Chicago Thaws into Spring I was lucky enough to be in a helicopter over Chicago at sunset. A big thanks to Fiona and our pilots Bill and Jeff. They took the door off the helicopter for me, which sounds like a good idea until you are experiencing 100 MPH of chopper backwash while hanging out trying to get this kind of shot!It was a fun day. We stayed up for a few hours and circled around the city several times. I got hundreds of amazing shots. I haven't had time to process any of them except for this one... but I wanted to go ahead and get it up since I know the Twitter and Facebook crowd has been waiting on it since I mentioned it on there. Also my mom was very worried about the whole door-off-the-helicopter thing.Right in the center of the shot on the bottom is the famous Navy Pier. We timed this shot to get at the right height the second the sun dipped below the horizon to cast a rainbow of hues into the sky.(and there are pics of me hanging out of the helicopter on my Facebook page if you want to come see!) :)- 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 > Rowboat at the Still Lake We walked around The Hills one morning, and we came to this place after the sun was beyond its “sunrise” phase. The sky was the peaceful morning infinite blue and the water was still as ice. There were many good angles to shoot across this peaceful scene, and most of us chose this view! :)It was cool to do this and be with so many other nice photographers that were taking similar shots. I liked seeing their versions as well.Anyway, if you end up getting the video series mentioned at the blog, you’ll get to see me edit this photo from beginning to end! :)- Trey RatcliffClick here to read the rest of this post at the Stuck in Customs blog.

StuckInCustoms > The Endless Fields of Queenstown On the final night, we all started walking around these fields together to take photos. The sunset wouldn’t quit! It just kept going and going… like a painting that changed every few minutes. And a few steps this way and that way would completely change the color situation on the bottom half of the photo. Honestly, there were not many bad combinations!If you get the full video of the New Zealand Tutorial, you’ll hear me talk more about this shot, and you’ll also get to see full post-processing of seven different photos. I hope you love it! :) I’m sure you will!- Trey RatcliffClick here to read the rest of this post at the Stuck in Customs blog.

StuckInCustoms > The Golden Valleys I’ve taken to going out on random drives around New Zealand. I put on music and just follow the sun around. It ducks behind and beyond mountains and valleys, so I turn this way and that, and often get out to hike around inaccessible areas. It’s the middle of the winter here, so the sun is always quite low, so we get nice, extended sunrises and sunsets. Every now and then, the sun gets into a certain angle and everything is bathed in gold…- Trey RatcliffClick here to read the rest of this post at the Stuck in Customs blog.

StuckInCustoms > Chicago Thaws into Spring I was lucky enough to be in a helicopter over Chicago at sunset. A big thanks to Fiona and our pilots Bill and Jeff. They took the door off the helicopter for me, which sounds like a good idea until you are experiencing 100 MPH of chopper backwash while hanging out trying to get this kind of shot!It was a fun day. We stayed up for a few hours and circled around the city several times. I got hundreds of amazing shots. I haven't had time to process any of them except for this one... but I wanted to go ahead and get it up since I know the Twitter and Facebook crowd has been waiting on it since I mentioned it on there. Also my mom was very worried about the whole door-off-the-helicopter thing.Right in the center of the shot on the bottom is the famous Navy Pier. We timed this shot to get at the right height the second the sun dipped below the horizon to cast a rainbow of hues into the sky.(and there are pics of me hanging out of the helicopter on my Facebook page if you want to come see!) :)- Trey RatcliffClick here to read the rest of this post at the Stuck in Customs blog.

StuckInCustoms > The Most Beautiful Road in the World I found it!I've looked at travel guides and driven on a ton of beautiful, scenic roads all over the world, but I think this road to Queenstown (on the way to/from Glenorchy) is the most beautiful in the world. The road winds down one side of a perfect, fjord-like lake, and every few kilometers, the mountain views change dramatically. Depending upon the time of day you travel it, the entire landscape transforms before your eyes.Wonder what it looks like on the other side of the lake? You won't believe that it is in the same place! See this photo called Mountainstorm that I took on a previous trip to this location. It was shot later in the evening, so I wasn't able to properly capture the road that time.What's the prettiest road you have ever found? I've seen conflicting guides of the most beautiful roads in the US... I'm sure everyone has their opinion... I'd love to know what you think!- Trey RatcliffClick here to read the rest of this post at the Stuck in Customs blog.

StuckInCustoms > The Magic of Disney 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!This was taken this evening at MGM Studios in Disney World before we went to go see the big fireworks show. The only problem with making your family and 6-year-old son (he is now 8) stand around while you set up your tripod and take a bunch of shots is that it gives them ample opportunity to see little toys they cannot live without.I took so long to nail this shot that we ended up buying two things that lit up in garish colors and made a lot of racket.This is a 5 exposure HDR shot at 100 ISO. Whenever there is anything like streaming lights, sun rays, search lights, and the like, the HDR process always makes them pop a bit.- Trey RatcliffClick here to read the rest of this post at the Stuck in Customs blog.

