Farewell India I had a truly wonderful time in India and I can't wait to return.  After spending most of the day exploring the Taj Mahal, I found a car to take me across the river.  The bridge was over 100 years old and crowded with every type of locomotion - from donkey to pull cart to bike.  After working my way down to the river, I found I could not quite get low enough to take the photo I wanted.  So, reluctantly, I took my camera off my tripod and buried it in the mud, about half an inch above the water.  I spent all night in the bathroom saying I was sorry to the camera... cleaning her up back into her old self once again.- Trey RatcliffClick here to read the rest of this post at the Stuck in Customs blog.
I've Made it to the Edge of the World This was shot in the final hours of daylight, near the southern tip of Argentina and the edge of Chile, just a glacier's throw from Antarctica.In the morning, we woke up at 4:30 AM in -7 degree cold. I hardly slept 30 minutes the whole night. I was in a tiny 2-man tent with Yuri. The noxious fumes of our tiny prison reminded me, if you will, of the inside of a tauntaun that had spent its life consuming cognac and cigarettes. Furthermore, his snore had the sonorous bass and carrying power of a humpback whale with none of the beauty.I started on one edge of these rugged peaks and moved around to this side, to get the view from the glacial lake. The spiked mountains there are Cerro Torre, and I was very lucky to see them without cloud cover. I understand they are covered up 90% of the time, so to have crystal clear air was fortunate. The glacier there, which presents on the right but really goes back behind many more mountains, is called "glacier grande".I did a lot of other things this day too, including a 45-minute 1500-foot ascent up an icy trail that was not really a trail at all. Dima and Vulva (Vulva is one of the other Russian gentleman who joined us on the trip -- it's hard to pronounce with a strange V-W sound, but he seemed to respond when I called him "Vulva") went up the mountain with me in the pitch black, using only headlamps. I'll have more on that story later because it was pretty sketchy. But, alas, we were able to see Fitz Roy as the sun turned the tips pink. After that, we began the long additional 10km hike that brought us to this location. I stayed here watching icebergs float by until the last morsels of dusk remained.- Trey RatcliffClick here to read the rest of this post at the Stuck in Customs blog.
Forbidden Corner
Two of the corners around the moat around the Forbidden City are exactly the same.  The only difference is the direction they face.  And, with bad luck, I started on the wrong corner, so that meant a not-so-short-runwalk to the other corner, and that is no small feat with something this huge. But, in terms of a long walk, at least there is something beautiful to look at along the way.

- Trey Ratcliff

Read more here at the Stuck in Customs blog.
The Hidden Buddhist Temple of Borobudur at Sunrise This morning I got a wakeup call at 3:30 AM to head out on a distant trek to Borobudur to climb the temple before sunrise.  I had a flashlight and a fully loaded iPod for the ascent.  I stayed at the top and all around the temple for most of the morning, collecting shots here and there as misty clouds rolled in, through, around, and over the temple.This temple laid abandoned and overgrown for about 800 years until it was rediscovered by the British.You can see the distant volcano rumbing in the morning sunrise...- Trey RatcliffClick here to read the rest of this post at the Stuck in Customs blog.
The Mighty Castle The beautiful castle shifts and changes its color every few minutes.  The way the light cycles and changes on it is mysterious ... - Trey Ratcliff Read the rest of this entry here.
The Glassy Lake Near Antarctica I’m in the middle of working on a full upgrade for the Stuck In Customs Textures Tutorial. I think it’s already very good (only had ONE return in over a year!), but I can do even better. I’ve learned a lot in the past 18 months about this stuff and the technique continues to evolve. As I am working through some new shots for the tutorial, I thought I would go ahead and post this one. It was taken late one afternoon near a glacial lake on the southern edge of Argentina.- Trey RatcliffClick here to read the rest of this post at the Stuck in Customs blog.
Not of this Earth These are the bubbling sulfur pools of geothermal Iceland.- Trey Ratcliff
In Old China I was nursing my cracked ribs at this point after my clumsy slip down by the boats.  But I had a bit of that post-accident adrenaline that numbed it enough to keep shooting a bit.  Also, I think I was a bit loopy because of the pain, but that can make for good artistic endeavors, I think.  When I remember walking around this area, it's all a bit more foggy than some of my other experiences, which are more crystal-clear.  In some ways, I almost feel like I didn't take these photos, even though I know I did.  It's strange thinking about it now.- Trey RatcliffClick here to read the rest of this post at the Stuck in Customs blog.
Sunset in Ibiza Ibiza is a fabulous island off the coast of Spain that is the "in" destination for all the Euros that like to get trashed, party, dress in white, do medium-level-drugs, and stay on the beach without many clothes.I saw this girl bouncing around and very happy about something, so I went over and said hello, introducing myself.  She didn't speak much English, but I managed to ask her if I could take a photo of her.  She enthusiastically said yes, and I explained the sitch as we walked over to the water, mostly using interpretive dance to span the language gap.  She was Italian and her name was Wendy.  I think that is a strange name for an Italian, but I didn't question it.  Anyway, I asked her just to walk off into the ocean and I would take a photo.  She did just that, and I grabbed this shot just as the sun was dipping below the horizon.- Trey RatcliffThe rest of this entry resides here at stuckincustoms.com.

Farewell India


I had a truly wonderful time in India and I can't wait to return. After spending most of the day exploring the Taj Mahal, I found a car to take me across the river. The bridge was over 100 years old and crowded with every type of locomotion - from donkey to pull cart to bike. After working my way down to the river, I found I could not quite get low enough to take the photo I wanted. So, reluctantly, I took my camera off my tripod and buried it in the mud, about half an inch above the water. I spent all night in the bathroom saying I was sorry to the camera... cleaning her up back into her old self once again.

- Trey Ratcliff

Click here to read the rest of this post at the Stuck in Customs blog.
Click here to read the rest of this post at the Stuck in Customs blog." href="javascript:openLB(742619174,'',XLarge,'',1024,564);">Farewell India I had a truly wonderful time in India and I can't wait to return.  After spending most of the day exploring the Taj Mahal, I found a car to take me across the river.  The bridge was over 100 years old and crowded with every type of locomotion - from donkey to pull cart to bike.  After working my way down to the river, I found I could not quite get low enough to take the photo I wanted.  So, reluctantly, I took my camera off my tripod and buried it in the mud, about half an inch above the water.  I spent all night in the bathroom saying I was sorry to the camera... cleaning her up back into her old self once again.- Trey RatcliffClick here to read the rest of this post at the Stuck in Customs blog.

Farewell India


I had a truly wonderful time in India and I can't wait to return. After spending most of the day exploring the Taj Mahal, I found a car to take me across the river. The bridge was over 100 years old and crowded with every type of locomotion - from donkey to pull cart to bike. After working my way down to the river, I found I could not quite get low enough to take the photo I wanted. So, reluctantly, I took my camera off my tripod and buried it in the mud, about half an inch above the water. I spent all night in the bathroom saying I was sorry to the camera... cleaning her up back into her old self once again.

- Trey Ratcliff

Click here to read the rest of this post at the Stuck in Customs blog.
See photo in original gallery.

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