It’s finally ready for pre-order!

Pop over to the new Landscape and Travel Photography Tutorial: New Zealand to sign up! Sign up now, and you get several goodies… you’ll save $20 and you’ll get to join a private video Q&A group after launch.

This is really the coolest video we’ve ever made. I think you’ll find the quality and the content to be second-to-none. Really. Just by watching this preview below you’ll get a great idea of the content. Basically, you get 2.5 hours of post processing and an additional 1.5 hours of live-action footage, following me around while I set up for photos.

And… there is the new puppy in the beginning! hehe

Filed under the categories: New Zealand, Queenstown, Travel

Trey’s Variety Hour #71

The show airs each Monday at 7 PM PT / 10 PM ET. (Check your local time)

In this episode I am joined by Googlers, Natalie Villalobos, Brian Glick, and Josh Haftel along with Lotus Carroll, Dave Wilson, Karen Montalvo, and our very own Curtis Simmons. We discuss the new Nik Collection by Google, the updated G+ mobile apps and Snapseed with our Google friends, talk about Stocksy, and then get into our fun sharing session from the SXSW PhotoWalk. Then we move on to naming the winners of all the prizes from the PhotoWalk.

G+ Discoveries:
Sarah Jarrett, Lisa Wood, Andy Lee, Laurie Rubin, Lorenzo Montezemolo, Gregory Colbert, and Isabel Sousa Silva.

Thanks to Dave Veffer for helping out with the whole production!

See submitted questions here:

Please submit any questions you have while you watch the show and we’ll try to answer as many as we can.

You can subscribe for free to my YouTube channel at:

http://www.youtube.com/stuckincustoms

Subscribe to the Podcast and View Past Episodes

• Subscribe for free to My YouTube channel.

Thank you for watching!

Thank you for watching the show, I hope you enjoyed it! While you’re here be sure to have a look around!

• Get Awesome Stuff – Pop over to our online store to see a great collection of photography gear, tutorials, tools and eBooks.
• Watch Tutorials – We have some excellent photography tutorials for any skill level! The always FREE HDR Tutorial, the best selling HDR Video Tutorial and our newest tutorial on Landscape & Travel Photography shot in New Zealand.
• Read Reviews – Read detailed camera reviews, photo software reviews plus what’s in my camera bag!
• Download eBooks – Flatbooks.com has many topics include photography techniques, photo composition, photo editing, HDR photography and lifestyle.
• Applications – We have several beautiful and fun apps you might enjoy: 100 Cameras in 1, Light Camera, Photo Voyages and Stuck On Earth.
• Subscribe to the Newsletter – Subscribe to the the Stuck in Customs newsletter. It’s free and pretty and we promise not to spam you!

Filed under the categories: Podcast

Watch The Show Soon!

Every Monday night at 7 PM PT, 10 PM ET is the weekly show, and tonight we have on a bunch of people from Austin to talk about the photowalk and give away the prizes! I believe we have over 80 to give away, and you’ll get a chance to see a bunch of fun photos from the event. See you soon!

Daily Photo – The Royal Guard in Beijing

The interior space and design of the Capitol Museum is absolutely amazing. I don’t know if they designed the light to do this in the middle of the day or not, but I found it rather striking! If the architects did this on purpose, then even more kudos to them.

I must admit that I do not find all museums to be equally interesting. Some are just plain boring. Others are awesome… it depends on if the subject matter is something that is up my alley. I don’t like the “pressure” of making you feel bad if you aren’t fascinated by every little thing in a museum… that is silly.

Like, for example, I found this museum a little bit boring. I know a bit about Chinese history (I played a lot of Romance of the Three Kingdoms back in the day, and I was always Gu Yu!), but I get a bit confused when it comes to the some of the more bizarre and abstract lineages. Anyway, this museum featured a lot of that. But, on the plus side, the architecture was so cool that it kept me pleasantly distracted!

Filed under the categories: Beijing, China, Travel

Are you on Tumblr?

If so, add your link below so others can find you!

Upgraded my Tumblr Page

I decided to put a little more love into my weak Tumblr effort. I actually really like Tumblr and I see a lot of beautiful things there, at least from the people that I follow currently.

Someone already had the name “Stuckincustoms” (Arg!) so I used TreyRatcliffPhotos.tumblr.com. Enjoy! And thank you to former Texan Annie Werner for the encouragement and help!

Daily Photo – Walking in Yosemite

Here’s a photo from a walk along this beautiful little path in Yosemite. It looks very serene and welcoming, yes? Well it is! I was sad I only got to spend one day here in the forest… I’d like to go back. Actually, I’d really like to get to Yosemite when it is snowing. I bet there are a thousand interesting photos all over the place… but now, by the time out I find out it is snowing, it will take me too long to get over there!

