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New Beginning Photography eBook!

I recently released a new video tutorial for Beginning Photography and it's been a big success! Thank you!! However, everyone learns a little differently... some prefer videos, some prefer audio and others prefer books. So I put together an eBook version of the same material. It has 100+ pages of detailed step-by-step instruction in an easy to read format that you can quickly reference again and again.

The lessons are aimed at beginners, and are perfect for all ages and all camera types from big DSLRs to mirrorless to mobile phones. I’ll show you how not to be afraid of your camera and how to use it to do your own creative bidding.

I cover a wide range of topics from Setting up your Camera, to Composition to various styles of photography... Landscapes, Portraits and Animals, Architecture, Street, Astro, Mobile and more. I also show you how to organize your photos in Adobe Lightroom, plus a quick intro to my favorite... HDR Photography.

You can download the Beginning Photography eBook now for just $10. Or you can use the discount code LEARN2PHOTO to save 20% on the video tutorial which includes the eBook for free.

Winner of our Sony Camera Giveaway

Last month, to celebrate the release of my new Beginning Photography tutorial, we gave away a new Sony a5100 plus two lenses to a random winner. The lucky winner was Mark Denning from Sydney, Australia! Even better, Mark had a trip to New Zealand already planned so he picked up the prize in person! Nice to meet you Mark, I hope you enjoy your new gear!

Burning Man Survival Guide

For years people have asked me to write an article on how to protect your stuff in the harsh environment of Burning Man. I called it... Surviving Burning Man. The guide for taking care of your camera, your mind, and yourself.

I’ll be going back this year for my 8th year in a row. We’ll also be doing another photo walk (see details here). Feel free to come out. Any camera is fine from a mobile phone to a DSLR. I share lots of tips and tricks... get a little philosophical about creativity, and try to help you down your own path. Or, well, we all kind of help one another! It’s great fun!

What’s In My Packing List For Burning Man?

A bunch of stuff! I made two different lists below. One is based on camera stuff/tech/bags. The other is just desert-survival kinda stuff like goggles, face masks, and tons of other goodies like that. I left obvious things off the list that you can pick up on the way (things like water, food, etc).

Trey’s Burning Man Packing List – Photography & Tech
Trey’s Burning Man Packing List – Essentials

Note that those kits are connected to my personal Amazon account, which means I get a small percentage of sales. It doesn’t increase your purchase price, but it does allow me to buy more tech-goodies to take more photos of Burning Man awesomeness!

Learn to Love LUTs in Luminar

In this quick tip video for Luminar I show how to use “LUTs” which stands for “Look Up Tables” – I find this to be a very geeky acronym that mostly just confuses people. Despite its geekiness, it’s quite fun and powerful!

StuckInCustoms.com is a personal blog where Trey puts up a new unique photo every day and writes about the art, the technology, and the story of the adventures. Actually, this is Trey writing about this in third person. Both Trey and I appreciate your support very much!

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Some recent posts from my blog

This little girl was really something else! We went to the Chinese opera there beforehand and some parents would bring in their little kids to get all fixed up like the stage actors. This girl was very very patient, and she was already naturally doll-like. She was never fussy and was totally calm and she moved very slow. It was all kinda surreal, almost to the point of being scary.

We woke up every morning in Sintra, Portugal to go out into the wild surroundings and see what we could find. These old ruins (well I don't know if it qualifies as a ruin or not) went up and down the hill and looked amazing in the morning light. I was walking around quite a bit, got tired, then decided just to use the drone. I was up on top of the hill when I took this one, trying to manoeuvre the drone into the right place to get this composition, which I quite like!

Just editing this photo got me all excited about Burning Man again. I don't want to miss anything, but I still miss so many things. Well, everyone does. Now that I've been eight times, I really understand how MUCH there is to see and experience there. I don't really feel bad about missing things, because it is physically impossible. I'd conservatively say that I miss over one-thousand awesome experiences per year. But I still have over a hundred, so that's not so bad. If this ratio was the other way around, I'd be rather bored.

You may remember I posted a photo of this place on the blog a week or two ago. I guess, in the end, I convinced myself it was sunrise, although I can't believe I was actually awake for it. I keep hoping when I get REALLY old that I'll wake up early like other old people seem to. They don't seem to mind, do they? They kinda get up around 5 AM, have coffee, read the paper, and accomplish all kinds of stuff even before I hit the snooze button. It's probably because I stay up too late watching Netflix and stuff. Anyway, I suppose, in that way, that I'm looking forward to getting older.

Abstract or Quad Shot? It's kinda hard to guess, except for the fact that you'll notice a lot of blue around the outside. This is the famous “Bird's Nest” in Beijing. I was really impressed when I got close to it. I remember when it was originally built, a lot of people thought it was ugly, but I've seen this reaction to a lot of innovative architecture. It's a matter of taste, of course… but I personally love the building. It's even better at night! If you go to Beijing, I recommend visiting this whole area of Olympic Park around sunset… there's lot of activity. Over my three hours there, I never even saw another white (or Western) person at all. I guess Beijing is not anywhere near the top of people's must-visit locations… which is too bad because there's some cool stuff there.

Tianjin was a really cool city and I am a bit bummed out that I only spent two days here! But it's on my list for a return trip. You may remember this city from the crazy library photo I shared recently. I'd even like to go back to that library! They didn't let me use a real camera, so everything was done with my mobile phone. That worked out okay, actually, but I think if I go back in a few years that my mobile phone will be 4x as good!

Evil Buildings!!! Well, I don't think it's actually an evil building. I guess it could be… but I got this idea from this strange subreddit called “evilbuildings” where people take photos of buildings that might be the lair of some super-villain. There are a lot of funny photos in that group... man, people on Reddit have so much spare time… I'm always amazed at all the stuff they find out there!