Bilbo's Hobbit Hole and the Party Tree in the Shire I showed my 8-year-old son all the Lord of the Rings movies prior to our trip to NZ. He then re-watched the first one three times on the car trip... so he was just as excited as I when we arrived.You might remember Bilbo Baggins' hobbit hole and all the scenes with Frodo and Gandalf inside. That is it right there, on the right hand side at the top. The huge tree on the left is the "party tree", which was the centerpiece for the big party for Bilbo's birthday. It was the one of the main reasons that Peter Jackson chose this remote farm outside of Matamata on the North Island.- 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 > Shopping in Tokyo at Night
My first night in Tokyo, I was so revved up that I went out to do a lot of night shooting! The streets were wet, and that is perfect for colorful cities at night. I found this unique gem not far from Rappongi.The only bad thing is the occasional drizzle. I love my 14-24 lens -- but it seems to get wet so easily with that gnarly bulbous lens. I just wipe it down with my shirt.... that doesn't seem like the best thing to do, but it works well enough!- Trey RatcliffClick here to read the rest of this post at the Stuck in Customs blog.

StuckInCustoms > The Icy Cave at the Franz Josef Glacier I've had an amazing time so far in New Zealand. I'm here for about a month with my family. On a recent evening, my 8-year-old son and I went on a decent hike to the base of the Franz Josef Glacier on towards the west coast of the southern island. Once we got close to it, we could see the icy blue cave where a glacial-white river emerged. Awesome! My son looked at me and said, "Wow. I feel like we just discovered Atlantis!"In truth, we stayed way too late. This was a good 1.5 km from the car, and it was pretty dark. By the time we got back, it was totally dark except for the moonlight that helped guide us home. I had a flashlight hanging off my camera "just in case", but, as case would have it, the flashlight fell off into the glacial river!- Trey RatcliffClick here to read the rest of this post at the Stuck in Customs blog.

StuckInCustoms > Hans Zimmer's Studio I don't know if words do it justice, but I hope these photos do. The studio is even bigger than I thought, and I was reminded of the Crimson Lounge in Chicago. In fact, I pulled up the image on my laptop there on the table to compare textures and light. I thought everything worked well together -- the decadence and richness of the decorations integrated with the technology. I don't know if there is a word for such a look... It's something out of a Phillip Pullman novel, somewhere between Steampunk and Techno-boudoir. Again, words fail.The first two photos I have placed on Flickr. You can click on them to go to Flickr and then zoom into the full-res size. Amazing details -- especially in the chair photo. I'll post more in coming weeks, months, and years, as usual. So, stay tuned... my ongoing quest continues!- Trey RatcliffClick here to read the rest of this post at the Stuck in Customs blog.

StuckInCustoms > Big Sur in the Morning 5:30 AM. Alarm goes off. It's always painful. People that say they are "morning people" -- I think they are lying. But, when in a beautiful place, I always force myself, military style, to pop out of bed. There are hikes to be made and photos to take!I stayed at the Ragged Point Inn. My room had a little fireplace and everything (which made it even harder to get out of bed!). After I got downstairs, I started a little hike to get a good vantage of the coast and the sunrise. Of course, there was a fence blocking the best bit, so I jumped over it like Carl Lewis (a much older, whiter, and less jumpy Carl Lewis), and edged along the rocky coast to get a good spot. I forgot to put on my hiking shoes and mistakenly donned my Cole-Haans while in the dark. Big mistake. Those don't make for good hiking shoes, especially after five minutes of getting soaked in morning dew from the foliage I was ripping my way through.But, I had on my earphones and was blasting away music... all was good... the sun came up, the clouds were perfect, and I took this photo.- Trey RatcliffClick here to read the rest of this post at the Stuck in Customs blog.

StuckInCustoms > Another Chihuly Masterpiece Isn't there some point when you can just stop saying "masterpiece"? I mean, isn't everything he does considered a masterpiece? It's like there should be a whole new elite lexicon - special words for descriptions, all of which mean "masterpiece" or better.This gem is at his new gallery in Las Vegas. You just have to go see that place. The people inside were very nice and let me take my time to set up and properly get the light as it truly was. I'm not sure they could figure out what the heck I was doing with my camera and the process! But that's okay. We kept up good conversation while I was going through my motions... and most of our conversation centered around how much we admire Dale!- Trey RatcliffClick here to read the rest of this post at the Stuck in Customs blog.

StuckInCustoms > A Parting Shot of the Temple Sometimes while on a little afternoon / evening / night photo adventure, I literally run out of energy at the end. This is bad news! I put so much effort into running around, getting all the shots, carrying around all my equipment, fully concentrating, and the like... at the end, it's all I can do to get back to home base. However, this night, as I was leaving this beautiful complex of temples in Kyoto, I stopped to take one look behind me.I had first passed this place in the afternoon when there was no rain. During my shoot, rain fell and changed everything. Of course, the lights were totally different, so I just had to muster up a little more energy for a final shot. For these sorts, I usually put my tripod on its lowest-leg setting and fire away for maximum reflectivity.- Trey RatcliffClick here to read the rest of this post at the Stuck in Customs blog.

StuckInCustoms > The Remarkable Mood Oh wow do I love New Zealand! Every city I have been to is remarkable in its own way, and I was particularly struck by the environs around Queenstown. It's just an amazing place. I've been completely swamped with photo activities, but I stayed up till 4 AM in my "HomeCar" (as my daughter calls it) to process this photo. It's all a perfectly magical place, as you can plainly see here. This was the beginning of a three-hour sunset drive that went around this same lake... every stop was more moody than the next.That mountain range? It's called "The Remarkables". What a cool name. - Trey RatcliffClick here to read the rest of this post at the Stuck in Customs blog.

