The Solstice This came from one of my favorite nights in Iceland!  This was shot around 2 AM, right when I started feeling loopy.I was on the edge of some precipitous volcanic rock, and there was a waterfall behind me.  It fed this little area of rapids that emptied out into one of the fjords.  There had been a light rain for a few hours, but the setting sun cut underneath the clouds to unleash some godly colors.About 10-20% of my HDRs are in portrait mode.  I am just usually in landscape mode for some reason.  Part of it has to do with the way people consume these things -- on monitors.  I don't like making people scroll up and down to see a photo.  That's kind of a drag.  That's another reason I don't like those super-wide panoramas.  They are so difficult to pan around, even though there are a lot of slick tools.  It's just not a "viewing" experience while you are busy using a tool to manipulate the photo itself.  Do you know what I mean?- Trey RatcliffClick here to read the rest of this post at the Stuck in Customs blog.
Prismatic Steam in Yellowstone
This is the beautiful grand prismatic spring, which you have probably seen featured here before ... 

Read the rest of this entry at the Stuck in Customs blog.
The Dock to Forever One of the advantages of going down all the side roads is that you get to find cool places!  After leaving Nelson on the South Island, we found a little lake on the map that looked about perfect.  After a few hours of meandering, we discovered this place was almost completely empty (just like every place else on the South Island!).  Even better, there was a perfect little dock jutting out into the lake.I first took a bunch of shots with my 14-24mm lens...  but it was not really getting the dock with the distant valley in the right way.  So, I put on my 70-200mm, zoomed in almost all the way, then backed up quite a bit to get the compression effect of the valley.  Remind me to post the other version someday so you can see the comparison!  I haven't processed it yet -- but it is in my "Pile to Process" -- which is now 22,000 strong.- Trey RatcliffClick here to read the rest of this post at the Stuck in Customs blog.
Deep in the South of New Zealand I drove over 4,200 kilometers while there -- it was just a wonderful experience.  Towards the end of the journey, we started making deeper and deeper into the southern island, where things seemed to get more wonderful and wild every kilometer.The weather was crazy the whole time!  It would go from sunny to violent little storms to random winds to perfect calm.  During one of those transition periods, I was halfway to Milford Sound by this beautiful little lake when this rainbow peeked out. I quickly got into position to capture it, but then realized I had on the wrong lens!  The 12-24mm was okay, but this really called for the 24-70.  Despite worries of rain getting into the chamber, I switched out lenses, doing my best to keep all the elements at bay.- Trey RatcliffClick here to read the rest of this post at the Stuck in Customs blog.
The Bay at Portofino This isn’t really Portofino, but it sure does look like it, eh? We might even make the case that it is more pretty than the real Portofino! This is a beautiful resort in Orlando, over at Universal Studios.  All the colors in the sky and the buildings seemed to melt together, so I stopped for a quick photo.- Trey RatcliffClick here to read the rest of this post at the Stuck in Customs blog.
A Morning at the Secret Lake This was shot in the Andes of Southern Argentina just near the border of Chile.I spent several hours of hiking in the dark just so I could get to this spot at sunrise.  All the darkness in the lower half is the shadow of the mountain behind me as the morning sun rose above it.  I was so thirsty from the hike, and had not brought any water with me.  Looking on Google Earth beforehand, I knew there was a lake up here and I could fill up… so I got down on my hands and knees and drank like a horse…  oh boy that was some good fresh water…  You can see my little footprints in the snow there on the left.- Trey RatcliffClick here to read the rest of this post at the Stuck in Customs blog.
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 Secret Emerald Lake I saw the craziest and most unbelievable things in Patagonia.  It was like nature rewrote its own rules to build this place.  I'd like to make a reference to the ill-fated Genesis project in Star Trek II, the Wrath of Kahn, but I won't.I came across this shockingly clear and mysterious green lake.  The water magnified the pure green algae that covered every strange underwater formation.  There were also fish swimming around inside, but I kept the ISO so low on these shots, the fish got blurred out.  I do have some higher ISO shots of the fish I will add at a later date.  They were these little blue-colored fish.  I think they were trout, but I'm not totally sure.  Anyway, I felt lucky to be here in the Autumn, just after a small rainstorm, making all the trees nice and moist with a glistening glow.- Trey RatcliffClick here to read the rest of this post at the Stuck in Customs blog.
Lunch at Chateau Rodin I had been hiking around Paris with way too much equipment for several hours.  Whenever, I'm in photo-gatherin' mode, I am fairly tireless.  I go from spot to spot like a Navy SEAL...  but this day, I actually planned to have lunch at Chateau Rodin, the famous estate of the great French sculptor.- Trey RatcliffClick here to read the rest of this post at the Stuck in Customs blog.

Lunch at Chateau Rodin


I had been hiking around Paris with way too much equipment for several hours. Whenever, I'm in photo-gatherin' mode, I am fairly tireless. I go from spot to spot like a Navy SEAL... but this day, I actually planned to have lunch at Chateau Rodin, the famous estate of the great French sculptor.

- 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(742623988,'',XLarge,'',1024,657);">Lunch at Chateau Rodin I had been hiking around Paris with way too much equipment for several hours.  Whenever, I'm in photo-gatherin' mode, I am fairly tireless.  I go from spot to spot like a Navy SEAL...  but this day, I actually planned to have lunch at Chateau Rodin, the famous estate of the great French sculptor.- Trey RatcliffClick here to read the rest of this post at the Stuck in Customs blog.

Lunch at Chateau Rodin


I had been hiking around Paris with way too much equipment for several hours. Whenever, I'm in photo-gatherin' mode, I am fairly tireless. I go from spot to spot like a Navy SEAL... but this day, I actually planned to have lunch at Chateau Rodin, the famous estate of the great French sculptor.

- Trey Ratcliff

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