As is the case with every day here, I have also included a photo. This is of the indomitable Fitz Roy at sunrise buried deep in the Andes, in the hinterland between Argentina and Chile. To get this shot, it was none too easy! First, I “woke” up after a sleepless night in a two-man tent with Yuri. It was perhaps the worst night of my life and I’ve never had a panic attack before, but I honestly felt like I was pretty close. The smell combined with the pitch black, the snoring, the freezing cold, and the tiny tent was almost more than I could bear!

I woke up around 4:30 AM with -7 Celsius temperatures. It was bitter cold. I got dressed QUICKLY in the pitch black cold and then headed off with two of my Russian friends to begin scaling the mountain. They had lights on their hats; I did not. I walked between them, trying not to slip on the icy “trail” between the dodging shadows cast by their headlights. I’ll never forget it for the rest of my life. We ascended 1,500 feet in less than 45 minutes so we could catch the pink rays of sunrise just as they hit the peaks.

Last, I have been interviewed about photography and more on the Pro Photo Show. It’s a free podcast that you can listen to if you want to know more about the process or just hear me ramble on about stuff you may or may not find interesting!

A Razor to the Sky

Patagonia in Autumn from Trey Ratcliff on Vimeo.

Filed under the categories: Argentina, El Chalten, Nikon D3X, Patagonia, Travel

Announcement (and contest!) reminder: At midnight (Friday night, about 24 hours after this post), I’ll be releasing the short film called “Autumn in Patagonia”. It’s an experimental thing, and I hope you like it. I’ll be looking at Twitter for the next 24 hours to see who has the most clever Tweet of the event – mark it with @TreyRatcliff so I can find it! I’ll give the winner a free Textures Tutorial and perhaps even a hot tub weekend with Yuri, if I can talk Yuri into it.

As for this photo from Argentina below, this was found on the second day of hiking into the Andes. The landscape changes very quickly and we emerged from one forest and were suddenly facing another. The stark white roots reminded me of bones coming out of the ground and holding up old trees. In the distance, you can see the final destination of this hike – the mysterious peaks of Fitz Roy. These are covered by clouds 90% of the time, so to have them on a crystal clear day was lucky indeed. Tomorrow, in addition to posting the short film, I’ll show you a closer shot of Fitz Roy that was taken around 6 AM the next morning, after an icy hike of 1500 feet in pitch black. Will there be clouds at sunrise, or will it be visible?

Last, they are now taking votes for the 2009 Photoblog Awards. We have been nominated, so be one of the first to vote to help us get to the top! You will have to register and stuff – sorry for that, but thank you in advance!

Click here or on the little graphic :

Filed under the categories: Argentina, El Chalten, Nikon D3X, Patagonia, Travel

After spending the sunset circling Le Sacre Coeur like a photographer-vulture, I followed a few roads that led deeper into Montmartre. This is the famous area that held the studios of many famous artists including Picasso, Monet, and Van Gogh. Also, if you are a fan of the movie like me, you may notice this area from Amelie.

Now it is filled with dozens of artists painting and drawing at all hours. I really get a kick out of just standing there and watching people paint. It’s much better than watching Bob Ross (to say the least), when you have a chance just to sit back and hear people speaking French while creating nice little works of art.

Filed under the categories: Travel

We are going to start doing a few guest posts here. I don’t know how regular they will be, but I expect to get several in per year. The simple goal is to share some cool work out there with my readers and expose some of these artists to a new group of people! Guests will be sharing a bit about themselves, their philosophies, and their futures.

For the first one, I invited in a friend, best known to the world as Miss Aniela. She is very popular on Flickr, to say the least!  I will not talk about her too much… it’s best to let her describe herself!  I asked her to include three of her favorite photos, and then I picked one of my own favorites at the bottom.

Miss Aniela, from Brighton, UK

Most of my work as it stands currently is self-portraiture. I got into this when I first discovered the world of photo-sharing in 2006. Since then I have had two exhibitions and I now speak at international tradeshows and events and work full-time as a photographer.

