New York City is the “City that Never Sleeps” – a concrete jungle full of 8 million people living in close proximity.

In NYC there’s always something going on no matter what time of day and there are always interesting subjects to photograph no matter where you are in town.  The hectic and eclectic nature e of the city is great for photographers but I’m not sure that I would want to live there on a long term basis.

In 2011 I made my 4th or 5th visit to NYC in as many years. Here are some of the best photos from my trip:

The Brooklyn Bridge seen from Lower Manhattan – we walked over to Brooklyn to get away from the busy city streets for a while.

The Peking, a 4 mast ship on Pier 17 in NYc

View of Lower Manhattan from the Brooklyn Bridge

A street scene from Historic Little Italy in New York City

Echo, a sculpture by Jaume Plensa in New York’s Madison Square Park

The Empire State Building viewed from Street level with American Flags waving in the foreground

Cables from The Brooklyn Bridge form a web of steel

Locks of Love on the Brooklyn Bridge

9/11 Memorial tiles in New York City – Tiles for America

The historic Flatiron building in NYC

A Pink Elephant in a truck full of Antiques in New York City

The Most Interesting Objects – items from Olde Good Things in NYC

Yarn Bombing or Knita – a form of Street Art perhaps best suited for your grandmother

Pork ribs from Eataly at the Mad St Eats street food Festival near Madison Square Park in 2011

An imposing Gargoyle in Brooklyn sits in front of a Brownstone just across the bridge

Where 5th Avenue meets 18th Street on the Ladies Mile Historic District (NYC)

The interior of Toys R’ Us in Times Square

Smartphones like the iPhone and the Android devices are thin, light, connected to the Internet, and come equipped with pretty decent cameras. Smartphones are also becoming indispensable pieces of technology as we are increasingly calling, texting, and updating each other via social media apps such as Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram.

Our increasing dependency on smartphones means that they are always with us and for a shutterbug like me, my iPhone camera is a great way for me to document what’s going on in my life – a sort of social photo diary for people with bad memories.

Below are my selected 365 Instagram photos from 2011 – Hover over any of the photos below to see a caption and what day it was taken on. Click on the image to see a full sized picture.

Do any of you keep a 365 photo gallery? Do you find that smartphones make it easier to keep up with taking one photo a day for a whole year?

Related Article:
Photography Everywhere – Quick, Light, and Easy Mexico Travel Photography on Instagram

In the shadow of some of the tallest buildings in downtown Austin is a hidden spot that has become a graffiti Mecca to aspiring “writers.” This abandoned lot in the Castle Hill neighborhood has received attention from some of the most famous Street artists: Shepard Fairey, the well known street artist who designed Barack Obama’s HOPE poster pasted up some very large pieces on the back wall at this location, which is known as the “Foundation”.

This spot hasn’t always been so popular – 3 years ago I did a portrait photo shoot here and there were many more weeds and vines on the wall than graffiti pieces. Today the tables have turned – virtually every usable stretch of wall has been used. Why has this place become so popular in the last few years? I have a feeling it has to do with the mass influx of creative people from areas of the country where Street Art is more popular like New York and Los Angeles.

This is a great off the beaten path place for photographer to visit – enter at your own risk though – the grounds are not maintained and no trespassing signs are posted!

Red and Yellow Jester, Dog, and Turtle Graffiti – Artist Unknown

Large Obey Paste Ups by Sheppard Fairey of Obama HOPE and Exit Through the Gift Shop fame

2 Walls at the Foundation – “The Grass is Greener” and a Grasshopper mural – artists unknown

Japanese Anime style graffiti behind advancing weed growth – artist unknown

Flying Man Kite Graffiti – Artist Unknown

Walls are almost completely covered at the Foundation – Black and White Sheppard Fairey Obey paste on the back wall

Brittney Spears Streetart by the local Austin Graffiti Artist Niz

Jodie Foster piece by Austin Graffiti Artist Niz

2 more works Austin Graffiti Artist Niz (images of females in the foreground)

The foundation hosts many different styles of street art – Artists Unknown

Window frame from some long abandoned building

Chupacabra StreetArt ? – artist uknown

Monsters – Artist Unknown

This guy looks like he’s being punched in the face by a Wildstyle piece by various artists including well known local Graffiti Artist Sloke One.

