Father’s Day Deal – 20% off

Let’s say you disagree with the negative nancy below and you don’t think post-processing is the devil. And if you want to join the cause to “hurt the integrity of photography” to learn great post-processing tricks, then use “STUCKONDAD” to save 20% on the HDR Video Tutorial. (The code also works for eBooks on FlatBooks.com which may or may not be injurious to the artform of pressing a button on a chunk of iron and glass.)

What do you think of this guy?

So, I wouldn’t necessarily call this guy a “troll” — but perhaps a hobgoblin or some lesser fantasy creature that you have to defeat 10 of before reaching Level 2. I find people like this endlessly fascinating, and I enjoy observing them like mold in a petri dish.

He’s been popping around the site lately, distributing comments on the “About Me” page and countless other places. Here’s a few little jewels that he has dropped. Emphasis is my own.

…your cliched travel images and horrendous post-processing combined with your unfortunate popularity has probably done more to hurt the integrity of photography than anyone else in the world in recent years. You have made it incredibly difficult for millions of honest photographers trying to produce honest images. Please reconsider the effect you are having on photography.

And sprinkled into my India photos:

Sorry but these are all pedestrian images that tell us nothing about India. There are so many hundreds of other photographers producing interesting, informative, beautiful images of India. Don’t be fooled by Photoshop.

Daily Photo – A Dishonest Image of San Francisco

And with this image, I am once again launching full-out-assault on the hallowed traditions of photography. You know what I did with this image? I post-processed it! Oh yes, I really did. And I had so much fun doing it… at least as much fun as Dexter in his kill room.

I guess if I was to be really “honest” and take a photo of San Francisco and keep with the tradition of the greats of photography, it would have to be black and white photo, right? I mean, the world really is black and white, isn’t it? Oh wait, no… it’s in color. Wait, now I’m confused.

Oh no, look what I’ve done now. I’ve gone and upset people that think one form of artistic expression is superior to another form of artistic expression. How could I be so callous and open with my thoughts and techniques?

(and thanks everyone — pop back tomorrow for a wonderfully dishonest photo of an amazing cave in the Carribean.)

Filed under the categories: California, San Francisco, 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

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

Monterey PhotoWalk Today! Over 260 people RSVPed!

Time/Date: April 12 starting at 9:30AM – Arrive early to shake hands!
Start Location: Monterey – across from the Aquarium 
End Location: The Wharf!

- Free event
- Hosted during the EG Conference – day passes will be avail if you want to come
- All skill levels – bring your mobile phone!
- Family-friendly – great for kids and dads and moms
- RSVP on Google Schemer: http://goo.gl/8JrU0
- Can’t get on Google Schemer? Click link: http://goo.gl/RoxQg

Tag to use for your photos on Google+:  #MontereyPhotoWalk

Trey’s Variety Hour 30 – The Great Aussie Photowalk

Australian Photowalkers Michael N Sutton, Gretchen Chappelle, Mykal Hall, and Alexander Kesselaar join adopted Aussie Brian Rose from the Google+ Photos team, Keith Barrett and me for the show!

We have a great time sharing all kinds of photos and stories from the record setting photowalk in Australia.

Sutton shared this really cool Google Spreadsheet of all the photo albums from the walk: http://goo.gl/6BqR2

We finish the show by sharing some G+ Discoveries:
Stephen Godfrey, David Savage, Michelle Robinson, Francis Gorrez, and Andrew Sanigorski.

Thanks to Leo Laporte, Tony Wang, and Dave Veffer for helping out with the whole production!

Podcast Options – Great ones! Get it first via…

Option 1: Subscribe for free in iTunes: http://goo.gl/ZAKd8
Option 2: It’s not in “podcast” form, but you can subscribe to My YouTube channel. http://www.youtube.com/stuckincustoms
Option 3: There are other subscription options avail on the TWIT page at http://twit.tv/tvh

Been Skiing Lately?

I’ve had some busy winters, so I haven’t been doing much… actually, I’m a snowboarder.  But I recently had a friend tell me that they notice that a LOT of people are using GoPros on the mountain.  Have you noticed this?

Daily Photo - The Long Dock

On one of my final nights in San Francisco, I walked out on the dock off the Embarcadero to see what I could see.  There were nice views in every direction, and one of the best was looking straight back up the dock at the Transamerica building.

This wide-angle 14-24 lens is one of my favorites, but it does have one little problem that can also be an advantage.  It takes whatever is in the center of the frame and makes it quite small.  The opposite of that happens on the edges, where things get quite spread out.  So, I did that little trick here to help the Transamerica building to seem a bit taller.

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

Your Internet Radio?

Do you use Pandora or Spotify or Last.fm or something else?  I’m a Pandora subscriber — I use it quite a bit to discover new music.  I notice it starts to repeat songs sometimes, so I keep spawning new stations off songs I like… that seems to work.  Anyway, yes, I was wondering what internet-service you like?

Daily Photo - Sunrise over San Francisco Bay

After my very early morning in San Francisco, I started moving my way further up the mountain.  The orientation of the bridges kept changing relative to one another with Oakland in the background.  Once I got up high enough, I affixed the 28-300mm to the body, zoomed in, and got this shot.

I was lucky that the morning mist/fog gave a nice sheen to everything.  I kind of wish I lived in SF.  I think I would force myself to get up here every day for a year… and see the different light every single day.

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

Kent State Talk Soon!

See you March 29th!  It’s free and open to the public.  Get more location and time information here.

Also, here’s a video that the president just released about the event…

New Banner

So, a few weeks ago we swapped out the “top” of the page so it is not so supa-thick.  I haven’t heard many comments (a few) — what do you think?  Do you like that it doesn’t take you 30 minutes to scroll down to see the daily photo?

Daily Photo - San Francisco on an Early Morning

And speaking of the daily photo, here we go again.  And I’m excited to share this one!

I think this is my favorite image of San Francisco I’ve ever taken.  It wasn’t terribly difficult.  The hike was pretty short, even though there was one dangerous part.  The only other hard part, I suppose, was planning the day/night before so I could stay in Sausalito and wake up early for a quick jaunt over to this area.

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

TWIT Photo – Finding Your Artistic Self

I didn’t plan on this being the topic when I went into do this show with Leo Laporte, but this is what it turned into. I hope you find some bits and pieces in here of use to you!

Daily Photo – San Francisco Golden Gate by Night

I’d had a very long day up at the TWIT studios with Leo Laporte and gang, where I recorded TWIT Photo and MacBreak Weekly recently. After all that, I drove down south to find a place in Sausalito for the night with Tom. We planned on waking up early the next morning for photos. Since we were so close, we decided to take a small hike up the trail near there to see the bridge in the evening… and that is when I grabbed this shot.

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

Fun eBook for Beginners and Beyond

The new eBook I wrote has been doing great!  Thanks so much and I’m glad you’re enjoying it.

This one was a lot of fun to write, because I just KNOW the basic photoshop questions that float around people’s heads.  They used to float around mine too.  And I keep hearing a lot of the same kinds of questions again and again, so this will be very helpful to you in your quest to make more interesting photos!

Daily Photo - San Francisco Cemetery

Right after I got into San Francisco, I went into the YouTube offices for a meeting.  Their offices were quite cool!  It wasn’t entirely what I was expecting, but I don’t know what I was expecting.  The team there was nice and welcoming, and they were already fans, so that made it easy.

Anyway, after the meeting, I went across the street (literally a 10 min walk!) over to this old cemetery that had charming trees scattered about.  I was just in time for the sunset…

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