Japan Charity Week Continues

Get in there and bid! All the revenue goes to the Red Cross for Japan.

On Twitter…

I know many of you follow on Twitter (@TreyRatcliff), and I do my best to sprinkle in inspirational or interesting stuff every day. if you sign up for our Newsletter (free), then I usually include the month’s best tweets in a list format… I thought I would put a few of them here for you, including this little thing to the right that I tweeted out yesterday. I decided to make a little square poster out of it!

So, here’s just a little helping of some recent tweets that you would probably like:

• Then and Now! A brilliant photo-project idea! – LINK
• Science just proved it takes 37 muscles to make a sad emoticon and only 22 to make a happy emoticon.
• Here is a photo of my fridge at home (it’s HEAVILY photoshopped) – LINK
• Amazing cello performance! See these guys do Smooth Criminal! – LINK
• Hilarious video (with great Typography!) … making fun of ppl that leave idiotic reviews enjoy @Abduzeedo – LINK
• With great f-stop comes great responsibility.
• Holy Electron Photography Batman! Look at these freaky things… I need to salt my skin more. – LINK

Daily Photo – Roman Baths in Nimes

When I arrived in Nimes to visit my friend Fabien, one of the first places we visited were the ancient Roman baths. The ruins here are better preserved than those in Rome!

Actually, I’ve heard that the best Roman ruins are along the northern coast of Libya. It will be a while before I can visit those, I’m afraid. I’ll have to strike Libya off the list for a few years until things cool down. Oh… Egypt too. That’s on the list but it has a little asterisk beside it. When you look at the bottom of the list it reads:
“*currently in the midst of a violent revolution – consider other areas for photography, like, perhaps, Holland.”

Filed under the categories: France, Nikon D3X, Nimes, Travel

Japan Charity Week Continues

The bidding started at $49 and it goes up every day. Get in there and bid! All the revenue goes to the Red Cross for Japan.

Taking Photos of Cars

It’s been months since I mentioned Joe Farace’s amazing eBook, so I wanted to mention it again! Even though it’s a car-centric eBook, you’ll find all kinds of useful things that apply to everyday photography as well. Pop over to Joe’s book on Flatbooks and have a look!

Daily Photo – Barcelona Airport

This amazing airport in Barcelona was my launching point for a very long flight through Helsinki to Berlin. I am actually the kind of guy that likes to get to airports super-early. First, I don’t like the stress; second I like to explore. A lot of these international airports are these architectural wonders. I think most people just drift through them, oblivious to how awesome they are… but not me. I love ‘em!

Extra Photo – Upon Arriving in Beijing

Many many many hours later, after leaving this airport, I landed in Beijing. I was greeted by some great people that I came to know pretty well. First, the director of this special organization met me with a bundle of flowers. Next I met my assistant and my driver, who had to carry around all my stuff. I dumped my most of my luggage at the hotel and immediately went to the Forbidden City to take some photos. It was a long day. A very very very long day!

Filed under the categories: Barcelona, Nikon D3X, Spain, Travel

tutorial HDR in italiano

Parli italiano? Leggi il tutorial HDR in italiano! Grazie Marco Famà (@marcofama)!

Welcome to the International HDR Tutorial!

• Speak English?  See the fun HDR Tutorial.
• Vous parlez français? Bienvenue sur le Tutoriel HDR en français.
• Parli italiano? Leggi il tutorial HDR in italiano!
• Fala Português? Confira o Tutorial HDR em Português.
• Hablas Español? Clic Tutorial HDR en Español.
• Mluvíte česky? Pokračujte zde!  HDR Tutoriál v českém jazyce.

Even better, it’s the 150-year celebration for Italy today – good timing!

Japan Charity Week!

The bidding started at $49, and now it’s up to over $600. Get in there and bid! All the revenue goes to the Red Cross for Japan.

Daily Photo – Girl in Japan

While walking down a busy street in Kyoto, most of the people were in regular clothes. And, by “regular clothes”, I mean that the Japanese are often quite stylish dressers. There is something unique about the Japanese style that varies from other Asian cultures. They have a different kind of fashion sense, and it’s usually very smart. They dress in a lot of layers, fine cloths, nice textures, and somewhat fanciful. Maybe you know what I mean.

