Amongst the Twelve

This past weekend I attended a workshop with Trey Ratcliff of stuckincustoms.com. It was an incredible experience. When I signed up, I couldn't believe how I would get 1000 GBP worth of knowledge out of the session, but now I think he is undervaluing the session. I have noticed a significant change in the quality of images I am producing now, even hours after the session was over. Here is one of my first attempts to rework some older content:

A Journey Back

Whenever my friends and family visit me in Amsterdam, I get to show them all of the best places in the area. The more often they come, the harder it is to find places they haven't been to before. But in the first few visits, the list is easy. One of those early on the list is Kinderdijk. Unfortunately, most times I have been, the weather has been terrible. Thats what made this day even more special. This time it was with my parents and we had a perfect day.

This is a 3 image HDR 

And on the right...

Wow, its already been about a month since I got back from Australia. Where did that time go? I already wrote up a little entry about the trip, but I really need to get to the photos. Here is one of the first. One of the benefits of driving up the coast of Australia is that I can stop anywhere. I try to keep a lookout for interesting things, and when I find one, I then look for a place to turn around. Driving a 7 meter long campervan made that a bit more difficult than in my Golf, but I managed to get to most places I wanted to go. 

I am not really sure where this photo was taken. But its a place I would love to spend more time wandering around. Well, that describes almost the entire country. This image is a 3 image HDR, handheld. I brought my tripod to Australia, but I hardly ever used it. 

Shibuya Crossing

Today was my first full day in Tokyo, Japan. My first day in any new city is a bit weird. In a way, I don't want to be there, but at the same time I am eager to get out and see the town. I left my hotel with a specific goal in mind: Find the Tower Records near Shibuya Crossing so I could get a guide book to the city in English. Apparently their 7th floor is English books, but it was harder to find than I expected. I ended up walking the streets of this part of town for about an hour searching for the place. At some point I figured it had shut down, and then a minute later it appeared right in front of me. So I was able to get my guide book and start finding my way around the town. Since I was already in the area, my first site really should be Shibuya Crossing. This is sometimes called the busiest crossing in the world. Not really sure I believe that, but it certainly got busier about 20 minutes after this set of shots. But only 30 seconds after the 5th photo, the attendant at the Starbucks told me "no photo". I was a bit surprised since pretty much every other person in the place had their camera out, but mine was the only SLR. I managed to get about 30-40 others from my little Canon point & shoot, plus 20 minutes of video of crossings. Since nobody crosses on a red light, the burst of people onto the road at specific intervals is quite amazing to watch. 

3 image HDR

Setting Sound

On my birthday this year, I celebrated a friend's birthday by going on a cruise with his friends and family. It was one of those short 4 day cruises from Seattle up to Victoria and Nanaimo. We had a great time and the weather was surprisingly good. On the way out from Seattle, the sun was just setting. And as I looked out to west, I could see the sun setting over Bainbridge Island where my parents live. 

Handheld HDR taken from a cruise ship in Puget Sound. Selectively tweaked with Topaz Adjust using ReMask2.