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The Sacred Heart of Paris This is the Sacred Heart Church that sits high on a hill in a very artsy area of Paris. Actually, all of Paris seems artsy to me. I've always wondered what it would be like to be a "full time artist" living in Paris. Wouldn't that be just about the coolest thing in the world? Or maybe you would become spoiled in just a short while and take it all for granted. It's very hard to empathize or sympathize with any mystical miserables that might be in that situation.Trey's Tip: I usually take these with a single RAW, but I kind of like the motion in these people... on occasion it seems okay to me, like here.- Trey RatcliffClick here to read the rest of this post at the Stuck in Customs blog.
Unorthodox Religion Here is a good church picture from Kievo-Pecherskaya Larva for Sunday in the bible belt.I am not sure how people were able to photograph the interior of churches before the HDR technique came along. Well, actually I do - since I used to do it too, but now I am ashamed of all my old pictures. There is no other way, in my opinion, to capture the richness, details, and colors of these massive works of art.You can see a heiromonk there on the right in his morning ghostly ritual.- Trey RatcliffClick here to read the rest of this post at the Stuck in Customs blog.
A Godly Dance at the Taj I was barefoot like the rest of them.The day must have been around 95 degrees and as stuffy as can be, but the cool marble seemed to keep me from being drenched in sweat. After a long walk, I had finally made it to the inner core of the Taj Mahal, around the main tomb structure where pilgrims from all over the country had gravitated. The faithful coiled in long lines and snaked their way around the complex, waiting patiently to reflect at the megamausoleum and communing with the god of their choice. How could a billion people be wrong?When I travel, I actually always enjoy talking to Indians (or whoever) about their religion. Here is a little thing I do... I'm not sure it's totally ethical since I say the same thing over and over, but I enjoy seeing people's reaction as a probe a panoply of personalities. Inevitably, when I'm in a taxi or man-powered trike-mobile, there is some sort of deity that is jiggling about on the dashboard or handlebars. It can be anyone from Shiva to Brahma to Vishnu to Krishna to Ganesha and beyond.So, I always ask, "Who is the god to whom you pay reverence?"They respond quickly and directly, usually naming one from of the top ten from the pantheon of possibilities.I respond back, in all seriousness, "Oh! He is a very powerful god!"To this, they always turn to me and nod gravely.My guide there was from no from one of the traditional Hindu sects -- he was a Jain. The Jain don't recognize the divine origins of the Vedas (made popular in the US from Oppenheimer's re-quote after testing the Bomb), nor do they believe in any one supreme deity. They instead revere Tirthankaras who have raised themselves to divine perfection. So anyway, if you ever try out the little trick above, don't bother with a Jain because they will just give you a funny look and a wobble of inconsequential solitude.So if any of you get the chance to go, I recommend it. The people are all nice as can be and very eager to engage in conversation about just about everything. Or, of you've already been, then you know what I mean!By the way, this comes from my new Lucis Tutorial.- Trey RatcliffClick here to read the rest of this post at the Stuck in Customs blog.
The Wrath of the Norse Gods Hewn from stone, the temple spire awaits my approach, making my chest rattle with thunder.This is Hallgrímskirkja, a church in downtown Reykjavik, Iceland. It is built to resemble an ancient area of the countryside, near a waterfall, where stones in these shapes were found as part of a natural geological formation.- Trey RatcliffClick here to read the rest of this post at the Stuck in Customs blog.
The Caged Buddhas Look Outward Towards the Sunrise If you want to see how I made this (and how you can too!), visit my HDR Tutorial. I hope it gives you some new tricks!Each of these "bells" is really a stone cage that houses a Buddha statue that is seated, facing outwards. At this time in the morning, you can take little flashlights and peer inside the cages. It's all very eerie and fun...In the distance, you can see a few volcanoes poking through the mist.- Trey RatcliffClick here to read the rest of this post at the Stuck in Customs blog.
Monkey Love A male monkey and his mate relax near an ancient naga at the ruins of Angkor Wat in Cambodia.This is the first shot from a new upcoming tutorial that describes some new techniques with which I am experimenting. I hope you like it!- Trey RatcliffClick here to read the rest of this post at the Stuck in Customs blog.
Another Sunday in Iceland This is a really nice little church by a graveyard in the south of Iceland. It was pretty much out in the middle of nowhere, as you can tell. The gate with the cross on the top leads to a tiny and lonely graveyard.- Trey RatcliffClick here to read the rest of this post at the Stuck in Customs blog.
The Airy Doom of the Duomo The most difficult thing about this shot was hiding my tripod from the security guards. The second hardest thing was the HDR processing from this shot melting my CPU core.- Trey RatcliffClick here to read the rest of this post at the Stuck in Customs blog.
Dark Duomo Mark Twain said the following of the Duomo in Milan in his work, Innocents Abroad:What a wonder it is! So grand, so solemn, so vast! And yet so delicate, so airy, so graceful! A very world of solid weight, and yet it seems ...a delusion of frostwork that might vanish with a breath!...The central one of its five great doors is bordered with a bas-relief of birds and fruits and beasts and insects, which have been so ingeniously carved out of the marble that they seem like living creatures-- and the figures are so numerous and the design so complex, that one might study it a week without exhausting its interest...everywhere that a niche or a perch can be found about the enormous building, from summit to base, there is a marble statue, and every statue is a study in itself...Away above, on the lofty roof, rank on rank of carved and fretted spires spring high in the air, and through their rich tracery one sees the sky beyond. ...(Up on) the roof...springing from its broad marble flagstones, were the long files of spires, looking very tall close at hand, but diminishing in the distance...We could see, now, that the statue on the top of each was the size of a large man, though they all looked like dolls from the street... They say that the Cathedral of Milan is second only to St. Peter's at Rome. I cannot understand how it can be second to anything made by human hands.- Trey RatcliffClick here to read the rest of this post at the Stuck in Customs blog.

The Wrath of the Norse Gods


Hewn from stone, the temple spire awaits my approach, making my chest rattle with thunder.

This is Hallgrímskirkja, a church in downtown Reykjavik, Iceland. It is built to resemble an ancient area of the countryside, near a waterfall, where stones in these shapes were found as part of a natural geological formation.

- 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(742622126,'',XLarge,'',596,768);">The Wrath of the Norse Gods Hewn from stone, the temple spire awaits my approach, making my chest rattle with thunder.This is Hallgrímskirkja, a church in downtown Reykjavik, Iceland. It is built to resemble an ancient area of the countryside, near a waterfall, where stones in these shapes were found as part of a natural geological formation.- Trey RatcliffClick here to read the rest of this post at the Stuck in Customs blog.

The Wrath of the Norse Gods


Hewn from stone, the temple spire awaits my approach, making my chest rattle with thunder.

This is Hallgrímskirkja, a church in downtown Reykjavik, Iceland. It is built to resemble an ancient area of the countryside, near a waterfall, where stones in these shapes were found as part of a natural geological formation.

- Trey Ratcliff

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