Japanese Mountain Graffiti in Austin, Texas – Artist Unknown

The grass is greener Graffiti staring out at what else? green grass

Poker Graffiti – also Sheppard Fairey paste ups on the back wall

What the Foundation walls looked like in October, 2008 – no graffiti on the walls, just vines and a few small patches that had been painted over.

One problem I’ve had with the Strobist stuff over the past few months is getting the mount on my umbrella softboxes to work correctly in the field. Umbrella Softboxes pose a problem because umbrella mount on for light stands doesn’t allow you to point the strobe to the middle of the umbrella, and the opening for the umbrella softboxes is directly in the middle of the umbrella.

I already had one hack for this situation that involves hooking up 2 umbrella mounts together, but I’ve found that this setup cannot support heavier loads and if the wind blows hard, the entire setup will twist apart resulting in disaster. Having recently bought a 60″ Softlighter II, there is no way that the old hack would work on that HUGE and HEAVY 60″ Softlighter.

Above: My original dual umbrella adapter hack

Later, I came across a post by Flickr user Luzer about the hack he came up with to get around the problem. His solution was to purchase a Smith Victor Stand Flash Stand Shoe from B&H photo and it looks like he had to hack that up a little as well.

Above: Luzer’s umbrella softbox hack – See his entire post here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/bigluzer/500249073/

I went to Home depot to try to duplicate Luzer’s hack because I didn’t feel like ordering the part from B&H, paying shipping, and waiting for 2 weeks. Also, I have 3 light stands and I didn’t want to pay ~$25 + shipping for all 3 stands.

Today I was able to come out of Home Depot with an elegant solution that cost my less than $8.50 including tax (and no shipping) for total for 3 sets of 90 degree adapters.

Above: the finished product – a “supertsai” 90 degree adapter for an Umbrella Bracket

Above: the finished product in use with a Softlighter II

Finished product once again and the materials needed to construct it.

Equipment needed for 1 adapter hack:

1-1/2″ Corner Brace
1/4″ – 20 Wingnut
1/4″ – 20 x 1/2″ Machine screw(I think a 1/4″ long one would have been ideal but I couldn’t find any)
1/4″ Cut Washers (I used 3 because my screws were a bit too long)

I found all of these items in the same aisle at Home Depot. The wingnut, screw, and washers were right next to each other in the screw aisle. The corner brace was almost directly behind the other items next to the door hinges and door bolts.

Everything pretty much screws together pretty easily. You will need either a screwdriver or a penny to use as a tool.

Instructions:

Tools you need:
Phillips and Flat head screwdrivers
A Socket wrench with a 1/4 bit
pliers

The holes are a tight fit so you might want to use some gloves too b/c brute strength might be necessary

1. Remove the hotshoe mount from your umbrella bracket first (it’s the silver thing that attaches to the strobe.
2. Use the machine screw to attach the hotshoe mount to one of the lower holes of the 90 degree corner bracket using your screwdriver or penny (use washers as spacers if the screw is too long). If the fit is too tight, get some pliers and an old sock to hole the hotshoe mount in place while you turn the machine screw.
3. Finally, attach the 90 degree corner brace to the thread coming out of the umbrella bracket where the hotshoe mount used to be using the wingnut you bought.

Viola! you are done.

Some things that I noticed you could do to improve the design after I took the first photo are mounting the hotshoe bracket sideways on the corner bracket so that the ridge of the hotshoe bracket supports some weight. Also, you can mount the umbrella bracket on the lower of the 2 holes on the corner brace. You can also use washers on the wingnut\umbrella mount contact point to distribute the weight a little better.

