La Ville de Paris Gets Ready for Night I was on the hill in the Montmartre part of Paris just after the sun had set.  I pointed the camera over the sprawl of the city just as the lights were coming on for the evening.  I made it my personal mission to walk down into the city that evening, meander around, and visit at least three pastry shops and eat a silly number of desserts.  I tricked myself into thinking that I might be burning a lot of calories by doing so much walking.  It's amazing how easily I was able to justify French desserts.- Trey RatcliffClick here to read the rest of this post at the Stuck in Customs blog.
Crossing the Bridge into Old Lyon This was a pretty tough shot to get! This was a little pedestrian bridge that crossed from the new part of Lyon, France, into the older part. It swayed and buckled in the breeze. Plus, it was night, so you kind of have to leave the shutter open for a long time. I hate to crank up the ISO, but I had to so everything would stay sharp.That night I walked around for about five hours deep past midnight. It was just me and my Russian friend… walking around… solving the world’s problems… while he gave me all kinds of hard-ass Russian advice on how to solve my own!- Trey RatcliffClick here to read the rest of this post at the Stuck in Customs blog.
Where the Impressionists Haunted the Streets Montmartre, in the north of Paris, is a very artsy place and I would love to open a little photography studio there, even if it is a bit touristy now.  I don't think they had neon paint-palettes hanging in the streets when it was frequented by Monet, Pissarro, Renoir, and the whole cast of bohemian characters.I'm halfway through a book now called "The Judgement of Paris", about all these guys had to go through to get their paintings shown in the Salon.  Old-school judges would only approve paintings that showed historical scenes and the moral teachings of antiquity.  Consequently, dozens of today's priceless paintings were stamped on the back with a big red "R" for "Refused".After the Impressionists' paintings were refused by the selection committee, the artists would gather at cafes here, drinking wine that tasted of "mountwash and soot", and lament about the state of the art, so to speak.- Trey RatcliffClick here to read the rest of this post at the Stuck in Customs blog.
The Mysterious Rock of Wonder The day in Death Valley was about 115 F (46 C). It wasn’t a dry heat either… there has been a lot of humidity here and there is flash lightning in the day and night. This location here took a lot of time, effort, and 4×4 to find. I took five gallons of water, a map, and some warnings from the place that rented the jeep that this area was inaccessible because of recent road wash-outs from rivers. Well, they were right! So getting the 4×4 over and through the washed out rivers took many more hours than expected. I only suffered one minor injury when my head slammed into the rollbar during a clumsy maneuver. But after I finally found this place I’ve always wanted to visit, it was late afternoon with plenty of time to hike around before night fell.I look forward to your theories (from the boring to the surreal) of what makes these rocks move across the playa on their own!- Trey RatcliffClick here to read the entire post over at the Stuck in Customs blog.
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.
Trey Ratcliff - Aurora Australis - Sky on Fire - Queenstown - New Zealand
Trey Ratcliff - Aurora Australis - The Comet - Queenstown - New Zealand
from Trey Ratcliff at www.stuckincustoms.com
from the blog www.stuckincustoms.com
from the blog www.stuckincustoms.com
See photo in original gallery.