Aug 282012
 

I’ve stumbled upon an interesting photo contest taking place with a fast approaching deadline (tomorrow) and decided to toss my hat in the ring. It’s all about colour. They’ve specified 5 colour categories. You have to enter one photo in each. You can read more about it at ‘Capture the Color’ photo contest at Travel Supermarket.

 

Blue: Last Light, Lake Ontario, Niagara-on-the-Lake

During the last gasps of sunset, as the blue hour set in, a feeling of calm overcame me. For two hours I’d rushed around, trying to take advantage of the beautiful sunset, but was repeatedly thwarted by private property and fences. Now, I sat on a beach, totally alone, listening to the cool Lake Ontario waters lap the shore a few feet away. I stayed there as the sky faded from baby blue, through to an inky royal, and, finally, star speckled black.

Entry for Capture the Color’ photo contest at Travel Supermarket with photos submitted for 5 color categories - this is blue entry

 

Green: Masticating Mountain Gorilla, Rwanda

Green fills your brain as you hike through the dense growth of the Volcanoes National Park. It’s all green, for as far as the eye can see, which isn’t very far. Then, across a clearing you spot black, punctuated clearly against the green. Was that a gorilla? There it is again, definitely a gorilla. You move closer. You’re closer than seems sensible, at first, but then you lock eyes with one, calmly chomping on the greenery, and any fear is replaced with awe.

Entry for Capture the Color’ photo contest at Travel Supermarket with photos submitted for 5 color categories - this is green entry

 

Yellow: Young Boy with Fruit, Rwanda

Walking through Rwanda with a large camera draws a lot of attention from the local children. I was regularly mobbed and would spend a lot of time trying to get far enough away to shoot a picture so I could kneel down as they crowded round me to see it. Then, this little boy caught my eye (possibly drawn by the bright yellow shirt). He was watching intently but stood aloof. His expression caused me to decide to take a photo of him. I point at the camera and him and he smiled. Then, I knelt down to get on his level. Unfortunately, he followed suit and we played a weird up and down game until I got him to stand up straight while I knelt down for a shot.

Entry for Capture the Color’ photo contest at Travel Supermarket with photos submitted for 5 color categories - this is yellowentry

White: Icy Stare, New York

One Christmas, walking up 5th avenue at an ungodly hour, an icy stare caught my eye. A wintery woman strode gracefully toward the window as if there were no glass to hold her back. Her servants, various white animals, accompanied her. I stepped back, startled for a moment, waiting for the thud as her forehead struck the window. But no, it was just a manikin. I could take my time to capture the moment before the bang.

Entry for Capture the Color’ photo contest at Travel Supermarket with photos submitted for 5 color categories - this is white entry

Red: Eerie Light, Central Park, New York

I’ve got a great tendency to get carried away taking photos until I realize it’s dark and I don’t know where I am. Walking into Central Park as the sun is getting ready to set, with the knowledge that you’re foolish enough to stay until after dark and get lost, is eerie enough. As I did just that, I received a foreboding omen. Entering this tunnel I heard a buzz above me, followed by a loud pop, and a red light began flickering erratically. If it had been dark already, I probably would’ve turned tail and run. Instead, I took a picture.

Entry for Capture the Color’ photo contest at Travel Supermarket with photos submitted for 5 color categories - this is red entry

 

I’m supposed to nominate 5 other bloggers. It’s probably a bit of a moot point this late in the game and I’m quite new to the network of travel bloggers, but there are 5 that I’ve found interesting:

www.adventurouskate.com

www.awanderingsole.com

http://johnnyvagabond.com/

http://www.goseewrite.com/

http://www.nomadicmatt.com

 

You can follow me on Facebook, Twitter (@TraverseEarth) or via e-mail above.

Aug 082012
 

This little guy passed by me clinging to his mother’s back and seemed particularly interested in my camera. When she stopped and sat down he was behind her, but he crawled round to this spot and continued to watch.

Mother gorilla with back turned and baby gorilla staring into the camera surrounded by greenery in Rwanda.

Jul 282012
 

I’ve got a LOT of gorilla photos and I’m struggling to think of what more to say about them. If you want to know more about my experience with the gorillas in Rwanda click on the “Mountain Gorillas” in the categories to see all of my gorilla posts.