I took this one during the crazy photowalk there… we had so much fun!

Filed under the categories: California, Photowalk, Travel, Yosemite

Five New eBooks to Enjoy!

Wow! The authors are really putting out amazing stuff over at Flatbooks.com ! I think you’ll be impressed at all the new work over there and you’ll learn a great many things. Here is a selection of some of the newer books that have recently launched!

Boneyardby Troy Paiva contains over 60 full sized and zoomable light painted night images, shot in two separate aircraft graveyards, “The Secret Boneyard” and “Aviation Warehouse.” 50 of these images have never been shown before. These are not outtakes or stiffs the author never bothered to do anything with. Half is a body of work from 2008 that has only now been allowed to be displayed publicly by the property owner. The others are a fresh set of A-list images shot in the summer of 2012.

Travel Photography Exposed by Mike Marlowe is a collection of thoughts, examples and practical tips on life as a roaming travel photographer. This is not an academic theory book; this is a collection of no-nonsense advice from a photographer that does this every day. More importantly, it’s about helping you to do the same. Whether it’s a one-off two-week trip or you want to live your life on the road, this ebook will help you get on the right path.

Seeing the Unseen – How to Photograph Landscapes at Night by Alister Benn is a complete guide to night photography. This book doesn’t just provide the photographer with a quick set of rule-of-thumb generalizations that make sweeping assumptions and teach you nothing; instead the author shows you how to assess the light that is available and make meaningful and breath-taking images as well as any professional.

This book is suitable for all levels of experience – leading the beginner through the fundamentals, but stretching the boundaries of very experienced night photographers with contemporary advanced techniques.

A first for Flatbooks – an in-depth video-only tutorial! From Scott Detweiler, author of Conceptual Portraiture comes an hour-long video called Creation of Succubuson creating his portrait titled The Succubus. Using Photoshop CS6 and Lightroom 4 we will step thought the complete workflow that was used to create this image from scratch.

At 3,310 meters, Cusco ranks within a thousand feet of the highest and most inhospitable cities on the planet – yet everyone from the millennia-old Killke culture to modern adventurers the world over has somehow made their way to this mountain Mecca. This book, The Travel Companion: From Cusco to Machu Picchuby Brian Hoffsis will take you on a journey through Peru from Cusco to Machu Picchu, with 48 photos and individual stories.

Daily Photo – Bryant Park in New York City

This is where I ended my walk with Luke that night in New York City. It was sort of a lazy, meandering walk… going here and going there. But my hotel was right by this park. I lament that I never got a shot inside the awesome library, but the tripod police were out in full force. I actually felt like I was in more danger there than in the middle of this New York City park in the middle of the night!

Filed under the categories: New York, New York City, Nikon D800, Travel

Why this is cool

Hitherto, both Facebook and Google+ limited your photos to 2048 pixels across. This was depressing to me and other photographers that take HUGE photos, many of mine over 7000 pixels across. I share a new, original-sized photo here every day on the blog, and all my work is Creative Commons Noncommercial.

Basically, I want people to have the original-sized photo to enjoy! I know many other photographers disagree with me and they only want to share tiny images with huge watermarks using horrible fonts. That’s okay. This isn’t for them.

But if you’re like me, and you want to upload the original size images to Google and also share on Google+, well now you can!

Steady Progress of Google+ and Photos

I notice many various products are starting to gel together at Google. It’s a little clumsy here as the streams are colliding, but I think it will become more efficient over time. For example, the Google+ stream and Google Drive used to be totally different products, but now they are coming together. Same with Search and YouTube and Calendar and everything. It takes a while to get your head around because we are used to a bunch of Single-Purpose Silos, but when you start to use them all together and think about it like that, it makes sharing and life-integration easier.

For example, I now use my Android phone to take a video, upload to YouTube, then share to a private family circle on Google+. All my family isn’t on Google+ yet, so it uses Google mail to send it around. I wasn’t experiencing that kind of integration a year ago! I used to do one thing, then another thing, then another thing, then email everyone after I put together various silos. This is the way a lot of people still think about the internet… using many silos to do discrete tasks and then piecing it all together on your own, but it doesn’t have to be like that. I know I sound like a Google fanboy, but, Jesus, I use a lot of their products. It’s like saying you’re an Oxygen fanboy.

How-to Upload Full-Rez Photos to Google+

1) Go to your Google+ settings at www.google.com/settings/plus

2) Check the box indicated in the screenshot below.

3) Get on Google+ and go upload a photo! Now the full size will go up there!

