The Lincoln Memorial
I got this photo in a hurry. I bet I raised a few security alarms too because of my unusual behavior.

I didn't have much time, so I had my wife drive nearby and park illegally on the curb for a few minutes. She wasn't a fan of that, but let's not talk about this right now. So, I jumped out of the car, hauled my tripod out of the trunk, and dashed across the green hill towards the memorial. I grabbed photos in a rushed way and dashed back to the car and sped away.

- Trey Ratcliff

Read more here at the Stuck in Customs blog.
Downtown Seattle
After arriving in Seattle, I immediately went to this spot to grab a photo.  I barely made it in time.  I had about 30 minutes of full light left before this scene began.  It gave me just enough time to set up and frame everything with the right settings.  I guess "last minute" sound a little dramatic, but, really, for me, I like to have some extra time to make sure all my settings are right before that magic moment hits.

- Trey Ratcliff

The rest of this entry and a new short video are here at the Stuck in Customs blog.
Eclectic BBQ With Neal Stephenson

My plane arrived in the evening, and I went out immediately to start taking photos of the city. Just as I was getting into a groove, I received a text to come over to Neal Stephenson's house to help build a unique steampunk BBQ Grill. To this, I cannot say no. 

Here is my friend Chris Young getting one of the columns of fire stoked. We filled these with a special kind of obsidian coal that was very tough to light but burned like a French retreat. First, Chris would use a blow torch to get it started, and then he whipped out the old leaf-blower really get the fire going.

He did this to both columns to make sure the temperature was consistent through the vertical structure before they were set into a spinning motion. 

- Trey Ratcliff

Read the entire long-form blog entry here at the Stuck in Customs blog.
Eclectic BBQ With Neal Stephenson

My plane arrived in the evening, and I went out immediately to start taking photos of the city. Just as I was getting into a groove, I received a text to come over to Neal Stephenson's house to help build a unique steampunk BBQ Grill. To this, I cannot say no.  In this photo Neal looks on.  We were all entranced by the moving fire ...

- Trey Ratcliff

Read the entire long-form blog post here at the Stuck in Customs blog.
Daily Photo(s): Eclectic BBQ With Neal Stephenson

My plane arrived in the evening, and I went out immediately to start taking photos of the city. Just as I was getting into a groove, I received a text to come over to Neal Stephenson's house to help build a unique steampunk BBQ Grill. To this, I cannot say no.

So I arrived and then spent about four hours with Neal, Chris Young (master chef who wrote Modernist Cuisine), Nels Peterson (paleontologist++), and a few other people to build a crazy BBQ setup. Neal has this crazy BBQ every year and they try to do something off-the-wall. For this one, instead of spinning the pig over the fire, it was decided that the fire should spin around the outside of the pig.

Many hours later, the creation was assembled, and we turned it on to watch the giant columns of metal begin to spin around the central base. It felt a little like a wormhole generator that would enable fully cooked pigs to come into our world.

Then, the next day, when the BBQ officially started... here is a photo of the festivities.

- Trey Ratcliff

Read the entire long-form blog post here at the Stuck in Customs blog.
Eclectic BBQ With Neal Stephenson

My plane arrived in the evening, and I went out immediately to start taking photos of the city. Just as I was getting into a groove, I received a text to come over to Neal Stephenson's house to help build a unique steampunk BBQ Grill. To this, I cannot say no.

Here is a photo of the actual creation.  You can see the pigs hanging in the middle as the fire spins around the outside.  To the right is Chris Young and to the left is Neal Stephenson.

There was something new and hypnotic while the fire spun around the pig.  I think maybe it was so foreign to our pleistocene brains. We're just not used to seeing fire spin around while the meat is still ...

- Trey Ratcliff

Read the entire long-form blog entry here at the Stuck in Customs blog.
Underwing
Here's another handheld job from the Air & Space Museum in Washington DC.  I sent out a tweet a few weeks ago and got in touch with the gal that works in the public affairs office...  I twitter-charmed her into giving me the thumbs up to use a tripod next time!  It took 140 delicate characters to make that happen...  there are still more steps, but I am well on the way to getting proper permission.  It's too hard to sneak a tripod into this place... just forget it... armed guards and that sort of thing...

- Trey Ratcliff

Read more here at the Stuck in Customs Blog.
The Blackbird in the Hangar You may not even really need to be into planes to know about the Lockheed SR-71 Blackbird.  The way those letters and numbers fit together is almost poetic, isn't it?  SR-71.  There is a melody to it that flows in a nice way.  It almost makes me wonder if there is some military muse that comes up with some of the better names for these vehicles.In the background there, waaay in the rear area, you can see the space shuttle ...  - Trey Ratcliff Read the rest of this entry here at the Stuck in Customs blog.
Landing in the Air & Space Museum I love this place!  This was about the only place I was allowed to use my tripod (on the outside), so I spent a bit of time hunting about for best ways to capture the amazing building. - Trey Ratcliff Read the rest of this entry (and some tips for taking handheld shots) here.

The Lincoln Memorial


I got this photo in a hurry. I bet I raised a few security alarms too because of my unusual behavior.

I didn't have much time, so I had my wife drive nearby and park illegally on the curb for a few minutes. She wasn't a fan of that, but let's not talk about this right now. So, I jumped out of the car, hauled my tripod out of the trunk, and dashed across the green hill towards the memorial. I grabbed photos in a rushed way and dashed back to the car and sped away.

- Trey Ratcliff

Read more here at the Stuck in Customs blog.
here at the Stuck in Customs blog." href="javascript:openLB(1648534690,'',XLarge,'',768,768);">The Lincoln Memorial
I got this photo in a hurry. I bet I raised a few security alarms too because of my unusual behavior.

I didn't have much time, so I had my wife drive nearby and park illegally on the curb for a few minutes. She wasn't a fan of that, but let's not talk about this right now. So, I jumped out of the car, hauled my tripod out of the trunk, and dashed across the green hill towards the memorial. I grabbed photos in a rushed way and dashed back to the car and sped away.

- Trey Ratcliff

Read more here at the Stuck in Customs blog.

The Lincoln Memorial


I got this photo in a hurry. I bet I raised a few security alarms too because of my unusual behavior.

I didn't have much time, so I had my wife drive nearby and park illegally on the curb for a few minutes. She wasn't a fan of that, but let's not talk about this right now. So, I jumped out of the car, hauled my tripod out of the trunk, and dashed across the green hill towards the memorial. I grabbed photos in a rushed way and dashed back to the car and sped away.

- Trey Ratcliff

Read more here at the Stuck in Customs blog.
See photo in original gallery.