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Get Ready for a Total Lunar Eclipse TONIGHT – December 21, 2010!

December 20, 2010 By 1 Comment

In about 3 hours, the last lunar eclipse of the decade is going to occur, and it’s going to be a good one!

According to the Griffith Observatory:

It is also the highest in the sky that a totally eclipsed Moon has appeared from Los Angeles in 1,591 years and it will not be this high again for at least another millennium.

NASA chimes in:

The entire event is visible from North America and western South America. Observers along South America’s east coast miss the late stages of the eclipse because they occur after moonset. Likewise much of Europe and Africa experience moonset while the eclipse is in progress. Only northern Scandinavians can catch the entire event from Europe. For observers in eastern Asia the Moon rises in eclipse. None of the eclipse is visible from south and east Africa, the Middle East or South Asia.

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Photos From Virgin Airline’s DFW Launch Party with Richard Branson and Willie Nelson

December 9, 2010 By 4 Comments

Last week I headed on down to the Dallas Opera for the Virgin America party to commemorate the commencement of service from LAX to DFW airport. This marks Virgin’s arrival into the Dallas area, which is extremely signifigant because Dallas is the headquarters for two major airlines, American and Southwest, and DFW is also:

  • Fourth largest airport in the world by land area.
  • Third busiest as measured by aircraft movement.
  • Eighth busiest in terms of passenger transport.
  • So big it has its own post office, ZIP code, and public services.

And Virgin clearly understands the signifigance of reaching into the DFW metroplex with its 6.5 million plus residents. So much so that Sir Richard Branson himself was present for the opening, and he brought along a surprise guest to entertain the attendees – Willie Nelson!
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Discount Coupon for Trey Ratcliff’s HDR Video Tutorial

November 26, 2010 By 305 Comments

Trey Ratcliff's Horse HDR

Trey Ratcliff's Horse HDR

Do you guys remember when I did the little video of uncrating that magnificent HDR Wall Art that my friend Trey Ratcliff created for me? Or maybe you saw when I posted his awesome video Japan: Heatbeats of Time? Or maybe you’ve just seen some of his awesome photography in general? He’s had over 44 million views on Flickr and 22 million on SmugMug!

Well, I’ve got some good news… Trey now has a NEW downloadable version of his HDR Workshop! And, thanks to the magic of friendship, you can get 10% off any version of the HDR Tutorial using the coupon code: “JOHNPISAGREATGUY“. So feel free to Order the HDR Video Tutorial Now! (Oh, and don’t bother looking for a bigger discount code anywhere. It doesn’t exist, so no need to waste time.)

What’s This All About?

This isn’t any old HDR Tutorial… this video was shot on location in Austin during Trey’s sold-out HDR Workshop which people paid $1,000 to attend. (And I should know… I shot it!)

And lets not forget that Trey Ratcliff is the greatest HDR photographer on the planet, and the first person to ever have an HDR hang in the Smithsonian Museum.
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The Chinese Can Build 15-Story Hotel in Six days! Why Can’t We?

November 22, 2010 By 6 Comments

A construction crew in the south-central Chinese city of Changsha completed a 15-story hotel in just six days! Holy crap! When you take a look at the amazing pace, organization and precision of the work it makes you think that the US absolutely SUCKS at construction!

And by the way, the Chinese aren’t putting up crappy buildings that you wouldn’t want to be caught dead in! Just take a look at the amazing buildings Trey Ratcliff captured on his recent trip to China over on StuckInCustoms.com.

Anyway, here is the description from Yahoo News on this new building:

The work crew erected the hotel — a soundproofed, thermal-insulated structure reportedly built to withstand a magnitude 9 earthquake — with all prefabricated materials. In other words, a crew of off-site factory workers built the sections, and their on-site counterparts arranged them on the foundation for the Ark project.

Despite the frenetic pace of construction, no workers were injured — and thanks to the prefab nature of the process, the builders wasted very few construction materials. Below is a time-lapse video that shows the hotel being built from the ground up in less than a week:

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I Spent The Day With The Blue Angels, and Here Are the Photos

November 4, 2010 By 7 Comments

Cali Lewis, Dave Curlee and I had the good fortune to spend a day with the US Navy Blue Angels at the Alliance Air Show last weekend (thanks to our friend Rachel Medley). Among the highlights was the invitation to actually ride along with the Blue Angels – but not in their standard F/A-18… instead in their C-130 Hercules cargo plane (crewed by an all-Marine Corp staff)!

US Navy Blue Angels C-130 Hercules, Fat Albert

Now, when you first hear this you might be like – that’s awesome! Of course I’d do it! At least that is what I thought. But then I learned that they were going to fly that C-130 the same way they fly those fighter jets! Seriously. Like crazy takeoffs and landings and 60 degree banks, etc. They described it as “worse than a roller coaster”, even though the plane, affectionately named “Fat Albert” weighs 100,000 pounds!
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US Army Golden Knight’s SFC Will Fleming Literally Goes Skydiving!

November 2, 2010 By 3 Comments

On Sunday I had the opportunity to ride along with my friends over at the US Army Golden Knights while they did an exhibition jump at the Alliance Air Show in Ft. Worth, Texas.

I was sitting right in the doorway of the plane so I could get access to shoot the team with my big ass camera as they jumped, and although I’ll be posting a lot more photos this was by far the coolest picture I snapped.

SFC Will Fleming Literally Sky Dives

SFC Will Fleming Literally Sky Dives


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Thieving Pigeon Steals a Bag of Chips! ON VIDEO!!!

October 25, 2010 By 8 Comments

This is awesome! It’s probably as old as the Internet itself, but I have to share this little animated GIF that someone sent me.

I’m guessing that some tourist was filming a pigeon somewhere, because that is what tourists do the first time they see one, but this time they got way more than they bargained for when the pigeon actually walked into a convenience store, grabbed a bag of chips, and took off out the door!

All right, all right. It’s not a pigeon. It’s a seagull! But seagulls are just the pigeons of the sea! Either way, it’s just a flying rat. ;-)

Filed Under: funny, Photography Tagged With: , ,

BlogWorld Las Vegas Photowalk @ 7:30 pm Friday Oct 15, 2010

October 4, 2010 By 10 Comments

Hey folks, it’s that time again! BlogWorld is just a couple of weeks away, so I’m organizing another Photo Walk in Las Vegas for those of you who would like to join in.

This year, we’re going to do something a little different than last year. Since BlogWorld is being held at the Mandalay Bay, we are going to start our walk there, and head on down towards the new City Center. This means we’ll end up at Aria for those who want to go to the MashBash party at Haze.

We’ll meet at the front entrance of Mandalay Bay near the registration desk at 7:30pm and then begin our leisurely walk down the strip, stopping to capture all sorts of interesting photos! Heck, maybe we’ll even reenact the photos that got me banned from Excalibur just for fun!
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Photo: Amazing San Francisco Street Artist

September 18, 2010 By Leave a Comment

My friend (and Woopra partner) Elie Khoury and I were wandering around the Embarcadero in San Francisco when we came across this nice Asian lady who was doing portrait sketches on the sidewalk. She had a client whose picture she was drawing and we were amazed as we sat and watched.

Elie and I started taking snap shots, and eventually we got this one. I thought it was beautiful and wanted to share it with you guys. Hope you enjoy!


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