Be sure to Note

Any photo greater than 2048 pixels will go against your Google Drive allotment, and you will need to buy more space if you want more!

Bonus Information – Using the Photo on your Blog and URL Analysis

Here’s something I discovered by accident. It’s geeky but I was excited by it.

I was trying to figure out, “Okay WHERE exactly is my image being stored on Google?” Well that part is a bit confusing. I r-clicked the image in the Google+ display to get the source and it gave me:

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-qC_X6syDOPw/UUujxK_5AeI/AAAAAAAGEYw/zxsYDVN66Sw/s1161/Trey+Ratcliff+-+Milford+Scene.jpg

Aha! See that “s1161″? That is the horizontal dimensions. It chose that dynamically based on the width of my window. So, by simply changing that number, you can have Google serve you up whatever size you want!

If you make it “s0″, it wil be full-size! And my friend Dave Veffer says “if you do ‘s0-d’ it forces a download so appending -d at the end of the size specification will make the image download…useful in some situations”.

For example, this image is actually 5845×3204 pixels – we get the original with that “s0″ in the URL:

So the full rez is: https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-LJpqE2A5z8E/UUujxFpc-tI/AAAAAAAGEZM/oNvVoOYoqMw/s0/Trey+Ratcliff+-+A+Tableau+Vivant+of+Horses+in+Iceland.jpg

More Google Drive Updates Coming Soon

I got a note from a gentleman at Google Drive that says there are More New Updates coming in a week or so… ways to embed with various image sizes, permanent links, and more.

Integrating the images into your Blog

These images that I have below are being served up by Google. Don’t have Google send you a HUGE image that you then downsize using HTML. Have it send you the exact size you want. In this case, I’ve asked for all the images to be 900 pixels across. I’ve then hyperlinked to their actual size on the Google servers.

What Could They Improve On?

Well, I’m still using SmugMug to serve up my daily images here on the blog. See my SmugMug Review for more. I do this because:

1) People like to order limited edition prints (thanks everyone btw!) It’s very easy to begin the print-ordering process through SmugMug
2) I like how clicking on an image takes you to a proper portfolio or slideshow. I can’t figure out a good way to do that using a Google Photo Album yet.
3) I have a feeling that SmugMug is about to make a major update to their whole UI. (Why doesn’t Google just buy SmugMug and make my life easier!!)

For example, I’ll put the “Daily Photo” below so you can see the difference. If you click on the photo, you go into my nice portfolio view. Under the photo is the friendly SmugMug link to get a print.

Ways for Google Photos / Drive to Improve – Your ideas?

I’m interested in your ideas too. Here are a few of mine:

1) I’d like the automatic Google Photo upload to just take the full rez photo if I click a checkbox (instead of having to do this Google-Drive-end-run). If you have space on Google Drive and don’t mind your photos taking up all the GB, then just let me.

2) I’d like better album / portfolio management. Now that I have photos in Google+ photos (many at 2048) and now more in Google Drive (at original size), it’s becoming a terrible problem or organization. I’m not totally anal, but I also feel too scattered and that makes me digitally-uneasy!

3) Your ideas? Drop them in the comments!

Daily Photo – The View From Above

Here is a good example of a daily image. I went to the top of the gondola with Tom Anderson to look down on Queenstown, New Zealand from above.

I want to sleep up here one night to get the sunrise… if anyone can hook me up with that, drop me a note! I’ll bring the hot chocolate!

Filed under the categories: Travel

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Sign up below… a new video will be available soon. You’ll see it first!

Daily Photo – The Gardens of Queenstown

The class took a nice stroll through these gardens. I challenged people to try to get five different photos of this bridge, and this was one of mine.

The actual shot I took was much bigger, but I decided to crop down in post to focus on the water. I liked the way they all looked like brush strokes. It made me begin to understand why Monet spent so much time trying to capture the strange light that comes from water and plants.

Filed under the categories: New Zealand, Nikon D800, Queenstown

New Timelapse Device Now Available!

See the full “Time Lapse Photography Syrp Genie Review” here on the site.

I bought one during the Kickstarter phase, but now they are generally available. These guys happened to be here in Queenstown, New Zealand, and they wanted to give you a few coupon code options. If you go to the Genie SYRP Shop you have a choice. You can either get a $110 ballhead for free or save $70 off the purchase of a Genie with that coupon code! Once you get to final checkout, if the ballhead is in your cart, that will be free when you enter the code.

Here are the codew:
STUCKINCUSTOMS110 – Free ballhead
STUCKINCUSTOMS70 – $70 off the Genie

Here is a new video made by the creators of the Genie.

