SXSW Photowalk Winners

Congratulations to all of the winners from the SXSW Photowalk, and thanks to the sponsors below for providing the prizes!

Anthony Quintano won a Genie Syrp. (There’s a coupon code at that link too if you want to pick one up!)

Jesus Manuel Mena Garza won an FStop Loka Bag.

Michael Connell won a Really Right Stuff BH-40 LR Mid-sized ballhead.

Russell Pankratz and Matthew Southard each won a Padded Cordura Pouch from Really Right Stuff.

Jim Jochetz, Paul Johnston, and Alfredo Mora each won a XUME Adapter

And congratulations to those that received a $100 Gift Certificates from Adorama!
Richard Ramos
Andrea Bolognini
Cathy Malloy
Aniv Das
Kalyana Kavuri

Daily Photo – Driving High Along the Fjords

The roads in Iceland normally follow the bottom part of the valley. Here, in this particular area, the road was about halfway up one of the mountains, which gave me a bit of a downward perspective. Every few miles there is an interesting, old, weather-beaten barn like this one to set the scene. It may not even be so old, and maybe the weather there is so rough that it makes things look old before their time.

Filed under the categories: Akureyri, Iceland, Isafjordur, Travel

Another reason New Zealand is awesome

My 11-year-old son just got back from a 3-day school camping trip. No waivers, no permission slips, no way for the parents to contact the campsite, no cell phones, no nothing… Just hiked 5 hours off into the wild to camp. Here’s what he did:

- Archery
- Shot guns
- Bungee
- River rafting
- Cooking
- Rope Course Survival (crossing rivers while hanging off ropes)

Anyway, New Zealand is very outdoorsy… and everyone does not seem to be suing everybody for every little thing… no one talks about lawyers and nonsense — it’s so wonderful… Every Thursday, Ethan takes his snowboard to school… anything goes around here… a very active, social, and outdoor-related community!

Daily Photo – The Polar Extremes

I’ve never been all the way to the North Pole or South Pole. I am curious, but I don’t think I’m into the extreme cold. Also, there doesn’t seem to be a lot of good photo ops for all the trouble you have to go through. So, anyway, this is about the closest I have gotten, up at the northernmost tip of the Northwest Fjordland of Iceland. I know you can get even further, but not without a series of boats or flights…

This photo was taken about 4 AM during the summer solstice.

Filed under the categories: Iceland, Isafjordur, Travel

Ice Hotel

I’m very interested in visiting an Ice Hotel some day. I know there is one in Sweden, but I think others have started popping up in other places too, yes?

Daily Photo – The Melt

The point where ice turns into river is tough to find. Sometimes it requires a lot of hiking, and sometimes you never find it. But when you do find that rip between worlds, you feel the full weight of the discovery.

I’m usually a bit afraid to get to close or stand on the ice. It’s generally not a good idea, and I have enough bad ideas without needed to add more to the repertoire!

Filed under the categories: Iceland, Isafjordur, Travel

Parallel Universes

Is anyone else into the idea of parallel universes? I’m just sort of taking an informal poll…

Daily Photo – Ridge without Time

This is an unusual photo, isn’t it?

I started processing it, then stopped. It didn’t really require any processing… it just struck me as interesting and unusual. I can’t quite put my finger on it. I do remember being at this spot in Iceland when I took the shot, thinking it was ethereal and wonderful in a strange way.

Filed under the categories: Iceland, Isafjordur, Travel

The Histogram eBook

We have a new eBook over at Flatbooks.com about Histograms! Go grab it — it’s filled with great information and I think you’ll really enjoy it!

Favorite Fish?

While posting this photo, I was thinking of my favorite fish restaurant in the world about 20 km from this spot below.  They didn’t have my favorite kind of fish, which is black cod, but they did have a delicious selection.  What’s your favorite?

Daily Photo - Lonely River in Iceland

I wonder sometimes if I project my own emotions onto the landscape around me.  I’m really not all that dramatic, but sometimes this does seem to be the case, especially in Iceland.  Since I spend so much time there alone, I end up thinking that parts of the environs seem kind of lonely too.  And I think there is probably a lot of truth in it because I hardly ever see any other humans, so everything is very lonely!

Filed under the categories: Iceland, Isafjordur, Nikon D3X, Travel

Trey’s Hangout #33

In this episode, the subject was ‘Social Media and New Opportunities for Artists,” and we had many excellent guests. Also, if you wait until the end (bonus time!), you can see a bunch of new photos from Virgin Gorda and I talk more about the Sony NEX-7.

Photo Mystery – How much to buy the castle?

Okay, other photo mysteries I post here are too easy for you… I’ll go ahead and tell you this place is in Iceland up in the northwest fjords near Isafjordur. So, today’s mystery is: “How much does this castle cost?”

I’ll tell you ahead of time that I don’t know the answer!  But maybe an enterprising Internet-person can figure it out!

Daily Photo – Castle For Sale

This is a somewhat dilapidated castle in Iceland, and it’s for sale!  I got out to hike around it and take photos, and I noticed a FOR SALE sign in front!  I mean, obviously this falls into the category of “fixer upper” — but look at the view!  I bet you can get it for a good price too…  Let’s see who can figure it out first!

Filed under the categories: Iceland, Isafjordur, Nikon D3X, Travel

Ron Garan Nasa Space-Photography Hangout!

Ron Garan (NASA Astronaught) joins me, Gordon Laing, Jim Goldstein, Brad Goldpaint, Ben Canales, Randy Halverson and Darryl Van Gaal all hang out. We talk about all kinds of cool space stuff with Ron and his photography in space, astro-photography and time lapse photography.

Memory Edits

Do you all notice that your memory tends to edit out the boring and bad bits of trips and vacations?  I tend to only remember the best parts…  I guess some of the bad stuff is there, but I have to dig through my memories to get there.  I mean, unless it was a horrible trip that was full of traumatic episodes.  I suppose those trips are defined by their bad drama, and they would be impossible to forget.  But, they seem few and far between.

Daily Photo – Farm Between Fjords

The fjords of Northern Iceland weave in and out of the ocean, each one ending with a strong peninsula that juts out into the sea.  Just on the inland side of these wide peninsulas, there are many lakes and little farms that sit nestled between little mountains and hillocks.  They fit in so naturally that you almost don’t even notice them.  I try to take extra care to notice every one.

For this one, I got out of my car and went on a short hike over to this little stream that ran alongside the old home.

Filed under the categories: Iceland, Isafjordur, Nikon D3X, Travel

Featured on Google TV and Android Market!

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!

Filed under the categories: Iceland, Isafjordur, Nikon D3X, Travel

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.

Filed under the categories: Iceland, Isafjordur, Nikon D3X, Travel

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.

Filed under the categories: Iceland, Isafjordur, Nikon D3X, Travel

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.

Filed under the categories: Iceland, Isafjordur, Nikon D3X, Travel

Rental Car Woes

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

Filed under the categories: Iceland, Isafjordur, Nikon D3X, Travel