I like to create images that are primarily visually pleasing: treats for the eyes that use stimulating colour, composition and angle. In my latest work, I keep this approach but with more of a view to incorporating a certain concept within the planning, but allowing for some of the spontaneity as in my earlier work.

I hope people like my work for its aesthetics, but I also take pride in being a ‘one-woman show’ in creating my work; independently photographing, modelling for, processing and then sharing online. So far I have used only improvised lighting, basic equipment and haphazard locations. I find these elements to be challenging to certain norms, and I hope that people enjoy that different take on photography. I am an ‘amateur’ who became pro, not through formal training but through sheer curiosity and passion alone. It is a great reward to be able to inspire other people to try the same.

In the near future I do want to develop my skills with bigger and better equipment, and use my style on other people more and more. My first goal is to get a sturdier tripod.

And now, the three photos, as selected and described by Miss Aniela:

The smothering

This is one of my personal faves, and it’s one of those pictures that took the least time to shoot, though with a bit more intricacy to process. I had the idea of floating with my head in a box, and called in my boyfriend from playing his Xbox in the living room to propel my legs into the air during a few 10-second timer dashes. He went away again while I shot the other images that were to be used in the composite. I didn’t expect the image to come out so clean looking, as the hallway is quite dark and there were cumbersome walls round the edges of the image. It certainly got a lot of gasps and wows on Flickr, this being another ‘levitation’ picture, a series of which I have created partly inspired by the work I have seen of Julia Fullerton-Batten.

South by southeast

Ah, now, this pic is special to me. Not just because I generally like it, but because of what it proves to me as an artist – someone who is always getting frustrated about how to get a good pic. Other images I have taken have proved that it’s possible to get a good image straight-in-camera, there and then. However, this image did not come out of the camera like this – indeed, the original is nothing special, at least not to me. It’s the work I did to it, quite a minimal series of adjustments, that transformed an image of me on a hill, with the dog in the way, getting blown red-nosed straight into what I felt was photographic impotence; into what seems like a 50s film-still of someone not me, but a mysterious actress gazing wistfully out from between pleasing little distant tree stumps. Yet, the dark scowling eyes tell me that it is definitely me. So, this image proves that there are snaps one might overlook from their shoots, which with some special attention can be ‘unlocked’, if you like, revealing a whole new world, and causing undue artistic satisfaction and amazement. I joke about ‘trying to get a South by southeast’ when out taking new pics.

The chase

This is a clone picture taken in Milan. My boyfriend was the ‘human tripod’ here, holding the camera as still as humanly possible whilst I ran about in a public place, something with which I was not so confident – but there was only one man in the distance, so I got on with it. The first image we liked was the frontmost figure you see – she was a perfect haphazard shot, and all she needed was some perfunctory decoration in the form of a few accompanying clones. I didn’t share the final composite, strangely enough, until about 6 months later on Flickr. I wasn’t completely happy with the image until I made some tweaks to bring the characters closer together in harmony, and then, mid-cold-January, shared it online as a summery treat. It went down well, so I wondered why it had been stuck in the drawer for so long. Maybe it was tweaking those shadows that seemed like an endless job?

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Find out more about her at missaniela.com or www.flickr.com/photos/ndybisz. Also, you can check out her book at www.tinyurl.com/missaniela

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And now, (this is Trey again) I’ll post one of my favorite photoworks she has done:

Filed under the categories: Travel

Aren’t these some cool-lookin’ sheep? I was driving through the countryside of Iceland and there are these super-bushy sheep that float around the fields with their busy little legs underneath. Then, from a distance, I saw these mega-bushy fellas all piled up on top of one another. They were quite far away, so I attached my 70-200 mm lens to get a tighter shot at f5.6. I had to make a wide variety of strange animal noises to get that guy on top to look at me. Luckily, I was alone with the sheep. That sounds funny.

Besides that, I have a hot new Twitter list for you below!

Here is my Previous 10 Photographers to Follow on Twitter list… and here is the latest one below! If you have more photographer suggestions, send me a note TreyRatcliff – thanks!

