As for this photo from Argentina below, this was found on the second day of hiking into the Andes. The landscape changes very quickly and we emerged from one forest and were suddenly facing another. The stark white roots reminded me of bones coming out of the ground and holding up old trees. In the distance, you can see the final destination of this hike - the mysterious peaks of Fitz Roy. These are covered by clouds 90% of the time, so to have them on a crystal clear day was lucky indeed. Tomorrow, in addition to posting the short film, I'll show you a closer shot of Fitz Roy that was taken around 6 AM the next morning, after an icy hike of 1500 feet in pitch black. Will there be clouds at sunrise, or will it be visible?
Last, they are now taking votes for the 2009 Photoblog Awards. We have been nominated, so be one of the first to vote to help us get to the top! You will have to register and stuff - sorry for that, but thank you in advance!
Click here to vote - thanks so much.
From the blog at www.stuckincustoms.com
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Oh, BTW, there is a New Look at www.stuckincustoms.com made by top French graphic designer Fabian Barral
This is a shot from one of our campsites in Patagonia. I set up the camera with the intervelometer to automatically take a shot every 30 seconds as we set up camp and did our best to stay warm.
Here is the cast of characters from left to right. Sitting on a bump on a log on the left is Yuri. He is in the process of getting a jackboot to the face. I tease Yuri, but he is actually a very nice guy and I like him. That doesn't mean you want to room with him or share a tent, mind you.
Second from the left is me. Don't you like my hat? I got it on Etsy.
Third is Ilina. I hope I spelled that right. She was our chef and handled most of the cooking, keeping me well fed and warm. She also came out on a few photography adventures too and was always there to lighten the mood by making Russian animal sounds. For example, did you know that Russian frogs don't say "ribbit ribbit" and Russian dogs don't say "ruff ruff"? This is only a small sampling of the campfire discussions. You can try to guess down in the comments what they say...
Fourth/Fifth is Yana and Dima. They had no trouble keeping warm. Their sleeping bags could be zipped together. Dima tried to be helpful and suggested that perhaps I could do the same thing with Yuri. After saying that, he reared back, laughing like Brezhnev, and then drinking like Yeltsin.
On the far right is Vulva. Again, I can't quite say his name properly, but it's very close, within the delicate region of "Vulva". He was a very cool dude, richly festooned with silver Buddhist paraphernalia from his various expeditions to Tibet and Nepal.
They are all great people and I enjoy my time with them tremendously.
from the blog at www.stuckincustoms.com
Tags: Patagonia Argentina camp yuri Trey treyratcliff Portrait d3x El Chalten HDR Photographer StuckInCustoms 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 woods forest camping trees
After a four-hour plane ride deeper into the Andes, we started to get further into the wilds of Patagonia. Perhaps I should explain that I was on this trip with a very good Russian friend named Dima, who is also a photographer. He brought four other Russians with him. Despite our friendship, he had given me a non-English-speaking roommate named Yuri that never ceased to amaze. Within five minutes of dropping him off in my room, Yuri was in his underwear and I noticed his approximate size to be that of a smallish beluga whale. This ended up propagating many other problems For example, on the flight to El Calafate, our small plane had a bit of a hard landing because I was not sure the pilot was fully informed of Yuri's weight.
After setting up camp in El Calafate, we went out to the edge of Lago Argentino tonight to shoot the sunset to shoot the Perito Moreno glacier. Every few minutes, you could hear giant shards of ice cleave off and drop into the lake below.
See all of the dark bits of ice floating in the water? Those are actually the clear bottoms that were once underwater, but recently flipped over. In the midst of all this, and from out of nowhere, Yuri produced a giant bottle of cognac, which seemed to keep the Russians happy in the freezing cold. When I posted this photo on the blog and across the various social networks, many of my Facebook and Twitter friends requested a photo of Yuri. That night, while he slumbered, I endeavored to take a panorama of him. I considered the glacier as practice, since it was also big, white, and cracked.
This was shot with the Nikon 14-24mm 2.8 lens. The second of the five exposures (the -1 EV shot) was at f/8.0 with a shutter speed of 0.033 secs and a 250 ISO. As for the coal length, I think I had it cranked all the way to 14mm to take this shot. I'm always flummoxed as to whether or not I should take a panorama of these places, which essentially means I'd have to map out an invisible grid and then take a photo in each cell for later stitching using post-processing software. For this photo, I did use a Nikon D3X, which already has a 24 megapixel sensor, making the final product a fairly detailed 6000 pixels across or so. There is some invisible point when enough is enough, and I never quite know what it is. One limiting factor is time-of-processing. Panos take a long time to both shoot and post-process, so that comes into the decision making tree fairly early on.
from the blog at www.stuckincustoms.com
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It was dark in Hangzhou, former home of the Song Dynasty in Southern China. The Songs ran the show until the Mongols invaded in the 1200's. No one ever expects the Mongol invasion.
Now it is devoid of Mongols, but it is filled with cute Ewok-like creatures that live up in the hills and along the idyllic lake.
From the blog at www.stuckincustoms.com
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SXSW is a big deal down here in Austin! I missed the first few days in Chicago, and when I arrived back I see it was just as crazy as I expected. Our studio is right on 6th street, which has been pretty much a nonstop party for the past week. Of all the various locales where the top bands play, this is one of the better-known ones. It's called Emo's, and a closeup of the little sign there (might need to zoom on flickr to original size?) will show a special rule for the elite musician class of Austin who might be surprised to know they get their own sweet set of traffic laws.
From the blog at www.stuckincustoms.com
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