October 2011 - Page 2 of 4 - Stuck in Customs

Stuck In Customs

My daily travel blog to inspire and get you motivated!

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Rickshaws at the Drum Tower

Big Announcement Today!

I’m out at Jason Calacanis’ LAUNCH event today. I’ll be taking the stage in late afternoon to announce and show off our newest iPad app. I’ll try to do a live Google+ Hangout from the event, so follow my Google+ profile for the latest!

Daily Photo – Rickshaws at the Drum Tower

I’ve visited Gǔlóu many times and never taken a photo. I just couldn’t figure one out.

And then, this most recent trip, I walked around the tower several times until I finally got an idea.

This is the giant drum tower built about a thousand years ago by Kublai Khan. An enormous drum rests in front, and it was beat rhythmically to announce meetings. The temple sits in the Inner City to the north of Di’anmen Street.

Rickshaws at the Drum Tower

Photo Information

  • Date Taken2011-09-15 00:00:00
  • CameraNIKON D3X
  • Camera MakeNikon
  • Exposure Time1/90
  • Aperture5.6
  • ISO100
  • Focal Length14.0 mm
  • FlashNo Flash
  • Exposure ProgramAperture-priority AE
  • Exposure Bias+2

Chernobyl

The Updated Chernobyl Story

I recently started cleaning up all the various bits and pieces of the Chernobyl Story. It took forever, but now it is much more concise and proper in formatting. Go have a look!

New What’s-in-my-bag Video

I started making this video to show some behind-the-scenes from The Opposite House hotel, and then I turned it into a tour of my bag. This is everything that I took to China for a month. Enjoy!

Boat in Isafjordur

Speech at Facebook HQ

Do you work at Facebook? Come see me on Thursday morning for a photography talk! We’ll have great fun together… I know there are a lot of people there at FB that are interested in photography, so it should be a good time. Sadly, it’s not open to the public, but the event will be filmed and I can share it later.

So, my FB friends are still pretty full, but you can still use this new “Subscribe” feature on my profile. It’s kind of like friends, without the benefits.

Deep Water and Phobias

So, I’m a pretty rational guy, really, I’d like to think. I don’t really have any phobias… just one big one – swimming in deep water. There is something about it that freaks me out… I don’t think it was movies that did it to me or anything. I see plenty of scary stuff in movies that doesn’t bother me in real life… but the idea of jumping into this mile-deep fjord and swimming across is almost more than I can bear!

Do you have any phobias (that you don’t mind talking about)?

Daily Photo – Boat in Isafjordur

This area is in the far northwest of Iceland up where there fjords layer into one another like fractals. I don’t normally like taking photos in the middle of the day, but when the sky is the towering, glacier-carved edge of the fjord, there is practically no sky at all.

HDR Photo

New App, Pretty Wallpaper for your iPhone/iPad

A New Universal App!

Get it here!

I have a new app for those of you that want an easy way to get some of the best art here to your iPhone or iPad.  It has the ridiculous name: “Trey Ratcliff’s Wallpaper Menagerie of Curious Collectibles.”

It comes with 17 different wallpapers. All the images are oversized so you can pan around, zoom, an orient them however you might like. Of course, you can set them for your Lock Screen and your Background. There is also a nice little gallery mode where you can swipe through the various images. Enjoy!

HDR Photo HDR Photo

New Behind-the-scenes video

One common question I get is, “How do you get photos without people in them?” There are many ways to do it, and this video shows one of them. I took this just recently while in Lijiang, China.

Transcript

Thank you Dave Veffer for writing this?Also thank you Keith Barrent for broadcasting live and recording!

0:00:06 Show intro about machetes.

0:00:43 Trey introduces +Lotus Carroll of www.SarcasticMom.com – She is a mommy blogger, writer and photographer from Austin, TX.

0:01:23 Trey tries to introduce +Jeremy Cowart but his internet isn’t working.

0:01:45 We meet +Thomas Hawk, who likes to take pictures, of www.ThomasHawk.com and every other photo sharing site.

0:02:45 +Gordon Laing of www.CameraLabs.com from New Zealand shows us the view outside.

0:03:33 Trey intros +Mike Wiacek who works on the Google security team and likes photography.

0:04:13 We say hello to +Kelli Seeger Kim, who really enjoys macro photography and is just getting started.

0:05:10 Wedding photographer who shoots people +Scott Jarvie, www.jarviedigital.com introduces himself.

0:05:42 Trey introduces +Jim Davis, a nature landscape photographer from Canada.

0:06:25 +Keith Barrett of www.KeithBarrett.com and www.KeithBarrett.tv introduces himself.

