Nikon 14-24mm Lens

If you never saw my Nikon 14-24 Review, now is a good time! I try to pop in there from time to time to add new photos. And yes, of course I post-process all my photos… so it’s not exactly lab conditions. But, that’s not how I roll, you know… at least you know what you’re gonna get ahead of time with my reviews!

Daily Photo – The Old Train Station in Los Angeles

Here’s another place I found thanks to sweet Stuck On Earth.

I think LA has a bunch of these places that are kinda secret – sort of hidden away and no one would ever find them. For example, I can’t think of a reason I would ever go into the train station in Los Angeles. Maybe if trains were a bit better in the US, then I would have occasioned them… anyway, I’m glad I found out about this place.

Tom and I went in here and had a fun time shooting. We were approached by security because of our tripods. We thought we were in heap-big-trouble, but it turns out they brought a form to sign right there on the spot. How convenient!

Filed under the categories: California, LA, Travel

Thanks Thomas Hawk!

I found this spot in Stuck on Earth thanks to Thomas Hawk’s Top 50 Secret Spots in San Francisco. More are getting added all the time, and especially more soon with the upcoming release of Stuck on Earth 3.0!

Daily Photo – San Francisco in the Fog

SF would not be the same without the fog, would it? It’s part of the city, like the wind in Chicago. But the wind in Chicago kinda sucks, so I guess that is a bad analogy. Maybe a better one is it’s like the water in Venice or the neon in Vegas.

I took this photo from the top of Twin Peaks with a 28-300mm lens. I think it’s probably the best spot to take this photo because of the black background behind the bridge. If you shoot it from the other side, then you get the city behind it. Of course, that can be cool too – it’s just a different sort of shot.

Filed under the categories: California, San Francisco, Travel

Lightroom Presets

Today’s picture is from one of my favorite presets in Trey’s Lightroom Presets. I believe it is called “Big Wheel Race” and it tends to make photos more punchy and vibrant.

Asian Girl Bands

Have you ever heard of Nylon Pink? They are one of those all-asian-girl bands… Maybe there is just one of those? I don’t know… but I bet some experts out there in the community know! Anyway, Tom and I took a bunch of photos of them one evening while they were in some Japanese store in LA. Anyway, you can look ‘em up if you are interested in this sort of thing!

Daily Photo – Nylon Pink

This is Jamie Scoles, one of the band members. This little Japanese shop had all sorts of different things that the girls would try on and play with… and no, Tom and I did not try anything on.

Filed under the categories: California, LA, Travel

2nd Talk at Google

I’ve given about six different talks at Google offices around the world, and two of them have been recorded. Here is the second one of them from the Google HQ in Mountain View, CA.

Daily Photo – Inside the Google Veniceplex

Last time I was in Venice, California, I went into the new Google offices there. They recently moved into the Frank Gehry building, and everything is quite stylish, as you would suspect. Just to the left is a conference room that looks like something out of a Bond movie. The furniture is all vintage 1950′s styling from Eames, shag carpeting, the works… BTW, I recommend the Eames documentary, if you are documentary-kind-of-person!

Filed under the categories: California, LA, Travel

Stuck on Earth 3.0

We are working hard on Stuck On Earth 3.0. We’re completely overhauling the “trip” system to make it more social. Not only will it be easier to create and share your trips, but now you can submit them to the community and to the editor to be included as one of the default Top 50 Lists. Before, it was a fairly cumbersome process, but soon, you’ll be able to do it all right from within the app.

Daily Photo – The Russian Sub and the Queen Mary

This was my first time to sneak onto a Russian sub.

These are the kinds of things you probably are not supposed to do, but I figure the risk was about 1000% lower since the sub was no longer in Russian waters. In fact, it’s in friendly Long Beach, docked alongside the Queen Mary.

There was almost no security, and the gate was fairly easy to scale. I was with Tom, and somehow we talked one another into it. When you are with a friend and about to do something risky, either you talk each other into it or you talk each other out of it.

Filed under the categories: California, LA, Nikon D3X, Travel

Free Newsletter – Sign Up for the new News first about our European event! First Name: Email: That’s me on the right, looking somewhat confused and exasperated after a few weeks in the field. Some Russian gal took it. Forgot her name. Go ahead and sign up for the newsletter… I promise not to spam you! You’ll get about one per month… and it will be filled with all kinds of goodies and pretty pictures.

Huge Live Show tonight!

I’ll be going live on the air tonight at 7 PM PT to talk about a new, upcoming event somewhere…in Europe! See the Google+ Event Details here. You’ll also be able to watch live here on the blog!

Trey’s LightRoom Presets

Today’s photo (and many others) has been made possible by Trey’s Lightroom Presets! Here’s one of those fun slider-things that we have on the page so you can see the before and after.

Daily Photo – An Endless Desert

This was my first trip to a proper desert. It’s the kind of desert that I imagined after watching Lawrence of Arabia countless times (it’s one of my favorite movies). Getting up and down these dunes in the middle of a hot summer day is enough to make you collapse. I think I lost one liter of water per dune.

