Feb 052013
 

I climbed on top of a rock to try to get away from the freezing cold water snapping at my heals as the sun set on Windhoek beach. When I turned around I spotted the remnant of this marriage proposal in the sand. Hopefully the wedding will last longer than this message did!

Be cool if one day they stumble upon this photo.

A marriage proposal scraped into the sand on Windhoek beach in Capetown is washed away by the waves as the tide comes in.

Jan 112013
 

I’m back from a great journey through South Africa, Zambia, Botswana and Namibia. I know I’m loads of pictures behind, but I’m going to make up for it, as soon as I’m over this jet-lag. For today, here’s a photo of a penguin couple at Boulder’s Bay, near Simonstown, South Africa.

Two African Penguins or Jackass penguins and their shadows on a sandy beach at Boulder's Bay, South Africa.

Jan 082013
 

I’m writing this a couple of days before you’ll see it while sat at my friend’s aunt’s house in Cape Town. I’ve had a great time here but tomorrow we are moving on to Livingstone, Zambia. I’ll be traveling with my friend and her cousin.

Yesterday, while taking photos on Nordhoek beach I wondered if they may be getting bored with me wandering about very slowly with a backpack and tripod. Then I looked over and saw this. I think it’s safe to say they’ll do a good job of entertaining themselves the whole trip.

Shortly after I took this photo I heard a shriek of “let’s take pictures of our shadows!”, which was pretty impressive, as the wind was blowing at about 40 knots towards them…

The plan is to spend a few days in Livingstone, then bus our way through Windhoek… though we realy have no idea how we’re going to go about doing that. Hopefully by the time this photo posts itself we’ll have a better idea!

Two women taking photos in front of the setting sun on Nordhoek beach, Cape Town, South africa

Jan 072013
 

Here’s the first of my photos from my most recent trip to Cape Town. This is on a beautiful, rugged beach in Scarborough. There were a lot of kids playing and swimming here. After dipping my toe in I decided it was far too cold for my liking!

A view of Witwatersounds beach in Scarborough in South Africa with rocks in the foreground and mountains and blue sky in the background

Dec 272012
 

Today’s photo was taken when the days were longer and I was able to slip down to Horseshoe Bay before work. It wasn’t summer and was actually pretty chilly, I was wearing long trousers and a fleece. I was shocked to discover how many people head down to Horseshoe Bay for a morning dip each day. I spotted this man making the walk into the chilly waters, facing the sunrise,  and fired off three bracketed photos. In the end I decided to let the man and cliff be silhouetted against the sunrise.

A man silhouetted against the morning sunrise as he enters the water at Horseshoe bay beach, Bermuda

 

Dec 172012
 

In Icelandic folk lore it’s believed that many of the strange towering rock formations in the country are actually trolls, petrified after failing to take cover before the sunrise. I’m not sure if this formation comes under that explanation, but I like to think two trolls went skinny dipping, got “distracted” and were turned into one single column of solid rock.

A petrified troll, rock column, on the rugged southern coast of iceland

 

Nov 122012
 

These glaciers melting on the beach were really cool. We spent about 2 hours wandering amongst them. I really liked the one on the left in this picture. I think it looks like that because it’s been melted by the rain that fell the night before, but I don’t really know if that’s the case. We tasted some of it too. Delicious!!

Glaciers melting on a black sand beach with ocean waves in Jokulsarlon, Iceland

Oct 102012
 

This was shot at Jokulsarlon, Iceland, where icebergs come crashing down from the Vatnajokull glacier and begin their journey out to sea. Some of those icebergs, after melting down enough to escape the narrow exit to the lagoon, become trapped against the shore by the crashing waves. These three were amongst many scattered here, slowly melting away.

The icebergs take on various different colors based on the atmospheric conditions. The black one in the background is the result of volcanic ash frozen into the ice.

Three icebergs melting on the rocky beach with waves with one iceberg colored black from volcanic ash in Jokulsarlon, Iceland

Oct 022012
 

Once I got the weather I was after at Horseshoe I took quite a few pictures from the top of the rock there. Here’s another one, taken as the sun climbs a bit higher through the haze, spilling golden rays across the light pink sand and adding an extra glow to the cool turquoise water.

View of Horseshoe Bay Bermuda beach from top of the rock with the sun spilling golden rays across the light pink sand and adding an extra glow to the cool turquoise water.

 

Sep 202012
 

Today’s Photo: The Dark Lighthouse

This photo makes me want to get back to Iceland as soon as possible. The plan for my next trip is to turn up there for a longer period of time with a tent and not much of a plan. I want to wander, go to where the good light is and wait for the good light in places that deserve it. There seems to be campsites everywhere in Iceland so finding somewhere to crash should be easy as plugging campsite into the satnav.

This shot is from my first night in Iceland. After arriving at midnight, I discovered that this beach was just a short walk from the guesthouse I stayed in. It was handily scouted by my travel buddy who had arrived a day earlier. The lighthouse is actually no longer used so it seems fitting to leave it in the dark. A newer one is located just off to the right. You’ll get to see photos of it one day as well.

The Technical Bits

Camera: Canon 5d Mk II
Lens: EF24-70mm f/2.8L USM
ISO: 100
Exposure: 1.6, 6, and 25 at f/18

Taking the Photo: I wandered the beach searching for a good foreground for this shot. The rocks looked promising and when I stumbled across this patch of larger, moss drenched stones I set up my tripod. The camera was placed at about half my height to get close to the rocks and capture the detail in the moss. You’ll have to click the image and view it larger to see the details. I actually shot bracketed shots from -4 to +4 because the sunset was so intense behind the lighthouse. As you can see above, I only went with -2 to +2, which I’ll explain next.

Processing: This is one of those photos that I’ve tried to process numerous times but failed. I have a similar shot, here, that I was never quite happy with. The sky and the lighthouse just never looked quite right. I felt like I was sacrificing colors and detail in the sky to bring out details in the lighthouse, which just blended into the sky. This time, I took a different approach and decided to let the lighthouse remain as a silhouette. The rocks in the foreground are much more interesting than the details of the lighthouse anyway. Now, I’m very happy with this shot.

I probably could have achieved this affect with an off camera flash, which I don’t yet own. One of the useful parts of HDR is that you can adjust your lighting once you’ve gotten home. Of course, this has limitations so I’m planning on buying a couple of off camera flashes and figuring out how to use them. That way, in a situation like this I could take my usual bracketed photos, but also use a bit of flash. Then, I can just use whichever method worked out better and maybe save me a bit of head-scratching once I get home.

Software: Photomatix, Photoshop, Topaz Adjust, Noiseware Pro

Shoreline with rocks covered in green moss with calm water and lighthouse in the distance with pink light showing under the cloudy sky in Gardur, Iceland