Breakfast Near The Docks

The new blog is coming along...almost done. I have been showing some people to get their opinion, and most seem to like the new version better, but some like this blog better because of the black background....tell you what....I will give you a peek...just be aware that it is not finished yet....most of the links at the top of the page are empty...I am trying to get one done per night, but keep going back to edit what I have written....but I think it is ready for you to take a peek...please let me know what you think...you can comment over there or here...

CLICK HERE TO TAKE YOU TO A PREVIEW

The address will change once I am finished....I have another site up at scottygraham.com that I will take down and replace it with the new blog, so that I can use scottygraham.com as my root site...the next step is to move my galleries over to smugmug....will get that done soon, I hope.

By the way, the photo below was edited with Nik's Color Efex Pro 4... With Google purchasing Nik's filters, I thought I better buy it before it might disappear...who knows what Google will do with my favorite plug-ins...I also bought Nik Sharpening 3....I love all of their software, and also own Silver Efex Pro 2, and Viveza which both ROCK...they all ROCK....get them quick, you never know....

New Blog Coming Soon

I have been working every night for the last few nights on my new blog. I finally went with Pro Photo Blogs, and have been most impressed with their customer service. There seems to be an infinite different things I can do to customize my blog...I think I have the color scheme I want, the layout I want, but I am now working on my pages, bio, and other links...it is great fun, though, playing around with all the options. It should be ready for viewing in a couple of days...exciting stuff!!

In the meantime, here is a photo for today's post...

Man In The Window

I have a hard time naming my posts...I am sure there is a better title for this one other than "Man In The Window"...it is hard to be creative when it comes to the title...I guess writing was never one of my strong suits.

In any case, I took this shot from the canoe as we glided past the back of one of the Bugis Schooners...He was looking inside the boat, so I yelled up to him, "Hey Bapak!!", he then turned to look, and I shot the photo catching a nice smile...

Boat Captain

After we walked around the big Bugis Schooners at Sundah Kelapa, we boarded small canoes, and our captain would take us around the backside of the boats, and then to the kampung (village). This guy was our boat captain...

Down By The Tracks

My buddy and I went down to the railroad tracks today for a short photowalk. I brought along with me some photos I had printed to hand out to the people. People are always so gracious about having their photo taken, but rarely (if ever) do photographers actually give printed photos back to the people. So, that's exactly what I did...and you wouldn't believe the smiles!! Suddenly, everyone wanted their photo taken as I promised I would be back again with more prints...

A couple of kids hold the photo I took of them a few months ago...

Back From Trip

I was in Singapore the past 4 days. I thought I would be able to update the blog while I was there, but got so busy, I was not able to get a spare moment on the computer. It was a great weekend though!! I tried to get down to the Marina Bay Sands during their laser light show, but didn't make it...I will be back in Singapore at the end of March, so will try again.

This photo (below) is from the bird market. I liked the "green" in the building, and all the birds chirping away...nothing special in the processing...some sharpening and a curves adjustment to bring out the green!

The Red Door

The colors for Indonesia are Red and White, so I thought this door was perfect for an Indonesian scene. No special processing was done for this photo. I opened it in Light Room, and made some minor adjustments which included cropping the sides...

This Blog's Future

I have been thinking a great deal about my blog the last few days. I started this blog back in 2006. I mainly started it to better communicate with my family back in the States, and to share family photos with them. We were also building our house at the time, so I wanted to show my parents and sisters the progress on our house. After a while, I started posting my best photos on the blog, and it turned more into a "photo" blog instead of a "family" blog....so, I started a new "family" blog, and turned this blog into the "photo blog" it is today.

My problem now? It seems to be stagnant as far as traffic is concerned...It has grown a great deal in the past 6 years, but it seems to have stopped growing, and I am not sure what to do about it. So, after some research and thinking about my own behavior, and why I visit some blogs and not others, I have come to some conclusions about "human blog behavior"

People like pretty pictures, but pretty pictures are not enough...what people really want is free stuff and free advice...they want to become better photographers and they look for sites that can help them do that...they also want attention, and to be noticed. So, it seems obvious to me that the future of this blog must move in the direction of what people really want. I am very thankful to those of you that follow my blog on an almost daily basis, but I really fear that you will leave me if I continue on this same track of only posting pretty pictures, so I promise to make some changes...soon. This is what I would like to do...

(1) Blogger has been great, and easy to use, and I think my blog looks nice, but it is limiting in what I can offer my readers...and I think most pro-photographers don't use Blogger...I might be wrong with that, but it seems to me most professional photographers use Word Press or have a custom designed website/blog....I need to move in that direction too.

(2) Provide FREE tutorials

(3) Provide good advice on camera equipment

(4) Provide more information on how I created the photos I post

(5) Always maintain a personal touch. I can think of a couple of blogs that I used to really like, but have liked less and less as time goes by...the reason? They have lost their personal touch...they become too commercial...they start name-dropping, they become money hungry, and they forget about the approach they had in the beginning that made them popular to begin with. I hope this blog, or I, don't end up being like that.

I welcome any comments or suggestions you might have...

Ah, the photo below...

This is my wife, Tika and my daughter, Kayla. We were walking through a small village in China, when I saw this writing on the wall...I have no idea what is says (any of you read Chinese?), but thought it was a cool background, so asked them to pose for me. My daughter is such a natural poser, and struck this pose with Tika...I used Silver Efex Pro2 to convert to a black n white...

Don't Mess With "The Dude"

This is another shot from the bird market. I was trying to capture the "action" that was going on around this place...people running around, bird cages EVERYWHERE, and the "shopping" that was taking place. What I couldn't capture was the smells and sounds...the smell not so great, but the sounds of all those birds chirping and making their individual calls were amazing.

When I walked outside of the market, I was trying to capture people just hanging out near the bird cages...but this guy...this "dude"....was giving me the evil eye the entire time...so, I just pretended that I was taking a photo of all the cages...after I took a couple of shots, a big grin from ear to ear appeared on the guy's face....whew....what a relief...he doesn't look like the kind of "dude" you would mess with...see the one I am talking about?

Jakarta Bird Market

Hope you had a great weekend!

I had the opportunity to visit the Jakarta Bird Market this weekend, and it was incredible and sad at the same time. I have been told that there are over a thousand species of birds being sold at the market...I had never seen so many birds in one place, and so many exotic birds! The sad part is that you can go to places in the market that sell rare illegal birds such as eagles, some parrots, and hawks...I didn't go to those places, but they are there...

Simple is Sometimes Better

I just posted this photo on Google+

It's funny...when I go through my photos after a trip, I usually scan right past photos like this below. Then later, when I go through them again, I sometimes find some jewels...something about the simplicity of a photo that draws me in...this one almost made it into my "reject" pile...but it was saved...

Life On The Tracks

Happy Friday!! It's the weekend, folks....go out and have a great time!!

I will see you on Monday...

This shot below is of some houses right next to the railroad tracks...I can't imagine how noisy it must be here at night....a train goes by almost every 10 minutes or so...

A Walk In China

We were on one of those typical tours where you follow a guide with one of those flags...I hate those kind of tours, and I always vow to myself to never get on one, but I really had no choice this time...so when the group was inside, I snuck away to walk around by myself...I wanted a shot of these big beautiful trees that lines the sidewalk...it was only moments later when the group came out of the building...which meant I had to re-join the group....arrrrgh...

One More of Petronas

This is from the back side of the towers where there is a park. I like the angle I posted yesterday better, but I like the perspective you get in this shot of the towers "towering" over the other buildings next to them...which are in themselves huge...

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...

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...