Stuck In Customs

A Beautiful Newsletter Going Out Today! (Don’t tell the Aussies)

Our free newsletter goes out live today! There is mention of a secret trip to New Zealand… but shh… don’t tell those Aussies because they get all upset about this talk. I have no desire to earn their ire, even though they are generally too laid back to do anything about it.

Isn’t it the prettiest newsletter in the world? All I ask is that you share it with your friends, family, and other people that you think like beautiful things.

My Favorite Software products of the Year

Two great tools out there for you: See my Nik Review and my Topaz Adjust Review.

And, of course, I am sure most of you have already seen my Photomatix Review. That thing is awesome and I use it all the time! In fact, just the other night during the SmugMug event, I gave people a quick 15-minute demo.

Daily Photo – Cartier in New York during the Holidays

I shot this a few days ago when I was in New York City. It was a cold and rainy night, so shooting with this bulbous 14-24 mm lens is an exercise in frustration! If you aim it just slightly in the air, it gets soaked in about 2 seconds! So, I set the aperture to 2.8 so the 5 exposures would be as fast as Nikonably possible.

Fifth Avenue in New York is amazing at Christmas. It’s everything you imagine. I’ve done my best to capture the spirit of it here, and I have a lot more shots in the pipeline… stay tuned!

Facebook Wall Chat on Monday, Dec 21, at 1:00 pm PST

Come join me for a fun chat on Monday! To join,
1) come become a fan of Peachpit on Facebook.
2) post a Question on that page as a comment until the end of the chat.

A few random fans will win a free copy of the book! So come on in…

Drobo Contest Still Going Strong

We have just over 1,000 comments on the Drobo contest. It ends soon, so come spend 20 seconds and enter to win!

Daily Photo – Chihuly is Awesome

I’ve always admired the artist Dale Chihuly. He makes the most outrageous and colorful art in the world. I’d love to learn to blow glass. I saw a great documentary on him in high def about a show he did in Venice… they made all sorts of beautiful things and hung them over the canals. I wish I was there to photograph it! Personally, I think the best way to properly capture the light in these images is with HDR techniques. Other methods of shooting these awesome pieces always come up a bit short, at least, to me.

I shot this a few weeks ago at his new gallery in Las Vegas right in the middle of City Center, which you can see in the background. This is just one shot of many, and I have a lot more jewels from Chihuly to come!

New Book Images Coming Online

Books are still hitting the warehouses and causing a light holiday panic!  Cool!  I put up some new images of how gorgeous the book looks on the inside on the HDR Book page.  Here are a few quick samples for you!

An Interview at Scott Wyden’s Blog

Scott sent me a very nice interview, and he has just published it.  It’s a quick read for you!

Daily Photo – The Edges of the Flatiron (and yes, B&W HDRs are fun!)

This is the famous Flatiron building in NYC.  I shot it a few weeks ago when I was scouting the location for the book party.

One of the topics we will cover in the HDR Workshop with Scott Bourne in Florida is the topic of creating HDRs in Black and White.  I also have a new article coming out soon about that very subject on Scott’s blog.  I’ll be sure to give everyone a heads up before that hits! 🙂

Thanks for the good fight on Kelby’s Blog!

Hehe – my guest post on Scott Kelby’s Blog was not even about HDR, but that is what the discussion down below concerned. I was surprised that we ended up having so many defenders, including the likes of Scott Bourne, RC Concepcion, Moose Peterson, Frederick Van, and many many others! Thanks everyone for the healthy discussion… I do love making art as much as you guys do… so I’m happy we’re all in the same boat!

Daily Photo – In the Nepalese Shadows of Everest

I always like how all these Nepalese monkey statues look a little bit evil. They seem to be a bit like gargoyles, and everyone thinks those things are great. I don’t know why we all like gargoyles so much, but I am never bummed out when I see them on a building.

This photo was shot at Disneyworld in Orlando. It’s a great place to bring your tripod, and I am happy I’ve never had a problem there before. Well, I do have problems with my family sometimes because I get too busy taking photos… but there are so many awesome things — it’s like I’m in Disneyworld!

New Portfolio is Up – Thanks SmugMug!

I’d like to thank the crew at SmugMug for getting me all set up with an amazing new Stuck In Customs portfolio. Cool eh? Yeah, those guys are good. I’m learning more and more about SmugMug every day… I may leave some people, out, but, I’d like to thank Candice Cunningham, Jason St. Peter, Markham Bennett, and Justin Busa, from Zoho Designs. I know there were even more people involved from SmugMug, and I thank them too.

