Great news about The Arcanum and our new Passion Meter – so cool!

See more at www.TheArcanum.com !

How to get a shot like this?

This was a crazy idea I had and it worked out just fine. I suppose the first step is to be on an escalator that has a rich or interesting set of lights around it. Set up the tripod legs on the steps (which you have to do quickly because you are moving… it’s sort of a Level 6 tripod maneuver!) and then let it fly with a shutter speed of at least 2 seconds. This one was a 4 second exposure.

Daily Photo – A cloaked woman in Hong Kong

I was riding up a series of colorful outdoor escalators in Hong Kong and this mysterious cloaked women went flying by me. She made it up to a group of people where she got stuck for a bit, right when I took this shot.

A cloaked woman in Hong Kong

Photo Information

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• Date Taken2015-02-05 22:15:38
• CameraILCE-7R
• Camera MakeSony
• Exposure Time4
• Aperture7.1
• ISO125
• Focal Length17.0 mm
• FlashOff, Did not fire
• Exposure ProgramAperture-priority AE
• Exposure Bias+2

Cosmos

This is truly a great series, and I recommend you pick it up and enjoy it with the family. The kids here love it and Tina and I are always impressed at the production quality and the clever way in which they are able to easily explain complex concepts.

Daily Photo – Driving in Hong Kong

Getting shots from above in cities is quickly becoming one of my new favorite things! Getting this one with the DJI Inspire was very difficult, actually, because the buildings blocked the GPS. There were fairly random winds gusting through the buildings, so it was very challenging to keep it centered!

Driving in Hong Kong

Photo Information

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• Date Taken2020-07-08 14:50:35
• CameraFC350
• Camera MakeDJI
• Exposure Time1/50
• Aperture2.8
• ISO191
• Focal Length3.6 mm
• FlashNo flash function
• Exposure ProgramProgram AE
• Exposure Bias

Come Watch Live on Thursday!

Here’s the event (Click!) and where you can watch Live!

Live Photo Event – Organize Your Photos! – Thursday 6 PM PST, 9 PM EST (or check your local time on the event page)

Join me as we do a live Google+ Hangout soon. It’s a free event and I’ll be talking about how I organize my photos —I have a pretty good system I think that I believe would work for anyone because there are a few levels of “extremity” depending on how organized you want to be!

I know some of you have enjoyed the “Organize Your Photos!” tutorial and even if you already have it, you’ll enjoy seeing this, as I’ve added a bit of stuff! Some of it has to do with merging photos I take “on the road” back with the mother lode. I’m also putting together a strategy around the new all-encompassing Photos app for the Mac.

As always, there will be a live Q&A. I’ll also be looking at questions in the Stuck In Customs community — it’s always great to watch the activity in there!

Here’s a little video that shows what we’ll be talking about a bit!

https://www.youtube.com/wat

Daily Photo – Late Night in Beijing

This place is always mega-crowded and a place most everyone visits when they come to China. It’s hard not to ignore with that huge photo of Chairman Mao floating up there. It’s amazing, actually, how popular Mao has become once again, especially with young people…I’ve heard many talk about what a great man he was, apparently not knowing he killed an estimated 40-70 million people during the revolution. Many carry his photo or come here to pay homage. Can you imagine huge photos of Stalin in Moscow or Hitler in Berlin? My goodness…

Late Night in Beijing

Photo Information

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• Date Taken2014-05-26 02:35:21
• CameraILCE-7R
• Camera MakeSony
• Exposure Time1
• Aperture6.3
• ISO160
• Focal Length18.0 mm
• FlashOff, Did not fire
• Exposure ProgramAperture-priority AE
• Exposure Bias+1

Upcoming PhotoWalks and events including the Venice Photowalk

We’re about to announce a whole new slew of photowalks and events! Be sure to check the Events page for more!

Follow me on Instagram

Here’s me, @TreyRatcliff ! And we also started a live-feed Instagram page here on the site!

DJI Inspire Review

We now have two quad reviews up! The newer one is the DJI Inspire Review, but we also have up the DJI Phantom Review.

An Instameet in Wanaka on Saturday!

I’m gonna pop over to Wanaka on Saturday to meet with a bunch of Instagrammers and have a fun day/evening of photos!

It sounds like a good group of people going, and it’s led by Liz Carlson, also known as Young Adventuress! People coming include Chris Burkard, Folk Magazine, Hello Emilie, Elizabeth Gadd, Matt Glastonbury, Johan Le Backpacker, Steen Jones, Matt Vandeputte, and Shaun Jeffers. We’ll all meet down by the famous tree in the lake at 4PM. I think any camera including mobile phones are cool. She tells me tags at #LoveWanaka and #InstameetWanaka and tagging @lakewanakanz. You can see more on Liz’s blog here!

Even though we’re meeting at the tree at 4PM, I’ll be at Gin and Raspberry a few hours beforehand having a wine! 🙂

P.S. This is the tree I’m talkin’ about, just ask any local if you’re driving in! 🙂

Daily Photo – A Panorama of Hong Kong

I think this is still called Hong Kong even though it’s across the bay in the Kowloon area. I was looking at some old photos of Hong Kong from about seven years ago, and I could see this building just in its beginning stages. Now it’s complete, and quite magnificent as you can see! This was a panorama made from about four shots with the DJI Inspire.

A Panorama of Hong Kong

Photo Information

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• Date Taken2020-07-09 00:37:51
• CameraFC350
• Camera MakeDJI
• Exposure Time1/351
• Aperture2.8
• ISO100
• Focal Length3.6 mm
• FlashNo flash function
• Exposure ProgramProgram AE
• Exposure Bias

Upcoming Photography & Yoga retreat in New Zealand!