0:07:45 This is where they start talking about photos the hangout guests are working on.

0:08:26 Thomas shows images he has been working on. Thomas is about 2 years behind on processing but he skipped ahead and is showing something from a couple weeks ago at the Austin City Limits Music Festival.

0:15:00 Now Lotus shows us her photos from the same music festival. She mentions how she crops differently sometimes based on where the image will be shared.

0:17:53 Gordon’s turn. He recently converted from Windows to his new Macbook Air (I did the same recently and it’s awesome).

0:19:32 Gordon got his screen shared but immediately dropped his connection. 🙁

0:20:18 Kelli shows off some of her work taken with her new 100mm Canon macro lens. Trey mentions a tip about sugar water.

0:24:34 Now it is Jarvie’s turn. He shows some images he took on stage during a concert at the Utah Symphony.

0:29:26 Lotus shows a macro of a flower and the gang discusses “poor man’s macro” photography where you shoot with the lens off camera.

0:31:55 Discussion of lens changing techniques.

0:33:30 Portrait and wedding photographer +Dustin Meyer of www.dustinmeyer.com shows some of his photos.

0:38:56 Trey shares some of his new photos from Iceland and Burning Man as well as some discussion about his use of iPhoto for his portfolio final images.

0:45:45 Thomas discusses his thoughts on the awesomeness of Google+.

0:48:00 Lotus tells us what she thinks about Google+ and shares some advice for how to get a following.

0:49:21 Kelli chimes in with some of her thoughts on keeping an audience and what she gets out of the community here on Google+.

0:51:50 Street photographer +Leanne Staples of www.leannestaples.com shows us some of her images from the latest New York photo walk. A conversation about all the photo walks that have been happening because of G+ ensues.

0:58:35 Trey hints at his top secret iOS app that will be free and should be out soon. It will be called Stuck On Earth and it sounds very exciting.

1:00:12 We meet +Simon Gelfand from Israel and also +Philip Rawson from Missouri.

1:01:28 Leanne shows us another image and tells how she got the shot. Trey pulls up one of Leanne’s images and discusses with Thomas. Leanne talks about her process.

1:09:41 Thomas and Leanne talk about shooting philosophy and about how with time and experience can come a way of seeing the world. A conversation about Google+ vs Flickr ensues.

1:13:20 Trey talks about his unplanned traveling lifestyle.

1:14:34 Leanne ponders what the future of photography is. Will photography be considered art? Thomas gives his thoughts.

1:18:17 Thomas talks about how he manages to shoot and process as many images as he does.

1:19:54 The group discusses how photographs can age like wine and what the future will hold.

1:23:19 Lotus gives her thoughts on shooting self portraits. Trey is so excited he can’t contain himself. 😉

1:26:44 Trey shows off his Hello Kitty Fujifilm camera that he got in China.

1:28:10 Wrap up conversation. We finally find out who is or isn’t wearing pants.

New eBook on Printing for you!

New eBook on Printing!

Want to know more about printing? We have a new ebook from Ron Martinsen that I am happy to announce. Not only is this eBook helpful and full of practical tips, but it’s also very beautiful. It’ll look great on your computer or iPad. Pop over to www.Flatbooks.com and you can see it there on the front page!

Daily Photo – Sunflowers

So is it a weed or is it a flower? I am sure people in the plant-community get as exercised discussing these categorizations as I do about talking about categorizing photography. You would not believe the millions of words and sentences wasted discussing photography and how to categorize one type of photo. I can only assume the same thing happens in the flower/botany community!

I got this one with my friend Scott Kublin one day in the south of France. We had Fabien (the website designer) pull over on a tiny little road so we could pop out and get some sunflower photos. I think he almost got rear-ended while waiting on us, so he had to pull away then circle back to get us! On the second drive-by, he started honking so we had to run and dive into the car like it was an action movie.

Sunflowers So is it a weed or is it a flower? I am sure people in the plant-community get as exercised discussing these categorizations as I do about talking about categorizing photography. You would not believe the millions of words and sentences wasted discussing photography and how to categorize one type of photo. I can only assume the same thing happens in the flower/botany community!I got this one with my friend Scott Kublin one day in the south of France. We had Fabien (the website designer) pull over on a tiny little road so we could pop out and get some sunflower photos. I think he almost got rear-ended while waiting on us, so he had to pull away then circle back to get us! On the second drive-by, he started honking so we had to run and dive into the car like it was an action movie.- Trey RatcliffClick here to read the rest of this post at the Stuck in Customs blog.

