Trey Ratcliff – Guru of the HDR Photography

Well, honestly, I do not like talking about myself very much, so let’s just say I’m a guy that likes to tinker.

I don’t know if I do things in “projects”. I do have periods I go through. I do like a lot of the recent landscape work I have done from Patagonia in Argentina, however.

I first got into photography when I took a photo with a nice camera and was shocked at what I saw! It looked boring. That’s not how I see the world! So, my background in Comp Sci and Math made me start thinking about the processing in terms of algorithms.

I think Ukraine was a very fun and different experience. Luckily, I am in my own world when I travel, like an alien visitor. I found it shocking how dour and melancholy the average Ukrainian is. I think the artistic community is probably quite different… but walking around the streets, getting “severe” looks all the time, well that could tend to take the wind out of your sails.

However, when I did make some Ukrainian friends, they were quite open, humorous, and friendly! It’s like a whole new world exists behind the unfortunate facade.

The only reason that I might think I am talented is because others say this. I am just more curious than most. That much is clear, either fortunately or unfortunately. I find a lot of people give up and stop asking questions.

I’d probably go into a sorority house. Any dude that tells you different is probably lying or a eunuch.

The importance of traditional education.

I don’t know. I would never use the word “abuse”, because that is sort of a judgmental term… as if one artist can alone dictate what is reasonable and what is not. I hear this sort of thing a lot in the states — they they like HDR if it is “subtle”. This, too, seems overly judgmental. My answer is, who cares? If you like it, you like it.

However, in general terms, I think photography is evolving and HDR is a big direction. It is just too exciting, too real, too fun, and too satisfying to be a fad. It is almost universally appealing to photographers and the public alike.

White, human, male, not female, and sexy

Yes – this is my first book. It was published by Peachpit, the biggest in the industry, so they took care of all the logistics of the publication. This one sold out on Amazon in the US, UK, Canada, and Australia, so I think there will almost certainly be another book.

StuckInCustoms.com has turned into a media company, and these things tend to grow on their own as demand increases. We will see.

Most often, I use my D3X with 14-24 lens. But, of course, anyone can do HDR (follow my HDR Tutorlal – link) – with almost any kind of camera. The in-camera HDR function in some models is no good, currently

I am not successful at everything — in fact, I like to say that I do not limit my mistakes to any one part of the world. I have no secrets… I am just curious and fearless and I forgive myself quickly for mistakes and move on.

I started getting the feeling it would be successful about two years ago when we started licensing photos — it has only grown since then.

My favorite place is probably Iceland… it’s so wonderful for landscape photography.

Space explorer

A tripod for HDR, of course!

A Scott Bourne hottub weekend.

Online, I get inspiration from all sorts of designers, artists, and photographers. Offline, I get a lot of inspriation from the great impressionists.

I always advise that people guess at how something is done, try it, fail, forgive yourself, then try again. I think this is much better than trying to learn the ‘right” way to do something

You can learn more about Trey Ratcliff by visiting:

Trey’s blog: StuckInCustoms

© Trey Ratcliff. All rights reserved. Photos published in this post with the author’s permission.