I also have another mod that allows for 2 strobes to share a single umbrella.

Millions of people around the world are obsessed with photography and capturing the special moments around them no matter when or where. They drag around large, heavy cameras and associated accessories on both trips around the corner and half way around the world. I know these crazed individuals well, I’m one of them!

However, many serious photographers are feeling a little less attached to their bulky, expensive DSLRs with recent improvements in the quality of smartphone cameras on the iPhone and the Android family of devices. Because these devices feature a reasonably high quality camera, smartphones are rapidly replacing the point and shoot digital cameras.

Also, because smartphones are computers that feature great software specifically designed for photographers, editing and sharing photos from your vacation while you are still on your vacation has become easier than ever before. I tell people that having my smartphone is like carrying a camera, Photoshop, and Flickr in my pocket all in one device. Also I don’t have to spend hours after the fact processing photos – I do it while I’m watching TV or waiting on food at a restaurant.

While the picture quality of the iPhone camera isn’t anywhere close to my 21 megapixel Canon 5D mkII, often I can get shots that I would never have gotten before. I can take my smartphone anywhere I go without feeling burdened by 15 pounds of metal strapped to my back and people aren’t as intimidated by a cellphone camera, allowing for more candid street imagery. As a result, I find myself leaving the big camera back in the hotel quite often when convenience trumps image quality and when I don’t feel safe with big expensive camera screaming I’M A TOURIST (someone has tried to mug me before, but that’s a different story altogether).

Speaking of apps and photo communities, my favorite iPhone app of all time is Instagram. The Instagram app includes easy Photoshop-like editing and simple Flickr community style sharing. The filters (quick settings that transform your photos with a single click) that Instagram provides are amazing – it can make any shot you take look like a vintage photo in no time at all. There are about 12 different filters and many of them can mask weaknesses in the phone’s camera – making dark photos brighter, pulling back overexposed photos, and adding contrast to washed out pictures.

Enough talking – I’ll now let you be the judge. The following 12 photos were taken on my recent trip to Puerto Vallarta, Mexico and all were edited using only the Instagram application.

Mexican street toy vendor in front of a cathedral in downtown Puerto Vallarta – Nashville Filter

Palm Tree Silhouette on Puerto Vallarta Beach

The Streets of the tourist section of Puerto, Vallarta – Jalisco

Girl in the rain through a car window – Puerto Vallarta, Mexico

Motorcycle in the rain – Puerto Vallarta, Mexico

Street vendor squeezing out dough into a deep fryer to make Churros – Puerto Vallarta, Mexico

An intentionally lo-fi Mexican Tequila Tour photo taken in the pouring rain.

#HereIStand – My feet next to the dog paw prints made in Mexican clay Saltillo tiles

Mexican Jaguar art

Mexican Street Food – Elotes Asado. The corn pictured here is the same corn used to make tortillas. Larger and less sweet than the corn we are used to in America.

Mexican Aztec Art

Half Man – Half Fish sculpture at our hotel

So what do you think?

Instagram might not be for everyone – picture quality after filters have been applied can be a bit lacking if you are obsessed with image quality, but there is no denying the appeal of the platform. For casual users who want highly stylized images with minimal effort, Instagram is a slam dunk.

You can’t discount the social features of Instagram either – I’ve met so many cool people through this simple service, and dare I say I like it the most out of any photo sharing service out there, even Flickr. On Instagram, there is a real sense of community – perhaps because all users are part of the iPhone community currently and therefor similar, and also because Instagram, like Twitter, allows the use of hashtags, which make it easy to find people with similar interests or who are in the same geographical area.

So, How do you like Instagram? On what occasions have you ditched your DSLR for a smartphone camera?

If you are already as crazy about Instagram as I am, my username on the service is supertsai

Have you worked on one really long project and followed it through to completion? Was it an endeavor that consumed much of your life, but you knew it would all be worth it in the end?

Well my friends, that’s how I feel right now, as my biggest photo project to date, an entire 128 page book full of photos, has finally hit bookstore shelves everywhere.

