A Face and Smile To Remember

I was walking down a street in Kathmandu, and I saw this lady just laughing like there was no tomorrow while sitting on a wood bench...I have no idea what she was laughing about, but she loved to have her photo taken...which is actually unusual in Nepal as most older people do not like to have their photo taken. What a face....and what a smile!!

I am closing in on my 1000th post on this blog. This is post number 991. I want to do something special for my 1000th post, but don't have a clue of what to do....suggestions??

Junk Just Waiting To Be Photographed

I don't know about you, but when I see a pile of junk like this, it just screams to be photographed. I don't know why, it's just a pile of junk...

Oai, Santorini

Santorini is perhaps one of the best places in the world for Photography...with white stucco buildings, blue water and blue skies, you have to work hard to take a bad shot...

When Tika and I were there, we kept saying we gotta come back here again. Of course, in life, how often do we fulfill those promises to ourselves?...it's always off to another place where the dreams start all over again...I now have a list of about a hundred places I have to get back to again...not sure if I will ever get back to Santorini, but I know I would not regret it if I did...

A Papuan Boat On The Beach

I want to thank Trey Ratcliff from Stuck In Customs for the nice comment about me on his blog. I have been a fan of Trey's photography and blog for a long time, so it was certainly a privilege and an honor to be recognized on his blog...it was interesting to look at my stats and to see the sudden spike in the number of hits...I welcome any new visitors from Stuck in Customs, and I hope you come back again...you are all my "type" of people...

Here is another textured photo...to be honest with you, I like the original of this photo better than the textured version, but my daughter (5-years old) said she likes this version better...She insisted I post this one, so...what can I do? She has me wrapped around her finger...

Skywatch Friday - Misty Sky and Windmill

Happy Friday!!

This week's Skywatch Photo comes from Santorini...one of my favorite places on Earth...

Have fun visiting skies from all around the world HERE...

Textures and a Tutorial On How To Use Them

I have been posting some photos that I have processed using textures, and last week I promised I would tell you where I got most of the textures that I use and a tutorial on how to use them. Basically, textures are just what they sound like...they are photos of walls and other objects that have some kind of texture to them. I have collected quite a few of my own textures in the last few years and always have my eye out for interesting textures to photograph so that I can use them later in my artwork. However, it is not always easy to find good textures, and many of the textures I have just don't blend really well with my photographs.

A few years ago, I found Trey Ratcliff's site, "Stuck in Customs" ... I can't remember how I found his site, but I stumbled on it one day looking at HDR photographs. Trey has been called "The King of HDR", and if you visit his site, you will see why...his HDR photography will blow your mind. He also has a nice tutorial on HDR worth reading, and it is where I got my start with HDR photography...later, he introduced a tutorial on using textures and then offered his own textures for sale. They were pricey, and I debated whether to purchase them or not. In the end, I decided to make the plunge, and I bought them. With the 150 textures, he had a nice long tutorial explaining how he uses the textures. I now use them all the time, and applied the techniques he shows on his tutorial to my own photographs. I gotta say, it was worth every penny...and it has brought my photography to another level and will turn your photographs into works of art rather than just another photograph...

If you are interested in the same textures and the tutorial, Click here to visit Stuck In Customs.

*Note: Trey offered to give me 15% of the sales that are generated from my blog. Since I am not here to make money (I have a full time job that does that), and this is not a commercial site, I will NOT profit from this. I will donate 100% of the proceeds to JIS Peduli which is presently helping the children that suffered in the recent earth quakes in Sumatra. Therefore, if you buy Trey's textures, 15% will go to a good cause...

This is another photo that I used Trey's Textures to Create...this is Tanah Lot in Bali...

Athens, Greece

We were standing at the Acropolis in Athens, and this was the view...as far as you can see in all directions...a jungle of concrete. The amazing thing to me is that I can't see any people in this photo...maybe I am just too far away, or maybe all the people are down in the streets between the buildings, or maybe everyone is inside (it was really hot that day)...but wow, what a city...and I thought Jakarta was a concrete jungle...

The Stadium

The acoustics were so good here that when I was standing at the top of this old Roman Stadium in Effeses (Turkey), I had a normal conversation with my buddy standing on the stage below as if he were standing next to me. It was amazing...

A Tree In China

You gotta wonder what it would be like to sit in one spot for a few decades...or for some trees, a couple hundred years...imagine the things they would see. This guy got lucky...he is not stuck in some forest...he sits all alone and has unobstructed views...

The Toko

Still playing around and experimenting with textures...

Workin' on a few things before I reveal my source of these great textures, and the tutorial on how to use them...BUT, will let you know soon...

As you have all probably heard, there was a terrible earth quake here in Indonesia. Jakarta was spared, thank goodness, but Padang, Sumatra (just Northwest of us here in Java) were hit hard, and they are still digging and hoping to find survivors...thousands are missing and the death toll rises daily. My heart and prayers go out to those folks suffering after this tragedy...

Skywatch Friday - Sky Cable Car

Happy Friday !!

Sorry, running out of sunsets and other great skies...this is the best I could come up with this week...still qualifies, right? Sky Cable Cars in the Sky??

Be sure to catch all the great skies from around the world HERE...

Have a great weekend!!

The Garden On Top Of A Hong Kong Building

Don't architects just amaze you at times? How do they think of this stuff?

There are a couple of places where the architecture just amazes...Hong Kong is one of those places...