1) @jimgoldstein – Jim Goldstein – a cool photographer with a nice eye for things. He is also quite active on Twitter.
2) @MoosePeterson – Moose Peterson is one of those guys that has a cool name and can back it up!
3) @frederickvan – Frederick Van is one of the hosts of the cool This Week in Photography podcasts. He’s also a very nice guy with a hearty laugh… you can sometimes tell a lot about a guy from his laugh.
4) @aphotoeditor – Steve Simon recommended that I follow him… all kinds of cool links posted on a regular basis
5) @nickonken - Nick Onken is a cool guy with a unique look about his work. He also finds cool links to share with his followers.
6) @jeffnewsom – Jeff Newsom has a nice style to his photography and is very active on Twitter… HIs blog has very nice imagery
7) @ronbrinkmann – Ron Brinkmann is another TWIP guy – very interesting and has interesting thoughts to share.
8 ) @danhavlik – Dan Havlik finds all sorts of interesting stuff and shares it all with is Twitter followers… very cool stuff.
9) @halfpress – Aaron Mahler is a regular on the TWIP show, and like the others, he is full of humor, advice, and great links. What else do we need in life?
10) @RobertEvans – Robert Evans is a different sort of guy, and those are the kind I usually like. He describes himself on Twitter as “Inspiration, Education, and Motivation for Photographers” – that says it pretty well!

Filed under the categories: Travel

This is about 20km into our backpacking. The fertile soil from recent glaciation sprang colorful life everywhere, even as the valley was changing colors for autumn. Little streams trickled here and there and fell into larger streams. Fording some of these was always a little sketchy when carrying a bunch of expensive camera equipment, but it was always worth it.

I can’t explain how often I stopped to take photos along this hike! I am sure it took about 4x as long as needed, but that was the point of the whole trip, after all…

If you zoom into the large or ( original size ), you can see the glowing blue glacier there, spilling out from between the edge of the Andes.

Filed under the categories: Argentina, El Chalten, Nikon D3X, Patagonia, Travel

I spent a few weekends in the Chinese area of Melaka, which is on the southern coast. After it gets dark outside and you walk down the streets, you can always see little glowing lights coming from inside homes that are crammed together in the streets. There is a general clatter of Chinese voices with the clanking and scraping of dinner being made and shared. One of them had the door slightly ajar with a good mood coming out (picked up by my Jacobson’s Organ), so I craned my neck around inside with a smile to see what was happening. I had my camera in plain sight, and it’s always novel for them to see a whitey in this area of town. I gave an international greeting of “howdy”, and then the international sign of “can I take a photo of your interesting living area”, and then I snapped a single RAW for conversion to HDR later.

There are all kinds of interesting things inside if you look close… like a massive amount of eggs for a small home and also the ever-present Milo, which all Malaysians love and have in ready supply.

I checked the Facebook fan club today, which I should do more, and saw that it had broken 1,000 fans! Thanks everyone – that is cool. I am not sure the best thing to do on there yet; I’d like to occasionally do fun things there, like I do on Twitter, for people that like to see real-time updates or behind-the-scenes activity. If you have any ideas, feel free to start up a discussion thread there on the fan site and I’ll be sure to check in to see what I can do to help out!

Filed under the categories: Malaysia, Melaka, Nikon D3X, Travel

Not everything in Argentina was rough, and here is a little yang for the yuri.

We rented a car from a horrible company called Wagen.  Don’t worry, I’ll get to the girl part.  The car’s battery died very quickly, leaving us stranded in El Chalten, which is the hub from which many trails spawn out into the Andes.  We had to wait a whole day for the horrible company, once again, called Wagen, to come out and replace the battery after their very unhelpful employee made us jump the car, to little avail.  If you are ever out in Argentina and you need a reliable car, don’t call Wagen. Even worse, they would not give any partial refund. You could get stuck out in the wild with no chance for help.  Luckily we were close to a phone, and that phone was close to an aspiring model to help my camera wile away the hours.  Okay that sounds stupid.  But it’s kinda true.

