Patrick Rothfuss, Charity, The Show

So, regular friends around here will know that my inspiration comes from the world outside of photography.  I read like a madman.  And look, I’m not bragging when I say I’m very well-read in Fantasy.  That’s just a fact.  And so, maybe it carries a lot of weight when I say that Patrick Rothfuss is teaching us all.

Now, before I tell you more about that bit, first let me point you to Pat’s charity team at Worldbuilders.  I’ve donated, and you might like to also.  There are all kinds of rare signed books that will be given away as part of the fund-raising effort.

And…. Patrick will be joining me for Trey’s Variety Hour #22 on Monday night.  How cool is that?

What Do You See?

And… which eyes are mine?  Yes, I’ll be back at EG in Monterey this year…

Daily Photo – The Mysterious Creatures Among Us

While in the southern town of Lixiang, I came upon this creature in the evening.  Maybe you know the legend of this…  maybe it is better to make up your own legend than to have me tell you everything about it… or, perhaps one of you intrepid explorers in the community can tell us all what is going on here!

Filed under the categories: China, Lijiang, Nikon D3S, Travel

Amazing New eBook!

Check out FlatBooks.com to see “Photographing the Fourth Dimension – Time” from Jim Goldstein.  I think you’ll love it…  And, I hate to say judge a book by its cover – but – go ahead!

Lijiang is a Photo Holiday!

This turned out to be an amazing place for photos! If you’d like to see all the photos from this area, click on the Lijiang Category here or at the bottom of the post.

Daily Photo – Walking Blind through China

As Tom Anderson and I were leaving the old area of Lijiang one evening, we saw these two coming towards us in the opposite direction. One of them was blind (perhaps both), and one played a small stringed instrument while the other held out a bowl for donations.

I squatted down and waited for them to enter a little pool of light from a nearby shot before I took the photo. And then I walked over and put a little donation in the bowl.

Filed under the categories: China, Lijiang, Nikon D3S, Travel

Just in! I took a quick photo here... it's still warm!

Running Out of Calendars

It looks like this will be sold out by the end of the year. I suppose that is good timing, since 2012 is pretty soon!

It’s a great gift for you, for your family, and for your friends.  Our little team of elves is standing by to pack everything up for you!

$19.99 (U.S. and Canada)*

Stuck in Customs 2012 Wall Calendar Full calendar with high-quality-saddle-stitched page High-quality glossy one-hundred-pound cover with eighty-pound pages inside 12 beautiful images from around the world

Daily Photo – Ascending to the Temple at Night

There is a temple atop a huge hill in Lijiang that has several “staging areas” for rest along the way. This is one of them.

This is an area where I took a lot of photos of the old town below. That area is kind of behind me here in this photo, although that is hard to tell from this vantage. It is a good resting place to recharge your batteries before finishing the rest of the hike up the stairs to the top. There’s also a little shop here that sells snacks and drinks… To me, a true adventurer never passes up a good snack.

Filed under the categories: China, Lijiang, Nikon D3X, Travel

Live Hangout Tonight!

Time: Thursday 8 PM PT – Your World Time: http://goo.gl/IFwEf
Topic: We’ll start with how we pack photo stuff, particularly what we’ll be bringing for the Yosemite Google+ PhotoWalk! And then… we’ll let the conversation meander in a hangout-kinda-way…
Where? Watch my Google+ stream for the Live On Air YouTube player.

Camera City

And here is another crazy place from China!

Daily Photo – The Sound that of Clattering Wood in the Breeze

Upon entering the oldest part of this ancient town, I passed by these tiny shingles that hung in the air. They made a delightful sound as the wind went through them, and it kind of set the mood for the rest of the exploration.

This woman was holding an umbrella to shield the sun. It did get a little steamy from time to time… I wish I had one too!

Filed under the categories: China, Lijiang, Nikon D3X, Travel

Controversial Car Photos

I asked an innocent question about cars… and I got way more responses than expected. See this crazy Google+ thread!

Daily Photo – The Canals of Lijiang at Night

There must be a hundred little canals spread here and there through the old town. There are so many opportunities for photos! This is what we call a target-rich environment.