StuckInCustoms > The Flying Buttress I mentioned during the photowalk tonight this effect of the wide-angle lens. Whenever you aim it above the horizon, everything leans in a bit. Now, I occasionally get negative comments that think that this "leaning" looks bad, unprofessional, and unrealistic. I have to disagree! It doesn't bother me a bit. My eye adjusts, and, well, I think it just looks cool.The church here is from Dresden, Germany. I am 98% sure of this... I don't know why I am having trouble remembering... I think I am getting old. I did have to wake up at 5 AM to go to the bathroom last night... a bad sign.- Trey RatcliffClick here to read the rest of this post at the Stuck in Customs blog.

StuckInCustoms > Japanese Badass Schoolgirl in Harajuku Harajuku is one of the most interesting areas of Tokyo! It's filled with some of the most interesting-looking people you'll ever see. They get dressed up in all kinds of get-ups and parade through the streets (which also means they don't mind being in a photograph). The stores in the area cater to everything from goth to glam-rock to 100 other variations that I can't even describe.I spied this one gliding through the streets, and I zoomed in for a quick one.- Trey RatcliffClick here to read the rest of this post at the Stuck in Customs blog.

StuckInCustoms > Help Me Thank you to my fans! Here are your favorite pics: the most Popular Pictures you dig from my stream. Thanks for the comments!- Trey Ratcliff

StuckInCustoms > Bilbo's Hobbit Hole and the Party Tree in the Shire I showed my 8-year-old son all the Lord of the Rings movies prior to our trip to NZ. He then re-watched the first one three times on the car trip... so he was just as excited as I when we arrived.You might remember Bilbo Baggins' hobbit hole and all the scenes with Frodo and Gandalf inside. That is it right there, on the right hand side at the top. The huge tree on the left is the "party tree", which was the centerpiece for the big party for Bilbo's birthday. It was the one of the main reasons that Peter Jackson chose this remote farm outside of Matamata on the North Island.- Trey RatcliffClick here to read the rest of this post at the Stuck in Customs blog.

StuckInCustoms > The Tango in Buenos Aires Did you know that now that I am hosting my images at SmugMug that it is even easier to get the “data” about how I took the shot? If you zoom in and click on it to get to the gallery video, on the mouseover, you will see “Photo Info” with a little blue “i”. Clicking on that will give you the ISO, shutter speed, aperture, and all that sort of thing. You’ll be in good shape! Some people want me to put all that info into every blog post, but it just takes too long I am afraid… but it is all there and easy to grab if you are interested.After I shot the high-altitude picture from the top of this tango show in Buenos Aires, I went down by the stage to get a closeup of some of the action. - Trey RatcliffClick here to read the rest of this post at the Stuck in Customs blog.

StuckInCustoms > Mountainstorm I took an evening drive to Glenorchy, which is about 50 km outside of Queenstown. It's one of the windiest drives in the world, especially in the middle of a violent storm! The rain stopped for a short time while I went on a short hike to capture the mountains across the lake. The wind was so intense. After setting up the tripod and setting up the interval timer, I had to shield the whole thing with my body, by leaning into the wind on the more threatening side of the camera. As I was doing this, I was wondering if anyone would really want to be my assistant. it's not nearly as glamorous as you might think!- Trey RatcliffClick here to read the rest of this post at the Stuck in Customs blog.

StuckInCustoms > The Tolkienesque Bridge I normally don't put two photos from the same city (or even country!) back-to-back in consecutive days, but I decided to award Queenstown this honor. It is very high on my list of cities to move to! I just need to check on a few things like broadband availability and a good spot to plop the family down, and I'll be in business!This is from the main park in Queenstown. It was as quaint as could be. The evening light made everything a little bit extra-colorful, and some clever little hobbit-engineer, found it fitting to put this nice little stone bridge across the pond. It is all quite nice, no?- Trey RatcliffClick here to read the rest of this post at the Stuck in Customs blog.

StuckInCustoms > The Peaceful Ryokan Baths of Hakone Whilst on my last trip to Japan, I did feel like a samurai photographer, traveling the countryside hard by day, and sleeping in ryokan by night.A ryokan is a traditional Japanese inn, and they feature everything one might expect from the visions that are coming in and out of your head. There is a tatami floor, with a mat or futon upon it. The rooms are separated by classical sliding doors of rice paper. There are also communal or private hot baths for relaxation. In the one below, I had a private bath that overlooked the countryside near Hakone. This room also came with a traditional Japanese dinner served by women in full and traditional Japanese outfits.After dinner, and by the time I got myself out of that tub, I think I was more physically drained than I had ever been in my life... it was just wonderful... and I look forward to more ryokans on this next trip!- Trey RatcliffClick here to read the rest of this post at the Stuck in Customs blog.

Bilbo's Hobbit Hole and the Party Tree in the Shire

I showed my 8-year-old son all the Lord of the Rings movies prior to our trip to NZ. He then re-watched the first one three times on the car trip... so he was just as excited as I when we arrived.

You might remember Bilbo Baggins' hobbit hole and all the scenes with Frodo and Gandalf inside. That is it right there, on the right hand side at the top. The huge tree on the left is the "party tree", which was the centerpiece for the big party for Bilbo's birthday. It was the one of the main reasons that Peter Jackson chose this remote farm outside of Matamata on the North Island.

- Trey Ratcliff

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

Bilbo's Hobbit Hole and the Party Tree in the Shire

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