Our Android App (Photo Voyages of Trey Ratcliff) is now featured — very exciting.  And, even better if you don’t want to pay, there is a Free version that with a nice collection of about 50 photos or so.   It works great on your Android and your Google TV!  And yes, it even works on the new color Kindle, once you enable it to run other apps.

Daily Photo – Home in the Hillside

Is it okay if I do two Iceland photos in a row?  I hope so, because I’m very excited about this one too.

Some of these places you can’t see from the road.  If you walk over one hill and down another, you can find these wonderful little places tucked away in hillsides.  Even though it’s all fallen apart, it’s still charming… sort of a fixer-upper!

Are you a fan of Pat? Join us tonight for the live hangout at 7 PM PT on Live.TWIT.tv.

EG Video – I’ll Save you $4000

So, instead of buying that ticket, I promised you could watch my video for free, and here you go.  I took a risk with this one, and I hope there are bits in here that are of interest.  Enjoy!  (and yes, I’ll be returning to Monterey this year…maybe I will see some of you there!)

Daily Photo – The Beginning of Time

I spent most of this weekend working on this photo.  One common question is, “How long do these photos take?”  They take me anywhere from a few minutes to a few days.  It’s not contiguous work, of course, but some are so challenging that I have to keep returning to them time and time again.

This spot in northern central Iceland is a bit perilous to reach.  It’s so perilous here at Godafoss, in fact, that I am glad my mom didn’t see me getting into position.  Is the water cold?  Yes,  yes it is.

CHANCE OF A LIFETIME ! ! !

Join me and +Tom Anderson (yes, the MySpace guy!) on a secret adventure around the world, from one side to the other and back around again. Countless cities. Endless adventure. You’ll be paid. You’ll be fed. You’ll be given shots to protect you from Dengue Fever.

Are you a DP/SHOOTER with impressive experience? Can you meet all the criteria below?

PROJECT
Shooting an independent documentary. This is going to be a bare bones ENG style crew with no “official” camera assist.

POSITION
DP/SHOOTER who has documentary experience. Must know how to set up & light interviews. Must be able to run & gun.
• DP/SHOOTER is expected to manage and prep all their own gear.
• Showrunner/Director will also assist with camera prep when necessary, or shoot B-camera.

FORMAT
We will probably shoot on something like the Sony EX3 (or its equivalent). We may also shoot some DSLR for b-roll/character saga sells.

CONTACT
email jwengdoc@gmail.com
◦ Reel and references please!
◦ Reel and references please! (repeated on purpose)

Daily Photo – Epic Iceland

I have many things in common with Tom.  One of them is the love of “Epic” scenes.  These mostly come from movies, but it spans many different pursuits.  He’s the only other guy I met that can also quote scenes from Lawrence of Arabia.

So, obviously I do like to find epic scenes in the world, and I feel like Iceland is full of them.  Capturing them the right way is another ball of wax, but that is most of the fun.

The Video – DSLRs are Forever?

What’s going on with the future of cameras? How are many pros thinking about this? DSLRs versus mirrorless? Join me, Zack Arias, Gordon Laing from Cameralabs.com , Frederick Van Johnson, James Brandon, Kelli Seeger Kim, RC Concepcion.

Daily Photo – The Minecraft Waterfall

Speaking of Minecraft, our server is up and running again.  Drop a note below if you want to join.  I had to kick a kid and ban him from the server because he was destroying stuff and acting uncool.  The rules are simple… don’t destroy stuff, don’t steal, and don’t defile the farm animals.

This waterfall reminds me of one of those long never-ending waterfall/rivers from Minecraft.  Except, it’s kind of 100x more awesome because it is real.  There are hundreds of these all over Iceland.  The water just keeps coming and coming… I’m often curious as to where it all coming from because the hills beyond seem so gentle.

Daily Photo – Waiting on the Solstice Sun

Up in the northwest fjords of Iceland, the roads end but the land keeps going.

There is this distant island, pictured here, that has no roads at all. It seems so remote and… well… scary. I don’t know why I get that foreboding sense! It just feels so lonely, so far north… the cliffs are so sheer… no one to hear you scream… and these sorts of things. I do like being remote, but this is a little too remote.

It’s so expensive to rent a car in one city and drop off in another… In fact, it’s so darn high that I would not be surprised if there was some sort of a cabal going on… I end up doing this quite a bit because I like to fly to one place, explore, drive a long way, explore, and then fly out of a different airport. Of course, that’s not an issue in Iceland (today’s) photo. There’s only one international airport there!

Daily Photo – Lighthouse in Iceland

The northwest fjords in Iceland have quickly become one of my favorite areas of the country.

People ask me all the time, “I’m going to XXXX country, where should I go?” That is one of the reasons I created the new Stuck On Earth — for just that purpose. Now, when you zoom into Iceland, you’ll see a big collection of images up in this area. Whenever you see clusters of pins in one area versus another, you’ll get the general idea that one area has more photo hotspots than another.

New Video – First Live On Air Hangout

So, *this was just a test…not a real show*… but there was a little bit of photography talk mixed in there for sure. We had people from Australia, Sweden, Canada, Greece, New Zealand and the US in there!

Here’s a few highlights… We happen to have Helen Sotiriadis in there who was one of the finalists for the TWIT Photo contest. I talk about experiences of being a judge… and how it can suck more than you think.

Then I do a one-man intervention on the avatar of Billy Wilson.