This is the town I was in with Tom Anderson — every night we explored a new area. It was an amazing time… I can’t wait to go back some day!

Filed under the categories: China, Lijiang, Nikon D3X, Travel

Prints before redesign

My SmugMug site is going through a re-design, and it will be even easier to order prints. Currently, if you click through on an image, you can see there is a way to order various types of prints, but it is not as obvious as I’d like it to be.

We also have a more exclusive and limited set (only 50 printed ever) of our photos on metal. It’s the best quality and presentation, if you are looking for something more exclusive. There’s more info on that over in the Prints area of the website.

Daily Photo – Sunset from the Sky

As I was landing in Lijiang, China, I saw this sunset out the window.

I tried not to panic the other passengers as I quickly stood up and hauled my massive camera bag out of the overhead. I tried to be smooth as I ripped open the bag in a frenzied way. I tried not to be too loud as I grunted to pull out my giant camera and jam it into the window.

I was hoping this was a good indication of a nice week of photography in Lijiang — and it was!

Filed under the categories: China, Lijiang, Nikon D3X, Travel

New Chrome Extension!

Do you guys use Google Chrome? I’ve moved over to it entirely. It’s fast and elegant. Anyway, a few developers teamed up to make a very special Chrome extension for me.

Get the New Extension Here.

It will give you updates whenever I publish a new photo… then you’ll be the first to know! To see the people involved, like Mohamed Mansour, visit this Google+ thread. Enjoy!

Daily Photo – Lijiang at Night

This is the old town of Lijiang, China, where I spent the week with Tom Anderson (the MySpace guy).  I think I mentioned him before.  Anyway, we got to be friends over the past several months, and we ended up spending a week together here in the south of China.

Tom had first been here many years ago when he was setting up the MySpace office in Beijing.  He had great memories, and he thought it would be great for a big return now that he is getting more into photography.  So, it was definitely a week full of non-stop photography action.

One late night after the sun had set, we weaved through the old streets until we found this place.  Looking up, I knew it would be a wonderful place to take a photo, so I set up for this one.

Filed under the categories: China, Lijiang, Nikon D3X, Travel

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!

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.

Filed under the categories: China, Lijiang, Travel

Facebook Subscribe

I’m still trying to figure out the new Facebook… it appears there is a new “Subscribing” option so you can stay connected there.

Comments Released

We had an introduction thread a few days ago, and many comments got held in waiting! This happens when there are 3 more than three links… anyway, I enabled them so all should be good now!

Daily Photo – The Home of the Artist

What do you guys think is happening here? Make up a little story and let me know! In the comments… I will post what is really happening, which may not be as fanciful as your ideas…

Filed under the categories: China, Lijiang, Nikon D3X, Travel

Huge YouTube Live Hangout Tonight!

See my Google+ Profile for more!

Come watch live tonight at 7 PM PT and 10 PM PT. Google+ is getting me a YouTube Live channel, so I am beyond excited… We will be discussing photography with all sorts of people — it’ll be great!

Just before the event starts, I’ll try to embed a live viewer here. In case it doesn’t work, just check my Google+ stream and you’ll see it there.

Amazing time with Tom

So if some of you follow me on Google+, you might have noticed I’ve gotten to be pretty good friends with Tom Anderson. Remember Tom from MySpace? He’s the guy that was your first friend on there. He eventually sold the company to Murdoch for $580 million. Since then, he’s been doing all sorts of things, but when Google+ got started, we both ended up in the Top 25 list. We got to be friends through there. I liked his clever writing and he liked my photos… Since then, he joined me at Burning Man and then for a week down in the south of China and we discovered a panoply of things we like about one another. Tom’s become very interested in photography, so it was a great time we had together down there… exploring this old town and photography together.

Daily Photo – The Ancient Town of Lijiang

This was a very long exposure — about five minutes or so. I did this so I could help make most of the people disappear from the scene. It also had a nice side-effect down in the river. People would light candles and float them downstream, and the path they followed came out as little golden streaks.

Filed under the categories: China, Lijiang, Nikon D3X, Travel