La Basilique du Sacre Coeur de Montmatre This is a famous basilica in Paris. It sits high on a hill and is beautifully lit in the evening. This is the birthplace of the Jesuits back in 1534. That is only interesting to me because I was a Jesuit student myself back in the day. You would think that would mean that I would be allowed to come inside to take all the photos I want with a special key that everyone gets upon graduation. But I had no such key so I was forced to stay on the perimeter with all the other heathens.- Trey RatcliffClick here to read the rest of this post 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 > The Batmobile Everyone likes the Batmobile yes? It's especially cool when you see one on the side of the road in Texas that some comic-book redneck has souped up to be something that is on the edge of street-legal. I jumped out quick to grab a shot before the owner could come out and hit me with some sort of a 2x4, which I only assumed me might be carrying. Actually, you never know... around Austin it's just as likely to be a doctor or lawyer (assuming one of those two to be an honorable, upstanding profession!(also notice the nice only-in-Texas trailer hitch on the back)- Trey RatcliffClick here to read the rest of this post at the Stuck in Customs blog.

StuckInCustoms > A Carousel in France It was just past 10 PM on the wet streets of Paris as I was getting lost on purpose around the streets near the Church of the Sacred Heart. I bobbed and weaved through various little alleys, streets, and tiny bakeries (where I would just have to stop for a moment), before finding my way to this little faire. There was a small carousel spinning away with tiny little French children screaming wonderful things...- Trey RatcliffClick here to read the rest of this post at the Stuck in Customs blog.

StuckInCustoms > La Basilique du Sacre Coeur de Montmatre This is a famous basilica in Paris. It sits high on a hill and is beautifully lit in the evening. This is the birthplace of the Jesuits back in 1534. That is only interesting to me because I was a Jesuit student myself back in the day. You would think that would mean that I would be allowed to come inside to take all the photos I want with a special key that everyone gets upon graduation. But I had no such key so I was forced to stay on the perimeter with all the other heathens.- Trey RatcliffClick here to read the rest of this post at the Stuck in Customs blog.

StuckInCustoms > Grooming and Bugs I found this male and female doing a bit of grooming just outside of the jungles of Cambodia. I've taken photos of a lot of monkeys. They are all over SE Asia and India, so I always pay special attention to them. I suppose that, as a Westerner, I'm just used to seeing monkeys in zoos. So whenever I see them running all over creation, it always makes me laugh. I chase 'em around and take photos like a nut. These two, however, I snuck up on. It's not easy to sneak up on a monkey, mind you. But these two were really into each other. I did a low approach like a Navy SEAL to get as close as I could. The female noticed me at the last second, and I grabbed this shot before they started to run away.This was shot at 70mm, which was maximum zoom for my 28-70mm lens. The f-stop was at 2.8, which allows me as much light as possible in a tight focus plane. I kept the ISO at 100 for a clean shot with no noise. There was enough light for a quick shutter speed of 1/250.- Trey RatcliffClick here to read the rest of this post at the Stuck in Customs blog.

StuckInCustoms > The River that Ran Through Lyon at Midnight I walked around Lyon at midnight with a Russian friend. He saw me walking with my camera attached to my tripod and the strap hanging down. He winced, saying he saw one of his friend's cameras just drop off the head and crash to the ground. He forced me to wrap the strap around the tripod just in case... and I still do that to this day, thinking about is disapproving Russian scowl. I don't need to see that it my mind's eye...Trey's Tip: I like HDR for many reasons. In this case, I really like how it ghosted he water and made it look quite painterly.- Trey RatcliffClick here to read the rest of this post at the Stuck in Customs blog.

StuckInCustoms > Ice Skating at Rockefeller Center After I went to the top, I visited the bottom of Rockefeller center, where the famous ice-skating rests. The huge lights on both sides of the tower created a cool purple streaming light that exploded out of both sides of the building, making for a very cool effect (at least I think so!).- Trey RatcliffClick here to read the rest of this post at the Stuck in Customs blog.

StuckInCustoms > Meditation It's sort of hard to find time to meditate nowadays, eh? I mean, there is a lot of stuff going on. I wonder if the old-school Buddhists would be as good at meditating if they had broadband. It's quite easy to distract yourself online. By the way, I'd like to take this opportunity to thank you for distracting yourself with the blog! I guess I'm happy to be a source of distraction for you.And, should you find the inspiration to meditate a little, maybe this shot from Siem Reap, Cambodia will help.- Trey RatcliffClick here to read the rest of this post at the Stuck in Customs blog.

StuckInCustoms > The Hidden Buddhist Temple of Borobudur at Sunrise This morning I got a wakeup call at 3:30 AM to head out on a distant trek to Borobudur to climb the temple before sunrise. I had a flashlight and a fully loaded iPod for the ascent. I stayed at the top and all around the temple for most of the morning, collecting shots here and there as misty clouds rolled in, through, around, and over the temple.This temple laid abandoned and overgrown for about 800 years until it was rediscovered by the British.You can see the distant volcano rumbing in the morning sunrise...- Trey RatcliffClick here to read the rest of this post at the Stuck in Customs blog.

