River to the Maelstrom To honor ReadWriteWeb and its founder, the great Richard MacManus, I decided to post a new photo from his homeland of New Zealand today.On the way to Milford Sound, there are a variety of little rivers that twist and turn into the mountains.  I didn't have nearly enough time, but I did a small amount of hiking to find some good compositions.   - Trey Ratcliff There's a ton of other stuff in this post, which can be found here at stuckincustoms.com.
The Frozen Granite Getting to this spot in Glacier National Park wasn't easy.  It was even tougher trying to get Ethan and Tina into the exact spot too.  Even though this area had all this cool granite around it, there was a bit of a swamp there that we had to traverse first.  And, just around the corner was a nice sandy beach!- Trey RatcliffClick here to read the rest of this post at the Stuck in Customs blog.
The Violent Volcano I thought this mountain and cloud formation was too perfect to ignore.  Clouds always do strange things when they pass over mountains, but this one seemed particularly violent and unexpected.This is not actually a volcano.  it's just a regular old mountain in the Andes that had a nice little volcanic shape.  I skirted around it for a while (skirting is quite a trek at this radius), until the angle seemed about right... although I had to skirt fast before the clouds changed.  I have always wanted to take a photo of a volcano that is erupting.  I climbed up part of a volcano that was erupting in Costa Rica, and you could see the red rocks, but I got absolutely zero good shots.  Oh well... some day!- Trey RatcliffClick here to read the rest of this post at the Stuck in Customs blog.
The Two Glacial Lakes of the Southern Andes This was a hard spot to reach!It was quite a hike to get up here early in the morning, just as the sky was still in a dawn of deep blue.  The two lakes on either side are those pure glacial blue lakes that you sometimes see from airplanes and wonder, "What's it like to be down there?"  I'll tell ya - AWESOME!  I went down there and drank from the lakes like a guanaco on holiday.  It was incredible.- Trey RatcliffClick here to read the rest of this post at the Stuck in Customs blog.
A View from the Ranch in Argentina I've always heard about how wonderful it is to have a ranch near the wine country in Argentina.  But not until I was down there did I really find that out in person.  The idea of walking across a ranch during the nether hours of the day and seeing something like this... well... it kind of makes me want to just go ahead and retire down there.  All I need is broadband and these kind of vistas...  that's the life, eh?  I hope I was able to adequately capture the majesty of that place with this photo.- Trey RatcliffClick here to read the rest of this post at the Stuck in Customs blog.
The Grand Tetons We drove down to the south of Yellowstone near Jackson Hole to explore the Grand Tetons. Just as I was taking this picture, a huge bison came up behind me and caught me unawares… and I barely got the fifth exposure to this HDR! It’s amazing how big those things are and they are still quiet.- Trey RatcliffClick here to read the rest of this post at the Stuck in Customs blog.
Where the Sky is Torn Asunder The morning sun sprayed orange across the top of Fitz Roy, and I could feel those sharp tips slicing into the cold sky. It was really an unbelievable experience being there at the perfect time; I feel very lucky indeed.- Trey RatcliffClick here to read the rest of this post at the Stuck in Customs blog.
The River Runs Through the Andes Getting to this position was not as long a hike as the others around Patagonia, but it was no cakewalk! It was one of those strange river-rock strewn areas where the rocks seemed to be the perfect size for spraining your ankles. I had the tripod extended to act like a walking stick, although it's not the most handy walking stick with a giant Nikon on one end of it!- Trey RatcliffClick here to read the rest of this post at the Stuck in Customs blog.
I've Made it to the Edge of the World This was shot in the final hours of daylight, near the southern tip of Argentina and the edge of Chile, just a glacier's throw from Antarctica.In the morning, we woke up at 4:30 AM in -7 degree cold. I hardly slept 30 minutes the whole night. I was in a tiny 2-man tent with Yuri. The noxious fumes of our tiny prison reminded me, if you will, of the inside of a tauntaun that had spent its life consuming cognac and cigarettes. Furthermore, his snore had the sonorous bass and carrying power of a humpback whale with none of the beauty.I started on one edge of these rugged peaks and moved around to this side, to get the view from the glacial lake. The spiked mountains there are Cerro Torre, and I was very lucky to see them without cloud cover. I understand they are covered up 90% of the time, so to have crystal clear air was fortunate. The glacier there, which presents on the right but really goes back behind many more mountains, is called "glacier grande".I did a lot of other things this day too, including a 45-minute 1500-foot ascent up an icy trail that was not really a trail at all. Dima and Vulva (Vulva is one of the other Russian gentleman who joined us on the trip -- it's hard to pronounce with a strange V-W sound, but he seemed to respond when I called him "Vulva") went up the mountain with me in the pitch black, using only headlamps. I'll have more on that story later because it was pretty sketchy. But, alas, we were able to see Fitz Roy as the sun turned the tips pink. After that, we began the long additional 10km hike that brought us to this location. I stayed here watching icebergs float by until the last morsels of dusk remained.- Trey RatcliffClick here to read the rest of this post at the Stuck in Customs blog.

The River Runs Through the Andes


Getting to this position was not as long a hike as the others around Patagonia, but it was no cakewalk! It was one of those strange river-rock strewn areas where the rocks seemed to be the perfect size for spraining your ankles. I had the tripod extended to act like a walking stick, although it's not the most handy walking stick with a giant Nikon on one end of it!

- Trey Ratcliff

Click here to read the rest of this post at the Stuck in Customs blog.
Click here to read the rest of this post at the Stuck in Customs blog." href="javascript:openLB(742619330,'',XLarge,'',1024,710);">The River Runs Through the Andes Getting to this position was not as long a hike as the others around Patagonia, but it was no cakewalk! It was one of those strange river-rock strewn areas where the rocks seemed to be the perfect size for spraining your ankles. I had the tripod extended to act like a walking stick, although it's not the most handy walking stick with a giant Nikon on one end of it!- Trey RatcliffClick here to read the rest of this post at the Stuck in Customs blog.

The River Runs Through the Andes


Getting to this position was not as long a hike as the others around Patagonia, but it was no cakewalk! It was one of those strange river-rock strewn areas where the rocks seemed to be the perfect size for spraining your ankles. I had the tripod extended to act like a walking stick, although it's not the most handy walking stick with a giant Nikon on one end of it!

- Trey Ratcliff

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