On occasion, I would see traditional girls wearing kimonos, drifting in and out of various shops. This girl was taking small steps while leaving the shop.

Filed under the categories: Travel

Video of the PhotoWalk

Thanks to Pinhead Doll Productions for this great video !

Recap of the PhotoWalk

One of our coaches made a nice writeup of the event – see James Brandon’s Blog. There are dozens more out there, but I wanted to mention another random one here by Jackie Danicki.

The Flickr Group for the PhotoWalk

Want to submit some photos from the walk? Visit the PhotoWalk SXSW Flickr Group! There’s also a great discussion area. For example, go read all about the coaches on the PhotoWalk – I thank them very much for their help. Also, the sponsors who are giving out amazing prizes to winners of the contest!

The PhotoWalk Group

Thanks to Mike Connell for taking this photo. An amazing group of hundreds, and we picked up more on the way!

Daily Photo – The New Austin

I don’t think I can do a better job of a writeup than many of the other attendees, so here’s just a quick recap. We began the PhotoWalk by walking down 6th street down towards Momo’s, where we met Leo Laporte and Lisa Bettany for a quick hello. After that, we weaved through the streets together, talking about all sorts of things. I also made about five other stops where I talked through my setup and my shots. On my final shot, we were working our way back towards The Driskill when I took set up for the scene below.

It was a standard HDR with five exposures. I was having some trouble grabbing an autofocus spot, so I just went to manual focus just to be sure the lens didn’t try to re-focus on the multiple exposures.

Thanks again to everyone that came out! It was great getting to know you during the walk, and after the walk back at The Driskill.

Filed under the categories: Austin, Texas, Travel

For Japan!

Bid on this print of The Bamboo Forest now. It is numbered 9 out of 50 in the Limited Edition series on high-white gloss aluminum. This print is 36″ across and, well, it’s impossible to describe how incredible this new printing technique is. These come out looking literally like giant high-def monitor displays.

Even better, shipping is free, and they arrive ready to hang on the wall.

We will have the auction run for a week, and I’ll take all the proceeds and donate them to Red Cross for Japan. Stay tuned for the latest price on the eBay page!

The Print – The Bamboo Forest

I took this photo on one of my many trips to Japan. Regular readers know how much I love that country and the people inside. I’ve spent time all over, taking trains far and wide, and there is something universal and timeless about bamboo across the land. On this particular day in Kyoto, there had been a morning rain. The sun came out, but the tops of the bamboo forest still held the water. It misted down through the forest as the sunlight shone through.

Signed / Numbered

Down in the lower right hand corner, everything is signed and numbered in the series

Filed under the categories: Japan, Kyoto, Travel

Don’t Forget the Free eBook!

If you go over to Flatbooks.com and sign up on the right hand side, you get a free eBook called “10 Principles of Beautiful Photography.” I added a little bit more to the end of this book… as a bit of a bonus.

Share your Austin PhotoWalk Photos!

Be sure to put your favorite shots in the Austin SXSW PhotoWalk group! I’ll post mine as soon as I get a chance to process ‘em ! Amazing prizes — will list them out soon. The judges (not me) will be picking out about 20 or so of the most interesting to win prizes.

Daily Photo – The London Eye

I took this on the last PhotoWalk in London, so it’s about time I post it! I won’t be able to process the Austin ones for a bit… this is a busy time for me… you’ll have to forgive me!

Half of the fun of the PhotoWalk is people posting and sharing photos after the event. Even though everyone is taking photos of the same stuff, it is cool to see so many different perspectives. I’m pretty sure we all took photos of the London Eye on that evening, and this is the one that I made.

Filed under the categories: England, London, Nikon D3X, Travel, UK

The Austin PhotoWalk

Get all the PhotoWalk Details on Plancast. See you at the Driskill at 6:30 PM !