The book is called Austin, Texas: A Photographic Portrait. It has 175 of my photos and covers more than 100 attractions around Austin, Texas.

For more information, including tons of photos and a video describing the book, please jump over to my other blog and read the article, Austin, Texas: A Photographic Portrait – Book Now on Sale!

UPDATE 06/10/2011 – I was recently interviewed by Rebecca Otis of The Rebeccamendations blog. Click here to read my interview on her great Austin entertaining and events blog.

The art pianos that graced sidewalks, parks, and landmarks around Austin have been taken away. The joy of listening to impromptu piano music in public spaces lives on only in the memories of the thousands of Austinites that enjoyed the street pianos throughout April 2011. But we’ll always be able to remember them in pictures!

I had the pleasure of listening to the mastermind of the Austin street pianos, Johnny Walker (yes that’s his real name), speak about his art project at Pecha Kucha Austin. He said the goal of the project was to have Austinites appreciate their public spaces more and to facilitate interaction among strangers. Well, sir, mission accomplished and Thank You!

Speaking of Pecha Kucha, I had the pleasure of presenting at the 2nd Austin Pecha Kucha – my 20 slides can be found here.

Before you enjoy the pictures from “Play Me, I’m Yours” – a couple of links. First, for those that didn’t know, I posted an earlier set of Austin Street Art piano photos. Also, I enjoyed this photo set of pretty people and pretty pianos by another Austin photographer, Jeremiah Newton.

Enjoy the photos and I hope you enjoyed the pianos as much as I did.

The Long Center piano at Night (features ship themed artwork)

Long Center piano with the halo arch around the building

A somewhat hidden Pfluger Bridge garden piano

People in Austin still like to give George “W” Bush a hard time in public art form.

This piano received an eyeball makeover since the last set of photos I took of it.

Different groups of people interact with the Lamar Pedestrian Bridge piano throughout the day

Keyboard wisdom – If you didn’t know your age, how old would you be?

Skull art and a broken hammer on the 1st street pedestrian bridge piano

Kiss bench at the W Hotel in Austin, Texas

Bright Pink piano in Woolridge Park in Austin, Texas

Duncan Park BMX Art Piano

I have a feeling these stripped keys has something to do with BMX bikes

Blue Cranes – apparently some band here in Austin

Johnny Walker put this piano by the jail and the foreclosure office to bring a little joy to the people that need it the most.

If you’ve been around downtown Austin lately, you have probably noticed pianos on the street in some of Austin’s most popular tourist spots. This public art display is part of the “Play Me, I’m Yours” exhibition, sponsored by the Art Alliance Austin.

These pianos invite passers by to take some time out of their day to play some music to hopefully bring a little joy into the lives of others. The street pianos are on a worldwide tour, and their time in Austin won’t be for long. The pianos are being packed up for their next destination on May 1st, 2011. To read more about the Art Pianos, check out a post about them on the Austin Photo Book blog.

Update 5-6-2011 – For Part 2 of the Austin Piano series, check out the post entitled Goodbye Austin Street Pianos.

Pastel Art Piano at the W Hotel in Downtown Austin

Another photo of the W Hotel Art Piano in Austin, Texas

Orange City Hall Street Piano Art at Austin City Hall

Shadow, Light, and an orange art piano under the Austin City Hall canopy

I Love You Piano at Lou Neff Point in Austin, Texas – this reminds me of the I Love You So Much graffiti just a mile away from this spot

Austin StreetArt Piano on top of Doug Sahm Hill. This one has Godzilla art on the bottom near the foot pedals

The same piano on Doug Sahm Hill – Love!

