This is Ahira.
Ahira's dream is to go to a university and be a computer scientist or doctor or whatever her parents want.
Ahira is currently at the Batu Caves in Malaysia, just outside of Kuala Lumpur, walking up the hundreds of steps. She and her family are making the traditional Hindu pilgrimage to the peak, where she will light incense to Lord Murugan and other Hindu deities whose shrines lay at the top inside the cave network. While she talks to me telling me about doing whatever her parents want, her parents look on and nod approvingly.
This comes from my Portraits Portfolio here: www.flickr.com/photos/stuckincustoms/sets/721575942039392...
If you want to see how I made this (and how you can too!), visit my HDR Tutorial. I hope it gives you some new tricks!
Nathaniel's dream is to get closer to God and to make sure his mom is happy.
Nathaniel is currently four years old and carrying wood with his two sisters down a dusty cart-road in an unmarked Amish village somewhere between Allegheny and Tionesta, Pennsylvania. In pauses between talking to me, he looks sideways at his older sisters, who peacefully nod towards him. I tell him that he looks big and strong and then I help him carry the wood to his parents' home, where he lives with his other nine brothers and sisters.
from my daily photo blog at www.stuckincustoms.com
Tags: amish mennonite clild boy pennsylvania religion portrait cute hat nikonstunninggallery american gothic dream Nikon stuckincustoms_google_screensaver imagekind stuckincustoms treyratcliff d2x d2xs trey ratcliff beautiful pretty colorful fresh photo photograph photography professional technique dynamic world fabulous gorgeous engaging charming stunning art artisitic divine light travel foreign international hdr travelphotography adventure hdrtutorial tutorial top100 north america northeast east simple high range stuck customs pose
Like any big city, Tokyo has many huge neighborhoods, each with their own personality. One of the quirkiest is an area called "Harajuku". I don't know if I can accurately describe it, but I'll try!
It's a place where the most outrageous of the outrageous congregate. You've probably seen those Japanese people that like to dress up like anime characters and the like. Well that's kind of the starting point. It goes onward from there, with everything from girls covered in pink frills to goth men wearing gas masks. In fact, in that little video I made, you can see a pair of legs/shoes in differing colors that I shot in Harajuku. This guy below was with a group of extreme rockers that were parading around the streets. They all seemed to love having their photo taken... which was cool. I could have gone to that place every day to take photos... I've got some other crazy ones in the hopper too for the future!
from the blog www.stuckincustoms.com
Tags: japan tokyo portrait harajuku harajuki japanese rocker punk cool HDR High Dynamic range photography stuck customs stuckincustoms trey ratcliff Nikon d3x october 2009 color outdoor people posed travel asia urban Halloween every day culture outrageous anime cosplay goth makeup dye hair tongue attitude bokeh future hip wild style yamanote line shibuya ward fashion yoyogi park visual kei glam
Valeria's non-Siberian dream is to live on a ranch with a lot of horses and still be within driving distance of high-end shopping.
Valeria is currently working in high fashion in Austin, having recently moved from Siberia to marry an American she met in Amsterdam. She asks if I like her dog, and I say yes, and then she proceeds to show me a photo album with about 3,000 pictures of the dog, all of which, I must say, were quite good!
This comes from the What they dream and what they do set.
Looks best: Large on Black
Thanks all! For you, here are the most Popular Pictures you dig from my stream. Thanks again!
All Photos copyright Trey Ratcliff. All rights reserved. Photography blog at www.StuckInCustoms.com
Tags: russian portrait siberian valeria austin texas dream pretty eyes woman face smile hdr photographer stuckIncustoms nikon photography trey ratcliff HighQuality
This was a very nice and scary-mysterious man. When he looked at me he twisted his head around like a puppy trying to cast an ancient spell on me. No puppy has ever done that to me, so you can imagine my confusion.
We sat around and watched the sunset at the Taj together and I asked if I could take his picture. After I while I rubbed my House-like stubble since it has been a few days since I shaved. I asked him if he liked my beard. He gave a grunt in response that was either a laugh or a grunt of general disgust at the state of my beard.
I usually don't use my flash, but this case called for a bit of fill light. I aimed my SB-800 straight into the air and used the white card off the top to reflect, while setting the EV to -2/3, so as to not over-power his face. As for the other settings, the exposure bias was -2 EV, shutter speed 1/125, focal length at 31mm, and the ap at f/4. The background is HDR, as are his robes. As with many of my photos, that does not mean those bits are 100% HDR! These are probably on the scale of 10-25% HDR in this case.
So much of my work is landscape and architecture-related. So I rarely use the flash in those conditions. I think using natural light is the way to go, and, as you know by now, with HDR, you can eek out every little morsel of light that is bouncing around the scene. However, I still carry my flash almost everywhere because I do very much enjoy taking photos of people.
from my daily photo blog at www.stuckincustoms.com
Tags: tajmahal taj mahal thetaj india agra indian hindu hindi sunset alone wise wisdom yoga guru trey ratcliff treyratcliff beautiful pretty colorful fresh dream photo photograph photography professional technique dynamic world fabulous gorgeous engaging charming stunning art artisitic divine light travel foreign international stuckincustoms hdr travelphotography adventure hdrtutorial tutorial Photographer Pro Nikon Panorama details beard plans sad portrait local top100 tomb crypt mausoleum stuck customs curious lonely haunting