Old Forest After the Snowmelt On another one of those painful mornings, I woke up early to explore all around Nikko. Some snow had fallen during the night, and a warm morning sun helped to melt everything into reflective wet surface. It also helped the leaves and bark to glow in an inviting way. There are many beautiful old areas of Nikko that are separated by these long pathways through the forest. It's right out of a Final Fantasy game, and I could not help but stop every few hundred feet for another photo! - Trey Ratcliff Read more, including my secret of taking photographs without people in them, 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

gallery pages: << < 37 38 39 40 41 42 > >>

< Prev 600 of 1446 Next >

StuckInCustoms > Searching For Water The amazing Ta Prohm ruins of Cambodia have secrets around every turn. These enigmatic trees grow up and over everything. I was amazed by the girth and length of this lateral root system, as the trees search everywhere for water. - Trey Ratcliff Read the rest here at the Stuck in Customs blog.

StuckInCustoms > The Private Room It was a dark and mysterious set of serpentine stairs that brought us to this room. Where could it be? Who can identify it? You all are so hard to trick... None of these has ever stayed mysterious for more than 24 hours... but maybe, just maybe, we can have this one stay a mystery! And I know people zoom into 100% on these to look for clues... this one is a little messy at 100%, so I am a little embarrassed by that... I do figure that 98% of people look at it in the default "blog size", where it looks okay. - Trey Ratcliff Find out the answer here at the Stuck in Customs blog.

StuckInCustoms > The Grand Pool I've taken quite a few photos of the fabulous Hearst Castle indoor pool. This is the one that it is nearby, just outdoors. The thing is enormous and perfect. I wonder if it ever gets used. So sad. Maybe they put on little pool parties here and there for the elite. Or maybe rappers rent it out and bring in a bunch of rap-video-girls to gyrate around the edges. I don't know. - Trey Ratcliff Read the rest of this entry, including a recap of the recent London photowalk, here at the Stuck in Customs blog.

StuckInCustoms > The Wormhole Shanghai has this incredible tunnel that goes under the river to the Bund. It's just wild inside! They have a series of robotic trains that shuttle people back and forth. Robotic doors whir open then shut again. The front of the capsule has a bubble-window that allows for a stunning view as you dip below the river and back up again. Colored lights in every lighting configuration fly by in beautiful colors. This is an amazing experience that I recommend if you ever get to Shanghai! - Trey Ratcliff Read the rest here at the Stuck in Customs blog.

StuckInCustoms > The Grand Entrance This is the entryway to the Portofino Hotel at Universal Orlando. It's a pretty posh place. I get nervous when I see young kids running around these places at full speed. I get really nervous when I see my own kids doing it! We stayed here a few nights and it proved to be a perfect location for accessing Universal Studios. There is a little lake/canal system in the back that connects to the main park so you can take little boats back and forth. More importantly, there are a ton of interesting things scattered around for photography! - Trey RatcliffClick here to read the rest of this post at the Stuck in Customs blog.

StuckInCustoms > The Labyrinth Rocket Isn't this a beautiful and unique church? It's been so long since I've posted a photo of it. It's called Hallgrimskirkja. This is much easier to say if you are a dolphin. And drunk. On my last trip, I made my fourth visit to this spot. I was graced with good clouds to complement the monotonemapping of the scene. The doors were locked, so I could not get inside. I had some bizarre visions of possibly climbing up the rock face to clamber in through the windows, but then remembered it wasn't a video game... dangit. - Trey Ratcliff Read the rest here at the Stuck in Customs blog.

StuckInCustoms > The Yellow-Eyed Penguin These are the rare yellow-eyed penguins of New Zealand. I think they are rare. I don't know. It seems like all animals are rare or endangered, so those words kind of lose their punch after a while, don't they? I mean, if most everything is rare, then it becomes quite common, linguistically speaking. Anyway, they said it was rare, so there you go.And I know why they are rare! They just stand there ... - Trey RatcliffRead the rest of this entry here at the Stuck in Customs blog.

StuckInCustoms > The Tetons, Revisited This area is not too far from Yellowstone. Just outside of the south exit, there is a fairly short drive to this area of Wyoming. It's on the way to Jackson Hole. This is also an amazing place if you are into Bison. There are hundreds and hundred of bison in this area. A free one was roaming about while I took this. They're actually quite dangerous for something that looks like a giant silly stuffed animal. - Trey Ratcliff Read the rest here at the Stuck in Customs blog.

