Heart of Skulls This one is somewhat macabre, but it’s still something worth seeing. Under Paris are the infamous catacombs. I had a vague idea what it would be like, but it was an entire order of magnitude more intense than I expected! I thought, perhaps, there would be a few places with a whole bunch of bones, but it just went on and on and on and on. You have no idea (unless you have been there too). There were hundreds of yards of one kind of human bone followed by another hundred yards of another kind of bone. They used skulls for all sorts of decorations, including this embedded heart.- 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 > Time Frozen in the Ancient Village I feel like I'm in a hurry to take photos of all these ancient places before they become homogenized. I worry that in 10 years that every place will look like a typical street corner in Plano, Texas. Know what I mean? There's nothing horrible about having a Home Depot and an Applebee's within every five mile pod of super-structure, but it can lose a bit of charm after a while.This is a famous old village in China where the legend tells of two phoenixes hovered endlessly, transfixed by the beauty they saw below. It's located in the western part of central China's Hunan Province. It's called Feng Huang Cheng ("feng huang" being the Chinese name for the phoenix), and I'm happy I got to spend a few days wandering around its mysterious bits. This is a good overview of the city, and I'll have many more from the insides coming soon enough.- Trey RatcliffClick here to read the rest of this post at the Stuck in Customs blog.

StuckInCustoms > A Rainy and Romantic Night in Ibiza Part of Ibiza is an old walled medieval town that is surrounded by layers of winding streets old shops intermixed with homes. A few streets away from the walls, some of the streets are full of pubs and quirky shops... I think it's better to explore them at night than in the day -- and especially so in the rain.On this night, it was a little chilly and rainy, but that does not effect my camera. I've never had a problem because of rain or cold or heat or anything. It just works!The rainy streets were full of colors and life. I saw this couple quickly walking under an umbrella so I took a quick one to capture the scene. - Trey RatcliffClick here to read the rest of this post at the Stuck in Customs blog.

StuckInCustoms > The Love Locks in Paris There is a little bridge in Paris - maybe you have heard of it - where starcrossed lovers visit. They bring tiny padlocks with them. Sometimes they are decorated, and sometimes they are just fanciful. They affix them to the bridge that overlooks the Seine. Now, the bridge has thousands of these little love locks... It's all very nice, and perfect for some low f-stop photography, of course!- Trey RatcliffClick here to read the rest of this post at the Stuck in Customs blog.

StuckInCustoms > Sunday Brunch in London I don't know London very well at all. I can't ever decide if it's a good thing or a bad thing. It's just a thing, I suppose. And it's neither nor.While walking through the streets you come across places that you should probably know what they are. Or maybe you see a charming old pub and you just assume that it's quite famous. But I don't know. I can't tell one thing from the next...But I did see this little restaurant one morning. The outside was covered in ivy and flowers, and this old couple was sitting outside on the bench. I don't know why I set up for a picture... it was both mundane and not.- Trey RatcliffClick here to read the rest of this post at the Stuck in Customs blog.

StuckInCustoms > The Creepy Green Stairs Why are the stairs green in this? Anyone, Anyone? Bueller? Voodoo economics is the answer.Instead of answering directly, I'll let you clever readers figure out the answer and put it down in the comments... I have faith in you guys to figure it out!This was taken in Kyoto, Japan on a rainy evening. This is one of the main temples that stay open late into the night. It's one of my favorite times to come, because the crowds are gone and everything is extra-eerie. It makes it even more special while I'm listening to my special playlists on my iPod. It really gets me in the mood to make these sorts of shots.- Trey RatcliffClick here to read the rest of this post at the Stuck in Customs blog.

StuckInCustoms > Business in London Walking along one side of the Thames after visiting some museums brought us to this business district. There was a misty rain for most of the day, so it set down a nice sheen of reflection. There's a tiny water canal that runs through the center here, and the line leads right to the Tower Bridge, which you can see in the distance.- Trey RatcliffClick here to read the rest of this post at the Stuck in Customs blog.

StuckInCustoms > In Old China I was nursing my cracked ribs at this point after my clumsy slip down by the boats. But I had a bit of that post-accident adrenaline that numbed it enough to keep shooting a bit. Also, I think I was a bit loopy because of the pain, but that can make for good artistic endeavors, I think. When I remember walking around this area, it's all a bit more foggy than some of my other experiences, which are more crystal-clear. In some ways, I almost feel like I didn't take these photos, even though I know I did. It's strange thinking about it now.- Trey RatcliffClick here to read the rest of this post at the Stuck in Customs blog.

StuckInCustoms > Kimono Under the Cherry Trees It was my second time to Kyoto, but my fourth time to Japan. I started to become more accustomed to the times of day and the comings and goings of the ladies in kimonos. You can see them most any time of the day or not, but they flood out of every crevice around this time of night. The pink cherry blossoms made everything seem like it was right out the days of the shogun.I shot this with my second camera - the D3S that I had across my chest. My main camera is always the D3X on a tripod, and I was getting a lot of night photography shots. But I had my D3S with a 50 prime ready to capture things like this. Another nice advantage is that it seems to make the trees feel a bit more soft. There is another soft aspect to the colors - these prime lenses capture the tones in a very soft way.- Trey RatcliffClick here to read the rest of this post at the Stuck in Customs blog.

