While in SF this time around I was able to get down to Marshall beach with Chinniah and showed him how we roll in the PNW. When he asked me where we were going to shoot from I pointed out into the surf and said...from out there. :) Then I proceeded to roll up my jeans and kick my shoes off and walked in. Chinniah followed suit and soon we were both getting hammered by thigh high waves that created some great patterns in the water on their way back out. I have a TON of cool shots from this night but this one was one of my favorites.

I'm seriously considering adding a San Francisco workshop to this year's schedule. What do you guys think??

TODAY IS THE VERY LAST DAY to receive $50 off any of our 2012 workshops!

HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYONE!!! Be SAFE out there and don't be a freaking loser and go out drinking and driving tonight. Save someone's left and take their keys! I'm off to go have some fun at Pike Place with my beautiful new roommate. :)

for #PaintItSaturday by +Alexius Jørgensen
#BreakfastClub

A foggy sunset
For #SunsetSaturday (+TJ Kelly)

Top 10 Photos of 2011

Repitition

Bueno esta toma es una de las que mas me gustan. Si bien es una fotografia bastante técnica , tiene algo que me busca y me retiene , me lleva y me transporta. Me gusta ir ahí y quedarme #monocrome #photography #TopPhotos2011

Happy New Year! :)
Hope we get some snow next year!

As I look back at 2011, once again my use of HDR has declined from the year before as I get more proficient at post-processing and I can produce better results with other methods, but HDR still can be useful in rare circumstances, especially scenes with extreme lighting or extremely low contrast. Even if I only use it 2% of the time, I'll use any tool which can help me salvage usable results from great moments, without having to invest the time and money to go back out and try again. I'll continue to go out anyway of course, since I prefer the outdoor, shooting end of this process, not the inside, computer-facing side, but I hate to ignore a great moment simply because the camera failed to have enough dynamic range to adequately capture it. I still need to continue to work on many of these... it's easy to make a natural image look strange, much harder to restore a quirky result to natural! I do believe that HDR offers the promise of opening up the shadows and preserving highlight detail in a way analogous to the way our eyes change exposure at every point in a scene, but in extreme lighting our brains impose and preserve a perception of high contrast that current post-processing algorithms don't yet do much to duplicate. So after HDR processing I find it necessary to still do even more post-processing in a standard editing program like Lightroom to counteract the "flatness" of HDR. On the positive side, our brains are well tuned to pick out "different" things, like the weakest or sickest animal in a herd, so I've had a few of my HDRs chosen for calendars and book covers, perhaps exactly because they stood out. So while I don't take sides on any processing technique as either good or bad, even if I only get a couple of extra sales per year, I'll take anything which can help keep textbooks in my kids' hands, clothes on our backs, food on the campfire, and especially gas in the tank to take us on our next adventure! #PlusPhotoDigest

Singapore order and prosperity (3rd highest GDP/capita of all countries) contrasts with surrounding South Asian countries. At the immigration check point in, signs warned of the automatic death penalty for drug smugglers. The warning was also repeated in red characters on the immigration form. By contrast, the penalty for bringing in chewing gum (banned everywhere in Singapore) is a mere one year in jail.

I took the Mass-Rapid-Transit (MRT). It was as clean as the streets. In fact, when I pulled out a snack, before I could take a bite, an officer quickly approached me to point out that eating is prohibited. I latter saw a sign warning of a hefty S$500 fine for that offense. Upon exiting the MRT at Raffles Square, I felt propelled to a different world from the busy street market where I had spent the afternoon. The square is totally surrounded by sleek skyscrapers. I walked around Marina Bay at sundown, rushing to take advantage of the brief moment when the sky took on a blue color, and the building lights were balanced with the ambient light. Despite the cloudy weather, at night the cityscape shone brightly.

From: http://www.terragalleria.com/asia/singapore/

#saturdaynightlights

Here is a new one from last night in the Chugach National Forest, Alaska.

Happy New Year everyone!

" Chichen Itza 2012 - The End of the World?"

Happy new Year! Or will it be? The talk about the end of the world has been building. Am I afraid? Read on...
(Expand post for details)

Details

Canon 5D
Canon 17-40L @19
0.8-sec exposure @F16
1-LEE soft ND grad 0.9 (100x150mm) + 1 ND grad 0.6
Lee foundation kit filter holder with Lee 77mm adapter ring
No polarizer.
ISO 100
Small Slik tripod with Manfrotto pistol grip ball head
RAW file processed with Capture One by Phase One
TIFF file processed with Photoshop

The Story

Before I go into my opinions about the whole 2012 thing, I should probably explain how I managed to take a photo of this place completely devoid of any people! The trick is to go for the evening light show which is on the opposite side of the pyramid, then walk around to here. Be careful, they do not allow tripods and are agressive about it. But improvisations can be made! :) You are not allowed to walk on any structure including the pyramid but I did find this wall to use as a foreground. I highly recommend a visit.

The 2012 Hype

First of all, I am not sure exactly how many people really are worried about the end of the world coming in December of this year as supposedly forecast by the end of long Mayan Calendar. I have read lots of theories whereby various measurements of this structure can calculate things and events that are only known today and could not have been known by ancient people without the help of advanced beings. Some of the mathematics are dubious at best. Torture statistics and they will confess to anything, right?

As far as I can tell, the biggest promoters of the 2012 hype are those trying to make money off it. I have yet to read or hear from any promoter that does not have a book to sell or a agenda to push. And moneymaking is the classic sign of a scam in progress.

Please do not believe the scare tactics or pseudoscience that is being passed around. I do not see any real facts behind the myth. Yes, the Mayan calendar does end this year but so what! My 2012 calendar ends on December, 31, 2012!

Read more about Chichen Itza on Wikipedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chichen_Itza


Other stuff

My pictures are featured on the front page of California Governor, Jerry Brown's website http://gov.ca.gov

Resources

I wrote a 325 eBook that describes exactly how I went about learning photography starting in 2006. I did not learn the usual way. I have studied the great masters of painting and hope to find that light in the real world.

http://www.patricksmithphotography.com/Photography_Book.html


A great weather mashup map of the world with local temperatures, weather and nice popups. See where it is hot and not! (Must wait for slow commercials first, but worth it!)
http://www.wunderground.com/wundermap/
Google Earth
http://earth.google.com/

Simply the best way to scout out locations that there is. You can see sun angles and pre-visualize light under lots of different conditions. Sometimes you can actually pre-compose your shots! This has saved me many thousands of vertical feet of climbing by avoiding spots with blocked views etc.

Satellite imagery (choose 'National' for a local US region or use your fave website)
http://www.wrh.noaa.gov/satellite/?wfo=mtr

Tide charting and preditions: (chose your area in US, other countries have similar websites)
http://tidesandcurrents.noaa.gov/tide_predictions.shtml?gid=235

Wave Heights (I choose 'North Pacific from Global')
http://polar.ncep.noaa.gov/waves/index2.shtml

Or Here:
http://www.opc.ncep.noaa.gov/shtml/RP1bw.gif

Photos of every inch of the California coastline from a small plane. Excellent for close in detailed views.

http://www.californiacoastline.org/

France – View from Col du Thures

I’m not a pro trekker, but I like to walk in mountain, in particular in winter time with the snow and the snowshoes at my feet. During my last short trek, I reached the Col du Thures (2190 mt. located in the France Alps near the border with Italy): this was the first time for me in winter and the small lake that is my usual destination in summer was completely invisible under the snow. This time my attention was captured by the awesome view towards the France: the sky was very strange for the hour (about midday), because it was yellowish with some clouds stripes. This a panorama made of five shoots merged together.