Another View of Petronas

I tried just about every angle I could find to capture this amazing building...my wife thought I was crazy walking around the building for a couple of hours taking photos...but, I didn't want the standard, every day photo of the Petronas Towers...this is the last shot I took before giving up...

Watching The World Go By

This kid was just sitting in his chair right next to the train tracks...life is relative, heh?

Textured Wall

Happy Friday!!

I just loved this wall I spotted in China...check out the texture!! I am not sure why this kind of stuff always catches my eye, but it does...

Have a great weekend, and see you back here on Monday...

Barn By The Rice

It has been awhile since I posted an HDR shot....so here ya go...

Black n White or Color...Can't Decide

... and another example of which version to post...

I took this photo this past weekend at Pelabuan Ratu (a beach about 4 hours south of Jakarta), and processed it last night. I just can't decide which version I liked better...this time, I have posted the B&W one first...what do you think?

Check Out THIS Guy's Stuff

I was just reading Scott Kelby's "Best of 2011" list, and he voted BlameTheMonkey.com as the best new blog for photographers, so I had to check it out...if you thought Trey Ratcliff was good at HDR, check out Elia Locardi's photos...he is awesome! Here is the link to his site...

I had a great weekend this past weekend....took a couple of photos, but not many...

Below is a shot from my photowalk a couple of weeks ago to the train tracks...

A Nice Climb

Happy Friday!! ...and better yet, it is a three day weekend for me!!

My buddy and I decided to make the trek up to the top of one of these "hills" to get a great view of the town below. It was a tough climb, but we made it. I took this photo at a point 1/4th the way up, and the view ended up being better here than at the top because of the haze...all that energy ended up being a waste...ha ha...

Have a great weekend, and see you back here on Monday or Tuesday...

Farm House

On one of my photowalks, I got a driver to take me to a remote village that not many tourists visit. I could tell they didn't normally get tourists by the way people stared at me wondering why I would be there...they were all very nice, but they had a look on their faces like they were saying, "why the hell would you want to come HERE?"

Why? Because this village had buildings left over from the early Qing Dynasty...the early 1600's. It was an amazing little walk...just wished the weather had been better....there was a constant drizzle of rain while I was there making for some muddy conditions.

In any case, this is a small farm house just outside of the old part of the village...

Jurassic Park

Here is another from our cruise from Guilin to Yangshuo...I can't decide which one is better...the color version or the black n white version...so have included both.

Video From Nikon's New D4 By Bill Frakes

Have you seen this yet? I got this from Scott Kelby's website...

Normally, I would be all excited about a new camera from Nikon, but now that I am happy and content with my Leica, it is nice to not be all hyped up about a new camera...I am just fine with what I have...BUT, the video part would be nice....

No, no, no, Scotty....don't go there...

Istanbul from Straw Hat Visuals on Vimeo.

A Room With A View

We stayed at the Yangshuo Mountain Resort...this is the view from the front of the hotel...and our room was in the front facing the river...the view every morning was incredible!!

Homework

I guess any place will due...why go inside and sit at a desk? Outside on the curb works fine...

Kids By The Tracks

A couple of days ago, I posted a video of a photowalk I did in Jakarta with my buddy, Butch. This is one of the shots from that walk. Really amazing how so many people have built their lives around the railroad tracks. You would never see something like this in the States...people are so blase about the trains passing within inches of their homes...there is not much warning either...there were a couple of times while I was walking, a train would suddenly appear, and I felt lucky I wasn't hit...it is second nature to the people down here...they can "sense" when a train is coming and instinctively get out of the way...these kids are a good example...they were sitting on the tracks posing for a photo and chatting with us...without hearing anything or saying anything, all of the kids got off the tracks and stepped a few feet back....within seconds, a train came from around the corner and flew by us...Butch and I looked at each other with a big "whoa" on our faces...but the kids casually walked back to the tracks and sat down again like nothing had happened....wild stuff...

Hey, have a great weekend!! It's FRIDAY...enjoy it!!

Bridge In Guilin

This park in Guilin was fun to walk around...there were lights everywhere...in the trees, in bushes, and on this bridge....the lights on the bridge would change colors every 30 seconds or so, but I like this combination of colors the best...

Caught on Camera

My buddy and I went on a photowalk on Christmas eve (during the day), and he brought his flip video camera with him, and I shot still photos...I always love the reaction of kids' when they see themselves either on video or the back of my digital camera...

Below is the video my buddy (Butch) made from the day...sort of a "behind the scenes" video of a typical photowalk I do...

Inside A Cave

I have been in a few caves before, but this one was truly amazing...

Back From China!! Happy New Year!!

Ah, good to be back...but always so much to catch up with when coming home from a long trip.

We came home to find our security wall of our house had fallen over onto the lot next door. Not good...going to cost a small fortune to fix, and after spending that fortune in China, I have no money left...arrrrrgggh....happy new year, indeed.

China was awesome, but the weather was not good. I knew it would be cold, but I did not expect it to be as hazy, drizzly and foggy as it was. If I had known we would not see the sun for 10 days, I think I would have chosen a different spot to vacation. I somehow managed to get some decent photos despite the weather, but it would have been so much better if the sun had shown its face. No sunsets or sunrises...

If you decide to travel to Yangshuo, China, go between May and October...don't go during the winter. We stayed at the Yangshuo Mountain Retreat which was awesome!! I highly recommend this hotel if you go to Yangshuo...and be sure to take the cruise from Guilin to Yangshuo. The photos below were taken on that cruise. Even though most of the mountains were shrouded in clouds, the scenery was spectacular....I can only imagine the scenery with some light casted on the hills...I was constantly complaining about all of the clouds, but when I got home and started to edit my photos, I kind of liked the "mystical" look the photos have with all of those clouds...so, not all was a loss...but still, it would have been better with some sun.

I couldn't decide which photo I liked better...color or black n white....I posted both...which one do you like better? I hardly did any Photoshop with my photos this time around....I didn't take a single HDR photo...that painterly, softness look to the photos below was the way it looked...seriously...

Back On Monday!!

This is the last of the archival photos...actually, since my Drobo failure last year, I didn't have many photos left from the old days...I was never able to recover those files. Don't buy a Drobo!!

I am back from China, and now looking over my photos...have a great weekend, and I will see you on Monday!!

From The Archives #10

This is the island of Kri...where I go diving the most often. A true paradise!!

From The Archives #9

Sand and water...doesn't get much better than this...

From The Archives #8

This was the first time I ever got a photo of a Ghost Pipe Fish...Still like this shot...

Happy New Year!!

Happy New Year!!

I sure hope you have the best year of your life this year!!

As for me, I turn the big Five-O next month, so I want this to be a great year, and have lots of plans for my 50th year on this planet!! More on that later...

I will arrive back in Jakarta from China in a couple of days...hopefully, with some cool photos...