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Mark your calendars for two new YouTube shows!

Starting next week we are launching two new shows on YouTube, subscribe now! I will also be answering your questions live during the broadcasts.

Becoming an Artist: Every MONDAY at 4PM Pacific Time / 7PM Eastern Time (check your local time)

Photo Critiques with Trey & Harriet: Every THURSDAY at 4PM Pacific Time / 7PM Eastern Time (check your local time)

To make sure you don't miss these great new shows, please follow these simple steps.

Becoming an Artist with Trey Ratcliff (Mondays @ 4PM PT / 7PM ET)

I begin each episode with a very personal story. These might be strange stories from my childhood, embarrassing stories as a grown-up, or just weird stories about how I became an artist. You’ll hear how these stories emerged as life lessons which impacted my photography and art. I touch upon topics such as composition, color, light, and inspiration. This series will not only show you lots of photography tips & tricks but will inspire you to take your art in bold, new, and interesting directions. Here's sneak preview!

Photo Critiques with Trey & Harriet (Thursdays @ 4PM PT / 7PM ET)

Each week my photography neighbor, Harriet McDonald, will join me in my studio as we critique your photos. We will hopefully provide some helpful feedback on how your photo might be improved, and have a few laughs along the way. :)

Join my Facebook group, Trey's Funky Lounge, to submit your photos for a future show!

My interview with the China Daily

During my most recent trip through China I was honored to be interviewed by the China Daily. It's always interesting to read these afterwards because sometimes things are lost in translation. This one turned out pretty good I think. Here's a snippet and link to the rest of the interview!

The world through his eyes (by Xu Junqian in Shanghai | China Daily)

Famous photographer Trey Ratcliff might have a visual impairment, but he says this shortcoming has been more of a boon than impediment to his creative pursuits.

Twelve years after he first learned photography, Trey Ratcliff is today one of the most influential travel photographers in the world. The former programming engineer, who is blind in one eye, commands a massive following of 16.8 million followers on Instagram and other social media accounts while his blog, Stuck In Customs, is viewed about 170,000 times daily.

Currently based in Queenstown, New Zealand, the Texas native runs a million-dollar business by selling his artworks as exclusive prints which cost between $50,000 and $100,000 each.

Besides his unique post-processing techniques, Ratcliff is also known for his generosity when it comes to sharing for free how he edits his photos. The American is the developer of Aurora HDR, the winner of the Best Mac App in 2017.

In June, Ratcliff was in China as part of a world tour in partnership with luxury hotel Ritz- Carlton. During his stop in Shanghai, he shared his views on photography, editing, and his thoughts about China where he shot some of his most popular photos.

Click here to read the rest of the interview

The Great Sam Harris

I’m a really big fan of Sam Harris' podcasts. This one is a recent favorite with Yuval Noah Harari, one of my favorite authors who wrote Sapiens and Homo Deus.

StuckInCustoms.com is a personal blog where Trey puts up a new unique photo every day and writes about the art, the technology, and the story of the adventures. Actually, this is Trey writing about this in third person. Both Trey and I appreciate your support very much! If you think your family or friends might like this Newsletter (subscribe for free), please forward this to them. It'll make a fun email chain!

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Here's some recent images from StuckinCustoms.com

White Sands National Park

I took this about an hour after the sun dipped below the distant mountain. Incredible, isn’t it? It looks like it’s freezing cold because that’s what snow normally looks like, but it was actually quite balmy and perfect.

Amazing Rotterdam

This turned out to be an incredible city for a photo wander! This is one of the most famous bridges in the Netherlands. There is a rooftop bar up here where we gathered for some cocktails and photo time. Getting this exact angle was a little difficult, as I notice very few bars actually build these bars with photographers in mind. Not that they need to, mind you, but if I built a rooftop bar, I would definitely make it photo-person friendly.

The Most Complete Collection

Boy oh boy this was a hot day in Beijing. And a hot day in Beijing is absolutely blistering. You can see why all these umbrellas were being fully utilized down there. But it was one of those days that where it was also too hot to stand even under the umbrellas! I felt sorry for all the people that had to work under there all day selling stuff.

Dusky Sound

Here is a 15-photo panorama from my four-day boat trip down to the far southern fjords of New Zealand in Dusky Sound. You can see the boat down there in the lower right. It was big enough for about 10 of us to sleep after long days of fishing and diving and quadcopter flying. By the way, this is the LAST shot my quadcopter got on its final successful flight. The next flight ended in utter disaster and that Mavic Pro is no more... But man oh man, it had over 100 successful flights and was an amazing little machine.

Pixel 2 Panorama

Here's a photo from a hike I did a few days ago taken with the Pixel 2 phone. I just bought the Pixel 3 phone but haven't gotten it yet. Anyway, this one is here in Queenstown, NZ, and it was a panorama that I stitched together in Lightroom then edited in Aurora HDR 2019.