Well, here it is. The first featured photographer entry. I’m honored to have Trey Ratcliff, Stuck in Customs, as the first selected photographer in this new category. Trey is an award winning photographer, specialist in HDR, favorite of countless viewers on Flickr and Digg and his websites see over 3 million page views per month. His portfolio can be found at www.treyratcliff.com and his photoblog is at stuckincustoms.com Trey’s awards include winner of the Smithsonian Magazine’s Americana category, exhibitor at the Smithsonian in Washington DC, and 2007 Bloggies nominee for photography.
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Fourth of July on Lake Austin
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1. What is your general background?
My background in computer science and math which led to a career in technology. Currently, I own an online game company called John Galt Games.
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2. How long have you been taking photos?
I’ve been taking photos with little consumer cameras for the last 10 years. I did not get serious with a DSLR camera until about a year ago.
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The Veins of Bangkok
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3. What equipment do you use? (This includes computer programs and/or darkroom equipment).
Did you say darkroom? What is that? Is that kinda like a buggy whip?
I use a Nikon D2Xs and a variety of standard lenses… I also use a Mac and Photoshop, because they make my hands smell much better than those darkroom fluids.
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4. What’s your preferred photographic subject(s)? (ie – people, travel, landscapes etc).
Travel, mostly. But I enjoy people very much as well…
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5. Do you have a photographic “vision” and what is it?
I like to re-envision the world with dynamic light levels using HDR photography. To me, the pictures are a nice artistic interpretation of the scene whose light levels are sometimes more evocative than traditional photographic methods.
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The Icy Pit to Hell
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6. Who/What are your photographic influences, if any?
My influences are more the great impressionists and other renaissance painters.
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7. How would you describe your photographic style, and how has it evolved over the years?
The style is very loose and experimental. It is very challenging to post one new picture a day to www.stuckincustoms.com and keep it fresh and new. When I travel, I am surrounded by people with cameras, so it is interesting for me to try to do something unique and different while still being accessible and beautiful.
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8. What is your system for backing up digital files?
I use Adobe Lightroom and make big backup copies to external harddrives every month or so.
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Stampede of the Wild Horses
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9. What is your general “workflow” like?
It is a long and arduous process that has become extremely customized. I am asked this a lot, so I wrote up a tutorial at Stuck in Customs
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10. Do you prefer to shoot RAW or JPG and why?
I shoot in RAW. The CS3 RAW importer for Nikon is amazing… I can do so much with those sliders… it is a lot of fun!
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11. Anything else you want to say.
I look forward to the National Geographics of the world opening up to HDR. These old institutions are run by a previous generation which still thinks in the 1930′s darkroom mentality. The human eye can see so much more than what most photographs can capture; I hope they begin to see HDR as a valid format for communicating imagery.
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Jefferson Memorial Just After Midnight
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Thanks a lot for your time, Trey. Once again, Trey’s portfolio can be found at www.treyratcliff.com and photoblog at stuckincustoms.com
