On one of my first evenings in Beijing, I walked around some of the older parts of the city to get a feel for it. Whenever I have extra time in a city, I usually don't go too hardcore with the photography initially - choosing instead to explore on foot and get a sense of the place. But, you know, I do have my camera with me to get a few things here and there...just can't help it. Between a few streets, I came across this little guy sitting on the seat of a small motorcycle.
Read more here at stuckincustoms.com.
Tags: Beijing china stuck customs stuckincustoms stuckincustoms.com travel blog travelblog photography photoblog photographyblog hdr high dynamic range imaging digital processing software tutorial hdrtutorial trey ratcliff treyratcliff east asia people’s republic of china republic prc peking Běijīng 北京 municipality city metropolis northern northern china motorcycle companion alone lonely waiting friend dog puppy September 2010 Nikon d3s
See you all today at the Google HQ!
I'm excited to meet a lot of my Google friends in person! The talk is today, and I've got everything ready for it. For reference, here are a few links I will mention during the talk:
HDR Tutorial - Free tutorial here on the site - you'll be up and running with a pretty pic in an hour!
Jill Bolte Taylor - about the Right and Left Brain on TED
HDR Spotting - a site with the Attention Distribution Engine to drive more traffic to other HDR Artists sites (still in beta - you have to get an invite code from existing member)
Textures Tutorial - The textures and a video showing how I got those textured-photos
Videos - A collection of free videos showing how I take HDR Photos in the field...
Twitter and Human Evolution - A longer treatise on what it suggests...
Daily Photo - The Azure Blue Indoor Pool at Hearst Castle
I mentioned yesterday that I was able to get a private tour throughout Hearst. It was a long and great day! Thank goodness I had a mass of memory cards... I got so much footage it was crazy!
I could have picked a bunch of shots to be the "first", but I thought this one was particularly wonderful. There are two enormous pools at Hearst Castle, and this is the indoor one. This is a nice vantage point because this spot is actually quite difficult to reach! There is no door behind me... so I had to "shimmy" along that edge you see... It was NARROW... the shimmy was like a video game, except while holding a $10,000 camera! Sketchy! But I just had to get over here because I could visualize the shot before it happened...
Here's a cool fact about this pool. Part of Hearst has now been gutted so there is room for the IT department. The IT department uses the water from this pool to cool their equipment... wild, eh?
from Trey Ratcliff at www.stuckincustoms.com
Tags: hearst castle hearstcastle pool indoor indoorpool regal blue stuckincustoms trey ratcliff stuck customs blog photography hdr high dynamic range digital imaging travelblog Nikon d3x color travel north America united states USA west coast pacific california azure water ornate tile ceramic reflect reflection confluence interior January 2010 design architecture building julia morgan william randoph hill la cuesta encantada san simeon rancho piedra blanca palatial estate mansion world state historic park enchanted ranch
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!
I had a long day waking up at 5 AM to take a series of subways and trains up to Shenzen for some meetings. I had a Chinese VISA, which you don't need to get into Hong Kong, but I had to use to cross the official Chinese border after getting off the train. I didn't realize that it was a one-time use VISA, and I had to go to Shanghai the next day. This caused a lot of problems with the Chinese officials, a body of government with which I do not enjoy causing problems.
Anyway, after I got back to Hong Kong after a day in Shenzen, I was hot and sweaty and in the sort of meeting clothes that aren't great for being hot and sweaty in. But, everything about Hong Kong was still awesome and I had too look hard for things to complain about. The sun was setting, and I made it up to The Peak just in time for a shot.
This was a 5-exposure HDR shot at 100 ISO, and, of course, a sturdy tripod to get all the lights as steady as possible.
from my daily photo blog at www.stuckincustoms.com
Tags: hdrtutorial hdrphoto hdrphotos hong kong china hong kong hk hdr offce dowtown kowloon bay harbor ocean southchinasea thepeak bravo portfolio portfoliodotcom portfoliosdotcom portfolios 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 city getty stuckincustoms travelphotography adventure tutorial Photographer Pro Nikon Panorama details top100 metropolis skyline urban cyberpunk outdoor night asia chine peak summer ColorPhotoAward
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!
It was just past 10 PM on the wet streets of Paris as I was getting lost on purpose around the streets near the Church of the Sacred Heart. I bobbed and weaved through various little alleys, streets, and tiny bakeries (where I would just have to stop for a moment), before finding my way to this little faire. There was a small carousel spinning away with tiny little French children screaming wonderful things...
from my daily photo blog at www.stuckincustoms.com
Tags: d2x Portfolio France Paris StuckInCustoms carosel french kids screaming fun faire night treyratcliff beautiful hdr travel travelphotography adventure hdrtutorial tutorial Photographer Pro Nikon Photography Panorama details Perspective Shot Shoot Capture Image Photos Picture Edge Angle lines work HighQuality Composition Processing Treatment Framing motion colours magical top100
I was lucky enough to be in a helicopter over Chicago at sunset. A big thanks to Fiona and our pilots Bill and Jeff. They took the door off the helicopter for me, which sounds like a good idea until you are experiencing 100 MPH of chopper backwash while hanging out trying to get this kind of shot!
It was a fun day. We stayed up for a few hours and circled around the city several times. I got hundreds of amazing shots. I haven't had time to process any of them except for this one... but I wanted to go ahead and get it up since I know the Twitter and Facebook crowd has been waiting on it since I mentioned it on there. Also my mom was very worried about the whole door-off-the-helicopter thing.
Right in the center of the shot on the bottom is the famous Navy Pier. We timed this shot to get at the right height the second the sun dipped below the horizon to cast a rainbow of hues into the sky.
(and there are pics of me hanging out of the helicopter on my Facebook page if you want to come see!) :)
from the blog at www.stuckincustoms.com
Tags: stuckincustoms treyratcliff hdr chicago illinois chitown sunset navypier city downtown USA Photographer Pro Nikon Photography Amazing Lovely Emotions Beautiful Stunning Shot Shoot Capture Image Picture Edge Angle Composition Processing Treatment Fun Framing Unique Background Intense resolution Artist Art Modern Bright Vibrant lighting Light reflections tones Mood WallPaper cool magical texture Perfect surreal exposure painting colors D2X relax chill out horizon rainbow sea romantic love romance serenity look view excitment exciting Hot breeze wind blue orange