We talk a bit with the three peeps from Google that joined: Colleen Kelly, Henry, Erica Joy and Ricardo Lagos.

And then all other kinds of conversations with Doug Kaye, Giuseppe Basile, Maximilian Majewski, Lisa Ng, Jim Davis and the great Karen Hutton where you’ll see a few behind-the-scenes things… and then a surprise appearance by Tom Anderson

My personal Facebook Profile (you can subscribe) has been using the new Timeline feature for a while, but you probably could not see it unless you were an FB developer that also had it turned on. But maybe everyone has it activated now? I was wondering… and are you enjoying your own timeline if you have it?

Reminder for TWIT Photo with Leo Laporte Tomorrow

Tune in Live at 1:30 PM PT at Live.Twit.TV. See you there! We’ll be talking about Photography and more!

Daily Photo – Farmhouse and Roosting Birds at Dusk

I only got to stay in this magical place for one night.

If you’re really into birds, then you may notice a thing or two about this photo. Iceland is known for many species of birds, and you can see a bunch of them roosting back in the cliff there.

This was a really fun one… if you want to see a full-out description with timecodes, you can visit the YouTube page. This one features Thomas Hawk, Erica Joy, Nicole S. Young, Lotus Carroll, Cliff Baise, and James Brandon. Enjoy!

Limited Annum Series Prints – Now Shipping

Now that you can click on a photo, go to SmugMug, and order a print, there’s been a fun increase in print sales. There’s only a few weeks left to get photos from this 2011 series. People are just now getting their shipments, and I’ve been seeing a lot of nice emails going back and forth… many people even take photos of it on their walls and send them to me – thanks! I’m glad you’re enjoying them.

Alone, In Iceland

I went over a high mountain pass that connects one remote part of the country into another. There’s always ice and snow up here. Well, really, it’s mostly ice and very little snow.

This little stone and wood framed home stood desperately alone.

Stuck On Earth (iTunes Link) hit #2 in the travel section of the app store! Awesome! Thanks again everyone. If you want an update on upcoming versions, watch the Stuck On Earth page in Google+.

The app is still free — all I ask is that you tell your friends…. not once or twice, but more than that! Thanks

On DTown

I recently went out to Florida to visit Scott Kelby and see his setup there. While in the studios, I did an episode of D Town with my friend RC Concepcion. It was great fun, as you’ll see below!

Daily Photo – The Edge of the World

This was one of my first times on a black sand beach, and it was even stranger because it was at least eight hours since I had seen another human.

The sound the black sand made was something between normal beach sand and fresh snow. It was a slippery crunch with a slight wet sucking sound as my foot pulled up.

This place is pretty close to one of the recent volcanic eruptions in Iceland. Very close to the town of Vik, this is on the other side of a tall and narrow mountain range. You can kind of drive anywhere. Anywhere. And this looked interesting and kind of scary… so I just drove and drove across the black sand until I got to this place… like something a wicked map designer would make in Skyrim.

Black Friday Special – Won’t Last Long!

I wanted to give a special 20% off on the HDR Video Tutorial for a little Black Friday celebration! It’s a great gift for that emerging photographer in your life. Use the code BLACKTREYFRIDAY at checkout, and you’ll be in good shape.

Great Movies?

I got a nice free iPhone app. It’s called “Roger Ebert’s Great Movies” — and it’s got a huge list of all his best movies since the beginning of time. I’ve been going through it and circling up movies that I’ve never seen… you know… some of those movies that everyone is supposed to see, but they’ve just been off my radar. Do you have a few of those black holes in your movie to-do list?

Daily Photo – The Weather Station

I don’t think I could exactly geo-locate this photo if I had to. But, believe me – it’s in the middle of nowhere.

I’m not completely sure, but I think this is one of the many remote weather stations scattered around Iceland. They are these perfect little triangular things that sit there, as lonely as can be.

The new Topaz Adjust is out. It’s pretty good and I’ve been using it since the beta. There’s more effects and more flexibility. If you’re not familiar with Topaz, you cans see my Topaz Adjust Review here on the site… it’s still the old version in the review, but the meat of how it works is still the exact same.

Daily Photo – Alone at the Harbor

These mornings in Iceland — I’ll never get used to them. It’s fully bright even though it’s only 4 AM — but the streets are dead. You expect to see at least one other soul out and about… but there are none. Maybe I play too many zombie games… or no, that can’t be it… no such thing as too many zombie games!

Do you work at Facebook? Come see me on Thursday morning for a photography talk! We’ll have great fun together… I know there are a lot of people there at FB that are interested in photography, so it should be a good time. Sadly, it’s not open to the public, but the event will be filmed and I can share it later.

So, my FB friends are still pretty full, but you can still use this new “Subscribe” feature on my profile. It’s kind of like friends, without the benefits.

Deep Water and Phobias

So, I’m a pretty rational guy, really, I’d like to think. I don’t really have any phobias… just one big one – swimming in deep water. There is something about it that freaks me out… I don’t think it was movies that did it to me or anything. I see plenty of scary stuff in movies that doesn’t bother me in real life… but the idea of jumping into this mile-deep fjord and swimming across is almost more than I can bear!

Do you have any phobias (that you don’t mind talking about)?

Daily Photo – Boat in Isafjordur

This area is in the far northwest of Iceland up where there fjords layer into one another like fractals. I don’t normally like taking photos in the middle of the day, but when the sky is the towering, glacier-carved edge of the fjord, there is practically no sky at all.