StuckInCustoms > A Giraffe on the Savannah Our giant reticulated friend, unable to articulate, was forced to gesticulate in the most ridiculous manner.- Trey RatcliffClick here to read the rest of this post at the Stuck in Customs blog.

StuckInCustoms > The State Capitol of Texas at Dusk I went down on Saturday evening to do some shooting around Austin and caught the capitol around sunset. There are all kinds of interesting things about the Texas capitol, like this cool underground Illuminati chamber you can see here, but the one thing that all Texans seem to know is that our capitol is 14 feet taller than the one in D.C. This is a source of pride for Texans, along with the cool and trivial fact that we maintain, in our state constitution, the right to secede from the Union.The capitol is made out of this pink granite, and it gets a little pinker at night at soon as they turn on the lights, especially against the blue sky.- Trey RatcliffClick here to read the rest of this post at the Stuck in Customs blog.

StuckInCustoms > La Ville de Paris Gets Ready for Night I was on the hill in the Montmartre part of Paris just after the sun had set. I pointed the camera over the sprawl of the city just as the lights were coming on for the evening. I made it my personal mission to walk down into the city that evening, meander around, and visit at least three pastry shops and eat a silly number of desserts. I tricked myself into thinking that I might be burning a lot of calories by doing so much walking. It's amazing how easily I was able to justify French desserts.Trey's Tip: While taking photos, it's good to have a few side-quests to keep an eye out for. In my case, it's eating pastries. This is not the healthiest side-goal, but it's a fun one! Anyway, my point is that you don't just have to be a "photography machine" -- you can always do a few things at the same time to enrich the overall experience.- Trey RatcliffClick here to read the rest of this post at the Stuck in Customs blog.

StuckInCustoms > The Morning Steam Through the Forest in Yellowstone I woke up just before 5 AM today so I could get out there and do some sunrise shooting. It was a great morning and I found all kinds of interesting spots. I drove by a bank of trees that had some steam from a nearby river flowing through them... and it looked so cool that I hiked around the forest to find a nice configuration of trees and steamy fog.I was exhausted after shooting most of the day. I drove over the the Firehole River to have a swim. There was no one else around, and I didn't have a swimsuit, so I just went in my undies. This seemed like a great idea until my underwear ripped on a rock. This, combined with very sensitive feet that make me look crazy when walking on a rocky shore, made for quite a scene.- Trey RatcliffClick here to read the rest of this post at the Stuck in Customs blog.

StuckInCustoms > Exploring the Valleys Beyond the Fjords of Akureyri I had always wanted to visit fjords ever since reading The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy as a kid... picturing Slartibartfast carving them up was something that always stuck in my mind. The first ones I got to visit were in Iceland after I went up north to stay in Akureyri for a few days. I had actually intended to go one place that my friend Helga suggested, but I ended up getting lost, which is okay enough. This fjord valley kept going and going as the sun started to rise over the edges. I pulled over every few miles whenever the moment seemed right to shoot, and it seemed right so often!- Trey RatcliffClick here to read the rest of this post at the Stuck in Customs blog.

StuckInCustoms > The Parisian Boulevard Where I Should Not Have Been Standing While I was working on this, I was thinking how nice it would be to have someone near me who could speak French... I always love the sound of it, and the words can make matters seem ephemerally okay.Paris is one of those places where the streets are always a little wet, at least in my head. If they are wet, then they are slippery and traffic will be crazy... so it sounded like a capital idea to go out into the middle of the Champs-Élysées to get a quick one!- Trey RatcliffClick here to read the rest of this post at the Stuck in Customs blog.

StuckInCustoms > Where to Party in Vegas If you want to see how I made this (and how you can too!), visit my HDR Tutorial. I hope it gives you some new tricks!I just recently got back from Las Vegas and betwixt a panoply of activities that kept my mental faculties on edge, I did manage to go out and get some photos, of course. At least I am assured that these always turn out winners!I stayed in THE Hotel (perhaps it's called THEhotel). I think you are supposed to capitalize that THE. Before going, I thought it was just "the" hotel at Mandalay but now I know it's much different.... It was a great place and probably the best of 7 or 8 hotels I have stayed there. Although 2 or 3 of those should barely be on the list...This is a shot of the restaurant area of Club Mix, which sits on the top floor of THE Hotel. I was able to see so many cool places there -- I hardly knew which to process first! ...more coming in the next weeks and months!- Trey RatcliffClick here to read the rest of this post at the Stuck in Customs blog.

La Basilique du Sacre Coeur de Montmatre

This is a famous basilica in Paris. It sits high on a hill and is beautifully lit in the evening. This is the birthplace of the Jesuits back in 1534. That is only interesting to me because I was a Jesuit student myself back in the day. You would think that would mean that I would be allowed to come inside to take all the photos I want with a special key that everyone gets upon graduation. But I had no such key so I was forced to stay on the perimeter with all the other heathens.

- Trey Ratcliff

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