Most Expensive Places in California for Living?

Is there a list of these somewhere?  I know Carmel is expensive… so is Atherton… and I can think of a handful of other places, but I wonder if there was an official list somewhere… that would be interesting!

Daily Photo – Hiking in Carmel

Just south of Carmel-by-the-Sea is a hiking trail that goes along the coast.  I went down at sunrise one morning to see what I could find.  The entrance to the trail was blocked by a gate, and there was no ranger in the little box-place where rangers stand.  I was bamboozled.  There was no way through or around.  I could have walked, but it looked like the road went on quite a ways before the parking lot.

So I waited until some other guy came along to let himself in.  I was parked a ways back, and so I got his attention from afar by grunting and raising my Nikon-on-tripod over my head like a sand raider — he got the message and waved me through.

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

Live Show Tonight!

Watch tonight to see tons of photos from our big photowalks in San Francisco!
Date / Time: Monday night at 7 PM PT
Location: Find the “Live” button on my YouTube Channel

On NPR

NPR featured Stuck On Earth the other day. You can listen to the audio bit of it here! And thanks again to everyone that came to the very special Stuck on Earth session in San Francisco – that was a great time!

Fun in LA

Thanks again everyone for coming out for the photowalks lately!  I know it takes a lot of time and effort — so I hope that you enjoy them as much as I do.  And yes, I plan on coming to [your area] at some point in the future… since I want to go everywhere, why wouldn’t I come there?

Daily Photo – The Pier in Santa Monica

After we finished shooting down on the beach, we moved the photowalking party up to the pier.  There was just an edge of light left when I took this photo.

The dock is in two parts.  The first part has the amusement park and the second part extends further out into the sea.  Sometimes docks aren’t so great for night shots because they are shaky and move with the waves.  But this one was pretty solid — I suppose because of the rides and whatnot that also need to be stable.  Anyway, it was more than steady enough for the very long exposures need for the shot.

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

Printing Your Photos for Profit

I get this question a LOT! I’ve put some new information about this on my SmugMug Review. If you sign up, be sure to use “STUCKINCUSTOMS” to save some money. Since many photographers would like to make revenue from their photos, I wanted to show what it looks like when you sell some prints. In the case below, a customer purchased four prints from our online store in SmugMug. I am putting this up for the benefit of photographers who are curious about what this looks like on the back-end. As most people know, I am very open in all this “sharing” of how things work behind-the-scenes.

Personally, all of my prints through SmugMug are of a limited series, and this is one reason I sell them at a higher cost. You can of course choose a system that works best for you and the art you choose to share with the world in the form of prints.

The Rest of the Hearst Castle

See the rest of Hearst Castle here in that category.  Don’t forget to click “Previous” to see more photos.

Even though this photo below is taken just south of San Francisco in the San Bruno area, Hearst Castle is about a six hour drive to the south in San Simeon…

Daily Photo – The Hearst Tomb

Thomas Hawk brought me to this cemetery. He always takes me to the most romantic places.

He remarked (and he is right) that he is surprised that Hearst has such a “small” tomb. It does seem rather understated, compared to the other monstrosities he built. But maybe he’s just being a little bit humble in his tomb. It’s hard to say…

This photo was pretty much pitch black with a little bit of light that would collect over time. This is what I got out of a 30 second exposure at f/6.7.

Filed under the categories: California, Hearst Castle, Nikon D3X, Photography Tips, San Francisco, Travel

Google Glass

No text.

The Google+ Conference

Here is the big show – the live on-stage appearance at the conference with me and Scott Kelby. Please share your thoughts about what I said and the interview as a whole… I am interested!

Now, the first 10 minutes looks AWFUL in this video because of the way YouTube encoded it with Hangouts (!), so you can skip ahead to the 11:00 minute mark. If you’d like to see that “Zimmer-Ratcliff” video, click here.

Filed under the categories: California, San Francisco, Travel

Robert Scoble Video from Yosemite

Scoble was there with us for the photowalk… and he grabbed some video that maybe you have not seen yet…. here you go!

Daily Photo - Old Forest in Yosemite

This was a fun trip!

When I was walking through this forest, we had a photowalk-of-sorts going on with a ton of people going here and there.  It was sort of Ewok-like with all the activity.  We’d all have to ask one another to hide behind trees and duck out of the way, since we were all criss-crossing our shots this way and that.  Often times, the shot I really wanted to get required me to clamber up and over big fallen trees.  There’s not really a graceful way to do this.  No matter how many times I do it, I continually look like I’m just barely keeping it together…

Filed under the categories: California, Nikon D3X, Photography Tips, Travel, Yosemite

PhotoWalk in San Francisco

Are you coming to the Google+ Photographer’s Conference and joining me on my PhotoWalk on Monday the 21st? I’m getting many questions about the location, so Here Are The PhotoWalk Details!

Video Recap for Smugmug

As you know by now, I process photos out of order.  The photo I am posting today was taken on the day I made this video for Smugmug.  If you want to know more about it, see my Smugmug Review.

Daily Photo – Wind and Driftwood

It was so windy out there — I’m not even sure the video captures it!  Maybe you can see the wind ripping the top of the foam away from the waves… or maybe you can see some of the sand blowing across the beach.  And it’s just as hard to capture the feeling of it all in the photo as it is in the video.  I don’t have the benefit of multiple frames, so I try to get all of that in a single frame.  It’s a wonderful challenge and puzzle!