Enjoyed Speaking Tonight – and Florida Workshop Reminder

We had a great time at the SmugMug event here in Austin too. We were at the AT&T center at UT. There were just over 100 people there, and we talked about everything from the visual spectrum to a quick tutorial. I know there were people on the waiting list that did not get in — sorry about that — I did not set the rules! hehe… but maybe there will be another event in the future some time.

One chance will be the workshop with Scott Bourne in Florida in the middle of January. Pop on over to that page to reserve a spot if you are interested.

Daily Photo – The Edge of Glacier National Park at Sunrise

While the whole family was still asleep in the nearby Many Glaciers Lodge, I woke up early to catch the sunrise. The morning light cast that pretty red glow across mountain… and you can even see the pinkness of the distant snow to the left. It was definitely frigid ice-cold, but that crispness seemed to add to the clarity of it all.

We had a discussion after the event tonight about the nature of sunrises versus sunsets. Personally, I feel like the quality of the air and clouds is very different at both, but I can’t quite put my finger on it. Maybe it is the warm air turning cooler at sunset versus the opposite at sunrise. I don’t know, but it is interesting to think about.

Amazon Sold Out in the UK

Thank you London! (and all over UK, obviously!) I can’t believe it… I saw the Tweet earlier today that Amazon UK is out of stock… that is amazing! (But not yet at the U.S. Amazon store!)

I know from looking at the website and newsletter stats what incredible fans we have in London and all over the UK. I can’t thank you enough… I hope you are enjoying the website, and I know you will enjoy the book when you finally get it. We need to do a celebratory photowalk over there eh? !!

[EDIT – I understand it is sold out in Canada too. Thanks cool Canadiens!]

My article on Scott Kelby’s Blog “Being an Artist Sucks. Being an artist is awesome.”

I wrote this long piece recently for Kelby’s blog. I’d like to thank RC Conception for helping to make this happen. It gave me a great chance to write a longer-format piece. I think there are many people here that will find it of use, perhaps. Please drop your comments over there on Kelby’s blog, and I’ll be sure to read them!

Daily Photo – Guarding the Portal

I really wanted to see what was on the other side of these little doors. I imagined scenes from “The Fall” inside there (has anyone seen that movie??). I tried to negotiate with this gentleman, but he just bobbed his head like he didn’t understand. I would have offered him my own shoes, but I left them on the other side of the temple with a young boy.

I never got inside, but we did exchange some pleasant conversation, even though we never really understood a single word.

See you today at B&H Photo for the Talk!

Hey, for all those not in New York, can I pick you up anything? Just dump your whole Christmas list in the comments! hehe…

I’ll be speaking today at B&H Photo in their Event Space. It starts at 12 noon sharp, and I’ll be talking about HDR as well as giving a short tutorial… If you have your own book or want a new one signed, I’m happy to do that too!

The Yellowstone How-To Video on Grand-Prismatic

Here is another free video for you all. This one is a bit different than the others, and I go into more details of everything that went into the shot of the Grand Prismatic Spring, which you can see below. Enjoy. And let me know if you want to see more videos like this in the future!

Daily Photo – The Grand Prismatic

This place is awesome and huge. Want to know how huge? Look at those people standing there on the boardwalk towards the top. Amazing, eh?

Getting this shot (and all my others!) was no cake walk! But I am happy with the way it turned out. One thing you don’t see in the video is how dirty I got on the way down the mountain when I decided to take a “short cut”. It was a bad idea for both me and my jeans.

Win a Drobo by adding a comment below about “How I would use my Drobo!” You can add something like:

• “I want to use it to store photos of my family! I need them backed up safely!”
• “The Drobo is so big, I can keep all my movies and digital assets on it!”
• “I want to store pictures of LOLCats, and I have 30 million of those stupid things.”

The Prize:

An awesome four-drive Drobo – the best kind with Firewire 800 and USB 2.0. More product info here.

Consolation Prize:

Well, you can go ahead and claim it RIGHT NOW if you wish, use the code “DROBOHDR” to get $50 off. You can buy right from the Drobo page linked here.

Contest Details

• Starts: Now!
• Ends: December 21st Midnight CST
• Winner: Randomly selected from the comments using a random number generator.
• Entries: One per person.

NOTE: WINNER ANNOUNCED

Thanks everyone! We had 1589 entries get in under the wire.

The winner, chosen at Random.org , was 1253, Izac.

Izac’s information has been sent to Drobo, and they will ensure he gets a shiny new Drobo!