While in El Chalten, we stayed in a charming little hotel.  At night, I would stay up late and process photos, drink coffee, and listen to music.  This is what I always like to do after dinner.  Maybe that sounds lame.  Anyway, the nice Argentine family that ran the hotel took notice of me and I got to know them.  The mom that ran the hotel had a 20-year-old daughter named Natalia who had a unique look but had never modeled before.  It’s a small town way down by Antarctica and they don’t have many model/photographer resources down thataway.  Anyway, since we ended up with an extra few hours, I asked if she wanted to go out and shoot.   Natalia’s English wasn’t so great, but I was able to draw things out in the dirt like calling a play in flag football.  We ended up with a lot of good shots that I will add over the next few months.

Filed under the categories: Argentina, El Chalten, Model, Nikon D3X, Patagonia, Travel

This photo from Butte, Montana, was much harder to take than it might seem!

First of all, these sunflowers are tall – and I mean tall! They must be between 6 and 7 feet in the air. I was on the ground with them, so, of course, I was looking UP at them. No one wants to see a shot like that…!

So, I put the camera on the tripod, set the timer to 5 seconds, extended the legs, set the manual settings correct, then jacked the whole thing in the air, holding it rock steady while it took the exposure. Getting a steady horizon while holding the camera 12 feet in the air is not easy… and after a number of takes, my shoulders were just about spent for the rest of the night.

As for the little announcement there, I am working on a short film. It’s from Patagonia and somewhat experimental. I expect the debut to be right here on www.stuckincustoms.com on Friday, April 17, so stay tuned!

Filed under the categories: Bozeman, Montana, Nikon D2XS, Travel

We left while it was still dark to reach this spot by the morning. The glacier is already a deadly blue, but the morning light gets into the nooks and crannies and makes the blue reflect around like an argon laser.

It was really cold when I took this. And raining. And windy. I had a panoply of towels, rags, and other drying agents in various pockets, constantly wiping down the lens. I also had the sweet lady D3X inside of a clear plastic bag to protect it from the whipping rain. Every 30 minutes or so, I could hear an ungodly creaking and ripping of ice as another cleaved off into the water below. I understand if there was going to be a huge piece cleave off that the splash could actually make it all the way to me. I both wanted it to happen and didn’t want it to happen at the same time. I think my indecision made it not happen.

Also — interesting news? I am working on a little short film from Patagonia. It will be about 8 minutes long… I don’t know when it will be done. It seems to be taking longer than expected!

Filed under the categories: Argentina, El Chalten, Nikon D3X, Patagonia, Travel

I am jealous for all the people that live in New York! They have a city that looks different at every moment of the day from every slightly different angle. I think if I lived there, I’d feel kind of guilty if I didn’t make it out several times a week at sunset to go shooting.

I shot this one from the top of the Rockefeller Center. They don’t let you take tripods up there, but I always see that as somewhat of a challenge to my manhood, and I take offense. So, consequently, I set my mind to smuggling my tripod in there, usually inside my overcoat or a big shopping bag. I mean, you have to, right? There is no other way to get a good night or evening shot without a stable surface (or a high ISO, which I don’t like).

Anyway, this was a perfect night. Later, after I shot this, I was graciously invited over to have dessert with Rudy Maxa (he has a travel show) and his daughter in Brooklyn. It was great to meet him and he was a super guy. I figured since I mentioned Rick Steves yesterday (who people on my Facebook comments were saying was not such a nice guy), today it was time for the very nice Rudy Maxa.

Filed under the categories: New York, New York City, Nikon D2XS, Travel

I crossed under the river one night from the Bund to get a closer look at the Oriental Pearl Tower. There was a cool fountain at the bottom and no tourists around.

This is a good thing, since it is always hard to make tourists look “cool” in photos. No matter what, everyone ends up looking like a gawking Rick Steves. Speaking of which, his travel series on PBS called “Europe through the Back Door” always gave me cause for concern.

Filed under the categories: China, Nikon D2XS, Shanghai, Travel