I’m Back!!

 Asia, People, Travel, Vietnam  4 Responses »
Jan 012015
 

Happy New Year everyone. So, last year’s attempt to post a photo every day fell flat about half way through. I didn’t do a lot of traveling in early 2014, and when I did it was because I got to go to the World Cup in Brazil. There was too much distraction at that time for me to take a lot of pictures!

In November I finally got to set foot in Asia with a three week holiday in Vietnam. I now have a fairly sizable stock of photos to show you!

This first one is of Hoi An, an ancient trading port on Vietnam’s coast, known for the abundance of tailors and original French colonial architecture.

Night time photo of Hoi An, Vietnam with lights reflecting in the water and women on boats.

 

Launches of Lake Peten Itza, Guatemala

 Central America, Guatemala, Travel  3 Responses »
Jan 092014
 

On my first day in Guatemala I was woken up by the intense heat. I’d spent the night sleeping surrounded by 3 fans but still woke up drenched with sweat. I took a shower, and set out to explore my new surroundings. After a quick lap of the island town of Flores, I flagged down a kid passing by in a launch and arranged to be taken on a tour. I took this shot as we returned to the boats after our first stop, a breathtaking hike to a viewpoint looking out over the Lago Peten Itza.

Two traditional launches or boats on the shores of lake petin itza, Guatemala

Three Red Boats, Stykkishólmur, Iceland

 Europe, Iceland, Travel  No Responses »
Sep 252012
 

In the Snæfellsnes peninsula, where we took a detour  on our way to the Westfjords, is a beautiful old fishing village called Stykkishólmur. We stopped off for lunch where I had the biggest mussels I’ve ever seen. They were delicious. Then, I wandered down to the harbor for a few photos before continuing on our way.

Red boats with others with a blue sky and calm water docked in a old fishing village in Stykkishólmur, Iceland

 

Sailing Lake Como

 Europe, Italy, Travel  No Responses »
Sep 192012
 

Today’s Photo: Lake Como

A visit to Lake Como was recommended to me by my uncle. I really knew nothing about the place but had faith that the two hour drive would be worth it. The plan was to hop on the ferry for a low cost “cruise” up the lake followed by lunch and a trip back. I thought it could provide a good opportunity to ratchet up a few photos.

As it turns out, Lake Como is beautiful. Mountains plunged from the blue sky into the deep water. Boats of all shapes and size plied the waters around us as the ferry chugged its way up the lake, from village port to village port. I definitely took a lot of pictures. I’m not sure how usable a lot of them are as a moving ferry doesn’t make for an ideal base. It was really a sort of spray and pray situation. I just kept taking photos in the hope I’d get a few I could keep. I think I’m happy with today’s photo. But, I do have to question whether it would make the cut if I’d gotten to go down to Portofino and the Cinque Terre where I had two days of shooting pretty well planned out!

The Technical Bits

Elia Locardi, over at Blame the Monkey, does this for each of his photos so I’ve decided to give it a try.

Camera: Canon 5d Mk II
Lens: EF70-300mm f/4-5.6L IS USM
ISO: 200
Exposure: 1/320, 1/1250, and 1/80 at f/7.1

Taking the Photo: This is one of the few photos I took on Lake Como that I remember putting a bit of thought into. I wanted to use as big a zoom as possible to compress the image and make the mountains loom over the village and the boats in the foreground. I made a quick switch from the 24-70mm lens I was using to the 70-300mm. I couldn’t zoom my focal length up as much as I wanted to, but the effect is still pretty satisfying. If you’ve read my HDR tutorial you’ll know that I usually keep my ISO down at 100 to minimize noise as the HDR processing emphasizes noise dramatically. But, as I was shooting handheld (no point in using a tripod on a moving ferry) and had a moving subject I wanted to freeze so I bumped the ISO up a touch.