If you lost, you can still use the code “DROBOHDR” to get $50 off! Purchase from Drobo here.

How I use my Drobo

I’ve been using my Drobo for well over a year to back up everything! If I were to lose my photos because of a hard drive crash, I’d be lost. Just lost. And not just my most important portfolio photos, but also the very important ones from my family. You can read more on my Drobo Review page.

Here are a few of the mission-critical photos that I store on the Drobo!

Here is my son and I after the Pinewood Derby. He cried when he lost… So did I, of course… how can you not?

The book is “Officially” out

“A World in HDR” is officially released! I’d like to thank all of YOU for your inspiration, your support, and being with us all this time. I truly appreciate it.

I understand warehouses are filling up and orders should be shipping any time! For sure, I stayed up all night signing things for the pre-orders that went through this site. My signatures are all real… and not fake stamps like so many others. I walked into a Barnes & Noble tonight here in New York to see if they had my book yet… They say any minute! But, on the way out, I saw Alton Brown’s cookbook that was an “Autographed Copy”. It was so obviously a stamp that was infused into the jacket! Anyway, I am sorry if they got a little messy around 6 AM, but at least you know they are real! I wanted to make sure we got these out to everyone ASAP… it’s important to you, I know, so it’s important to me.

Peachpit is putting the press release out today, so everything is official. You can visit the HDR Book page to order it from all the popular spots. It’s a mass-market distribution, so your favorite bookseller should have it. And, if you already have gotten in and enjoy it, why not pop over to Amazon and give the book a review? We now live in a world that is powered by people like you and your opinions — and I would appreciate that very much!

Daily Photo:  A Morning at the Secret Lake

This was shot in the Andes of Southern Argentina just near the border of Chile.

I spent several hours of hiking in the dark just so I could get to this spot at sunrise. All the darkness in the lower half is the shadow of the mountain behind me as the morning sun rose above it. I was so thirsty from the hike, and had not brought any water with me. Looking on Google Earth beforehand, I knew there was a lake up here and I could fill up… so I got down on my hands and knees and drank like a horse… oh boy that was some good fresh water… You can see my little footprints in the snow there on the left.

(yes… the New York book party on Monday night for “A World in HDR” is invite-only. See the event page and contact the event organizer for more details)

Huffingtonpost uses my son’s photo without permission, no credit is given, my comments deleted

Can you believe it? Surely you are as shocked as me. And because it was a photo of our son, my wife was especially outraged.

So here is what happened. The Huffington Post ran a story entitled, “Girlfriends’ Guide To Divorced Parents: ‘Hey Kids, Wanna Have a Sleepover with Daddy’s New Friend?”. They used a photo of my son from my website and did not link back or give credit.

Now, all of my work is Creative Commons, which means people are allowed to use it for non-commercial purposes as long as they link back and give credit. Simple. They did not do this.

But even worse, to me, is the context of the photo and the article. Who would want their son’s photo associated with such a topic? It was just crass and an all-around bad idea.  Maybe the article itself is acceptable and interesting subject matter, but the article title is quite evocative and that photo makes it even more shocking.

I received the photo below from one of my fans that recognized the picture. I then went into the article itself and left a few comments (I have screenshots) — telling them my issue. They then deleted my comments and never acknowledged them.

I never received an email of apology or anything despite repeated attempts.  I’ve given them plenty of time.  Anyway, I think it’s a pretty lousy thing they did, and I hope photographers think twice before they associate themselves with the Huffington Post.

Creative Commons is Great for Artists

The whole purpose of Creative Commons is to allow people to openly share photos and art with the world. I use the Creative Commons license that says people are not allowed to use my photos for Commercial Purposes. If people want to use the images here from the website, they need to contact [email protected].

99% of the time I have no problem with this, and people share and give credit.

A fantastic example of Creative Commons is from this recent Twitter contest we ran. People would send me a Tweet about a great photo they found online like:

“Hey @TreyRatcliff, I found a beautiful photo on the net for the #hdrbook contest! (Link to Photo)”

You can see the results over at John P.’s One Man’s Blog. All of these artists got their work promoted and seen by tens of thousands of people because of the greatness of Creative Commons.

So, as you can see, John P does it right. Ariana Huffington (by proxy via her website) does it wrong. For this reason, John P gets an invitation to the party and Ariana does not.

Here is a happy picture of Ethan, free and joyous in Glacier National Park. It’s a one-shot HDR from a RAW file. See the HDR Tutorial for more info — the one-shot bit is just after step 6.