Lüderitz Archives - Stuck in Customs
24
Jan 2015 : Saturday
filed under  Lüderitz, Namibia

Doorways Through Time

Tony and the Diamond Mine

The night after I took this photo, I had a very strange set of things happen. The diamond mines are still very active around here, and I ended up in a bar with a guy named Tony that was the manager of the mine here. He wore a very stylish hat. Me, Rene, and Curtis all ended up back in his suite where the party started to get super, well, unreliable. We ended up getting the hell out of there, but not before Tony gave us his hat as a sign of gratitude and sorrow.

Remind me to tell the full story some time!

Daily Photo – Doorways Through Time

Here in the abandoned diamond mining town called Lüderitz, I found a cool old house where every room was painted differently. The color choices all went so nicely together, and they seem to go even better as time ticks along. You can see some of the sand that has come in from the sand dunes below at the bottom. All the rooms to the left are almost completely full of sand, and that is blocking a lot of the sand from getting in here.

Doorways Through Time

Photo Information

  • Date Taken2014-09-20 08:58:36
  • CameraILCE-7S
  • Camera MakeSony
  • Exposure Time1/2000
  • Aperture
  • ISO3200
  • Focal Length
  • FlashOff, Did not fire
  • Exposure ProgramManual
  • Exposure Bias

Comments
26
Nov 2014 : Wednesday
filed under  Camera Gear, Lüderitz, Namibia, Photography Tips, Sony A7R

A Quiver Tree Stands Alone

Portrait Orientation and Composition

There is a rule that is sometimes okay to break that you should not put the subject in the middle of your composition. Well, when you switch into Portrait-orientation, all those rules go right out the window! You’re fully allowed to plop things (like the tree below!) right plum in the middle of the frame.

Daily Photo – A Quiver Tree Stands Alone

These trees are unlike any other tree I’ve ever seen! They are spread all around many desert-y areas of Namibia, and they are often quite spread out from one another. Each one has a totally unique shape, and you’ll never see one that will be mistaken for another one. I’ve never seen individual trees that can look so unalike their neighbors… I’ll post more of these in coming weeks and you’ll see what I mean!

A Quiver Tree Stands Alone

Photo Information

  • Date Taken2014-09-21 05:53:34
  • CameraILCE-7R
  • Camera MakeSony
  • Exposure Time1/5
  • Aperture8
  • ISO125
  • Focal Length17.0 mm
  • FlashOff, Did not fire
  • Exposure ProgramAperture-priority AE
  • Exposure Bias-1

Comments
25
Nov 2014 : Tuesday
filed under  Lüderitz, Namibia

Over the Ghost Town of Kolmanskop

Overhead Panos

This is a new thing I am going try to do more of — taking a series of photos while looking straight down then pasting them all together. Most of the cameras on these quadcopters are pretty good, but you can really amp up the resolution if you take a ton of photos and paste them together, like in the image below

Daily Photo – Over the Ghost Town of Kolmanskop

Here’s a very strange and confusing photo of one of the many abandoned buildings in Kolmanskop from above. The quadcopter was flying overhead and taking pictures straight down. This is a panorama that was assembled from about 6 different photos — and it turned out so unusual, I think! This happened to be a good time for the light and shadows… the late afternoon there seems to have the best light coming in the windows to light up all the sand dunes that have penetrated the building.

Over the Ghost Town of Kolmanskop

Photo Information

  • Date Taken2014-09-23 09:06:02
  • CameraHERO3+ Black Edition
  • Camera MakeGoPro
  • Exposure Time1/290
  • Aperture2.8
  • ISO100
  • Focal Length2.8 mm
  • FlashNo flash function
  • Exposure ProgramProgram AE
  • Exposure Bias

Comments
16
Nov 2014 : Sunday
filed under  Lüderitz, Namibia

The Ancient Bowling Alley

A Good Soundcloud Playlist

Here’s a playlist on Soundcloud I’ve been listening to lately. If you have one too, please add it to the comments!

Daily Photo – The Ancient Bowling Alley

Okay maybe “ancient” is the wrong word… I’m not even really sure how old something has to be before that word can be used… maybe relatively-ancient! Anyway, this amazing old-timey bowling alley is inside that ghost town in Namibia where the sand dunes have overrun the entire place. Because this is mostly underground and protected on the leeward side, it has yet to accumulate any sand inside yet.

The Ancient Bowling Alley

Photo Information

  • Date Taken2014-09-23 19:46:13
  • CameraILCE-7R
  • Camera MakeSony
  • Exposure Time1/6
  • Aperture8
  • ISO100
  • Focal Length39.0 mm
  • FlashOff, Did not fire
  • Exposure ProgramAperture-priority AE
  • Exposure Bias-0.3

Comments
31
Oct 2014 : Friday
filed under  Camera Gear, Lüderitz, Sony A7R

Kolmanskop and a New Facebook Page

New Facebook Page!

We’ve started a new Facebook Page for Trey Ratcliff! I’m moving it all off my personal page over there… so stop by and have a Like! 🙂 We’re doing a special week-long event there, and it ends with an AMA, so stay tuned! 🙂

New Visual Interview with Adobe

I did an interview with Adobe… but it’s kind of a cool interview because they asked me to answer each question with a photo!

HDR Photo

Daily Photo – Kolmanskop

This is an amazing place! It’s an abandoned diamond mining town near Lüderitz in Namibia. The nearby desert has blown in and covered the entire town with sand dunes. It’s so wild there! This is the first of a TON of photos I took while there… I’ll post more here soon.

Kolmanskop

Photo Information

  • Date Taken2014-09-23 04:33:25
  • CameraILCE-7R
  • Camera MakeSony
  • Exposure Time1/15
  • Aperture16
  • ISO100
  • Focal Length11.0 mm
  • FlashOff, Did not fire
  • Exposure ProgramAperture-priority AE
  • Exposure Bias-1

Comments