Processing: It was a hazy day, and the camera emphasized this fact, so I wound up with a very dull, flat set of images. I processed them in Photomatix as usual and then did a lot of work adjusting the contrast in Photoshop to try to breathe a bit of life back into it. I used layers to selectively adjust the contrast, and saturation of different parts of the image. Then I realised that the mountains had come out very blue. I probably should have used a polarizer on such a hazy day. So, I made myself a digital, graduated warming filter with Photoshop to warm up the mountains a bit. Then, I used Topaz Adjust to boost the detail a bit. The higher than usual ISO and processing work resulted in quite a lot of noise in the sky, ocean and side of the sailboat. I created a duplicate layer of the image and selectively de-noised the problem areas before sharpening the foreground.

Software: Photomatix, Photoshop, Topaz Adjust, Noiseware Pro

Sailboats on Lake Como in Italy with mountains rising from the deep water to the blue sky.

Sylvia and Bjossi Sor, Husavik, Iceland

 Iceland, Travel  2 Responses »
Sep 072012
 

After a long night taking photos my travel buddy decided she was hungry. So, rather than heading back to our hostel for some much needed rest we made our way to Husavik to sleep in a car park for a couple of hours while we waited for somewhere serving breakfast to open. I didn’t get much sleep, but after trying to nod off I decided to go for a walk. We’d left from this marina to go whale watching and I liked the old fashioned boats inhabiting it. So, I made my way back there and took a few more photos for the night.

Marina in Husavik, Iceland with old fashioned wooden boats which reflect in the water where they are docked.

 

The Boathouse, Niagara-on-the-Lake

 Canada, Ontario, Travel  No Responses »
Jul 022012
 

A beautiful, sunset in a quaint Canadian town, provided the perfect backdrop for this calm scene on the shores of Lake Ontario. This was taken just as winter was turning to Spring. It was an early Spring, hence the boats are on the dock rather than in the water chomping at the bit. The serene surface of the lake provided a perfect mirror to help show off the sky.

Only a chain-linked fence threatened to ruin the shot. In a panic, as the light looked ready to fade, I figure out how to use the fence in concert with my tripod to get the shot. You can read more about how I did that here.

Beautiful sunset on the shores of Lake Ontario, Niagara-on-the-Lake with a boat house and sail boats are on the dock with the lake reflecting the sky.

Goin’ Fishin’

 Bermuda, Travel  No Responses »
Apr 282012
 

Sorry I didn’t get a photo up yesterday. Went out for lunch with my co-workers and it turned into a long lunch… a very long lunch. We actually wound up having dinner together and I didn’t get home until about 11:00. Knowing that I had to get up early today to head out on Paradise 1 for a full day of fishing I was completely focused on getting into bed.

As a bonus, getting up at sunrise allowed for a couple photo opportunities as we made our way off shore. It wasn’t the best day of fishing ever, but we didn’t come back empty-handed. Some people got bigger fish than others, though. Paradise 1 is a great fishing boat though. It’s massive, and really comfortable. It’s also really stable, though that didn’t prevent one of the group getting seasick.

Bow of the fishing boat Paradise 1 showing channel markers and beware of turtles sign in Bermuda's turquoise waters.

 

Tuckers Town Bay

Dec 262011
 

This is the photo that I had planned on uploading for my first entry. I decided this would be a good start as I consider it my first successful HDR photo.

I had woken up late and had to rush out of the house as I’d seen a purple glow developing. Had planned on getting to one of the Tucker’s Town beaches when i came across this scene.

I used 7 exposures from -3 to +3. The boats had swung on their moorings while taking the photos so when combining in Photomatix I used the selective de-ghosting tool. This took a few attempts but I eventually settled on one big circle encompassing most of the water. Still some motion blur on some of the boats but not sure I could have avoided this. After HDR processing I worked with layers to bring up details in the foreground and particularly focused on getting some green into the trees in the background. Finally, run through Topaz Adjust to bump up the level of detail before using Noiseware to smooth it out.

Boats on their moorings under a glorious purple sunset, reflecting pink in the water of Tuckers Town Bay in Bermuda.

 December 26, 2011  Bermuda, Travel 2 Responses »
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