Join us Live on TWIT

I know most of you don’t live in Austin or are not visiting for SXSW, so you can see part of it live on TWIT. We should be on live there about 7:30 to 7:45PM (CST) or so. Leo is broadcasting from Momo’s, which is down 6th street, and it will be one of the stops along the photowalk. He’s going to pop out of his studio and come into the street to say hello to all of us. It won’t be long, but you’ll get a little hint into the action.

World Record – Single Location PhotoWalk

I really have no idea how many people will show up, but on Saturday at the Diggnation party, I met with a couple of judges and officials that keep track of this sort of thing. We came up with a way to count everyone, and then we’ll submit it all to the official body. So, if you come along, you’ll get on Leo’s live TWIT show and be part of a world-record event – cool!

Submit your PhotoWalk to Flickr

Half of the PhotoWalk is sharing and commenting. So, get your stuff up on our PhotoWalk SXSW Flickr Group! Thank you to Tom Hall for setting up that group!

Daily Photo – Inside the Driskill

Well here it is, the awesome hotel where we are having the event. Many people agree it’s the most beautiful hotel in Austin and is over 100 years old. They’ve always been very kind to me — we had our workshop in there, a book signing, and all other sorts of events. One little thing that most people don’t know — the 4th and 5th floors have beautiful paintings and art hanging on all the walls of the hallway. It’s worth a trip up there just to wander around the halls and see the art!

Filed under the categories: Travel

I did a long-form article for My Modern Met. Do you know this site? It’s pretty cool — run by a friend named Alice Yoo. They feature many different artists from various disciplines, and we decided to do this thing together!

So I wrote an article called, “Nine Things For Your Photo-Brain To Consider“. Jump on over to read all the details.

Also, they are giving away a $1,000 prize in their own photography contest (link), so you may wish to enter!

Selected Photos

My Modern Met also made a selection of some their favorite works to include with the article, and I will put a few of them here for you!

Filed under the categories: Travel

Sorry for Japan

I hope the portion of our community that is in Japan is doing okay. I’ve been watching the live stream on Aljazeera — it looks horrible. So, I’m sure I speak for the rest of the community here when I say we are thinking of you.

SmugMug still going strong

I’m still happy with my move to SmugMug (see my SmugMug Review) for all my photos. I saw that we recently passed 60 million total views, and the SmugMug servers have been real workhorses. I don’t know much about the infrastructure… I was wondering if maybe they used Amazon S3?

Do you all do any printing through SmugMug? I don’t, but I know many people do. I’ve heard that a lot of people take photos of ballet recitals, soccer games, etc etc and then sell the prints to the other parents. Not a bad idea! I even think there is a way to set it up so other parents can come in and order themselves, after they pick out their favorite photos. Anyway, I’ve never done any of this…wondered if you have?

Daily Photo – The Infinite Stairs to the Oubliette

This is one of the areas where the French kept Marie Antoinette in the conciergerie. There were many mysterious parts of these chambers, and this was one of the most interesting.

I one time designed a set of stairs like this back in the day with a Quake level editor. There was a website where you could upload your creations that could be shared by other level designers. I uploaded my stairs, but I don’t know if they were ever used or not. I thought I saw them in E1M4, but then I realized that those stairs were actually 5x better than mine.

Filed under the categories: France, Nikon D3X, Paris, Travel

Have a camp at Burning Man 2011?

Do ya?  I’m homeless and interested in some camps!  I am also completely useless.  The only thing I can do is take photos.  I can’t cook or build things very well.  Everyone else at Burning Man seems to be extremely handy.  All I can offer is my sardonic wit, my camera, and I come with a full load of gourmet chocolate from Europe that I keep refridgerated in my RV.  So that’s not so bad.

More Burning Man Photos

To see the other photos from the big event, click on the “Burning Man Photos” category.

Early Morning ABC Appearance

I’m going to be on in the morning… have to drive into the studio about 6:30 AM, of all things.  Good god man… I’m a blagger.  I sleep then!  But, I gotta go… I missed the last one because of a scheduling conflict and missed my appearance time.  The producer had to call me… it was too late.  I didn’t mean to rockstar-out on her, and I promised I won’t pull another charlie-sheen.