Young mountain gorilla eating while surrounded by greenery in Rwanda.

 

Jul 242012
 

Another shot of that spectacular, lingering sunset on the Upper Zambeezi. At this point the liquor had been flowing and the group was in good spirits. We can’t say the same for the morning. When we woke up the next day to take on the category 5 rapids below the falls we weren’t the happiest campers. It was still a great day, and most of us had recovered by lunch time. But here’s a pro tip, if you get the white water rafting + booze cruise combo at Jolly Boys, Livingstone, do the booze cruise after the rafting… not the night before!

Spectacular sunset over the Upper Zambezi river in Zambia.

Jul 172012
 

My Shot on My Modern Met

A friend sent me a note today to let me know that one of my pictures has been featured in an article on My Modern Met about the Niagara Falls’ Stunning Festival of Rainbow Lights by Katie Hosmer. I love it when my photos appear on people’s websites. I normally spot them when people start linking into Traverse Earth or Flickr from the article. I think I like it even more when I hear it from people that have recognized one of my shots! So, if you spot anymore of my photos about the web, let me know! There’s no prize, but I’ll definitely say thanks.

Also, I’ve had a number of people point out that my photos can be copied from this website, or on Flickr, or on Smugmug. That’s okay with me. My images are all available under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 Unported License.. That sounds complicated but all it means is if you’d like to use one of my images for a non-commercial purpose that’s fine. Just link back to me. I prefer a link back to my homepage, www.traverseearth.com, but a lot of my images that end up being used out on the web are found on Flickr and typically link back to there. So, want to illustrate a point on your blog? Go right ahead. Want to use a photo for your cover photo on Facebook? Fine by me. Just remember to point a link back to where you found it! If you’d like to know more on Creative Commons, feel free to go ahead and click the link above and explore that site.

 Today’s Photo: More Tourists

When visiting the mountain gorillas in Rwanda one conclusion is really easy to draw. Silverback gorillas are truly formidable. All the other gorillas seem intrigued by your presence. They pause to watch you as they go about their daily routines. The silverbacks, on the other hand, just seem grouchy. They don’t pay you much mind but maintain this look like they could snap at any moment. I got the pleasure of watching one charge through the bush and slap another gorilla out of the way. I thought it was incredible. Cameron and Chris had a different viewpoint; they were the focus of this gorillas mock charge. Chris happened to film a video of this on his iPhone as it careened through the bushes at him at great pace. Somehow that video disappeared before I got a chance to see it. I’ve got a theory that it’s because you could hear a whimper of fear or two in the background. Chris did admit that when he played the video back it was clear that his hands were shaking during the ordeal.

This photo was taken later, at a much calmer moment. I’m not sure if this was the same gorilla or not. He doesn’t look particularly happy with our presence there. Maybe someone had just accidentally stood on a particularly tasty plant.

Originally, when I was working up these gorilla shots, I was combining three exposures and using the ghosting tool in Photomatix to deal with the subjects movement. I was happy with the results at the time, but looking back I’m not so thrilled. Now I am using one RAW exposure. In Photoshop’s Camera RAW I adjust this exposure to simulate varying exposure levels and produce three images ranging from -2 stops through to +2 stops. This is resulting in much crisper images with far less artifacts. It also takes a lot less time.

Silverback gorilla looking seriously angry or grumpy amid greenery in Rwanda.

Something Interesting: A link for traveler’s wanting to fly for almost free

I don’t know exactly how much truth there is in this, but I think I’ll give it a go. Nora Dunn has written an article, “The Travel Hacking Cartel: Fly Around the World For Almost Free” outlining how she travels the world for almost free. I’m particularly interested in Chris Guillebeau’s “Travel Hacking Cartel“. I read one of his books on his somewhat alternative life path making money while on the move. His goal is to visit every country in the world by the time he turns 35 in April 2013. His blog is definitely worth a look: chrisguillebeau.com

Jul 122012
 

Three out of five of our group, dissatisfied with seeing penguins hanging about in bushes, paid the cover charge to actually go down onto Boulders Bay in search of penguins on the rocks. That, at least in our minds, was where penguins should be. As soon as we came through the gate we spied a penguin lounging in the middle of a small path forking off the main one. We walked down for a closer look, the penguin didn’t seem at all bothered by our presence. We thought this penguin may be a sign of more at the end of the path. It wasn’t. There were no penguins at the end of the path, but there was this incredible view.