Daily Photo – The Milky Way over the Burning Bush

I took this photo in Death Valley one evening. The bush is red and mysterious because of a bit or light-painting with my headlamp. My neck got a bit tired from multiple tries. That glow around it? I don’t really know… maybe a bit of the dust from the desert caught the red light. Either way, I like how everything looks all funky and zen.

Filed under the categories: California, Death Valley

Prizes from the Event!

We’ll be giving away many prizes from the event! On the next Variety Hour (every Monday I have a good internet connection), we’ll be sure to announce all the winners and what they win –Here’s a selection of the prizes below!

*Prizes:*
- Really Right Stuff Tripod goodies (BH-40 LR and some LB-40s)
- Huge Secret Adorama Prize
- XUME Quick Release Adapters
- Syrp (A NEW Genie!!!) – http://www.stuckincustoms.com/time-lapse-photography-syrp-genie-review/
- FStop (Loka Bag and 1 ICU)
- Many copies of Trey’s Lightroom and Photomatix Presets!
- Camera Sutra t-shirts
- Many Stuck In Customs Camera Straps
- 5 Copies of Midnight in Paris tutorial!

More Photos!

There are over 1,000 photos up on the event page… go have a look!

Nikon 16mm Fisheye Prime

All the photos below were taken with the same lens! You can read more about it on my Nikon 16mm Review here on the site.

Photos from the event

Below are a few photos I took

Daily Photo – The Wolfman Violinith

Here’s my favorite photo from the event… one of the many street performers howls into the streetlight moon…

Filed under the categories: Austin, Texas, Travel

Trey’s Variety Hour #70

The show airs each Monday at 7 PM PT / 10 PM ET. (Check your local time)

Thomas Hawk, Nicole S. Young, Alex Koloskov, and Gino Barasa join me to discuss experimentation with crazy lenses and other strange photography gear. We share some stories, photos, and have a great time doing it!

G+ Discoveries:
Philippe Manguin, Dave Castro, Dave Wilson, Patric Bergkvist, and Cat Klein.

Thanks to Dave Veffer for helping out with the whole production!

Official website:http://www.StuckInCustoms.com

You can subscribe for free to my YouTube channel at:

http://www.youtube.com/stuckincustoms

See submitted questions here:

Please submit any questions you have while you watch the show and we’ll try to answer as many as we can.

You can subscribe for free to my YouTube channel at:

http://www.youtube.com/stuckincustoms

Subscribe to the Podcast and View Past Episodes

• Subscribe for free to My YouTube channel.

Thank you for watching!

Thank you for watching the show, I hope you enjoyed it! While you’re here be sure to have a look around!

• Tutorials – Discover the Art of Photography, Free HDR Tutorial, HDR Video Tutorial and Textures Tutorial
• Reviews – Detailed camera reviews, photo software reviews plus what’s in my photo bag!
• eBooks – Flatbooks.com has many topics include photography techniques, photo composition, photo editing, HDR photography and lifestyle.
• Applications – We have several beautiful and fun apps you might enjoy: 100 Cameras in 1, Photo Voyages and Stuck On Earth.
• Newsletter – Subscribe to the our newsletter. It’s free and pretty and we promise not to spam you!

Filed under the categories: Podcast

Abandoned, Grunge HDR

Since you got into HDR photography, do you tend to seek out more abandoned, creepy places like this?

Daily Photo – The Abandoned Boiler Room from the Queen Mary

Here’s the next photo from the amazing ghost ship! Well, I don’t know if that is what it is really called or not, but we did walk into this room during our little ghost tour aboard the Queen Mary in Long Beach. It was very creepy, alright… mostly alone in this huge old ship from the war… and these vast interiors felt very hollow and eerie in their emptiness. I enjoyed taking the photos… and then I enjoyed getting out of there!

The following bit is from Wikipedia: “Anecdotal reports of paranormal activity have included children crying in the nursery room, used as the third-class playroom, and a mysterious splashing noise in the drained first-class swimming pool.”

Filed under the categories: California, LA, Nikon D800, Travel

Another Favorite Photo from New York City

Here’s one of High Line Park that you might enjoy if you’ve never seen it!

Daily Photo – New York City Bus

Here’s one of the first places I stopped during the New York City photowalk. Since I’m not from NYC, I really get excited about all these thing New Yorkers find quite banal. But I saw that big glass surface and all the reflections, so I got in close with the 14-24mm. I had to be fast… these busses don’t wait too long. I was never tempted to actually get in FRONT of the bus, however. I may not be from NYC, but I don’t have a deathwish while taking photos there!

Filed under the categories: New York, New York City, Nikon D800, Travel