Lady Gaga at the Polaroid booth at CES

When I walked by the Polaroid booth yesterday, I thought to myself, “Hmm. I should go by their booth to see why they still exist.” Instead, I walked to the Canon booth (next door) and started looking at the prints in one of their displays. About half an hour later, Lady Gaga appeared at the Polaroid booth to unveil a few new products: a portable printer, some sort of camera, and glasses with an embedded camera (the first, they claim, but they were beaten by the Liquid Image Goggles long ago). She took a picture of the audience with her Blackberry, yelled “You’re fucking famous!” and printed the photo out on the portable printer.

Apparently, Lady Gaga is the new Creative Director at Polaroid. I find this to be totally bizarre — and, distracting. I’m not even a fan of her music, but I was so distracted by her presence and the huge crowd around her that I still have no idea what the new Polaroid camera is or does.

Pam and I are in Taiwan for our post-honeymoon wedding banquet. Happy new year, everyone!

The fireworks at Taipei 101 were short, but somewhat spectacular. I imagine that it would have been really impressive from close up, but my mother and I were unwilling to brave the insane crowds and stayed one MRT stop away.

It is still 30 minutes from the new year back in San Francisco. Weather reports claim that it might rain tonight. I hope the fireworks aren’t cancelled! (read more »)

A snow monkey stares over the edge of a hot spring (Japanese macaque, Macaca fuscata). Jigokudani Yaen-Koen in Yamanouchi, Japan.

During our honeymoon, Pam and I spent a full day in the snowy mountains near Nagano photographing Japanese macaques. The so-called “snow monkeys” are a troupe of around 160 macaques that soak themselves in an onsen (hot spring) about 40 minutes up a mountain (on foot) from Shibu Onsen, a historic hot spring area in Yamanouchi, Nagano prefecture, Japan.

Although I had seen images of these macaques for years, actually being there to photograph them in person was really special. The macaques I’ve interacted with in other places of the world seem to be focused on getting food (and hats, and sunglasses, etc.) from tourists, but these macaques completely ignored us. Sure, there were one or two aggressive individuals who didn’t like eye contact, but we could literally stand a few inches away from the rest of them without incident.

When we arrived at Shibu Onsen, I was worried because very little snow had fallen. Luckily, snow poured out of the heavens overnight and throughout the entire next day. We awoke to more than 6″ of fresh snow on the ground — perfect, for photography.

I plan on writing a comprehensive guide on photographing snow monkeys soon. Until then, enjoy these photos! (read more »)

Pam, me, and snow monkeys @ Jigokudani Yaen-Koen, Japan

Happy holidays! Pam and I spent 7 hours on Christmas eve in the snow hanging out with Japanese macaques — the so-called “snow monkeys.” It was awesome. Will post photos as soon as can. :)

There will be a full lunar eclipse tonight — a rare occurrence on the winter solstice. I photographed the full lunar eclipse three years ago, which was an interesting photographic exercise because I didn’t have access to a proper tripod that night.

total lunar eclipse on august 28, 2007

I was planning on staying up to photograph tonight’s lunar event, but it appears that San Francisco has other plans for those of us who live here…

Beautiful Dendronephthya soft corals ring a window in a boulder

During the 30-day trip to Indonesia I’m currently writing from, I’ve focused on taking still images and video with my insect eye setup (wide-angle macro) and a 3D underwater housing. I didn’t even bring a traditional wide-angle dome port, which has made it a little frustrating to be diving in some of the healthiest reefs in the world. Luckily, Don Kehoe is here and lent me his wide-angle rig for 3 dives. I went down and banged out some colorful reef images — felt like I was at home again. :)

Riri and me at Misool Eco Resort

It is really rewarding to be accepted by a wild bird, even if the basis of trust is based on food.

A lightning storm under a sky full of stars. Raja Ampat, Indonesia.

The night sky is amazing here in Raja Ampat, Indonesia. Aside from the occasional live-aboard dive vessel, the Misool Eco-Resort is the only source of light pollution for miles and miles, and the lights at the resort aren’t bright enough to really cause problems. Point a camera at the sky on any clear night, and you get magic.

A pair of warty frogfish (Antennarius maculatus). The female is heavily laden with eggs.

We saw nearly 20 different frogfish while we were in Ambon, including warty frogfish, painted frogfish, striated frogfish and more. This female warty is full of eggs. You can see the tiny little male sitting on top of her.

A false clown anemonefish (Amphiprion ocellaris) aerates and cleans her eggs next to her host anemone. Ambon, Indonesia.

