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Home / Interviews / Interview with Trey Ratcliff – HDR Photographer and Author

trey ratcliff interview

Interview with Trey Ratcliff – HDR Photographer and Author

July 24, 2012 by Darlene Hildebrandt

Updated: November 30, 2025

The Art of Photography

Okay, so I’m going to come clean right up front and say this was my first live video interview with anyone, ever, and I was a bit nervous. To top it all off I don’t just pick some guy to interview. No!

I decide to interview Trey Ratcliff of Stuck in Customs fame.

The same Trey Ratcliff who has almost 3 million followers on Google Plus. The same guy who photographed Hans Zimmer’s studio (I ask him about that at the end of the interview, make sure to watch to the end), and who had the first HDR photograph to hang in the Smithsonian. Luckily, Trey’s bio says he is an old-school gentleman and he truly is. Thanks again Trey for your time, I’m most honoured and grateful.

Meeting Trey in Person

When I attended the Google Plus Conference for Photographers in San Francisco in April, I was excited to go on Trey’s photo walk and meet him in person. He was more than generous with his time, giving us a 4 hour photowalk. He was full of information and willing to answer anyone’s questions.

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That’s me on Trey’s left in the group photo from the photowalk above.

The Interview

Anyway – on to the interview. Trey is a super busy guy, so his time was limited. But I had a few things I wanted to ask him, and I wanted to know more about his upcoming online class – The Art of Photography. Here it is – hope you enjoy. After watching the video, see below for some of the things Trey mentions and links to stuff we talked about.

Links to stuff in the interview

Here’s a link to some of the things Trey and I talked about in the video. If I’ve missed something please let me know and I’ll add it.

  • Trey’s photos of Hans Zimmer’s music studio
  • Trey’s book, A World in HDR
  • Link to Trey’s first Google talk where I got the quote “The left brain is for getting through life. The right brain is for living it.”
  • My recent article about why expressing creativity is important (even harmful to us, if it’s left unused)

Cheers,
Darlene-1-250x130.png

About Darlene Hildebrandt

Darlene Hildebrandt, Master of Photographic Arts (MPA), is a Canadian photography educator and the founder of Digital Photo Mentor. She holds Canada's highest professional photography designation from Professional Photographers of Canada, served as Managing Editor of Digital Photography School, and represented Canada on Team Canada at the 2025 World Photographic Cup. With over 35 years of experience, from darkroom film retouching to modern digital editing, more than 17,000 students have learned to edit with confidence through her structured online courses in Luminar Neo and Lightroom Classic and the Digital Photo Mentor Community.

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