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.
Boston at Sunset
Boston is great and I am sad I've only spent a short amount of time there. On this evening, I walked along the waterfront here to look at all the various angles and light levels. They were all good! That's a sign of a good city when it is hard to take a bad photo of it!

- Trey Ratcliff

Read more here at the Stuck in Customs blog.
Liftoff at the Ranch I ran out into the field to capture this just as the helicopter takes off after unloading another group of guests.  The lighting and angle were perfect, so I was curious to see if I could catch the helicopter blade totally still.  I did!  A good experiment...  note that many of my experiments fail... but this one worked out.And yes, obviously, this is an HDR from a single RAW.- Trey RatcliffClick here to read the rest of this post at the Stuck in Customs blog.
The Intersection Today we have a new photo from downtown Tokyo.  By now, you have probably figured out that I just can't get enough of these downtown shots.  Each angle is nice and different in its own way.  Sometimes I like to freeze the action, and sometimes I like to let it flow.  It totally depends on my mood when I am shooting.While I am there, I usually have a pretty good idea of how I want to execute the post-processing.  It changes the way I take the shots.  For example, if I want the action frozen, I'll crank up the ISO so that the people don't drag across the shutter too much.  I have my 5 exposures so that the +2 (the longest) fires first.  So I know if the middle exposure (the anchor, I call it) has a shutter that is open too long.  I can just hear it.  If it feels too long, I double the ISO and it halves the shutter speed of the anchor.  This is always my action/reaction when shooting in aperture priority. - Trey Ratcliff Read more, including some exciting news about us and Flipboard, here at stuckincustoms.com.
A Chilly Morning in Boston Common I had an 8 AM meeting in Boston but woke up round 6 to go walk around the Boston Commons and frolic in the snow. There was no frolicking involved. There was a lot of freezing involved, and it reminded me of a bad morning I had in Kiev with a gypsy cab in a blizzard. I wanted to get down to the harbor for some some other sunrise shots, but did not end up with time… but maybe that’s a good thing because it would have been even colder down there!- Trey RatcliffClick here to read the rest of this post at the Stuck in Customs blog.
Man Crossing Street I spent a lot of time in this dynamic area of Tokyo.  It's sort of the techno-nerd electronic center of the Japanese world.  So I felt right at home there with my fellow nerds.  But this guy certainly stood out.  He was crossing the street and looking extremely Japo-cool.  I pulled up my 50mm and waited for the time to feel right before I snapped the photo.  Afterward, of course, it is kind of fun to look at little bits of the photo and find out, compositionally, why the photo did indeed feel "right" to take at that moment.- Trey RatcliffClick here to read the rest of this post at the Stuck in Customs blog.
Houston at Dusk I've had (the pleasure) to go to Houston a few (too many) times this year.  I always end up staying downtown, which affords me some good opportunities to take photos at dusk.  Usually I am busy (being drained) and can't actually get out to shoot at sunset, so whenever I have a chance, I do my best to get a good one.This was shot from the top of the Magnolia Hotel, which is a very cool place to stay, if you ever make it down thataway.- Trey RatcliffClick here to read the rest of this post at the Stuck in Customs blog.
New York, New York Is it a sad thing to say that one of the most fun things I did in Vegas was walk around by myself and take photos?  Yes, I think that sounds kinda sad.  But it's true!  What a great place for photography.  The lights are insane, the textures are off-the-wall, and everywhere you look is a feast for the eyes.  It's also a real challenge to try to get everything just right in the photo.  With so many light levels working against one another on your sensor, it takes a bit to get it right.- Trey RatcliffClick here to read the rest of this post at the Stuck in Customs blog.
Zipping Through Tokyo I think it rained almost every day I was in Tokyo, but that's just fine with me.  It gives you all these "Black Rain" conditions, and makes the place twice as moody as it already was.  I walked through Rappongi one evening to find a secret Italian restaurant.  I ended up having to cross the road so many times on these overpasses, that I finally decided to stop and take a photo of the action underneath.- Trey RatcliffClick here to read the rest of this post at the Stuck in Customs blog.

Zipping Through Tokyo


I think it rained almost every day I was in Tokyo, but that's just fine with me. It gives you all these "Black Rain" conditions, and makes the place twice as moody as it already was. I walked through Rappongi one evening to find a secret Italian restaurant. I ended up having to cross the road so many times on these overpasses, that I finally decided to stop and take a photo of the action underneath.

- Trey Ratcliff

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

- Trey Ratcliff

Click here to read the rest of this post at the Stuck in Customs blog." href="javascript:openLB(742622652,'',XLarge,'',552,768);">Zipping Through Tokyo I think it rained almost every day I was in Tokyo, but that's just fine with me.  It gives you all these "Black Rain" conditions, and makes the place twice as moody as it already was.  I walked through Rappongi one evening to find a secret Italian restaurant.  I ended up having to cross the road so many times on these overpasses, that I finally decided to stop and take a photo of the action underneath.- Trey RatcliffClick here to read the rest of this post at the Stuck in Customs blog.

Zipping Through Tokyo


I think it rained almost every day I was in Tokyo, but that's just fine with me. It gives you all these "Black Rain" conditions, and makes the place twice as moody as it already was. I walked through Rappongi one evening to find a secret Italian restaurant. I ended up having to cross the road so many times on these overpasses, that I finally decided to stop and take a photo of the action underneath.

- Trey Ratcliff

Click here to read the rest of this post at the Stuck in Customs blog.
See photo in original gallery.