Burning Man Fire Dancer

New Photos coming to Roku Channel

Good news! This week, we are adding a bunch of new photos to our Roku channel. Thanks again to everyone that put the channel on their Roku. We’ll keep adding more and more images… I want to keep everything fresh for y’all!

Daily Photo – Burning Man Fire Dancer

Burning Man this year was just fantastic. I don’t even know how to describe it… I think I will describe it the best way I can – through photos.

I was happy to spend a lot of time there with old and new friends. I ended up camping very close to Cliff Baise, who was nice enough to make me an awesome fur-covered bike for the event. I’ll get photos of that up soon… it’s so ridiculous and awesome.

One sunset, we walked over near the temple. Every year the temple has a totally new design, and this year it looked like this. It’s not a religious-thing, so I think the designers always go for something that has shades of religion but with nothing in particular in mind. This fire dancer was performing out front, so I got down low to take a photo.

The fire spun in a time the lasted forever in an instant.  The man inside obeyed and commanded it, weaving himself into a veil between what we saw and what he felt.  Inside, we saw each flame and it stayed with with us.  In another day, the tower behind would burn.I watched him dance.  There was a fine powder of sand above the hard-packed earth.  The powder was like a dust, a cloud, a fog, a mist that where his toes slipped around and through.  The mist would eddy and fall and rise in time for him to slide back through, the orange light from the flames above fell into and through the mist, dancing with his gentle feet.

Inside the Dome

Reorganizing My Library

So, I’m spending a few days organizing my digital library. Jeez. It’s never easy! Here are some things I am going through:

– My greatest find/purchase of this year is a Thunderbolt Pegasus drive. I bought it off the Apple website (not a freebie)… but, man… it is so awesome. I talk about it at 49:17 on the Hangout Video at

– Here is a screenshot of my increasingly organized Lightroom, thanks to the Pegasus:

– As for my whole workflow, I am going to give a talk here in Austin with Apple… It’s on October 22 at 7 PM. I’ll give more details on that later, if you want to watch. I don’t know if they’ll let me do a live Hangout, but I will try. I’ll give out some free copies of my Digital Workflow ebook from Flatbooks.com

– One quirky thing I am still working out with my Thunderbolt megadrive is that I have two Lightroom libraries (a small one for the road and a big one at home). I guess I am good with that. I just need to get my head around a good system for this. Maybe I just won’t decide and I’ll wait on this new Adobe Carousel thing to see what that’s all about.

– Speaking of that, WHEN will we know more about Adobe Carousel? I just joined their beta… so I will play with it and let you know… assuming they let me talk about it – I will ask.

Daily Photo – Inside the Dome

This beautiful dome was inside one of the side-cloisters in the Forbidden City. I remember spending about five minutes trying to line this up inside the camera. These can be very difficult to re-align in Photoshop. But, luckily, all my preparations paid off and it came out pretty good right out of the camera!

Inside the DomeThis beautiful dome was inside one of the side-cloisters in the Forbidden City.  I remember spending about five minutes trying to line this up inside the camera.  These can be very difficult to re-align in Photoshop.  But, luckily, all my preparations paid off and it came out pretty good right out of the camera!- Trey RatcliffRead the rest here at the Stuck in Customs blog.

Trey’s Photography Hangout #9

New Video – “Trey’s Photography Hangout #9”

It was a great discussion! Remember Tom Anderson from MySpace? He joined up! So did Lisa Bettany, Thomas Hawk, Robert Scoble, Gordon Laing, Nicole Young, and Kevin Kelly (one of my favorite TED speakers!).

The Transcript

Thanks fo Dave Veffer for writing up the transcript below! 🙂

0:00:00 +Gordon Laing introduces himself and briefly talks about http://www.cameralabs.com

0:00:36 Trey mentions they are going to do some critiques later and talk about some of the guests photos, then introduces +Kevin Kelly

0:01:15 +Kevin Kelly author and former editor of Wired which he cofounded who has photography roots introduces himself.

0:02:43 +Tom Anderson introduces himself. Tom recently caught the photography bug and discusses his budding friendship with Trey.

0:03:39 +Nicole S. Young , stock and food photographer as well as author/blogger of www.nicolesyblog.com intros herself and mentions her new book, “Food Photography: From Snapshots to Great Shots”.

0:04:29 +Thomas Hawk of www.thomashawk.com and flickr fame introduces himself. He says he takes a lot of pictures.

0:05:07 +Keith Barrett of www.KeithBarrett.com and www.KeithBarrett.tv talks about having Disney in his backyard and is there representing beginners.

