Helga's Farm in Iceland My friend Helga has been wonderful enough to invite me to her farm in Iceland many times. It's always a fun trip up to the north to see her. But, I always get a little lost. Finding the particular-turn-in along this fjord is constantly a source of confusion, especially at night. I don't know why it is so difficult to me, because after I get there it is plain as day. And I'm sure all Icelanders think I am crazy... but it's like a hidden door, fey and fleeting with the light, and you can only see it during certain portals of time.Once you get on the little dirt road to her farm this is what you see.- Trey RatcliffClick here to read the rest of this entry at the Stuck in Customs blog. - Trey Ratcliff | Stuck In Customs

Thank you again for all the comments and feedback - much appreciated and I read them all! A lot of requests come in for my tutorial about how I do these shots - you can find it here: HDR Tutorial

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StuckInCustoms > Country Home in French Meadow
This beautiful little country home sits in the meadows and gardens of Versailles. I've taken a few photos around this estate, and I really like this arch with the ivy. It made me want to have an arch with ivy at my own house!This was taken with the trusty old 14-24mm lens from Nikon. I tend to use this lens about 30% of the time I think. Most of the time nowadays, I use the 28-300mm with a few percentage points in there for the 50mm and 85mm prime.- Trey RatcliffClick here to read the rest of the entry at the Stuck in Customs blog.

StuckInCustoms > Zermatt in the Evening
This is one of my favorite times of night while traveling. It's that blue dusk after a long day. I'm hungry and tired and just trying to capture a little bit more light before finding some food for the night.This is the town of Zermatt, a cozy little mountain village nestled up in the Alps. It's charming and filled with all the sorts of things you would hope would fill a little mountain town.- Trey RatcliffClick here to read the rest of this entry at the Stuck in Customs blog.

StuckInCustoms > The Impossible Bridge I took this photo out the window of the train I was on – the same train you can see in the photo! This is the Glacier Express, a crazy-awesome train that goes through the Alps and connects Zermatt and St. Moritz. It was recommended by many nice people here on the blog, and here I am re-recommending it! :)- Trey RatcliffClick here to read the rest of this post at the Stuck in Customs blog.

StuckInCustoms > Little Church in Yosemite
While in the meadows between the mountains of Yosemite, I did not expect to see this little church.And waiting for the right kind of light was another challenge. The light down in the valley is so strange. The sheer walls of the mountains on both sides are so steep that the sun disappears quite early in the day. Everything becomes a little-bit-dreamy then, and I felt like that was a good time to take the shot.- Trey RatcliffClick here to read the rest of this entry at the Stuck in Customs blog.

StuckInCustoms > Walking in the Park
Instead of describing this photo, I'll talk about a little trick. See how the background is all blurry and quite flat (not complex)? This happens when you use a very low number for your F-Stop. In this case, it was 1.4 on the 50mm 1.4 lens - although this would have also worked with the more inexpensive 1.8 lens. Anyway, if the person (or object) you are shooting is a lot closer to you than the distant background, the entire area back there will be very washed-out and flat. Behind her, there was actually a lot of complexity. There was a park with trees and sky and lights and everything, but it all gets washed away with this technique.- Trey RatcliffClick here to read the rest of this entry at the Stuck in Customs blog.

StuckInCustoms > Little Beijing
While at the top of one of new towers built for the Olympics, I was able to get a good vantage back towards different parts of the city. Beijing is so spread out -- there does not seem to be a central focus in the traditional "skyscraper" sense. I've taken a few other downtown shots you might recall (click on the"Beijing" category), but this spot was kind of cool and unique because of this tower I was in.I happened to be outside with Joe McNally, after we finally convinced the officials to let us get beyond the inside and dirty windows. We were out in the "5th ring" where many Olympic venues were built. And so, here was this huge tower in the outskirts, looking back towards the city. It seemed like a good situation for a zoom-in compression shot.- Trey RatcliffClick here to read the rest of this entry at the Stuck in Customs blog.

StuckInCustoms > San Francisco Cemetery
Right after I got into San Francisco, I went into the YouTube offices for a meeting. Their offices were quite cool! It wasn't entirely what I was expecting, but I don't know what I was expecting. The team there was nice and welcoming, and they were already fans, so that made it easy.Anyway, after the meeting, I went across the street (literally a 10 min walk!) over to this old cemetery that had charming trees scattered about. I was just in time for the sunset...- Trey RatcliffClick here to read the rest of this entry on the Stuck in Customs blog.

StuckInCustoms > The Caves of Despair
We haven't done one of these in a while! You guys are SO good, that it is almost useless to try to stump you... but I will try one more time... and here we go... with a most mysterious cave... but where is the smoke monster?- Trey RatcliffClick here to read the rest of this entry on the Stuck in Customs blog.