StuckInCustoms > Queenstown From Above Ack! I miss Queenstown. When can I get back there? I need to make this happen. My friend Gordon from Camera Labs (be sure to visit his site) goes up here to test a lot of his cameras and lenses. There's a mountain here that you can reach by gondola, and the view is, well, as you can see, quite perfect! In this case, I used my new 28-300 lens, which worked out pretty well.I've gotten to know the little town there pretty well. It's fun looking down and knowing where I can get the best burger, the best chocolate, and five places that all serve great coffee. Jeez... just writing about it makes me want to go back even more!- Trey RatcliffClick here to read the rest of this post at the Stuck in Customs blog.

StuckInCustoms > Icelandic Boy After Building Treehouse When I stayed at Helga's delightful farmhouse near a northern fjord in Iceland, her brother came over and brought his son. They built a treehouse in the backyard and filled it with all kinds of goodies -- all in one day! The sun was low, as it always is there that time of year. He was running around, silently playing in the back yard. I thought his eyes were so other-worldly blue that I just had to take a photo.This area was very close to the little town of Akureyri. It took me about three visits to this place before I was able to pronounce it correctly. I feel like a damned fool trying to say some of those Icelandic words!- Trey RatcliffClick here to read the rest of this post at the Stuck in Customs blog.

StuckInCustoms > Tableau Vivant of California Dudes I've had a nice ten days or so here in California. I started in LA, went up to San Francisco, then came back down here just before the Oscars. My agent invited me to some fancy-schmancy party in Hollywood. It was quite a problem to figure out what to wear to something like that. I felt like a girl. I mean, with the confused-about-what-to-wear thing... this is not something I usually think that much about.It was interesting and fun. I didn't even really fit in... here's the basic conversation: "Are you a director?" No. "Are you an actor?" No. "Oh, you must be a producer!?" No.But that night, I ended up staying at the Hotel California. I put a little photo there to the right... I found out I could check out any time I liked but...And for our California photo above, here's a bunch of guys that I guess have nothing better to do than walk around the beach all day with incredible bodies. Since I don't have this, I can only rely on my personality, which frankly runs out after about five minutes.- Trey RatcliffClick here to read the rest of this post at the Stuck in Customs blog.

StuckInCustoms > Ducks on a Foggy Morning There is a soft silence that covers still waters in the early morning. If you've ever been by a slow-moving river before the sun is over the horizon, maybe you know what I mean. It reminds me a bit of the name of the wind, in that it folds one silence into another.When driving across the southern part of Iceland towards Wik, I went through an area of several miles where there was a sudden fog. I felt like it might not last long, so I went on a quick hike over near a slow-flowing river. Some ducks were having a morning swim off towards the misty horizon.- Trey RatcliffClick here to read the rest of this post at the Stuck in Customs blog.

StuckInCustoms > Russian in the Woods Russians often just look cool. I don't know how they do it. They don't even have to try, but they just kind of have this "edge" that I can't put my finger on.I took this shot of Vulva (pronounce the "V" like Chekov did with nuclear wessuls) when we were walking in the woods in Patagonia. I had gotten up ahead of him about a quarter mile, and I stopped to take of my bag to get a snack. I like snacks when hiking. Snacks are so good. Anyway, I heard Vulva coming up behind me, so I spun around my camera to take this quick photo of him walking at me. I told him that I thought he looked really cool, but I think he thought I was just being a cheeky American.- Trey RatcliffClick here to read the rest of this post at the Stuck in Customs blog.

StuckInCustoms > Red Fields on the Tundra Across the middle of Iceland, there are all sorts of terrain. I don't know if this is specifically Tundra. All my expertise in Tundra comes from Civilization where I know you can only grow one wheat, and sometimes there is a fur resource because of the seals.When the sun is very low on the horizon, my normal temptation is to point the camera in that direction. But in the opposite direction, when the light and terrain is right, it casts a faint reddish glow across the ground. It's a very nice effect and I did my best to capture it.- Trey RatcliffClick here to read the rest of this post at the Stuck in Customs blog.

Heart of Skulls

This one is somewhat macabre, but it’s still something worth seeing.

Under Paris are the infamous catacombs. I had a vague idea what it would be like, but it was an entire order of magnitude more intense than I expected! I thought, perhaps, there would be a few places with a whole bunch of bones, but it just went on and on and on and on. You have no idea (unless you have been there too). There were hundreds of yards of one kind of human bone followed by another hundred yards of another kind of bone. They used skulls for all sorts of decorations, including this embedded heart.

- Trey Ratcliff

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