Walking Farther Along the Ancient Great Wall Some of the places I visited on this ancient, original stretch of the Great Wall were almost too covered in vegetation to navigate. Thick conifers and strange plants would block this way and that. I listened to music and that made everything even more surreal.I had always heard that the top of the Great Wall was so wide that five horses could ride side by side (16 feet across). When you are up there, it seems even wider with all the trees and plants, and you almost forget you are on top of the wall itself.- Trey RatcliffClick here to read the rest 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 > The End of the PathThis is the very end of the long path from Toad Hall to the beach on Virgin Gorda. One thing this photo does not show is that there is about a 4-foot dropoff right below this path! It’s no problem for a grownup to navigate, but it was a little logistical challenge to get three kids down there.I took this path almost every day… for a little trip down to the beach to see what I could find…- Trey RatcliffClick here to read the whole post at the Stuck in Customs blog.

StuckInCustoms > Giants Stadium When I spent the evening at the Giants game in San Francisco, we had carte blanche to go anywhere and shoot anything, so that was pretty awesome. Tom and I had the number of the PR guy in our pocket in case anyone gave us any trouble… but no one did. We spent most of the night roaming around the stadium, taking photos from many vantage points. No one ever bothered us about the tripods and stuff, so that was a welcome delight!This was shot with the Nikon 14-24 lens… as usual, all the EXIF info is there if you click through to SmugMug! :)- Trey RatcliffClick here to read the rest of this post at the Stuck in Customs blog.

StuckInCustoms > Musician at the Chinese Opera It was my second visit to this particular opera and my third visit to a Chinese opera. I was fortunate enough to be able to move freely around the venue, as long as I did not get in the way of the performers. That wasn’t very easy, since the performers would often just start running down and around the aisles! They would dart this way and that, run around columns come in and out of random doors and re-use the same pathways that I was navigating. So I had to be on constant alert!There was one girl that was playing a very unusual Chinese instrument. I’ll never get the name of it right, so I won’t even try… but she had this most unusual hat that I thought was quite nice…- Trey RatcliffClick here to read the rest of this post at the Stuck in Customs blog.

StuckInCustoms > Dark and Light in LijiangHere’s a photo that I edited live during the class a few days ago. The motions I went through are also inside of one those “Trey’s Lightroom Presets” I mentioned a few days ago… you can do so much in Lightroom nowadays that it is kind of scary!This is one of the main streets in the city of Lijiang. During the day, it looks quite traditional, but at night, everything lights up and becomes wonderfully alive.- Trey RatcliffClick here to read the entire post at the Stuck in Customs blog.

StuckInCustoms > The Matterhorn over the VillageWhile taking the train up a nearby mountain in the town of Zermatt, there is one quick moment when you get this perfect view of the village and the Matterhorn together.I think I really liked this place because I remember riding the Matterhorn with my dad when I was a kid, and my child-mind could not conceive of an actual Matterhorn!- Trey RatcliffClick here to read the entire post at the Stuck in Customs blog.

StuckInCustoms > Exploring San Francisco from Above From on top of Twin Peaks in San Francisco, a good zoom lens when the fog rolls in can get a little crazy! The fog glows orange-red with all the lights and it feels a bit… apocalyptic. I took about 20 shots of this, and the fog would creep around this way and that. They all looked interesting, but in the end, I liked this one the best.- Trey RatcliffClick here to read the rest of this post at the Stuck in Customs blog.

StuckInCustoms > Calm Sunrise Over the Atlantic I think I’ve taken more photos of the Atlantic Ocean than the Pacific Ocean. Or maybe not. That cruise put a big dent in my Atlantic Ocean shots, but I may even-up next year when I do the Disney cruise in Alaska…I took this one in the morning off the coast of Virgin Gorda.- Trey RatcliffClick here to read the rest of this post at the Stuck in Customs blog.

StuckInCustoms > Icy Tones in Yosemite We had a great time at the event at Yosemite. I don’t do many of those, you know – those extended trips with big groups of people – but it was a lot of fun!I think I was out in this area with Karen Hutton, Thomas Hawk, and Robert Scoble. It was a wonderful scene of lines and strange colors…- Trey RatcliffClick here to read the rest of this post at the Stuck in Customs blog.

StuckInCustoms > The Opera Scene The Chinese Opera almost has more photo opportunities than Burning Man. There are at least half-as-intense in their costumes, and every pose they get into seems like it is ready for a photo!I took a great many photos that evening, and I still have many more to process. As I scrubbed through in Lightroom, this one really jumped out! - Trey RatcliffClick here to read the rest of this post at the Stuck in Customs blog.

StuckInCustoms > The Rocky Spanish Coast Here is another part of the beach in Ibiza. I guess I could have been off taking photos of topless Euros, but I found the rocks so much more interesting. This is the problem with photographers… whenever we see someone taking a photo of a girl, we are more likely to look at the camera than the girl! :)- Trey RatcliffClick here to read the rest of this post at the Stuck in Customs blog.

StuckInCustoms > Shopping Scene from BeijingSpeaking of parallel universes (the question from yesterday), I often imagine I have side-stepped into one when I travel to other cities, especially as global commerce becomes more homogenized. For example, maybe you can see the Apple store in the background there. When you walk in, everything is exactly the same except for the language and all the Chinese people (of course). Now, this may seem like a totally obvious thing, but it is one of those other universes that is right in the middle of our own.- Trey RatcliffClick here to read the entire post at the Stuck in Customs blog.

StuckInCustoms > Goth in Tokyo While leaving Harajuku, I saw this guy walking towards the action. I still had on my 50mm prime and I wasn’t quite close enough, but he had the right stride, so I took the shot. I cropped in quite heavily in post, and then I ran one of the new Trey’s Lightroom Preset filters on it… In fact, I did this one during the class.- Trey RatcliffClick here to read the rest of this post at the Stuck in Customs blog.

StuckInCustoms > The Walt Disney Concert Hall I had a late night taking photos in downtown LA. I parked over near the Walt Disney Concert Hall and this was my final photo of the night as I was walking back to my car.It was one of those situations where I didn’t feel like unfurling my camera again. You know when you’re really tired and you’re just ready to mail it in? That was me… but I saw this strange green light… and it looked a little like the green reflection off the hall… and then after that, I knew I had to go ahead and take a photo. I was happy to at that point.- Trey RatcliffClick here to read the entire post at the Stuck in Customs blog.

StuckInCustoms > Cathédrale Saint-Pierre de MontpellierWe passed this amazing cathedral a few times while walking around Montpellier. It looked great from almost any angle, and I really liked the lines and shapes. That was part of the reason I decided to go with this treatment.- Trey RatcliffClick here to read the entire post at the Stuck in Customs blog.

Walking Farther Along the Ancient Great Wall

Some of the places I visited on this ancient, original stretch of the Great Wall were almost too covered in vegetation to navigate. Thick conifers and strange plants would block this way and that. I listened to music and that made everything even more surreal.

I had always heard that the top of the Great Wall was so wide that five horses could ride side by side (16 feet across). When you are up there, it seems even wider with all the trees and plants, and you almost forget you are on top of the wall itself.

- Trey Ratcliff

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