Play Me I’m Yours – Austin Art Piano under the Auditorium Shores Pavilion

Mimi the Austin Pets Alive Dog at Lou Neff Point

Austin Cupcake StreetArt on the piano at Lou Neff Point

Piano Man on the Pfluger / Lamar Pedestrian Bridge on Town Lake – Austin, TX

I Heart Music Piano – Austin, Texas

February 3rd, 2011 marked the beginning of the year of the Rabbit and Chinese New Year in Austin, Texas was celebrated in style. Every year to ring in the new year, dancers from the Texas Dragon Dance Team perform their athletic, traditional dance routines in colorfully adorned and beautiful Chinese lion costumes. They perform this annual ritual to scare away evil spirits so that the local businesses who hire them to perform can receive good luck and receive wealth in the new year.

The Lion and Chinese Dragon dance routines are performed by dozens of dancers, who move to the beat of a giant Asian style drum and cymbals. Lion dancing is hard work – lifting heavy paper mache lion heads built on thick wooden frames gets tiring. Because of this, dancers are constantly switching in and out during the almost 45 minute routine that involves acrobatic kicks, jumps, and even many lion dancers standing on the shoulders of their teammates.

Each lion is operated by a pair of dancers, one representing the head, and the other controlling the tail. The team must work together in unison to portray a convincing lion. The lion head is especially lively – dancers may blink and unblink they eyes of the costume and the lion ears also move when the operator pulls a string inside of the lion’s head.

The Chinese Dragon dance is performed by 10 dancers, who each hold a segment of the long, serpent like paper mache dragon. The dragon head follows the motions a colorful ball that is attached to a stick which is carried by a runner that controls the motions of the dragon. Each dragon dancer controls a segment of the dragon and they follow the motions of the dancer in front of them, producing a life-like wave effect.

To purchase and use any of the following photos as a stock photography, simply click on the photo.

If you watch TDDT in action, make sure to bring some earplugs! They dance while very loud firecrackers explode all around them. They must be brave to put up with the smoke and the loud noise.

For even more Dragon Dance photos, stock photos are available here.

Over 1 million people, or more than 20% of the population of Rio De Janeiro, live in a favela, ad hoc communities that government has little control over. Originally founded by marginalized Brazilians with no other options, most favelas are perched high in the mountains where little public infrastructure exists. Despite this, favela populations have grown steadily over the years as Rio real estate prices skyrocketed and more Brazilians crowded into the big cities.

Because there is little government control, gangs and drugs have infiltrated the favelas. Despite this, favelas are vibrant communities full of life and hardworking people that live without fear. Schools, shops, restaurants, banks, and even some national chains exist in the favela as these communities become more accepted by mainstream society.

Some may call favelas shanty towns, but those that live there call them home. I was fortunate to go on a favela tour hosted by Zezinho, a great tour guide and a long time resident of Rocinha Communidade, one of the most prominent favelas in Rio. He gave us a behind the scenes look into his life in Rocinha and invited us into his house to let us know what it’s really like to live in a favela.

An aerial view of the patchwork of hollow brick houses in Rocinha, just outside of Rio

Colorful buildings at the base of the mountain where the Rochina favela begins.

A man pauses to take a break on the bridge that leads into Rocinha.

The curves and arches of the bridge that leads into Rocinha. Zezinho told us that many say that the main arch (on the left side) was designed to look like a woman’s bikini bottom.

Behind the nicer buildings at the base of the community, lie the houses more typical of the favela

A view from inside the favela looking out. Rocinha backs up to some of the nicest neighborhoods in Rio, complete with skyscrapers.

Houses stacked one on top of the other in Rocinha

One of the narrow, often slippery, graffitied passages that run through Rocinha. The art on the wall was made in support of the 2010 Brazilian World Cup team.

A very tiny cat that was on someone’s front porch in an alleyway

Zezinho of Rocinha

Rooftop view of Rocinha Favela with DJ Zezinho and his tattooed legs. The tattoo on his upper right thigh is particularly interesting. It depicts a sitting cat on a skateboard with sandals on his hands. While we were in Rocinha, we saw a man without legs riding down the mountain the same way.

