The Castle Crackled with Magic as its Gods Held Lightning, Ready to Smite Down the Non-believers Is there anything cooler than the old architecture throughout Europe? I say there is not.In this upcoming article that I’m working on for Smashing Magazine, I mention a membrane between fantasy and reality, and, for whatever reason, seeing things like this help me drift back and forth between what is real and what is not real. I know critics typically get caught up in reality; I get caught up in fantasy. I can’t be in places like this without thinking of the Game of Thrones.- Trey RatcliffClick here to read the rest of this post at the Stuck in Customs blog.
Man on Horse in Lijiang Square When I arrived into the middle of this opening within the tight city of Lijiang, a fresh rain had just made everything nice and slick. There were a few men walking around the old town square on horses in the midst of all the pedestrian activity. - Trey RatcliffClick here to read the entire post 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.
Lijiang at Night This is the old town of Lijiang, China, where I spent the week with Tom Anderson (the MySpace guy).  I think I mentioned him before.  Anyway, we got to be friends over the past several months, and we ended up spending a week together here in the south of China.Tom had first been here many years ago when he was setting up the MySpace office in Beijing.  He had great memories, and he thought it would be great for a big return now that he is getting more into photography.  So, it was definitely a week full of non-stop photography action.One late night after the sun had set, we weaved through the old streets until we found this place.  Looking up, I knew it would be a wonderful place to take a photo, so I set up for this one.- Trey RatcliffClick here to read the rest of this post at the Stuck in Customs blog.
The Great Wall of China Wow I was alone here. As I walked along this ancient, original stretch of the Great Wall, I felt the ghosts haunting the old towers and little enclaves.I finally found an extremely remote part that is far enough away from civilization to stay pure. The ruins of the wall in this area has been overgrown with vegetation. When you walk along the top, you have to snake your way between huge bushes and all sorts of trees. Stairs and parts of the walkways have crumbled away in the past thousand years. The old towers are slowly fragmenting as lichens and moss cover parts of the stone that are decaying away.This has only reminded me that the main tourist part of the Great Wall is a very tiny stretch that has been re-built in recent years… so it is all fake and kind of Disney-wall. I don’t think I like that…That day I walked from tower to tower, looking at the sinuous wall as it snakes over the mountains. It’s so huge that I won’t even begin to come up with analogies… but, speaking of snakes, a family here told me to watch out for them. I kept that in mind as I hiked back in the pure black of night. I had a little flashlight to keep me company, along with my music. I didn’t see any snakes, and I didn’t fall down, so all together it was a great day and night.- Trey RatcliffClick here to read the rest of this post at the Stuck in Customs blog.
Fishing Hut Can I post two photos from Iceland in a row? I like to jump around from time to time.. but I guess this is a curveball or something.One strange little thing about Iceland to me is the grass. It is the spongiest stuff in the world. Every step has your feet sink down and bounce up several more inches than expected. It feels a little like one of those giant blow-up-houses like the moonwalk when I was a kid.Also, my shoes are always damp here. There seems to be a dew or moisture at the surface all the time, and it just coats everything. It’s not bad… just different.- 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.
La Recoleta - The Crypts of Buenos Aires We are getting ever-closer to the release of the new Stuck In Customs Textures tutorial.  The video is now over 90-minutes long and it's full of all sorts of examples and new techniques that I've figured out over the past few years.  I'll go ahead and post the results of one of the finished products.  I recorded video live of all these things... didn't know how they would turn out before I started.  I kept it live and voiced aloud my "thinking process" around accomplishing these images.Everyone who has bought a previous Textures Tutorial will get a coupon for either the same level of product or an upgrade to a new "Ultimate Package".  The coupons will be very fair because we want to take care of all previous buyers.This shot is another from the outdoor crypt area of Buenos Aires called La Ricoleta.  The airlines lost my bags, so I did not have my tripod!  I had to walk around this awesome place without a tripod.  So I had to do everything I could to wedge myself against statues and scary-spikey-gargoyles to try to stay stable.- Trey RatcliffClick here to read the rest of this post at the Stuck in Customs blog.
The Glassy Lake Near Antarctica I’m in the middle of working on a full upgrade for the Stuck In Customs Textures Tutorial. I think it’s already very good (only had ONE return in over a year!), but I can do even better. I’ve learned a lot in the past 18 months about this stuff and the technique continues to evolve. As I am working through some new shots for the tutorial, I thought I would go ahead and post this one. It was taken late one afternoon near a glacial lake on the southern edge of Argentina.- Trey RatcliffClick here to read the rest of this post at the Stuck in Customs blog.

The Castle Crackled with Magic as its Gods Held Lightning, Ready to Smite Down the Non-believers


Is there anything cooler than the old architecture throughout Europe? I say there is not.

In this upcoming article that I’m working on for Smashing Magazine, I mention a membrane between fantasy and reality, and, for whatever reason, seeing things like this help me drift back and forth between what is real and what is not real. I know critics typically get caught up in reality; I get caught up in fantasy. I can’t be in places like this without thinking of the Game of Thrones.

- 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(2199357479,'',XLarge,'',510,768);">The Castle Crackled with Magic as its Gods Held Lightning, Ready to Smite Down the Non-believers Is there anything cooler than the old architecture throughout Europe? I say there is not.In this upcoming article that I’m working on for Smashing Magazine, I mention a membrane between fantasy and reality, and, for whatever reason, seeing things like this help me drift back and forth between what is real and what is not real. I know critics typically get caught up in reality; I get caught up in fantasy. I can’t be in places like this without thinking of the Game of Thrones.- Trey RatcliffClick here to read the rest of this post at the Stuck in Customs blog.

The Castle Crackled with Magic as its Gods Held Lightning, Ready to Smite Down the Non-believers


Is there anything cooler than the old architecture throughout Europe? I say there is not.

In this upcoming article that I’m working on for Smashing Magazine, I mention a membrane between fantasy and reality, and, for whatever reason, seeing things like this help me drift back and forth between what is real and what is not real. I know critics typically get caught up in reality; I get caught up in fantasy. I can’t be in places like this without thinking of the Game of Thrones.

- Trey Ratcliff

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