The Mighty Rocket Rests I had some time during the day while at NASA to visit the Kennedy Space Center. Inside was the insanely huge Saturn V rocket. It's one of those things that would hurt like hell if you dropped it on your toe. The shuttle only has one more launch before it is forever mothballed, like this... The final launch of the Atlantis is on July 8, the first day of my 40th revolution around the sun. That's kinda cool I think... - Trey Ratcliff Read more here 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 > Entering the Forbidden City The Forbidden City sits in the middle of Beijing along an imaginary line called "The Central Axis". Many of the important buildings, temples, and monuments are along this line. It might seem convenient just to walk along this line to see everything you need to see, but this idea only works if you have the mobility of the Genghis Khan cavalry.I had a delightful tea inside the Forbidden City at a secluded and secret tea house with my contacts. It all sounds somewhat cloak & dagger, doesn't it?- Trey RatcliffRead about it here at the Stuck in Customs blog.

StuckInCustoms > Ancient Feng Huang Cheng As many cities in China quickly leapfrog American cities into one technopolis after another, there are still many old, ancient places across the countryside. So, in an effort to find some of the more unique and classical Chinese places, I had to go pretty deep beyond the major cities.This is an old place that maintains its classic charm. It's called Feng Huang, and the old buildings along the river are still up on stilts. They don't build right along the river, since they know every 50 years or so, a major flood clears everything away. In the meantime, locals go on about their business, going down to the river to wash clothes, prepare food, and the like.The entire time I was here, I never saw another white person and did not meet anyone that spoke English. I also suffered a fairly significant injury one morning... will talk about that another time. I'm going to hit a hospital here in Beijing to see what exactly happened! But, most importantly, even though my cameras hit the ground pretty hard, they are all in perfect working condition. Sweet Nikon.- Trey RatcliffRead more here at the Stuck in Customs blog.

StuckInCustoms > The Peony Pavilion at The Imperial Granary I was invited to go see a very special event here in Beijing. There is an old area that has the ancient Imperial Granaries that date back hundreds and hundreds of years. One of these has been converted to an intimate opera house. They bring in some of the best opera actors from all over China to perform here.If you haven't seen a Chinese opera, you are in store for something totally original!This particular performance was called The Peony Pavillion, which was written during the Ming dynasty and is a love story about all kinds of crazy mythical stuff that I don't want to spoil for you. But it's really a must-see if you are into unique forms of entertainment. And you do feel a bit like a time-traveller, watching a scene from hundreds of years ago.Even more interesting, there is a trendy and delicious restaurant next door. Everyone eats together and has a wonderful leisurely meal before meandering over next door to enjoy the opera. It's a great experience!- Trey RatcliffRead the rest of this entry here at the Stuck in Customs blog.

StuckInCustoms > Aerophilia Is aerophilia a word? Probably not. People that are really into planes probably have a very specific word for this, and the "wrong" word probably really irritates them... so I apologize in advance.This wondrous place is the new Air and Space Museum in DC. I thought I knew a lot about planes until I got here. I would recognize this and that, but the whole gestalt of the place was completely overwhelming. Overwhelming in an awesome way, of course.I only took the Nikon D3S in here (see my Nikon D3S Review) because they would not allow tripods. The D3S is so much better at quick shots with low noise. All of my HDRs in here were handheld, so I had to be sure that I took the photos quickly and with very little noise.- Trey RatcliffClick here to read the rest of this post at the Stuck in Customs blog.

StuckInCustoms > The Mighty Rocket Rests
I had some time during the day while at NASA to visit the Kennedy Space Center. Inside was the insanely huge Saturn V rocket. It's one of those things that would hurt like hell if you dropped it on your toe.

The shuttle only has one more launch before it is forever mothballed, like this... The final launch of the Atlantis is on July 8, the first day of my 40th revolution around the sun. That's kinda cool I think...

- Trey Ratcliff

Read more here at the Stuck in Customs blog.

StuckInCustoms > The Surf in LA as Night Passes There's this moment in California when the sun hits the horizon that I am quite sure most of the natives take for granted. The gradation of sky from the burning sun to the deep blues can only be really appreciated if you swing your head around and purge your short-term memory. The effect is not dissimilar to the optical illusion of the giant full moon on some evenings, seemingly magnified by our inability to establish a frame of reference. I think something along those lines happens with color as the sun dips. You can see this from space, as the sudden band from light to dark rips around the earth -- that same viewing cone can be seen from anywhere on the surface, and it can be best noticed in places like LA, with the nearly infinite horizon.- Trey RatcliffClick here to read the rest of this post at the Stuck in Customs blog.

StuckInCustoms > Sunflowers at Sunset This photo was much harder to take than it might seem!First of all, these sunflowers are tall - and I mean tall! They must be between 6 and 7 feet in the air. I was on the ground with them, so, of course, I was looking UP at them. No one wants to see a shot like that...!So, I put the camera on the tripod, set the timer to 5 seconds, extended the legs, set the manual settings correct, then jacked the whole thing in the air, holding it rock steady while it took the exposure. Getting a steady horizon while holding the camera 12 feet in the air is not easy... and after a number of takes, my shoulders were just about spent for the rest of the night.- Trey RatcliffClick here to read the rest of this post at the Stuck in Customs blog.