StuckInCustoms > Awesome Ship in Sydney Harbor Tom and I walked down to the Rocks one night, which is one of the oldest parts of the Sydney Harbor. I was wondering, actually, if I should spell it “harbour” now that I live down thisaway. I do like the British spellings of things… they seem so much more… well, British and sophisticated. I guess I’ll just stick with “harbor” – I don’t want people thinking I’ve turned native so quickly.Anyway, the ship was moving a lot in the sea, so I had my ISO up pretty high to compensate. Usually, what I’ll do in this situation is take a normal set of brackets at a low ISO to get a nice HDR shot, and then I’ll take another at high ISO to freeze the movement… and then I do my best to Frankenstein it all together.- Trey RatcliffClick here to read the rest of this post at the Stuck in Customs blog.

StuckInCustoms > Tableau Vivant Of Wild HorsesIt was about 2 A.M. and the sun was just dipping into the horizon for a short stint. These horses were frolicking about in a huge flat field a bit inland from the end of the fjord. They were all so lively and alert, jumping and posing here and there. And then they set up in a very interesting configuration, and I barely had time to put on the right lens before it all drifted apart.- Trey RatcliffRead the entire post at the Stuck in Customs blog.

StuckInCustoms > Beautiful San Francisco I just got back from a crazy three days in San Francisco. The trip included everything from visits to Google, YouTube, Facebook, breakfast with Scoble, Smugmug, Microsoft at a Calacanis event (where the upcoming app WON Audience Choice!), then finally a PhotoWalk in SF with Thomas Hawk. It was completely exhausting, but very fun. After the Facebook talk, I headed to downtown San Francisco with Tom Anderson to get this photo. It was a great night!- Trey RatcliffClick here to read the rest of this post at the Stuck in Customs blog.

StuckInCustoms > Electric LA at Night I took this a few nights ago in Los Angeles. I’ve always wanted to get a good shot of the downtown action, and Stuck On Earth helped me get it.Luckily, I saw a few hints of this kind of a shot from other photographers that had geotagged shots in the area. I went out there with Tom Anderson and we spent a few hours exploring the area. We got countless great shots and this was the first one I processed.- Trey RatcliffClick here to read the rest of this post at the Stuck in Customs blog.

StuckInCustoms > Epic Iceland I have many things in common with Tom. One of them is the love of “Epic” scenes. These mostly come from movies, but it spans many different pursuits. He’s the only other guy I met that can also quote scenes from Lawrence of Arabia.So, obviously I do like to find epic scenes in the world, and I feel like Iceland is full of them. Capturing them the right way is another ball of wax, but that is most of the fun.- Trey RatcliffClick here to read the rest of this post at the Stuck in Customs blog.

StuckInCustoms > The Secret Crystal Lake
This remote lake was so icy cold. You would think it's about 33 degrees or something, right? It felt like absolute zero. I dropped a little piece of my tripod in here and my hand almost froze off trying to retrieve it.In the distance you can see where the glacier comes into contact with the glassy lake; it gives a sense of the epic scale here.- Trey RatcliffClick here to read the rest of this post at the Stuck in Customs blog.

StuckInCustoms > Deep into the Jungle Mists I was many kilometers down this river away from the town. I got off my little boat to do some hiking up through the hills through the jungle. It was dense. Even when there was a little opening, it still felt like leaves and vines were pressing in on me. On occasion, I would see a wider break that let me see into the mysterious beyond.- Trey RatcliffClick here to read the rest of this post at the Stuck in Customs blog.

StuckInCustoms > The Sydney Opera House I’ve waited a very long time to see this famous building in Sydney! I’ve been meaning to come to Australia for a very long time, but this whole plan was delayed because of my move to New Zealand. Since I knew that I would be moving to NZ, I figured Australia would be a much more convenient trip. And now that I am here, it is! In fact, it’s just a 3 hour direct flight from Queenstown. But, since it took me longer than expected to get to NZ, then it took me much longer than expected to get to Australia! But now, I can make up for lost time, and spend more time across the Tasman… - Trey RatcliffClick here to read the rest of this post at the Stuck in Customs blog.

Chicago Thaws into Spring

I was lucky enough to be in a helicopter over Chicago at sunset. A big thanks to Fiona and our pilots Bill and Jeff. They took the door off the helicopter for me, which sounds like a good idea until you are experiencing 100 MPH of chopper backwash while hanging out trying to get this kind of shot!

It was a fun day. We stayed up for a few hours and circled around the city several times. I got hundreds of amazing shots. I haven't had time to process any of them except for this one... but I wanted to go ahead and get it up since I know the Twitter and Facebook crowd has been waiting on it since I mentioned it on there. Also my mom was very worried about the whole door-off-the-helicopter thing.

Right in the center of the shot on the bottom is the famous Navy Pier. We timed this shot to get at the right height the second the sun dipped below the horizon to cast a rainbow of hues into the sky.

(and there are pics of me hanging out of the helicopter on my Facebook page if you want to come see!) :)

- Trey Ratcliff

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

Chicago Thaws into Spring

Camera: Nikon Corporation (Nikon D3x) |

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