After a while, I started to find it a little easier to walk around once I could better predict the hard parts and soft parts of the sand. But, by then, I had already made all my mistakes and my shoes were completely full of sand. Trudging around with 15 lb feet makes the effort across the dunes extra-special.

Filed under the categories: California, Death Valley, Nikon D800, Travel

Photos from the Sydney PhotoWalk

Here is a very nice collection over on the Demotix website (thank you Richard Milnes) — you can get an idea of what it was like! Thanks again everyone for coming!

Summer in Death Valley

It is hot. Super hot. We’re talking around 120 degrees Fahrenheit (48 degrees Celsius). I thought I’d see a few other photographers and stuff around Death Valley, but I saw hardly any. I guess they all are smarter than me and go in the colder season! Anyway, it was kind of nice to be there totally alone… As you can see from my other shots from this racetrack area, I stayed here throughout the day and night… it was a wonderful time (even though it was a tad warm)!

Daily Photo – The Polar Opposite

Here is another photo from this mysterious part of Death Valley, where the rocks appear to move on their own accord. If you’d like to see the other photo I took of this place at midnight under the moon, just click on the “Death Valley” category under this post.

In the distance there, you can see that tremendous, heavy black rock. It remains in the middle of the lakebed in that pronounced manner, like a giant iron ship that is using ancient magnets to direct rocks around the lakebed.

Filed under the categories: California, Death Valley, Nikon D800, Travel

New Flatbooks Available! Big World Little Lens New from Justin Balog – Big World Little Lens – The Complete Guide to iPhone Photography will teach you everything you need to know about taking great photos with your iPhone. Amaze all your Facebook friends with your new found creativity Turn your iPhone into a loyal creative companion and never miss a moment again Learn ten tips and tricks to easily enhance all your iPhone images Be inspired by iPhone images from around the world, annotated with the apps that were used to make them

Why Flatbooks will make the world a better place

Here’s an article from Justin at Hossedia he wrote about Flatbooks – enjoy!

Daily Photo – Inside the San Francisco Hyatt

Here is one from our San Francisco PhotoWalk when we made a surprise move and ducked into the Hyatt hotel. As you can imagine, I was not too excited about leaving the vibrant city to go into a hotel, but the people I was with assured me it was really cool inside. And it is! I was pleasantly surprised at the art and architecture on the inside… it was very complex and busy, but it proved to be a fun and challenging situation for composition.

Filed under the categories: California, San Francisco, Travel

Interview with Astrum People Part 2

Yesterday was Part 1 and here is Part 2!

Daily Photo – The Painted Mountains of Death Valley

I woke up on the final morning to go find this special area of Death Valley. I tried to get to things as early as possible before the heat came along. The middle of August is about the worst time to be in Death Valley, but it did do an excellent job of getting rid of the crowds for me!

Filed under the categories: California, Death Valley, Photography Tips, Travel

Interview with Astrum People Part 1

Here’s part 1 of the interview below – enjoy!

Daily Photo – Eat at Facebook

Last week I spent the day at Facebook and got a private photo-tour of the campus. They just moved to their new HQ, so it was interesting to see how everything was spread out.

I was first escorted by a private security guy. He was ex-Marine and kind of a bad-ass. I asked if there were a lot of ex-Marines now hired at Facebook and he said there were quite a few… I figured they were the ones that were most badass.

I took a ton of photos, and I don’t know why I am sharing this one first, but here it is anyway. There are many cafeterias all over the campus, and I thought that this one was kinda cool…

Filed under the categories: California, Nikon D800, Photography Tips, San Francisco

Pinteresting!

A few days ago I went to Pinterest to give a talk about The Future of Photography (and various other things), and I hung around after the event to snap a few photos. You can see me there (Trey Ratcliff on Pinterest). I had a great time getting to know people around there. I took a ton of photos and I only put a few below. To see all of them, see my Pinterest Board on Pinterest.

Why Photographers Should Stop Complaining and Embrace…

If you missed the article I wrote a few months ago about Pinterest and Copyright and Photographers, click that link and hold on!

Photos of Pinterest

Here are just a few of the photos. You can see all of them on my Pinterest Board on Pinterest.

Filed under the categories: California, Nikon D800, San Francisco, Sony NEX-7, Travel

The Google+ Photographer’s Conference

Right after I did this photo, the conference began. In case you missed it, here is the finale of the event when I did an on-stage interview with Kelby…. enjoy!

(Jump past the first 10 mins or so… the encode quality of that video came out bad… that is available elsewhere on YouTube)

Daily Photo – In the Park in San Francisco

Our PhotoWalk in San Francisco ended in this spot. At first, I thought the photowalk would just take a few hours, but I think it ended up taking four or five! That’s okay, we had a good time and only got kicked out of one place… we ended up here in this fantastic park… the sun was shining and it was perfect to round things off

Filed under the categories: California, Nikon D800, Photography Tips, San Francisco, Travel