2011年09月04日

西雅图市区

西雅图：尝试失败

除了下面这张，剩下的尝试均告失败。以下的小视频记录了几次失败经历。

每日一瞥——西雅图市区

到达西雅图之后，我第一时间到这里取景。差点没赶上。 图中的景色出现之前还有30分钟，我可以利用这点时间和充足的光线进行准备，确定取景并调好设置。 说是“最后关头”可能太夸张了一点。其实，关键时刻到来之前，我还是希望能多点时间，确保一切准备妥当。

Downtown SeattleAfter arriving in Seattle, I immediately went to this spot to grab a photo. I barely made it in time. I had about 30 minutes of full light left before this scene began. It gave me just enough time to set up and frame everything with the right settings. I guess "last minute" sound a little dramatic, but, really, for me, I like to have some extra time to make sure all my settings are right before that magic moment hits.- Trey RatcliffThe rest of this entry and a new short video are here at the Stuck in Customs blog.

Filed under the categories: Nikon D3X, Photography Tips, Seattle, Travel, Washington

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2011年08月21日

与Neal Stephenson的烧烤聚会

讲故事

几天前的一个小故事，拿来跟大家分享。喜欢搞怪的筒子们肯定喜欢，当然，剩下的也差不多。照片刚处理好，上传四张跟大家一同乐呵。

我的飞机晚上才到，一落地我立马开始在城区拍照。中途收到短信，让我去Neal Stephenson家一起搞个“蒸汽朋克”的创意烧烤。 我又怎么能拒绝呢。

到了之后，我和Neal、 Chris Young (那位写了《前沿烹饪》的大厨)，Nels Peterson (古生物学家)还有其它几位朋友一起忙活了近4个小时，一个疯狂BBQ才变得有点模样了。Neal 每年都会上演这么一出，而且每次都有诡异的新花样儿。这次呢，我们没让猪围着火转，而是让火围着猪烤。

天黑了，一辆车开走我才有了停车的地儿，车上装满了金属管子、支架、 还有其它的零件儿一大堆。进去的时候Neal还搞“人脸识别”，想搞清我是敌是友。我差点没过关，进去之后帮着忙抬了许多奇奇怪怪的东西。我们穿过他家进入院子，今年的主场就设在这里。

其实除了搬东西、搭烤猪架，我也没帮多少忙。我觉得那两头猪不该被弄成个肉乎乎的十字架，换个“佛祖打坐”也不赖。可貌似没人甩我。

过了几个小时，大功告成。 我们把它转到面向场地中心的方向，在那儿，巨大的金属支架已经铺展开来。 感觉那好像是个巨型的虫洞，会有烤好的猪肉从另一个世界传送过来。

这是第二天活动正式开始时的情形：

Daily Photo(s): Eclectic BBQ With Neal StephensonMy plane arrived in the evening, and I went out immediately to start taking photos of the city. Just as I was getting into a groove, I received a text to come over to Neal Stephenson's house to help build a unique steampunk BBQ Grill. To this, I cannot say no.So I arrived and then spent about four hours with Neal, Chris Young (master chef who wrote Modernist Cuisine), Nels Peterson (paleontologist++), and a few other people to build a crazy BBQ setup. Neal has this crazy BBQ every year and they try to do something off-the-wall. For this one, instead of spinning the pig over the fire, it was decided that the fire should spin around the outside of the pig.Many hours later, the creation was assembled, and we turned it on to watch the giant columns of metal begin to spin around the central base. It felt a little like a wormhole generator that would enable fully cooked pigs to come into our world.Then, the next day, when the BBQ officially started... here is a photo of the festivities.- Trey RatcliffRead the entire long-form blog post here at the Stuck in Customs blog.

以下就是我们的杰作：中间是猪，火焰从四面将它包围。右边是Chris Young， 左边是Neal Stephenson (上一张照片里也有他)。

Eclectic BBQ With Neal StephensonMy plane arrived in the evening, and I went out immediately to start taking photos of the city. Just as I was getting into a groove, I received a text to come over to Neal Stephenson's house to help build a unique steampunk BBQ Grill. To this, I cannot say no.Here is a photo of the actual creation. You can see the pigs hanging in the middle as the fire spins around the outside. To the right is Chris Young and to the left is Neal Stephenson.There was something new and hypnotic while the fire spun around the pig. I think maybe it was so foreign to our pleistocene brains. We're just not used to seeing fire spin around while the meat is still ...- Trey RatcliffRead the entire long-form blog entry here at the Stuck in Customs blog.

火焰围绕烤猪喷发，给人一种全新的感觉，甚至类似于催眠。它围着喷了将近5个小时，我们很多人只是站在那里呆呆地看。大家都觉得很“虚幻”。

可能是我们的大脑有点不跟趟儿，大家都没见过这种阵势：流火烤肉。说不清……但那种晕晕乎乎的感觉我终生难忘。

下面的一张里， Neal貌似又出镜咯。

Eclectic BBQ With Neal StephensonMy plane arrived in the evening, and I went out immediately to start taking photos of the city. Just as I was getting into a groove, I received a text to come over to Neal Stephenson's house to help build a unique steampunk BBQ Grill. To this, I cannot say no. In this photo Neal looks on. We were all entranced by the moving fire ...- Trey RatcliffRead the entire long-form blog post here at the Stuck in Customs blog.

最后一张是Chris Young点火。 我们添加了一种特殊的黑煤，很难点着，但烧起来却势不可挡。一开始Chris想用喷灯把它点着，又用了老式的引燃方法才最终成功。

他从两侧引火，保证转起来之前纵向温度恒定。的确，最后我们既不“蒸汽”也不“朋克”，只是弄了个巨型的搅拌器在那里转圈儿圈儿。

Eclectic BBQ With Neal StephensonMy plane arrived in the evening, and I went out immediately to start taking photos of the city. Just as I was getting into a groove, I received a text to come over to Neal Stephenson's house to help build a unique steampunk BBQ Grill. To this, I cannot say no. Here is my friend Chris Young getting one of the columns of fire stoked. We filled these with a special kind of obsidian coal that was very tough to light but burned like a French retreat. First, Chris would use a blow torch to get it started, and then he whipped out the old leaf-blower really get the fire going.He did this to both columns to make sure the temperature was consistent through the vertical structure before they were set into a spinning motion. - Trey RatcliffRead the entire long-form blog entry here at the Stuck in Customs blog.

Filed under the categories: Nikon D3X, Seattle, Travel, Washington

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