StuckInCustoms > The British Museum So, this museum has the Rosetta Stone -- what else do you need to know? And if it's got that, you know it has some other amazing things as well. I spent two days there -- one shooting and one exploring! Okay, well, both shooting.When the whole class went inside, there were a ton of us with tripods. We gathered around outside before we went in with our gameplan. Our strategy was simple: "Spread out and shoot. They can't catch us all." So we did exactly that and flew to the four winds. The guards were on their earphones nonstop trying to figure out what was happening with this flash mob. They would catch one, then run to the next, then the next. They got confused on who that had told to stop and who they hadn't, so it was easy to be a repeat offender. In the end, no one was thrown out... it's sort of a testament to not worrying about it all... just go for it!- Trey RatcliffClick here to read the rest of this post at the Stuck in Customs blog.

StuckInCustoms > The Gladiator Arena at Sunset While visiting Fabien in Nimes, there was a bullfight going on inside this ancient Roman gladiator arena. The further south you go in France, the more likely you are to find the old influence of the Spanish bullfights. It's pretty violent, yes? Yes. In fact, if you zoom in, you can still see blood that has been smeared across the arena by the smearing-truck.Once the crowd started to clear out, a perfect sunset settled upon us. It was just Fabien, my wife, and I, and it was a very nice night. After the bullfight, we walked around to take a lot of photos of this amazing evening, Fabien took us to his favorite little secret French restaurant down one of the side streets. Perfect!- Trey RatcliffClick here to read the rest of this post at the Stuck in Customs blog.

StuckInCustoms > The Golden Pavilion (or Kinkaku-ji for my new Japanese friends)This is one of the most famous temples in Kyoto, so of course I had to go. It's sort of like going to the Eiffel Tower in Paris or Rudy's BBQ in Austin.It was originally built back in 1397 and has been destroyed and rebuilt several times. The building itself is as meticulous as the gardens around it. The Japanese really know how to tend a garden! There was a fleet of workers all over the grounds, sweeping up and rearranging little bits here and there. It was all very quaint and wonderful.- Trey RatcliffClick here to read the rest of this post at the Stuck in Customs blog.

StuckInCustoms > A Razor to the Sky As is the case with every day here, I have also included a photo. This is of the indomitable Fitz Roy at sunrise buried deep in the Andes, in the hinterland between Argentina and Chile. To get this shot, it was none too easy! First, I "woke" up after a sleepless night in a two-man tent with Yuri. It was perhaps the worst night of my life and I've never had a panic attack before, but I honestly felt like I was pretty close. The smell combined with the pitch black, the snoring, the freezing cold, and the tiny tent was almost more than I could bear!I woke up around 4:30 AM with -7 Celsius temperatures. It was bitter cold. I got dressed QUICKLY in the pitch black cold and then headed off with two of my Russian friends to begin scaling the mountain. They had lights on their hats; I did not. I walked between them, trying not to slip on the icy "trail" between the dodging shadows cast by their headlights. I'll never forget it for the rest of my life. We ascended 1,500 feet in less than 45 minutes so we could catch the pink rays of sunrise just as they hit the peaks.Last, I have been interviewed about photography and more on the Pro Photo Show. It's a free podcast that you can listen to if you want to know more about the process or just hear me ramble on about stuff you may or may not find interesting!- Trey RatcliffClick here to read the rest of this post at the Stuck in Customs blog.

StuckInCustoms > Approaching the Glacier after a Stormy Sunrise We left while it was still dark to reach this spot by the morning. The glacier is already a deadly blue, but the morning light gets into the nooks and crannies and makes the blue reflect around like an argon laser.It was really cold when I took this. And raining. And windy. I had a panoply of towels, rags, and other drying agents in various pockets, constantly wiping down the lens. I also had the sweet lady D3X inside of a clear plastic bag to protect it from the whipping rain. Every 30 minutes or so, I could hear an ungodly creaking and ripping of ice as another cleaved off into the water below. I understand if there was going to be a huge piece cleave off that the splash could actually make it all the way to me. I both wanted it to happen and didn't want it to happen at the same time. I think my indecision made it not happen.- Trey RatcliffClick here to read the rest of this post at the Stuck in Customs blog.

StuckInCustoms > The 57 Chevy This is a shot of a '57 Chevy. I saw it when walking back to the Magnolia Hotel on Friday night after dinner in Dallas. I took a photo of this pretty car under the blue lights of the porte-cochere, went upstairs to my room, downloaded the Topaz Bundle software, made the adjustments, and had the whole thing finished in less than 30 minutes. That quick turnaround speaks to how easy the software is to use. I've since used it on a number of other images, including some unpublished ones.- Trey RatcliffClick here to read the rest of this post at the Stuck in Customs blog.

StuckInCustoms > Aurorus Reflectus Colosseo Ahhh Rome! I love it there. Everywhere I walked was filled with art and inspiration. One of my hobbies is ancient Roman history, so the city had forever held a mythical romanticism place in my mind. I have a bad (good) habit of circumnavigating structures before taking photos to find the right angle. I say bad because some of these structures are so big that it's a major commitment to walk around the thing. Finally, however, it paid off and I found some wet pavement just outside one of the subways.That purple streak in the upper left is very mysterious. I don't really remember what happened during the shot to cause that, but it was an unexpected and pleasant surprise.- Trey RatcliffClick here to read the rest of this post at the Stuck in Customs blog.

The Mighty Rocket Rests

I had some time during the day while at NASA to visit the Kennedy Space Center. Inside was the insanely huge Saturn V rocket. It's one of those things that would hurt like hell if you dropped it on your toe.

The shuttle only has one more launch before it is forever mothballed, like this... The final launch of the Atlantis is on July 8, the first day of my 40th revolution around the sun. That's kinda cool I think...

- Trey Ratcliff

Read more here at the Stuck in Customs blog.

The Mighty Rocket Rests

Camera: Nikon Corporation (Nikon D3x) |

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