Zezinho showing off his tattoos, all of which are about Rocinha, the community he lives in

Restaraunts, shops, and banks at the bottom of Rocinha

The blue water tanks on top of houses are big enough to hold 7 days of water, and it’s only pumped up once a week. Zezinho said when you run out, you run out, so no American style long showers!

A woman does laundry on a favela roof in Brazil

Baile funk DJ, Zezinho’s graffiti banner.

Zezinho in his own words, describing why he does favela tours. To learn more about Zezinho, follow his blog at http://lifeinrocinha.blogspot.com.

The Austin City Limits Festival 2009 is notorious for great concerts, scorching hot Texas temperatures, and this year – a giant mudpit. The following is a photo essay chronicling how the brand new multi million dollar lawn at Zilker Park became one giant soupy mess in the 3 days between Oct 2 – Oct 4, 2009.

The Austin City Limits festival begins with it’s new grass on Friday at around 4pm

Blue skies and a thick, carpet-like grass in front of the Livestrong stage

Concert Goers take a break between shows on the lawn

Blue skies above the ACL wind vane sign inside the park.

Day 2 – the rains begin, and they are HEAVY

Day 2- The lawn starts to get a bit brown – but it’s still OK

Day 3 – the soil from underneath the lawn seeps up and it’s really soupy

The areas close to the stages become mosh pits full of standing water and trash

Some don’t seem to mind the conditions and take full advantage of the situation

This area is what I referred to as the Shamu Splash Zone

These shoes promptly went in the trash after the festival!

Final Note – even though the lawn looks like it was totally trashed, the officials at Zilker Park were able to salvage about 98% of it. The park reopens today, Oct 30th 2009!

Austin Fashion Week 2009 wrapped about a week ago here in Austin, Texas. While Austin’s Fashion Week is not as big as the established Fashion Weeks in New York or LA, The arrival of a major fashion event here in Austin is reflective of the city’s growth and rise to a more prominent position on the world scene in recent years.

I took part in the inaugural fashion week by shooting backstage portraits for the Sew Sister and Friends show at Qua, which also included designers Mange la Mode and Cyberoptix Tie Lab. A couple of the notable models were Austin Fashion Week Model of the Year: Reader’s Choice Christian Ramirez, and NFL wide receiver Limas Sweed.

Mange La Mode

Ties from Cyberoptix and undergarments by Sew Sister

Christian Ramirez, winner of the Best Male Model, People’s Choice for Austin Fashion Week 2009 backstage wearing Sew Sister before the show.

Limas Sweed, University of Texas sports hero and currently a Wide Receiver for the Pittsburgh Steelers

Mange la Mode

Models wearing Sew Sister’s line of women’s lingerie

Bboy City is an annual breakdance event held in Austin, Texas hosted by Romeo Navarro and the Bboy City Crew. If you haven’t it yet, click here to view my first post about Bboy City 16.

Some interesting info on Bboy City:
If you are familiar with show America’s Best Dance Crew, several of the best bboys on that show have been in Austin at some point for bboy city either to compete or judge the events (including members of the winning crew from Season Two – Super Cr3w).

Also, there’s a great documentary film called Inside the Circle directed by Marcy Garriott that follows the lives of Romeo and two of the most popular dancers at Bboy City, Omar and Josh, through many of the Bboy City events (I also make random cameos in the background taking photos). This film premiered at the SXSW film festival in 2008 to rave reviews and recently aired on MTV. It’s available on DVD as well.

Enjoy the rest of the Bboy City photos!

Marlon of Havikoro (winners of Bboy City 16) practicing Footwork before the event begins

Toprocking in a practice circle during a break

Headspin battle in a cypher – contestant #1

Headspin battle in a cypher – contestant #2

Shorty of United / Knuckleheads California doing Flares

Little Kid Freeze

Knee Slide

Misa footwork

Marlon suspended midair during the Havikoro / Masters of Mayhem final

Toprock

Footwork

Bboy Elusive Freeze

Happy Headspin

Elbow Airflare

Gravedad Zero (Mexican Crew) – Group Routine

Bboy Zeshen of Havikoro (winners of Bboy City 16)

Rhythm Attack (Chinese crew) – flips

Rhythm Attack (Chinese crew) – splits after a flip

Bgirl Misa invert freeze

Every year hundreds of bboys and bgirls from all over the world descend on Austin, Texas to compete in one of the biggest bboy jams in the country, Bboy City. 2009 was no different and on Sunday, April 26th I headed down to the Parish to capture it all.

