Trey Ratcliff (original) (raw)

"️Smithsonian exhibited, ️Sotheby's auctioned, NatGeo featured, photographer, artist AND ️hilarious adorable wordsmith."

Hey, I have my full profile on my blog at www.stuckincustoms.com ... here's a bit of it...

Trey Ratcliff, a visionary artist and trailblazer, passionately endeavors to promote consciousness and mindfulness globally through the captivating power of photography and creativity. As the guy behind StuckInCustoms.com, the world’s premier travel photography blog, Ratcliff has traversed all seven continents, capturing awe-inspiring images that have garnered an astounding 140 billion views on Google and attracted a loyal following of over 5 million on social media.

TED’s Chris Anderson has hailed Ratcliff as a “pioneer” in High Dynamic Range (HDR) photography, a testament to his groundbreaking work in the field. Ratcliff’s achievements include displaying the first-ever HDR photograph at the prestigious Smithsonian Museum and transforming his exquisite, large-format limited edition prints into a thriving, multimillion-dollar business catering to discerning fine art collectors worldwide. In 2012, Ratcliff made the prescient decision to relocate to Queenstown, New Zealand, before it emerged as a popular refuge for doomsday preppers.

With a diverse and illustrious clientele, Ratcliff’s fine art masterpieces have found their way into the collections of knights, professional athletes, and esteemed celebrities like Edward Norton and Leonardo DiCaprio. Never one to shy away from innovation, Ratcliff has recently ventured into the burgeoning crypto sphere, successfully launching multiple NFT drops that have accumulated an impressive 1,500 ETH in total volume.

A couple of testimonials...

"Trey’s images are other-worldly, mind-blowing creations that, at first glance, appear to be some digital trompe l’oeil; a Photoshop trickery post production creation. But no, Ratcliff’s photographs — through techniques he freely shares — are inspiring and real. Something which makes them all the more incredible.”

JJ Abrams, Director & Writer, Lost, Mission: Impossible III, Fringe, Star Trek, Super 8, and some Star Warses

“Trey’s pictures are a daily source of inspiration for me. I can’t count the times that I’ve gotten stuck in my writing and, as I sit there staring at my computer screen desperately trying to think of the next idea, the screensaver kicks in with one of Trey’s images, and the shapes and colors triggered something in me that got me to the next note…”

Hans Zimmer, Composer, The Lion King, Gladiator, Interstellar, Inception, Batman, Dune

HERE’S A MORE QUIRKY BIO IN BRIEF BULLET POINTS

I was born blind in one eye and still only see out of my left. I call it “The Gift.” I’m working to get my right eye fully back online through a variety of techniques…

My degree was in Computer Science and Math and I did that until my mid 30’s until I discovered photography and it changed my life.

I started the blog StuckInCustoms.com immediately after getting a digital camera and started sharing one photo per day along with stories and free tutorials to help everyone enjoy this strange world of HDR Photography that I was discovering for myself. I was obsessed. I’ve written one blog post per day and shared a new photo for over the past 15 years and I still love it. Now it’s the #1 most popular personal travel photography blog with millions of views! Thanks, everyone!

I sell large format, limited edition prints to happy collectors around the world, and in 2017 we passed the $1 million mark in total sales. The fine art side of the business has been much more fun and exhilarating than I ever anticipated. All fine art info is over at our sister site at TreyRatcliff.com

I continually update my photo portfolio which represents over a decade of travels and discoveries.

I’ve somehow amassed over 5 million social media followers when you add up all the platforms (Facebook + Instagram + Pinterest + Twitter + Flickr). I love all these Internet friends! Thanks y’all!

Google tracks views, and on that platform alone, it’s over 140 billion views and around 30 million views per day, as you can see above. At least some of those views are from my mom, who is my biggest fan .

I do some public speaking through my agent at CAA. She’s lovely, although sometimes kind of useless.

I’m really into meditation and yoga. I also go to Burning Man (my Burning Man photos) every single year and love it.

Over the past few years, I’ve started partnering with companies to build products and services. One good example is Peak Design, where we designed a number of bags on Kickstarter. The two Kickstarters made over $13 million and have been hugely successful. Most importantly, the bags make people happy!

I also teamed up to build our own Photo Software with Skylum . It has over 3 million downloads total and been growing ever since. Last year we won Apple’s “Mac App of the Year.”

I love to do Free Photo Walks Around the World filled with tips and fun for the fans! Sign up for our newsletter to find out first about that or other goodies!

The company here has grown to a handful of people, full-time and part-time. Everyone helps one another out and we have a lot of fun!

I have some amazing luxury brand partnerships like with the Ritz-Carlton for example. I try to partner with companies that layer nicely on top of my travel and creative lifestyle. I feel very lucky and do not take any of these partnerships for granted…

I create a lot of videos that are all over the place and there is no real theme over on my YouTube channel. Some are inspirational. Some are how-to. Some are story-telling. I’m all over the show.

What’s the core reason I do all of this? A bit new-agey but maybe you’ll dig it. I want to help spread consciousness and mindfulness to the world. It’s hard to teach billions to meditate, but you can help teach them photography and creativity. I believe when people are being creative they are being fully present and conscious, and that’s the best thing we all can do for the world.

Last, but most important, is my family! I was married to beautiful Tina for a long time and we are still besties and we have three wonderful children. We moved from Texas to New Zealand over a decade ago for a variety of reasons, although we are now spread out all over the globe, my main home is here on the South Island of NZ.

Some useful links...

LinkTree: Loads of Links

Facebook Page: Come join for the latest!

Instagram: www.instagram.com/treyratcliff/

Twitter: twitter.com/TreyRatcliff

Pinterest: uk.pinterest.com/treyratcliff/pins/

My Full Bio is on the "About Me" page of my blog here.