Most seasoned underwater photographers are inexplicably drawn to photograph anemonefish even though they already have hundreds of pictures of them. It is extremely difficult to get an image of an anemonefish that someone else hasn’t already captured. I took this shot with the INON insect-eye lens, which allowed me to capture the tiny fish and egg patch along with the anemone and background.

Coleman’s shrimp pair on a fire urchin, originally uploaded by echeng.

Coleman’s shrimp (Periclimenes colmani), a beautiful commensal shrimp that lives in pairs on fire urchins (Asthenosoma varium), are fairly common in Ambon. Fire urchins are typically found here at depths of 60-90 feet, and about one out of 20 will have at least one of three kinds of commensal crustacea living on them.

Using the INON insect eye lens (Underwater Micro Semi-Fisheye Relay Lens UFL-MR130 EFS60), I was able to capture two Coleman’s shrimp in a valley of fire urchin spines. Shots taken with traditional lenses cannot capture the colorful environment in which these shrimp live.

Pregnant harlequin swimming crab (Lissocarcinus laevis), Ambon, Indonesia, originally uploaded by echeng.

The most well-known dive site in Ambon is called Laha. Laha is known as “Twilight Zone” by the folks who first dove it – and for good reason: its mucky slope is packed full of the strange and outrageous. When we came here in April of 2009, we enjoyed the site so much that we spent 6 full days diving its mucky slope.

The new moon is approaching, and everywhere in Ambon, animals have aggregated to spawn. In a single large hole in the reef, we saw 4 large stonefish fidgeting about with their heads nearly touching. Many of the critters we are finding down there are stuffed full of eggs. During a midnight dive last night, I spotted a pregnant harlequin swimming crab (Lissocarcinus laevis) hiding under some sort of tube anemone. After a few minutes, the crab walked out slowly from under her protective umbrella and extended her brood pouch – a sure sign that she was about to release eggs. After 4 minutes of gentle egg aeration, she sprang into the water column without warning, releasing all of her eggs in a few seconds of spastic gyration. This photo was taken moments before she released her eggs.

Panda anemonefish eggs (Amphiprion polymus), Ambon, Indonesia, originally uploaded by echeng.

The Wetpixel Ambon Night Safari is underway in full force; we are doing 3 night dives each evening and are enjoying being immersed in a soup of the bizarre creatures that inhabit the waters of Ambon, including discarded diapers, tampons and other desirable subjects. Unfortunately, the nasty stuff thrown into the bay is part of what creates such an interesting underwater habitat.

Most of our group is shooting with standard macro rigs, but there are 3 insect eye relay lenses here at the resort. Julian and I are both shooting INON lenses, and Tony has a custom job from Japan. They can be incredibly frustrating to use, but successful images often describe scenes that have never before been seen. The photo in this post is a screen grab from HD video taken with my Canon 7D and insect eye lens. The main subject, a mass of eggs from a panda anemonefish (Amphiprion polymus), is normally photographed using a super-macro setup. Using an insect eye lens, I was able to capture video of both the tiny eggs and attentive parent fish. Each egg houses a late-stage baby anemonefish, an in the video, you can see tiny hearts beating and eyes moving.

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charging, charging, charging…

Before I leave for a trip, I always pre-charge all of my batteries. This is about half of what I normally charge. I can’t wait until everything is inductive or parasitic!

Fuji’s product page for the FinePix REAL 3D W1 lists a “High-resolution 3D Print System” which W1 owners can theoretically take advantage of for ordering 3D lenticular prints.

I tried to order a couple 3D prints today, and I’d bet money that Fuji barely ever sells any 3D prints. (read more »)

David Smith just posted an interview of me in the online photography magazine, Small Aperture. There are a few of my (current) favorite photos that go along with the article.

Shark bite! Lemon shark at the surface (Negaprion brevirostris). Bahamas “lemon snap.”

I found these old images while looking through my shark library yesterday. Ahh, the good ol’ days… (read more »)

A 6-month old blue whale fetus lies in the rocks at Bean Hollow State Beach

Yesterday, I drove down to Bean Hollow State Beach (just south of Pescadero Beach at (37.227072, -122.410529 to see the dead 80-foot blue whale that washed ashore last Tuesday. Scientists found at least three fractured vertebrae and hemorrhaging in the whale’s belly, concluding that she may have died as a result of a strike from a large boat. A 6-month old fetus was ejected at some point during the last moments of the whale’s life and was found not far from its 75-ton mother. The baby was pure white — beautiful, really, and a stark contrast to the black rocks upon which it rested. (read more »)

The carcass of a dead 80-foot blue whale (Balaenoptera musculus) in northern California. Scientists suspect the whale was struck by a large boat before beaching itself. The whale ejected a fetus before she died. The fetus was on the beach not far from the mother.