Lava in the streets of Tokyo

I had a few people look at this photo and tell me that it looks like lava is flowing down the streets. I never thought of that, but now that I see it, I can’t un-see it! If only we could see Mt. Fuji in the distance, then I could photoshop in a little bit of a volcanic eruption to make the whole effect complete!

Cirque du Soliel in Downtown Disney

I don’t understand why the Cirque du Soliel people are so militant about not letting you take photos. I really don’t get what the big deal is. I assume they are worried that someone will steal their ideas? I understand no flashes, but a good camera doesn’t need a flash to take a photo. Maybe they are trying to force people to enjoy it without using cameras? Or maybe if everyone does it, they will hold up cameras over their heads and block everyone? I don’t know… but it is quite annoying!

Here’s the awesome tent they built just for Cirque du Soliel. I’ve always liked this architecture design. It looks both temporary and permanent. This was my son’s very first Cirque du Soliel and he loved it. Yes, he was a little freaked out by parts of it, but I think everyone is!

Abandoned Ruins in Dalefield

This is the turn-around-point for my jogging route! I run around this area between Queenstown and Arrowtown and end up at this place. Sometimes if I am feeling more full-of-energy (rare), I’ll go a bit longer, but usually not. This is a beautiful place to loop around and begin my return-journey. I don’t know much about this place, other than it is a bit hidden from the road. If you look for it off Speargrass Flats, then you can see it, but you’ll never notice it if you’re just driving down the road like a normal person. I’ve heard they have plays here and have had a few film crews show up. Either way, it’s cool!

Ancient China

This is a good question! Is Disney’s China more picturesque than the actual China? Yes and no are my answers. There is certainly an undefinable “authenticity” to the actual China that I can’t pull out of al the imagineer’s wranglings at Disney. It’s kind of hard to explain, but maybe you know what I mean!

No it isn’t! This was shot at Disneyworld at Epcot center. Want to know a great Disney shooting trick? They won’t like me telling you this… but I’ll tell you anyway. The Disney people are very nice to me, but that won’t stop me from being totally honest with tricky advice! The advice is this. Stay at a resort (this gives you extra hours), and be sure to go to Epcot on their extra-hours night. While there, get the the point as far away from possible as the exit gate at close time. Then you can slowly take your time and work your way back. You’ll see no tourists or anyone! I saw this place almost totally alone… so cool!

A Rainy Scene in Tokyo

I’m scared to death to take my NEX-7 in the rain. I know pro bodies like the Nikon D4 can take it with no problem, but I am very worried. I never had a problem with my D800 (which one can say is NOT a pro body), but I did have a problem when I dropped my D800 one time. It wasn’t really a pro-body either, although I never had trouble with it in low-light conditions. This is something I always hear about mid-tier cameras that are not “pro” with proper weather sealing. Have you ever had trouble with it, or is it just an empty threat?

I stayed here one afternoon for a short bit in the shade. I really liked how everything was wet and the background was a clean white with complex lines all over the place. It’s hard to explain why I liked the feel of this place — I just did. Part of it was that I like the wet, reflective ground without actually needing to stay in the rain. I love a good rain shot, but I hate standing in the rain! I feel like my mom is always telling me to get out of the rain or I will catch a cold!

The Shuttle in Repose

Many of you know that I process photos in random order. Chronological order seems as arbitrary as any other order, so I just go with random! So, I happened to recently process two photos from the new Air and Space Museum in Washington DC. So, here is one of the shuttle below, and you’ll see another from the museum in the next few days.

This was a hard shot to process — I’ll be honest! Some people got to watch this during one of our live event last month. That was exciting and scary because I had never worked on this one before. I let the audience vote on which one to process, and this one was the choice! It was particularly hard because of all the shots were handheld. One thing I noted is that if the long exposures are blurred — then you really need to forget about bringing that one into Photomatix. It will just mess up the whole process!

Birds on the Spherical Boulders

If you didn’t know the geological process that forms these strange round boulders on the beach, what would you guess? I can see how the first explorers here thought they might have been some kind of alien eggs!

After the sun had gotten higher up in the air, I left “sunrise shooting mode” and entered “find interesting shapes mode.” I had on my 14-24 lens, which means I had to get super-close to these birds. Birds are hard to take photos of, I think. So I had to be very slow, like a cat, on my approach to these boulders. I barely got off a shot before the freaked out and flew away!