Just Hangin' Out

I passed this guy while riding my bike....and then thought, "that would be a cool photo...", so I turned my bike around, grabbed my camera, and took the photo without him realizing I had done so...would have ruined the photo if he saw me.

By the way, taking photos while riding a bike is not easy. I have yet to figure out a good way to carry my camera for easy access while riding a bike. Always have to stop, get off the bike, take my backpack off, unload the camera, and then finally take the shot...by that time, what I want to take a photo of has usually lost its impact...some money could be made coming up with a good system for photographers on bikes...

Skywatch Friday - Yangshuo, China (from a balloon)

I missed Skywatch Friday last week as I was on a short trip to China...

Here are a couple of photos from the trip taken from a hot air balloon...

Happy Friday!!

Be sure to check out other skies from around the world HERE...

The Li River

On our other day in Yangshuo, we rented bikes, and had a long bike ride through the country side. Riding through small villages along the Li river was a blast and a real cultural experience....life in this area of China has not changed much over the years...

Some More From The Balloon Trip

Like I said yesterday, the hot air balloon ride was incredible...

Hot Air Ballooning in China

By far, the best part of the weekend was our hot air balloon ride over the Yangshuo valley early Saturday morning. We thought it would be too foggy to make the trip, but the clouds just added to the drama of our ride....even the pilot was saying he had never seen it like this before...

Sometimes the fish-eye lens comes in handy to take in the entire scene...

Still Working on Photos From China

I just got back from China last night, and it was a FANTASTIC trip!

I wish I had the day off today to work on my photos, but it will have to wait until tonight...

So, until tomorrow....here is one of my favorite photos of me and my daughter, Kayla...

Santorini Revisited

This was my view from the hotel we stayed at in Santorini. I would walk down to that little peak every morning and watch the cruise ships roll in and out of the harbor. A spectacular place to vacation, and also a great place for photography...

I will be back on Monday...still in China for the long weekend...

Terraces of Nepal

I thought I had seen some amazing rice terraces in Indonesia until I saw this one in Nepal...I couldn't even imagine climbing up and down these terraces every day...

I love Boats

I took this photo last year of an old boat on the beach, and was messing around with some textures for the background...

...boats always make for great photos...

Off To China

I am headed to the airport in about an hour for China. A group of us guys go on a trip every year to honor our good friend, Jamie Wellington who was killed in the Bali Bombing. This will be our ninth trip...we are going to Yanshuo in South West China. I hope to bring back some nice photographs from that area of China.

For the next couple of days, I have scheduled some repeat photos from the past...like the one below...

See you on Monday...

An HDR of Annapurna Base Camp

The sun was setting as I took this photo, but the sun is still high on the tops of these 7 and 8 thousand meter peaks of Annapurna...

Three Buddies

On the coral reefs of Papua, it is easy to just overlook these pretty little fish as they are all over the reefs. But they sure are cute little guys worthy of a photo...

Shoes

I remember thinking, "Now that's a different way to display shoes for a shoe store..." In Nepal, I guess you don't always have to display your shoes for sale neatly on a shelf...

Skywatch Friday - Central Java

Happy Friday!

This week's Skywatch shot is from Java while on a motorcycle trip...

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Tropical Paradise

Nestled in those trees are wild parrots, Cocatoos, Lorikeets, Hornbills and other birds singing their songs early in the morning...really is a tropical paradise...

The Beauty of Digital Photography

After processing this photo in Lightroom and Photoshop, I was amazed at the difference of what I started with (bottom photo) and what I ended up with below. Just goes to show what your digital camera actually captures, but you don't always see. The details are all there, you just have to bring them out in Photoshop. You can barely see the highlights of the clouds in the bottom photo, and the greens are all washed out....

So, this is what I did...

Since my original photo was RAW (I always shoot in RAW), I created three photos from the original at different exposures in Lightroom. The only thing I changed was the exposure values. I created one at +1, one at the original setting, and one at -1. The -1 exposure captured the details in the clouds, and the +1 caputured lost details in the shadow areas. I then blended the three photos into and HDR using Photomatix, and tone mapped. After Photomatix, it looked pretty good, but I then reopened the photo in Photoshop, and did a curve adjustment and color balance adjustment to get the greens correct....then sharpened...

A Field of Rice

Last weekend, I went mountain biking with some good friends about 3 hours outside of Jakarta. The rice fields were in full bloom...not sure if "full bloom" is what you say about rice...so, ok, "the rice fields were close to harvest..."

Skywatch Friday - Sea and Sky

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A Six Meter Wide Manta

This is one of five mantas that swam within inches of my camera...this one was at least 6 meters from wing tip to wing tip....they are the most graceful and gentle animals in the sea...

A Busy Place

After my dive, I had to "burn off" some nitrogen at 3 meters...

For this safety stop, I was low on air, but had to stay at 3 meters for 5 minutes longer...

So, to kill time, I took a couple more photos...and this is one that I took while hiding behind the reef to block the raging current....where there is current, there are fish...lots of fish.

The Bridge...

Crossing this bridge on a mountain bike...no problem...

Crossing this bridge with a 4-ton truck...uh...could be a problem...

Just Hangin'

Some friends and I headed to the mountains for the weekend about 3 hours outside of Jakarta. We rode mountain bikes and dirt bikes down some cool back roads and trails...

I can never resist taking photos of colorful village houses...and the characters that hang out on the porch...

Underwater Skywatch Friday

The sky seeps through to shine on the Crinoids below...

Happy Friday!!

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