Filed under the categories: Big Sur, California, Nikon D3X, Travel

My D3X on eBay – Ends Soon!

If you want to get my Nikon D3X on eBay, you better bid soon… time is running out!

Sunrise vs. Sunset Panic

Even though I love a good sunset or sunrise, now most of mine have an element of “panic” built into them.  No matter how  much I prepare, there are always last-minute adjustments in my camera settings, location, composition, and other miscellaneous things that are happening.  I rarely go to a “special lookout” where a bunch of other photographers go.  Those can be kind of easy… because you just kind of chill out and wait around like everyone else.  There are SOME locations like that, but for the most part, I’m trying to squeeze out as many photos, compositions, and scenarios as possible within a highly compressed time.

And, if I am going to panic, I’d rather run around and panic at sunset rather than sunrise.  Mostly because the sunrise has me a little groggy and out-of-sorts from putting on my socks inside out in the dark…

Daily Photo - San Francisco Before Sunrise

Before I started going to the main location, Tom and I pulled over to the side of the road in Sausalito to get this picture.  The water was too blue and the colors were too interesting to drive on by!  We wanted to be quick though… so we didn’t miss the sun peaking over the horizon at the main location.

Filed under the categories: California, Nikon D3X, San Francisco, Travel

Previous EG Talk

I don’t have my latest up… but here is the previous one that you might have missed the first time around.

Daily Photo - Sitting on a Bench and Watching the Sunset

I took this at the Post Ranch Inn one evening.  I went here after my last talk at EG to spend some time relaxing.  It’s not like the EG Conference was stressful or anything, but it is high-intensity.  I do like having periods of high-intensity followed by periods of low-intensity.  A nice sunset in the Big Sur area qualifies as one of those low-intensity events!

Filed under the categories: Big Sur, California, Nikon D3X, San Francisco, Travel

Updated Sony NEX-7 Review

Since I took this photo with this camera, I have added it and others to the Sony NEX-7 Review. I still highly recommend this camera!

Daily Photo – Tim Lincecum

I was down on the field with the SF Giants before a recent game. I got down there because Tom Anderson sent out a tweet, and the marketing manager for the SF Giants responded and got us in! So, we were able to go anywhere and do anything before and during the game. It was great! I made full use of it.

I had my giant D800 Camera out there (see the Nikon D800 Review for more baseball photos from that evening), but I also had my Sony NEX-7. Tim came running by me at one point, so I quickly got in position and snapped away to grab this.

Daily Photo Bonus! …and the SF Giants!

And then after I left the field, I went to the very very very top part of the nosebleeds to take this shot…

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

See you in San Francisco Soon

I JUST left San Francisco, but now I am coming back into town! I’ll be there in the middle of May for the Google+ Photographer’s Conference. Note that I am not personally putting on this conference… I’m just showing up. I’ll be in a few panels, leading a photowalk, and showing up for something they have ridiculously called “An Evening with Trey Ratcliff.”

Daily Photo – Magical Fog in San Francisco over the Golden Gate Bridge

I recently drove across the bridge and up this little mountain road to try to find this shot. I started driving up a road I knew well, but it was closed. Closed! So I parked, got out my tripod, and hiked about a mile up this hill to get to this spot. It was a very cool night, but there was some strange inversion happening. Almost anywhere I stood on the side of the hill was a steady hotel-room 72-degrees. And there was zero wind. It was a perfect night, and just when I arrived, the fog really started pouring over the bridge, so I set up for this shot…

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

This Week in Tech

The Instagram $1 billion… “The Name of the Wind” by Patrick Rothfuss… discussion of eBooks… breast recognition tech… and more more more… A fun show on This Week in Tech!

The others you see are Leo Laporte, John C Dvorak, Jolie O’Dell, and Fr. Robert Ballecer, SJ.

A Personal Sub?

This has been a little dream of mine… I’d love to have my own submarine…  But I want it to be kind of big, roomy, and fancy.  With internet.  I don’t know how you get internet on a sub, but I guess you cloud float up a little satellite buoy or something.  The whole idea sounds very impractical, but also kinda awesome.

Daily Photo – The Russian Sub

There is a longer story around this photo that I caught on video… I’ll wait for that to be released!

But, as you can see, I clearly got onto a Russian sub in the middle of the night.  It was docked right next to the Queen Mary in Long Beach.  As I was walking across its iron surface and hearing the empty echoes below, I could not imagine the sub making it all the way from Russia to this harbor.  That was a long, dark, cramped ride…

Filed under the categories: California, Nikon D3X, Travel

Two Camera Setup

Today’s photo really took two different cameras… that is, unless I had two cameras ready to go, I never would have gotten it.  Do any of you walk around with a two-camera setup as well?

Daily Photo – Late for a Very Important Date

I spent most of one morning shooting in Union Station in Los Angeles, and I highly recommend this to any photographer!  Not only did they let me use my tripod, but there are all kinds of cool people-watching along the way.

My tripod was set up for an HDR of the interior, but I saw this couple walk in and start doing, well, whatever they are doing.  I had my hip-shooter on, so I squatted down to take this shot…

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