Daily Photo - Akihabara Street
It took me many days in Tokyo before I finally made it over to one of my favorite areas - Ahikabara. This district is famous for its pure technology insanity! If you are a geek, then this is geek heaven!
Every street is filled with huge towers, each one flowing over with all sorts of technology, gadgets, games, robotics, toys, and scantily-clad-women. The streets are filled with girls that dress in... hmmm... how do I explain it? Imagine a grown woman wearing little-girl clothes, with puffy-laced mini-skirts, giant bows, and comely dispositions. They stand around, handing out little flyers, trying to get you to come into a shop, a cafe, or something in between.
There is even a cafe there with monitors built into the table. When you order a drink, your waitress goes over to the soda fountain, where a camera lies in the floor pointing upward. Upon pressing a special button, an extra blast of air is strategically blasted to increase your viewing cone.
Technical Problems
Some of you have mentioned on Twitter that the site is slow and is having some memory errors. I've got a few people looking at it and I hope to get it fixed up soon!
from Trey Ratcliff at www.stuckincustoms.com
Tags: Japan HDR high dynamic range photography photograph stuck customs stuckincustoms stuckincustoms.com trey ratcliff treyratcliff blog travel travelblog photographyblog hdrtutorial world Tokyo city asia building 東京 Tōkyō 東京都 Tōkyō-to 特別区 tokubetsu-ku nijūsan-ku prefecture akihabara akihabra 秋葉原 akihabara electric town Akihabara Denki Gai 秋葉原電気街 akiba アキバ Soto-Kanda chiyoda electronic electronics computers anime otaku Chūōdōri skyscraper game taito station animate architecture april 2010 Nikon d3x
Newsletter Soon!
I have a new Newsletter coming out any time now. Be sure to sign up. It's free and pretty, and it will make your inbox much prettier. The newsletter growth has been amazing, and it's thanks to you guys. You have been forwarding along like crazy and these long email chains bring even more subscribers!
In the last newsletter, I asked if anyone in my network knew Hans Zimmer, and a few days later, I was able to shoot in his studio! Well, this is a rare thing that I ask YOU for help... most of the time, I give out a bunch of information and pretty pictures to make your week go easier...
Daily Photo - Shopping in Tokyo at Night
My first night in Tokyo, I was so revved up that I went out to do a lot of night shooting! The streets were wet, and that is perfect for colorful cities at night. I found this unique gem not far from Rappongi.
The only bad thing is the occasional drizzle. I love my 14-24 lens -- but it seems to get wet so easily with that gnarly bulbous lens. I just wipe it down with my shirt.... that doesn't seem like the best thing to do, but it works well enough!
from the blog www.stuckincustoms.com
Tags: Japan @moretags
Daily Photo - Univac
I'm such a nerd and I love this computer.
My background is computer science and math, so I've always been into computers. This UNIVAC was just hitting its stride around the time I was born, and Moore's Law was kind enough to keep the doublings at a manageable rate so it wasn't a whole lot faster when I got my own first computer! I think I started with the Timex Sinclair 99 before getting into the C-64, then a whole host of Amigas before getting into the world of PCs (see these old vintage ads of computer stuff I tweeted about yesterday). Anyway, I'll try not to geek out too much here!
This photo was taken at the new Air and Space Museum in DC. There is an area in the back with all the rockets that also had the computers that were used alongside them at mission control. So, if you have any geek in you at all, I really recommend it.
Meet me at OpenCamp!
The Powers That Be talked me into speaking at openca.mp/, which is Aug 27-29 in Dallas. Who is OpenCamp for? As the website says, "Webmasters and web developers, bloggers, podcasters, social media enthusiasts and anyone interested in web content creation!" This is put together by the same people who did WordCamp Dallas and DrupalCamp Dallas. This should be one of the biggest events for bloggers this year - so I hope you can come out!
Cali Lewis, one of the organizers, recently mentioned OpenCamp in her recent Geekbrief video. You can get a full list of the speakers on the OpenCamp Page... along with me will be Chris Pirillo, John P, and many others. I've heard Leo Laporte may even join the festivities... that would be a lot of fun to hang out with him again!
Right after OpenCamp, I'll be heading out to Burning Man in the middle of the Black Rock Desert. That will be a wild time!
Exclusive! Video to be released on Abduzeedo!
The crew over at abduzeedo.com/ grabbed the Exclusive of my new video release on Friday. It's a bit different than anything I have ever done... I hope you like it. I'll link over there on Friday so you can be among the first to see it.
New Prints Available
If you go over to the Prints area of the site, you can get links to all the latest prints to be released. I only release about 1% or 2% of the works as Limited Edition Numbered Prints. One of them is featured today over in a onemansblog.com/2010/05/19/my-new-custom-wall-art-from-tr.... That print should come available soon.
from the blog www.stuckincustoms.com
Tags: stuck customs stuckincustoms stuckincustoms.com trey ratcliff treyratcliff travel blog travelblog hdr tutorial hdrtutorial imaging photography digital high dynamic range processing world north America united states usa east coast Washington dc Washington D.C. District Columbia capital city Virginia Maryland national air and space museum air space museum national nasm Smithsonian institution aircraft spacecraft research history aviation spaceflight planetary science scientific universal automatic computer I Univac Univac I commercial computer Eckert mauchly retro Nikon d3s January 2010 terminal mainframe
Daily Photo - Modern Techno Life in Tokyo
What happens in hyper-techno places like Japan and Korea seem to be the techno-canaries in the coal mine for the future of technology and behavior in the west. Several years ago, almost everyone walked around their ultra modern-cities with their heads buried in their mobile phones.
Read more of this entry, including the announcement of a new print, at the blog at Stuck in Customs.
Tags: HDR high dynamic range photography photograph stuck customs stuckincustoms stuckincustoms.com trey ratcliff treyratcliff blog travel travelblog photographyblog hdrtutorial world japan Tokyo city asia building 東京 Tōkyō 東京都 Tōkyō-to 特別区 tokubetsu-ku nijūsan-ku prefecture modern tech life shiny glass marble architecture sleek postmodern rain weather umbrella culture mall outdoor aesthetic design engineering buildings skyscrapers technology society diversity sociology cross-culture east far east alien differences heritage commerce april 2010 Nikon d3x
On my last night in Japan, I was feeling restless. It sometimes comes at the end of the trip, when I feel like I just haven't taken enough photos. Of course, that's never the case, since I usually have thousands in the hopper by that point. But when I know that the city is full of life, I just have to get out there and capture a bit of it.
Read the rest here. There's also a relink of an interview with Ron Martinsen.
Tags: HDR high dynamic range photography photograph stuck customs stuckincustoms stuckincustoms.com trey ratcliff treyratcliff blog travel travelblog photographyblog hdrtutorial world japan Tokyo downtown metropolitan metropolis city urban asia building skyscraper cityscape 東京 Tōkyō 東京都 Tōkyō-to 特別区 tokubetsu-ku nijūsan-ku prefecture minato minato-ku special ward 港区 roppongi district 六本木 nightlife night club six trees zelkova daimyo wet pavement night cars traffic crosswalk light neon October 2009 Nikon d3x