StuckInCustoms > Lighthouse on Roanoke Island at Sunset Ahhhh - finally a good sunset! I keep track of the sunsets like an insane meteorologist combined with a native-American shaman. I do my best to look at each day and figure out how things will end up that evening. Predicting more than a day ahead is almost impossible, unless you are at a special place on the planet around a certain type of year.On this day in North Carolina, I knew that the late afternoon storm was a small cell, and it would pass quickly, perhaps letting the sun peak beneath the clouds to light them from the bottom. And, to my satisfaction, it actually happened!- Trey RatcliffClick here to read the rest of this entry at the Stuck in Customs blog.

StuckInCustoms > Yosemite Valley View
My first trip to Yosemite was so fun!I've been to Yellowstone about a dozen times, so it was strange never to have a trip to Yosemite under my belt. Yellowstone is great and everything, but it lacks a few of these "epic" scenes, if you know what I mean.- Trey RatcliffClick here to read the rest at the Stuck in Customs blog.

StuckInCustoms > The Dance Recital
I feel like I go to about 20 dance recitals a year! If you have a daughter in dance, then you know what I mean.This was a cold one, and I mean supa-cold. It was about 20 degrees outside, and then recital was, for some reason, outside. I was going to go sit down and cover up, but the blanket was only big enough for the rest of the family. So I decided to keep moving and take a lot of photos. I went back behind the crowd to get this one just before the show began...- Trey RatcliffClick here to read the rest of this post, including my thoughts about dance recital photography policies, at the Stuck in Customs blog.

StuckInCustoms > Oak on Winter Sunrise
I hiked through a frost-covered meadow in the morning to get up under this tree. And it was one of those meadows with very long grasses that formed little frosty mounds. They gave way with each step with the sound of a tiny crunch that spring back up after you pass. But the moisture is so light and cool, it is not even noticed until you look down and see your shoes have a slick coating of their own.I then got up underneath this old oak tree with my wide-angle lens, aiming it in the direction of the rising sun. Because I was so deep in the valley, the sun did not crest for another three hours, but the light dithered in different ways the whole time.- Trey RatcliffClick here to read the rest of this post, including some SXSW info, at the Stuck in Customs blog.

StuckInCustoms > The Deep Icy Lake
Lake Wakatipu, cut by glaciers 15,000 years ago, plummets to 399 meters in depth (almost a quarter-mile)! There is something creepy about very-deep lakes. I don't know what it is. I mean, anything could be down there. Something cold, old, and terrible... slithering around through a slurry of icy mud and grit, just waiting to shoot to the surface for a snack...- Trey RatcliffClick here to read the rest of this post, including some SXSW info, at the Stuck in Customs blog.

StuckInCustoms > A Great Day at the Google HQ! Wow that was a cool experience. Those guys and gals over there are super-nice. You never know... I guess maybe Google seems somewhat intimidating from the outside, but after I met guys like Cliff, Brian, and Chip -- I felt right at home.I gave an hour-long talk in one of their theaters there. It was super-packed and people were standing all around because seats were gone. We were graced with the presence of one Sara Jane Todd from @Peachpit to help out selling books - and we sold out! Also, my Brazilian friend Fabio, the editor of Abduzeedo was there too, so it was great to see him.The Authors@Google (video link) program has a neat deal where they subsidize books, so Googlers don't have to pay full price. I saw all kinds of cool stuff and took a lot of pics. I have to get most cleared with Google Corp Comms before I can release... but I nabbed shots of a spaceship, a new pseudo-holodeck, and more mysteries await! We even got to eat lunch there in the Google cafeteria, which had some of the most excellent food I've ever had in such a setting... they even have a small organic farm on the campus... well, I could go on and on... but I was very impressed and happy to meet so many enthusiastic people!The video should be done in the next 2-3 weeks or so. We've got good-man Brian at Google slaving away on editing the whole thing together!- Trey RatcliffClick here to read the rest of this post at the Stuck in Customs blog.

Helga's Farm in Iceland

My friend Helga has been wonderful enough to invite me to her farm in Iceland many times. It's always a fun trip up to the north to see her. But, I always get a little lost. Finding the particular-turn-in along this fjord is constantly a source of confusion, especially at night. I don't know why it is so difficult to me, because after I get there it is plain as day. And I'm sure all Icelanders think I am crazy... but it's like a hidden door, fey and fleeting with the light, and you can only see it during certain portals of time.

Once you get on the little dirt road to her farm this is what you see.

- Trey Ratcliff

Click here to read the rest of this entry at the Stuck in Customs blog.