Here is an amazing place on Oahu. Right after the rain, a thousand little waterfalls tumble down from the highlands. When I was here, there were record-level storms, which kept the waterfalls full and robust. The shooting conditions were really tough!
This is the old town of Lijiang, China, where I spent the week with Tom Anderson (the MySpace guy).
Tom had first been here many years ago when he was setting up the MySpace office in Beijing. He had great memories, and he thought it would be great for a big return after getting more into photography. So, it was definitely a week full of non-stop photo action.
One late night after the sun had set, we weaved through the old streets until we found this place. Looking up, I knew it would be a wonderful place to take a photo, so I set up for this one.
I worked my way back and forth across this river a few times during this evening. I was trying to figure out a way to get closer to the mountains in the distance. It was pretty much physically impossible without risking extreme danger to my body, which I’ve grown to like over the years. So I just remained in this area to take photos and explore the river with the mountains beyond…
Patagonia, Argentina
I haven’t been to LA since Covid… man it’s really changed quite a bit. I listen to the Tim Dillon podcast a lot (one of my faves – not for the faint of heart!) – but he has the funniest things to say about LA. Anyway, I took this one, I think, following a photowalk, after the USA bus tour of 13 cities… what a fun evening that was in Santa Monica!
Yosemite is a wonderful place for photography, and it’s one of those places that is filled with an intimidating and rich photographic history. I don’t even understand how Ansel Adams did it back in the day; but I have a sense of it, I suppose. So this is un-Yosemite in a way. I aimed away from Yosemite, to all the little mountains that walk up to the great park, and I embraced all the color that I felt flowing inwards.
Yosemite, California
TreyRatcliff.com
Around the middle of the summer, the sun never goes down in Iceland. I spend the days sleeping in empty schoolhouses and the evenings lost in song and mystery.
This was taken around 3 AM when everything seems dreamy and possible. I would hike and explore all night long. About this time each evening, after going ages without seeing a human, after going ages listening to strange ambient music, everything became wonderfully strange. Sometimes I would create things like this, and I was convinced (and still am) that it was not really me.
Iceland
TreyRatcliff.com
A treetop temple silently rests with warm lights as a cool evening falls around it.
Kyoto, Japan
TreyRatcliff.com
Austin now, but where next???
Because it’s very much on my mind at the moment, here’s another from Chicago. It goes on for what seems like forever… quite symmetrical too once you get out of the centre it seems.
Wrapping up my short stay in Chicago shortly where I’ve been seeing family and friends for the first time in years which has been awesome. I thought about staying out in the hotel on this pier while here where they’ve been wise to point all the rooms away from the water purification plant. Definitely wouldn’t have been the most scenic hotel room view in the world!