If you want to see more of Boulders Bay and the penguins we did find, click on this image to go through to my South Africa gallery.

Different size of boulders piled up on beach at waterside in Boulder Bay, Simons Town, South Africa.

Jul 072012
 

We’d turned the canoe sideways and were drifting down the Zambezi as I photographed a huge group of elephants taking a refreshing dip. I had my big lens on… 70-300mm. I started out fully zoomed in and was gradually zooming out as we got closer. Suddenly, I couldn’t zoom out any further.  I dropped the camera from my eye. We were VERY close to these elephants. Then I heard Chris’s voice from the back of the canoe, “Keep taking photos J.  I got this.”

I kept taking photos.

Three African elephants drinking at the water's edge of the lower Zambezi in Zambia.

 

Jun 272012
 

Late Night Tonight

I’ve decided to stick with my rule of not posting photos from the same country two days in a row (I know I’ve broken it in the past), but I’m desperate to work up some of my Iceland photos. I expect I’ll be up late tonight doing just that. On top of that I was in the middle of redesigning the site when I had to take a break to travel to Iceland. I really want to make a little more progress on that tonight.

For those of you patiently waiting for my tutorial, I did make a lot of progress before leaving. I find I work best on the weekends when I can really dedicate a lot of time to it. I’ll be putting in some more effort this weekend.

Today’s Photo: The Journey

Canoeing down the Lower Zambezi makes use of the old cliché “the journey is half the fun” really come into its own. Drifting casually down the river (while carefully keeping your limbs in the canoe) is punctuated by moments of intense activity and excitement. A lot of the time this is brought on by hippos hanging about in the shallows. The problem posed here is that when hippos get scared they head for deep water. So, if you’re in between the hippos and the deep water, you’ve got a problem. As a result, the approach is simply a bold game of chicken, in which you steer straight at the hippos in an effort to move them into the deep. Other exciting moments resulted from elephants coming down to the water to drink and play, which Chris and I may or may not have gotten dangerously close to. Other times the excitement was that we had an opportunity to get out of the canoes, whether it was to eat lunch, make camp, or go for a swim in a “safe” stretch of river. I say “safe” because, when asked, our guide said we were safe from crocodiles in the shallow water because we could fight off a crocodile there. Now, I don’t know about you, but in my opinion, if I’m having to fight off a crocodile I am already in serious trouble!

This photo was taken at one of the calmer moments as we floated through a narrow channel of the river. I’ve changed my approach to photos with moving subjects. Rather than trying to combine three different exposures I’m working with one RAW. Using Photoshop’s RAW converter I create three images by adjusting the exposure of the original. Then I combine these three images using Photomatix. This way, I don’t have to deal with loads of ghosting issues. If you look through my gorilla photos by clicking the category to the right, the last few have employed this method and you should be able to see an improvement over my earlier attempts.

Two canoes floating through a narrow channel of the Zambezi River on safari in Zambia

Jun 252012
 

I’m back home from Iceland now so can get back to my daily photo posting. It was difficult to get them done while in Iceland as any time that I wasn’t desperate for a few hours sleep I was out exploring. I’m looking forward to processing and posting the photos I took there. That being said, I’m still pretty worn out so you get a quick post today and a photo of a really cute, fuzzy Gorilla.

Cute fuzzy young gorilla relaxing amount greenery in Rwanda.

 

Jun 192012
 

Iceland Update

Heading off to Husavik soon to go to the Phallological museum, whale museum and then out whale and puffin watching! Apparently they spotted blue whales two days ago. Hopefully they’re still about. Last night, we visited Lake Myvatn and it’s weird lava field surrounds, including an under ground hot spring that made for a pretty cool photo opportunity. Having a jeep paid off last night as our GPS directed us up a rough track, it didn’t look anything like a marked road. After driving a fair way in, the GPS beeped and asked if our car was suitable for that road. I have no idea how it can direct people up that road as most cars wouldn’t be able to take it.

Today’s Photo

This is the last of the photos that I have of Boulders Bay South Africa. I love the way these rocks have been carved by the elements. The tall skinny one jutting up feels like a modern, abstract sculpture.

Boulders Bay, South Africa showing rocks carved by the elements in the ocean including one tall skinny one.