The New Garden Path Along the Great Wall of China Just to get to this point required a long walk through a rocky forest. It wasn’t like the super-pristine part of the Great Wall (which is actually quite fake and Disney-like) — where you can drive up in a huge tour bus and park in huge parking lot. No, it wasn’t like that at all. Instead, there was a “path” that was barely discernable (much less so when I walked back in the dark alone!) that wove up through a forest along an old creekbed. I’m not sure I could find it again if I had to!- Trey RatcliffClick here to read the rest of this post at the Stuck in Customs blog.
Driving High Along the Fjords The roads in Iceland normally follow the bottom part of the valley. Here, in this particular area, the road was about halfway up one of the mountains, which gave me a bit of a downward perspective. Every few miles there is an interesting, old, weather-beaten barn like this one to set the scene. It may not even be so old, and maybe the weather there is so rough that it makes things look old before their time.- Trey RatcliffClick here to read the rest of this post at the Stuck in Customs blog.
The Lone Cypress Tree This is kind of a famous tree, I think. Well, I guess it’s famous if you’ve heard of it, otherwise it’s completely unknown. It’s one of those things you find out is famous, and then every time you see it, you think, “Oh that is the famous tree.”It’s kind of like when you play trivia games with annoying people. You know the ones. Every now and then, a question comes up that is INCREDIBLY TRIVIAL and some annoying person will guffaw, “Oh My God, that is sooooo easy!” Of course it is easy if they happen to know this incredibly small piece of arcane information! Either you know it, or you don’t.- Trey RatcliffClick here to read the rest of this post at the Stuck in Customs blog.
Trees in Yosemite I’m not really an “expert” on Yosemite by any means! I’ve only been there once, and I know there are many photographers that have been there 5 or 10 or more times! I spent most of my time driving around the main roads and going off on little mini-hikes. But I didn’t really know the best places to go… so I would hike along little creeks and get shots like this.I remember I did a little walk to a place called “Mirror Lake” or something. It sounded so awesome from the name! But then I got there, and it was just a puddle of ice. I felt ripped off! They should change the name of it every hour depending on what it currently looks like. There’s no way I would have walked to “Dirty Ice Ugly Lake."- Trey RatcliffClick here to read the rest of this post at the Stuck in Customs blog.
The Royal Guard in Beijing The interior space and design of the Capitol Museum is absolutely amazing. I don’t know if they designed the light to do this in the middle of the day or not, but I found it rather striking! If the architects did this on purpose, then even more kudos to them.I must admit that I do not find all museums to be equally interesting. Some are just plain boring. Others are awesome… it depends on if the subject matter is something that is up my alley. I don’t like the “pressure” of making you feel bad if you aren’t fascinated by every little thing in a museum… that is silly.Like, for example, I found this museum a little bit boring. I know a bit about Chinese history (I played a lot of Romance of the Three Kingdoms back in the day, and I was always Gu Yu!), but I get a bit confused when it comes to the some of the more bizarre and abstract lineages. Anyway, this museum featured a lot of that. But, on the plus side, the architecture was so cool that it kept me pleasantly distracted!- Trey RatcliffClick here to read the rest of this post at the Stuck in Customs blog.
Walking in Yosemite Here’s a photo from a walk along this beautiful little path in Yosemite. It looks very serene and welcoming, yes? Well it is! I was sad I only got to spend one day here in the forest… I’d like to go back. Actually, I’d really like to get to Yosemite when it is snowing. I bet there are a thousand interesting photos all over the place… but now, by the time out I find out it is snowing, it will take me too long to get over there! :(I took this one during the crazy photowalk there… we had so much fun!- Trey RatcliffClick here to read the rest of this post at the Stuck in Customs blog.
The Abandoned Boiler Room from the Queen Mary Here’s the next photo from the amazing ghost ship! Well, I don’t know if that is what it is really called or not, but we did walk into this room during our little ghost tour aboard the Queen Mary in Long Beach. It was very creepy, alright… mostly alone in this huge old ship from the war… and these vast interiors felt very hollow and eerie in their emptiness. I enjoyed taking the photos… and then I enjoyed getting out of there!The following bit is from Wikipedia: “Anecdotal reports of paranormal activity have included children crying in the nursery room, used as the third-class playroom, and a mysterious splashing noise in the drained first-class swimming pool.”- Trey RatcliffClick here to read the rest of this post at the Stuck in Customs blog.
Germanialand This is the German area of Epcot at DisneyWorld. I know it’s always a bit disappointing when I say this, isn’t it? I wish it was all real too… but, it is close-enough to real, so that’s not so bad. It’s like getting a pretty good milkshake or an above-average massage. No one complains about these things. And I didn’t complain while here either… the architecture and feel was pretty cool… the food was good… no bitter-looking German tourists… a pretty good combo! :)- Trey RatcliffClick here to read the rest of this post at the Stuck in Customs blog.
Old Londontown Here’s a fun photo I took while crossing the bridge on the way to Westminster Abbey. You’ll also notice it as one of the main shots featured in that video we put up on the StuckInCustoms YouTube video.A big reason I ended up tilting the photo wasn’t just to be quirky or artsy or whatever, but I felt like I really wanted that cool light fixture in the photo without losing balance. A normal shot ends up with the light and abbey quite prominent, but a lot of “dead space” in the upper left. I don’t know if I explained that right… I don’t mind white space in a shot, but I feel like it should still be balanced.- Trey RatcliffClick here to read the rest of this post at the Stuck in Customs blog.

The New Garden Path Along the Great Wall of China


Just to get to this point required a long walk through a rocky forest. It wasn’t like the super-pristine part of the Great Wall (which is actually quite fake and Disney-like) — where you can drive up in a huge tour bus and park in huge parking lot. No, it wasn’t like that at all. Instead, there was a “path” that was barely discernable (much less so when I walked back in the dark alone!) that wove up through a forest along an old creekbed. I’m not sure I could find it again if I had to!

- 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(2442582828,'',XLarge,'',1024,598);">The New Garden Path Along the Great Wall of China Just to get to this point required a long walk through a rocky forest. It wasn’t like the super-pristine part of the Great Wall (which is actually quite fake and Disney-like) — where you can drive up in a huge tour bus and park in huge parking lot. No, it wasn’t like that at all. Instead, there was a “path” that was barely discernable (much less so when I walked back in the dark alone!) that wove up through a forest along an old creekbed. I’m not sure I could find it again if I had to!- Trey RatcliffClick here to read the rest of this post at the Stuck in Customs blog.

The New Garden Path Along the Great Wall of China


Just to get to this point required a long walk through a rocky forest. It wasn’t like the super-pristine part of the Great Wall (which is actually quite fake and Disney-like) — where you can drive up in a huge tour bus and park in huge parking lot. No, it wasn’t like that at all. Instead, there was a “path” that was barely discernable (much less so when I walked back in the dark alone!) that wove up through a forest along an old creekbed. I’m not sure I could find it again if I had to!

- Trey Ratcliff

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