Daily Photo – Exploring the Playa

Here is another set of photos for you! I’m releasing these in small groups, just because I have so many… and it goes against my one-photo-per-day thing. But that’s just a thing you know. Ain’t nothin’ but a thing.

I usually don’t put captions, but I have been for these Burning Man shots… so see below for more details.

In the central gathering area, I found all sorts. I mean all sorts. I felt woefully regular, but I did have my steampunk stuff on, so I liked paying attention to other steampunk stuff, like this guy. We just kinda stared at each other for a while. It was kinda weird, but kinda cool.

I was taking photos of this heiro-jeweled skull, and then an Indian gal in a yellow dress came up and started dancing all over it. I have photos of that too, but I ended up liking the skull alone, best. Bejeweled skulls don't need Indian dancers to make them more awesome!

The metal dragon-car was my favorite of the vehicles. It wasn't the biggest, but the fully movable and fire-breathing head was incredible.

Close to sunset, lamplighters in white robes start to roam the desert. They take these lanterns and hang them high on poles so burners can find their way through the dark of night.

Filed under the categories: Burning Man, Nevada, Travel

iPad 2 in Austin?

Are you one of those hardcore stand-in-line-super-early-at-Apple iPad 2 kinda people? Are you here in Austin? Then let’s talk! I need two of those things… email me at wildcard (at) stuckincustoms.com — if you can grab some for me, that would be cool. I’ll pay you back of course, and I’ll even throw in an autographed book.

Beta List Complete

We had a bunch of comments on the announcement for the iPad version of 100 Cameras in 1. Our beta-list is complete, and you should hear soon if you are on the list. We can’t get (and don’t need) everyone in… so it is a very small selection, I’m afraid. Anyway, no worries, full version will be out soon enough!

Daily Photo – Where They Dry the Fish (Ósvör in Bolungarvík)

I ate a lot of fish in Iceland. I even had rotten shark. You’ve heard of this? They bury shark and let it rot until it ferments. And then you eat it. And then you have to drink this Icelandic vodka called Brennavin or something like this. It’s lethal. I remember because I was sitting by a couple of Irish girls that were traveling flamenco dancers and they were laughing at me while I powered through this one-two combination. I don’t drink… but, it was part of the shark experience. And I think of it more as a healing potion than whatever the hell it really was.

While in the northwest fjords, I came across these little huts with intermittent slats. This is where the fisherman hang the fish to dry in the incessant sea-winds that blow up the coast. Pretty cool, eh?

Filed under the categories: Iceland, Nikon D3X, Travel

Free Drobo over at HDR Spotting!

This month on HDRSpotting.com, we are giving away a free Drobo! We are still in beta as we add features, and I do not give out invite codes (by design – to save me some sanity…not that it helps, everyone asks anyway). But, there are many codes out there form existing members. There are also some floating around inside the HDR groups on Flickr and Facebook, I believe. Good luck to you all, and I hope you win a Drobo!

What is a Drobo? See my Drobo Review.

Problem with the “Like” button

Can anyone help me fix the new “Like” problem on Stuck In Customs? Right now, when you “Iike” one of the daily posts here on the blog, it automatically puts a thumbnail on your Facebook wall. BUT, that thumbnail is always that green “FREE VIDEOS” (or perhaps another one) thumbnail, which is not right. And it looks lame, like a spammy-advertising thing, which it certainly is not. Anyway, how do we fix this?

Daily Photo – The Shaft

Casa Batlló on Passeig de Gracia is one of the most awesome places in the world. My camera was very happy (and me, by extension).

This is one of Antoni Gaudi’s masterpieces. That guy is amazing… It was certainly on my list to visit before the trip, and I did not really have enough time to spend there. And, I couldn’t use the tripod, but I don’t want to get into that discussion…just too frustrating.

“The Shaft” runs up the center of the casa. It reminds me of how each floor was a completely different visual experience. Taking photos in here was a challenge… I wanted to do the place justice.

Filed under the categories: Barcelona, Nikon D3S, Spain, Travel