If you’ve never been to a bboy jam, you’ve been missing out. At the Bboy City 16 finals, the energy was intense, the dancers’ moves were on point, and the competition was fierce as hundreds of people crowded into the Parish to watch some heated bboy battles.

The level of skill this year was really high, as two great international crews entered the crew battles – Rhythm Attack from China, and Gravedad Zero from Mexico. There were also the usual suspects from Texas and some out of state crews as well. In the end, after a long, hot, energy filled night of dancing, world famous crew Havikoro came out on top.

Enjoy the photos and check out more pictures from Bboy City here!

The Parish club – the venue for Bboy City at least 3 times now

Bboy Kirk from Havikoro doing modified 1990s

Bboy Marlon from Havikoro brings his unique flavor to the dance floor

Joel from Havikoro doing a flip while battling the Mexican crew Gravedad Zero

Turtle toprocking while sporting his best ninja turtle outfit and looking happy as always

Bboy Elusive doing footwork right before he kicked my camera lens!

Tory Harvey getting down in between battles

Bgirl Misa doing an air freeze during a cypher

Genie Windmills by Mando from Rhythmic Rockerz

Bboy Recon Inside the Circle as the crowd watches

About a year ago, I photographed the martial arts group Cry Havok in their practice space in Austin Texas. These guys are Martial Arts action choreography experts, using a variety of weapons and hand to hand combat techniques. While they look pretty intimidating, these guys were really cool to work with and they seemed like cool dudes. Check them out in action here – it’s crazy! http://sg.video.yahoo.com/watch/195554/1191682

Stick Fighting in Motion

Jump Kick – Bruce Lee Style

Martial Arts Weapons

Austin, Texas – Photographer Peter Tsai and his experiences at South by Southwest 2009.

I recently got the chance to photograph all three conferences at South by Southwest 2009 (Interactive, Film, and Music). All in all it was a great experience and totally worth the late nights going to concerts and film screenings. I’m glad that so many people got to enjoy Austin during the week of SXSW and it was great to be a part of something special.

Inside the Austin Convention center on the opening day of South by Southwest

The Alienware booth at the gaming convention at SXSW Interactive

Tony Hsieh of Zappos gives an inspirational keynote speech to a completly packed house at the Austin Convention Center during SXSW Interactive – his speech was amazing!

Inside the Paramount Theater before the showing of “Number One with a Bullet” for the SXSW Film Conference

Giant South by Southwest banners hang in front of the Austin Convention Center

The band 3oh!3 performs at Stubbs during the SXSW Music Conference

Thao with the Get Down Stay Down perform at the Parish during the NPR party at the SXSW 2009 Music Conference

Talib Kweli performs at the Scoot Inn during SXSW 2009

Have you ever noticed when you take photos when the sun is shining bright, parts of the photo are either way too bright or way too dark? Because of limitations in film or with your digital camera, It’s hard to get fine details in the shadows and in the bright areas at the same time. Is there any way around this so that all of the parts of the photo show up as you see them with your eye?

Well, it turns out there is, and it’s called High Dynamic Range Photography. This type of photography takes multiple photos taken at different settings and averages the best parts of each photo. The result is a new photo that has a higher dynamic range and more information – that is you get more detail out of the extreme white and black areas in the photo and everything in between.

There are many tutorials online on how to do HDR photography, but this is the short version of the the basic and most common technique:

Take a digital camera and put it on a tripod. Frame the scene and set up the camera for bracketing (taking multiple photos at different exposure settings). You want to take 3 photos, one at normal settings, one at +2 exposure, and one at -2 expsosure settings (consult your camera manual – I know most canon digital cameras do this). +2 means twice as bright as the photo at normal settings, and -2 means twice as dark.