StuckInCustoms > Indian Family on Motorcycle When traveling around outside of the usual spots, I continually see entire families on motorcycles. This one is in India, but I’ve seen this all over southeast Asia as well… but don’t think I ever posted a photo!The most I have ever seen is five people on a motorcycle from the same family. Usually two of the kids are crammed between the parents with the baby or smallest on the very front. The motorcycles are usually tiny and loud, darting in and out of traffic. These are usually very hard to photograph — I don’t dare use a flash or else I might make the dad crash the motorcycle! That would be a little too much… so I just crank up my ISO and hope for a good angle.- Trey RatcliffClick here to read the rest of this post at the Stuck in Customs blog.

StuckInCustoms > A Soft Evening on the Lake Don't you hate/love that pressure-zone of the sunset? Well which one? I of course love it... but the pressure to move around and get as many good shots as possible is pretty hardcore. I plan it all out like I'm playing an RTS game. I'm constantly calculating compositions, timings, and the logistics of getting from one point to another. Every situation is different... if I am on foot, with vehicle, or on bike. - Trey Ratcliff You must construct additional pylons (and read the rest of this entry here at stuckincustoms.com.

StuckInCustoms > Salaryman in Tokyo While I was in the middle of making a time-lapse sequence (see the video below the photo), I was using my D3S on a sling to take quick photos of interesting people. They were everywhere!Behind me, waiting for the light to change, was this young salaryman. Salaryman is the Japanese word for “businessman”. That word salaryman always cracks me up for some reason. Anyway, he was this young kid, standing there in a most unassuming way in this nice suit. I spun around and grabbed a quick shot.He looked a little confused at me after I took it. I gave him a nod of thanks, and he smiled in a surprised way then went merrily on his way. - Trey RatcliffClick here to read the rest of this post at the Stuck in Customs blog.

StuckInCustoms > The Private Library Here we are again, continuing the Hearst Castle thread. We have so many threaded stories here, yes? It’s a bit like Lost, in that there are so many story-lines that never really get resolved. Maybe at the end, we’ll all end up in a generic church together, staring at a white light out of the doors as the camera pans up and away… There are a few libraries inside Hearst Castle, and this is the biggest. I’ve always wanted something a little like this. Maybe it doesn’t have to be quite this large, but I’d settle for a few warm shelves full of books, a reading table, and a few servants to bring me coffee.- Trey RatcliffClick here to read the rest of this post at the Stuck in Customs blog.

StuckInCustoms > The Nikko Waterfall from Afar I’ve been pretty lame, frankly, in finishing up my Nikon 18-200 Review. But, this is a photo that I took with that lens when I was in Japan. I wanted to show the vast range of the lens, and this is the “zoomed out” view. In coming weeks, I’ll post the “zoomed in” view, so you can see the tremendous range. Yes, it’s a cropped lens so I can’t use my full-frame, but it’s not really the end of the world. It’s light, cheap, and very flexible… these are some nice plusses!I had never gotten to a waterfall in such a unique way! I started at the top of this thing and took an elevator DOWN, hundreds of feet. I then went through about a quarter-mile of caves to emerge at the bottom, where I got this perspective. It was really unique and messed with my whole sense of location. I’m so used to taking the elevator “up” to get somewhere interesting. I had to put on my earphones to listen to some unique music to get my bearings back before shooting this photo.- Trey RatcliffClick here to read the rest of this post at the Stuck in Customs blog.

StuckInCustoms > A Lonely Night in Iceland I was in the southern area of Iceland, only a few kilometers from the big volcano eruption. There was still a bit of ash scattered around, and I was driving down random side-roads. I made a deal with myself that I would randomly take exits off the main highway to see what I could find. This was one of those occasions.On the way back to the highway, I saw new things. It’s hard to have a 360-degree sense of all compositions while driving. Usually my viewing cone is fully stimulated at 180 degrees while moving forward! So, moving back and forth along roads sometimes provides surprises.I had just spent a few hours around midnight on a black-sand volcanic beach on the shore. I was the only one there, as usual. It’s very creepy, in a way, being on a gigantic black beach in the middle of the night without another car or human anywhere in sight. And I know that it is even beyond my sight for a long way because I had not seen anyone on the drive there. I listened to music and took photos all the while, of course. And on the way back, I saw this tiny lit church against some distant mountains, so I popped out for another shot.- Trey RatcliffClick here to read the rest of this post at the Stuck in Customs blog.

Old Forest After the Snowmelt

On another one of those painful mornings, I woke up early to explore all around Nikko. Some snow had fallen during the night, and a warm morning sun helped to melt everything into reflective wet surface. It also helped the leaves and bark to glow in an inviting way. There are many beautiful old areas of Nikko that are separated by these long pathways through the forest. It's right out of a Final Fantasy game, and I could not help but stop every few hundred feet for another photo!

- Trey Ratcliff

Read more, including my secret of taking photographs without people in them, here at the Stuck in Customs blog.