[Chee’s mike isn’t working quite right… so there is a moment of quiet here… sorry]

0:06:09 Trey introduces +Chee Chew the main dude behind Google+ Hangouts. (Chee’s audio doesn’t seem to work here). Trey speaks about his mad love for G+ and mentions +Vic Gundotra playing volleyball

0:07:25 Trey and Kevin talk about why Kevin likes to be a photographer and what kind of equipment he shoots with.

0:11:25 Trey introduces +Lisa Bettany of www.MostlyLisa.com and super popular mobile camera app Camera+. She talks about how it is a wonderful time to be a photographer and how we are all capturing moments of our lives.

0:14:56 Thomas talks about his project to try and shoot America’s 100 largest cities and various things he’s got planned to go shoot. Photography is an obsession for him. Apparently Thomas likes being hopped up on speed 😉

0:18:04 Trey, Kevin, Nicole, Gordon, Lisa and Thomas discuss the creative process of photography and how they differ on shooting philosophies regarding waiting for inspiration versus forcing yourself to shoot.

0:26:39 Tom talks about how it feels to be a beginner, his new love for photography and how it is driving his life right now.

0:31:49 Nicole chimes in with some good advice for beginners. Always shoot for yourself first and how to receive critique from strangers. She also goes on to give her shooting tip about taking advantage of live view to get tack sharp photos. (Nicole stole Gordon’s tip)

0:35:22 Lisa and Nicole discuss techniques for lighting in food photography. Nicole pimps her awesome book.

0:38:38 Lisa gives her tip. Perseverance.

0:40:01 Trey shows some of Nicole’s photography and they discuss.

0:43:35 Keith’s tip. Don’t rush.

0:44:26 Thomas gives his beginner tip: take a lot of photos. Advanced tip: light painting using Roscolux gels. Thomas wrestles a bear on his mic.

0:47:45 +Erika Stahoski from Minneapolis joins the hangout and talks about the kind of photographer she is.

0:48:24 +Robert Scoble the Scobleizer, joins the hangout. Trey questions Robert’s “babysitting” his own kids.

0:49:17 Trey gives his tip for beginners. Stay away from critiques early on. Most people that give critiques on the internet are incompetent. Knowing what is beautiful is programmed into our DNA and you can eventually arrive at something beautiful by following your instincts. Advanced tip: Get a Pegasus Thunderbolt RAID drive that holds 12TB to speed up everything on your computer, especially Lightroom. Trey says “it’s huge, it’s fantastic!” (where’s Michael Scott when you need him)

0:54:35 Scoble shows off his daisy chained Thunderbolt devices. He awaits his Pegasus drive. He goes on to give his tip about getting big lights and just play/paint with light. Scoble is pasty white. He also talks about his background working in a camera store in the 80s.

0:58:58 Tom gives his beginner tip. Go shoot somewhere beautiful and you’ll greatly increase your chances of taking good shots.

1:00:20 Gordon pimps www.DSLRTips.com – His tip. After playing around with manual modes or changing settings on your camera, don’t forget to set your camera back to the auto or normal settings you are used to. This way you won’t miss a moment by having the camera on some weird setting. Advanced tip: every lens has a different sweet spot of best sharpness. Try shooting at various apertures then check the images later to see which aperture is the crispest focus which he says is usually two tops from the max aperture of the lens.

1:06:20 Gordon talks about mirrorless cameras. Specifically the new Nikon 1. He reckons we’ll here about a new Canon “super high end body” in the next 6 months.

1:16:15 Showing some of Lisa’s photos and she talks about them.

1:24:00 Lisa makes a random Game of Thrones mention (best show on TV) and the geeks rejoice.

1:25:20 Thomas shows off some of his stuff and discusses the images.

1:30:00 Trey briefly shows one of +Jeremy Cowart ‘s photos of Taylor Swift. Jeremy couldn’t make the hangout due to mic difficulties.

1:30:32 Going through some of Gordon’s images. He discusses astro photography as well and some good tips for shooting the moon (literally).

1:41:00 People aren’t wearing pants apparently.

1:41:40 Trey shows off some of his recent images including some stuff from Burning Man. Fresh water, plains, grass, trees, mountains, and paths make us happy on an anthropological level.

1:45:20 Thomas and Trey discuss Burning Man. Trey worries about eating the wrong brownies.

1:47:35 We meet Ali Elhajj, Brian Aldridge, Robert McGee and Robert Redl who drop by.

1:49:30 Here the gang starts critiquing images supplied by some of the people watching the live stream. Thomas and Trey both don’t condone watermarks.

1:58:00 Trey gives some cool tips about adjusting the pop of greens by adjusting the saturation level of the yellows in an image.

1:59:20 Wrap up.