Take 3 photos and import it into an HDR program such as Photomatix (available here. You will have to adjust the final image a bit to your desired settings – you can make the photo lighter or darker within the program. I won’t go into the details here because you can just read the tutorial within the software. Photoshop CS2 also has an HDR function if you already own a copy of that. Once you are done and the software does it’s magic, you’ll have a single image that is the result of merging 3 images together. Enough talking – here is a look at my first HDR image. This is the view outside of my living room window in Austin, TX.

Photo taken at normal settings – notice how the buildings are dark and there is a large white spot on the right with no detail.

Photo taken at -2 exposure settings – notice how the buildings are extremely dark but we can see much more detail in the sky – all of the clouds are visible.

Photo taken at +2 exposure settings – the buildings are properly exposed, but the sky is totally white and we can’t see the clouds or the sky at all.

Resulting image #1 – Notice how the sky has all of the details of the darkest images, and the foreground with the buildings and the city have the details of the brightest image. Using the HDR technique, I effectively brought out all of the detail that you could see with the human eye.

Resulting image #2 – This image is an example of what HDR can do at it’s most extreme settings. Saturation, strength, and contrast were turned very high on this one, giving an extrordinary amount of detail and a very artistic, surreal looking photo with an almost oil painting feel to it.

For more info, a Wikipedia link to HDR Photography can be found here.

Visit this HDR Flickr group for more examples: http://www.flickr.com/groups/myfirsthdr/pool/

Here is a link to an in depth HDR tutorial using Photomatix: http://www.vanilladays.com/hdr-guide/ via Vanilla Days.

I took a flight with my coworker Ross a few weeks ago and it was AWESOME! I’ve never had such a great view from the air and I took so many awesome pictures (while I wasn’t flying the plane!). I have to say that the sense of freedom you get when piloting a plane is both terrifying and awe inspiring at the same time. I’m glad I got to experience it and I think I got some terrific shots I got from the flight:

Enjoy!

The view of my office building from above

Downtown Austin

The Dell Diamond

Water Treatment Plant

Cookie Cutter Housing

Lake Travis

The cockpit

More photos at http://www.pbase.com/supertsai/flight

This Intel was building an office in the middle of downtown Austin when when the dot-com bust went down. They had already built the first 6 stories of the building’s frame when they decided to call it quits and they stopped building out the rest of the structure. Last weekend they finally got around to blowing up the building and in the next few weeks they’ll be cleaning up the rest of it. Apparently since the building was only the frame, the wreckage is still mostly intact, unlike other imploded buildings you see on TV.

Here are the pics I got today.

Available as a stock image – Click here

Available as a stock image – Click here

Available as a stock image – Click here

Available as a stock image – Click here

Available as a stock image – Click here

All of my Demolition stock images here

Citywide art exhibits… some cities have their cows, other cities have their donkeys and elephants. I’ve even seen baseballs and bears too.

Since Austin is “the live music capital of the world” it seems that the city decided to commission different artists to paint replicas of Gibson guitars to be placed around the city – and they look great! I’ve been running around town taking stock photos over the past couple of weeks and have noticed these guitars everywhere. Naturally I’ve been taking photos of them…

UPDATE 10-30-07 – I have posted more Austin Art Guitar action from around town. click here to check it out.

Austin City Hall – Music Capital of the world guitar. Available as a stock image – Click here

Austin City Limits Guitar – ACL Crow. Available as a stock image – Click here

Transparent Guitar in concert. Available as a stock image – Click here

Gecko Guitar. Available as a stock image – Click here

Fire Tree? Available as a stock image – Click here

Colorful – Available as a stock image – Click here

Picasso looking Guitar – Available as a stock image – Click here

Disco Guitar? – this is one of my favorites. Available as a stock image – Click here