Editors Note: This episode was originally distributed through TWiP – This Week in Photo, and the YouTube Video above is through the their YouTube page. For all future episodes Behind the Shot now has it’s own podcast feed, available below on the right, and our own YouTube page.

Trying to describe Trey Ratcliff is difficult. Photographer, social media icon, creative mind, public speaker… lots of titles come to mind, but most do not fully describe him. Think of a television network, ABC, CBS, FOX, BBC, NBC, and he has most likely been featured on it. My favorite description of Trey is how he describes himself on his Stuck In Customs blog:

“I’m A Warm-Hearted, Old-School Gentleman Explorer With Really Cool Toys.”

Yeah, that it exactly.

Seriously, Trey Ratcliff is one of the most influential photographers out there, and yet his resume clearly goes deeper than that. His background is in Computer Science and Math, but his ability to see light, space, and color is beyond pretty much any other photographer I have seen. In fact, the first HDR image to be hung in the Smithsonian was Trey’s ‘Fourth on Lake Austin’.

Trey is part photographer, part marketer, part teacher, and part businessman, but what I find most intriguing about him is his obvious passion. He posts a photo a day, and he has done that for years! And, when you hear him discuss his work, in a YouTube video, on a podcast like this, in an audio clip describing one of his fine art pieces, or wherever, his ability to bring you into that passion is uncanny. I speak for a living, emceeing, radio, TV etc, and I am here to tell you that very few people have the talent to communicate a “feeling” – Trey does. It’s infectious. Check out his Burning Man photos and you will feel like you’ve been there.

When it comes to photography, Trey is mostly know as an HDR guru, but what he does in the HDR arena is so unique. His images bring his world to life, in front of your eyes. There is such color and depth in his work. There is an unreal realism. (I just read that line back to myself wondering if “unreal realism” was the right phrase… yeah…. perfect actually.) I actually lost a good amount of time browsing his never ending portfolio, with each and every shot taking me further away from my computer.

As you can tell, Trey is someone I am excited to have on Behind the Shot, so join Trey and me as we discuss his image of the Museum of Evolution in Paris, France entitled “Where Jules Verne would perform experiments on animalkind”.

Personal: stuckincustoms.com

Large Format Prints: treyratcliff.com