New Events:

*New Zealand Autumn 2015* – Sold out
*New Zealand Photo & Yoga Adventure* – https://stuckincustoms.com/photography-workshop-yoga-retreat/
*Venice* – Not yet announced, watch our Newsletter at https://stuckincustoms.com/news

Here’s a video that talks more about our workshops!

Daily Photo – Two Chinas Together

I found this old monastic area of Beijing that was right in the middle of the city. Inside there was really no one but monks. If you look close here, you can see that it is “resupply day” and the monks were carrying goods from the entrance back towards their living quarters. I looked inside one of the boxes, and I’m not kidding you, it was full of Red Bull!

Two Chinas Together

Photo Information

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• Date Taken2014-05-31 15:16:26
• CameraILCE-7R
• Camera MakeSony
• Exposure Time1/1600
• Aperture4
• ISO200
• Focal Length25.0 mm
• FlashOff, Did not fire
• Exposure ProgramAperture-priority AE
• Exposure Bias

Beijing From Above

Today’s photo is related to this video I made below! 🙂 You can read the whole story about the incarceration here on the blog!

Daily Photo – A windy day at the Forbidden City

Here’s my assistant in China, getting wind-blown and umbrella-inverted at the Forbidden City. As much as I like to tease her for being a rather useless assistant who could carry little more than an African swallow, she did get me out of incarceration with her fast-Chinese-talkin’. It wasn’t too long after this that we ended up behind lock & key for flying the quadcopter in the video above…

A windy day at the Forbidden City

Photo Information

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• Date Taken2014-05-25 20:46:24
• CameraILCE-7R
• Camera MakeSony
• Exposure Time1/125
• Aperture9
• ISO160
• Focal Length15.0 mm
• FlashOff, Did not fire
• Exposure ProgramAperture-priority AE
• Exposure Bias+1.3

Drones or Quadcopters

I’m afraid the word “drone” is now in the popular vernacular, even though I think most quad pilots wished everyone referred to them as “quadcopters.” I think the “drone” word gets confusing because that’s what the military uses in a weaponized manner. But then again, “quadcopter” doesn’t always make sense either because some of them have 6 rotors! Anyway… a semantics issue… I don’t lose a lot of sleep over it… just noticing. These things are about to be everywhere based on sales.

Daily Photo – The edge of Hong Kong from Above

It’s hard to believe the water is this color on the edge of Hong Kong, isn’t it? It’s not always that color, but I happen to be right by the ferry terminal, and so many boats come and go that it churns up a bunch of small bubbles that make everything seem a bit more Caribbean! After I took this photo straight down with the quad, I aimed it up and got a big panorama of the city. I’ll share that one soon too!

The edge of Hong Kong from Above

Photo Information

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• Date Taken2020-07-08 20:33:39
• CameraFC350
• Camera MakeDJI
• Exposure Time1/50
• Aperture2.8
• ISO137
• Focal Length3.6 mm
• FlashNo flash function
• Exposure ProgramProgram AE
• Exposure Bias

YouTube Channel

Don’t forget to pop over to my YouTube Channel and subscribe! There’s always cool stuff happening there! 🙂

Here’s one I posted several months ago with the long title: “Shibuya Station – What is it like to ride the subway to the busiest intersection in the world in Tokyo?” You don’t hear me talking… no instruction or anything… just some uninterrupted Google Glass footage.

Daily Photo – Banking at HSBC in Hong Kong

What an awesome building this is! I spent the better part of a day in here during a recent trip to Hong Kong and I was awestruck at the amazing interior. After all my banking-work-work was done, I roamed the halls a while to get some photos. Of the hundreds I took, I think this one is my favorite.

Banking at HSBC in Hong Kong

Photo Information

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• Date Taken2015-02-03 23:17:57
• CameraILCE-7M2
• Camera MakeSony
• Exposure Time0.3
• Aperture4
• ISO400
• Focal Length16.0 mm
• FlashOff, Did not fire
• Exposure ProgramAperture-priority AE
• Exposure Bias+1.7

The video behind it

I happened to have on my Google Glass while doing some photography here. When these nice people came up, I just kept it rolling!

Daily Photo – “Everyone check out the white dude!”

I don’t know if this is how it translates exactly from Chinese to English, but I’m pretty sure that is what these people were saying when they surrounded me in Tiananmen Square. I find the vast majority of people around the world to nice, smiling, and very happy to meet new people. This is one of those patterns I see time and time again and it gives me faith in the whole human race — this was kind of one of those shining examples!

“Everyone check out the white dude!”

Photo Information

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• Date Taken2014-05-25 16:49:12
• CameraILCE-7R
• Camera MakeSony
• Exposure Time1/250
• Aperture
• ISO100
• Focal Length
• FlashOff, Did not fire
• Exposure ProgramManual
• Exposure Bias

Drought in California

I keep hearing about how bad the drought in California — is it as bad as people say? I saw these amazing pictures, taken three years apart.

Even though I’ve been to Beijing many times now, I’m often confused as the relative distance of one thing to the next. Here, at the Summer Palace, it turns out is very close to almost all the key stuff along the Central Axis (which is kind of a spiritual line that goes north-south through Beijing. But the first time I came here, it took over a 2 hours, and not just because of lousy Beijing traffic! So, I had this thing in my mind that this place was really super far. I was low on time but decided to try risking coming back again. This time it literally took 5 minutes. I’m still confused by the whole experience!

The Summer Palace, late in the day

Photo Information

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• Date Taken2014-05-26 23:46:48
• CameraILCE-7R
• Camera MakeSony
• Exposure Time1/1500
• Aperture
• ISO160
• Focal Length
• FlashOff, Did not fire
• Exposure ProgramManual
• Exposure Bias