R, Travel

Passport Sunday Edit Party!

I ended up at this rather unique place in New Zealand, so I thought it would be a fun place to make a mini tutorial for you. If you’re a Passport Sunday member then you’ll get to see the making-of.

Editing the Yellow Carpet

I jumped across for you… Oh, what a thing to do… ‘Cause you were all yellow…

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Daily Photo – The Yellow Carpet

This area of New Zealand is about exactly halfway between Queenstown and Te Anau. What a cool spot, eh? You pass a little “Scientific Research Area,” which I thought sounded a bit mysterious and Area 51ish. So, I happened to park the truck to get out to pee, and I ended up walking into the bush to see this. At first, I thought it was all yellow because thousands of people were doing what I was doing, but that is not the case. And no, did not pee in this stuff… I went over to some dead bushes or something to make them, perhaps, more dead.

The Yellow Carpet

Photo Information

  • Date Taken2014-08-17 15:05:34
  • CameraILCE-7R
  • Camera MakeSony
  • Exposure Time1/320
  • Aperture8
  • ISO160
  • Focal Length42.0 mm
  • FlashOff, Did not fire
  • Exposure ProgramAperture-priority AE
  • Exposure Bias

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14
Feb 2021 : Sunday
filed under  Camera Gear, Passport, Sony A7R, Thailand, Travel

The Temple

Full Edit for Passport Members

If you’re a Passport Member then you know every Sunday has a brand new video! This week’s is a bit more complex than others because there is quite a bit of work to do in Aurora and Photoshop to make it even better. Enjoy!

The Temple Edit

This has one of those extreme saturation problems that can be difficult to fix in Aurora, but I show you a little bit about how I do it. There is a final cleanup in Photoshop as well in a last step.

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Daily Photo – The Temple

I sneaked down through security to get this photo right at dusk. I don’t know why they didn’t want people down there… probably because it is under construction and they didn’t want anyone to get hurt. But I wasn’t worried about that… I did actually go inside for a while… it was really wild to be in here totally alone.

The Temple

Photo Information

  • Date Taken2014-07-28 01:11:21
  • CameraILCE-7R
  • Camera MakeSony
  • Exposure Time2
  • Aperture4.5
  • ISO160
  • Focal Length11.0 mm
  • FlashOff, Did not fire
  • Exposure ProgramManual
  • Exposure Bias

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7
Feb 2021 : Sunday
filed under  Camera Gear, Google Pixel 2, Passport, Singapore, Travel

Editing Photos from the Singapore Bar

Editing Older Mobile Phone Photos

I’ve been having a great time going through older photos I got on my mobile phone and processing them in Aurora. If you’re a Passport Member, then today, you’ll get to see me edit these two previous photos from Singapore. I went a little extreme with the HDR, but I was just kinda in that mood!


Creative Commons Noncommercial - Contact licensing@stuckincustoms.com for more info
Creative Commons Noncommercial - Contact licensing@stuckincustoms.com for more info

And now on to the video…

Editing Photos from the Singapore Bar

I just can’t remember the name of this place, but I guess it doesn’t really matter. If I wasn’t so lazy, I would do a Google reverse image search to find it, which I have to now from time to time because my memory fails. Either way, you’ll see how I use these JPGs in Aurora along with different presets to create different looks from two different angles of the same place.

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