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Sunset at Crawl Hill, Bermuda

Sep 242012

First Photo with my New (Used) Gear

This is my first shot with the new gear I bought after those bastardos (the police taught me that) robbed me in Italy. I mentioned a little while back that I’d received my insurance check and, subsequently, my camera gear arrived on island. I haven’t really gone into what all I got and have yet to update the My Gear page (I’ve just noted that I should probably get on that). I decided to make a couple of changes though the majority of my gear has remained the same. I decided to stick with my combo of 5d mk ii and 7d camera bodies despite considering the 5d mk iii that has been released recently. In the end it came down to cost. I could buy both the 5d mk ii and 7d camera bodies used, on BH PhotoVideo, for considerably less than the cost of the 5d mk iii alone. On top of cost, I get to keep my two camera setup meaning I’ll have a backup in case I get a little too close to a waterfall or if a baboon steals one and chucks it off a cliff. I replaced my 14mm prime lens as well as my 24mm to 70mm zoom but rather than replace the 70-300mm zoom I had, I switched to 70-200mm lens. It’s just a much faster, better lens. It also seems a lot heavier, which I wasn’t anticipating. Along with it, I’ve bought an extender EF 2x II which increases it’s focal range to 140mm to 400mm.

Today’s Photo: Sunset at Crawl Hill, Bermuda

I spent a day out in St. Georges with my new gear. Unfortunately, for some reason my ISO was set at the max and I didn’t realize, so most of the images are unusable. On the way back the sunset was starting to get interesting so I pulled off onto the railway trail at the bottom of Crawl Hill and took this photo.

The Technical Bits

Camera: Canon 5d Mk II
Lens: EF24-70mm f/2.8L USM
ISO: 100
Exposure: 3.2, 13, 30 at f/18

Taking the Photo: Amongst the little bits I picked up along with my cameras and lenses was a variable neutral density filter. I didn’t actually know that they existed and just stumbled upon them. Rather than carrying numerous ND filters at varying levels you just buy one and twist it to adjust the darkness. It’s pretty cool, but I haven’t really had a chance to test it extensively. I used it for this picture and adjusted it dark enough until I got long enough exposures to totally blur the water.

Processing: Processing this photo was pretty straightforward without many issues. I combined the three exposures using Photomatix and then adjusted contrast and saturation in Photoshop before further bumping up the detail in Topaz Adjust.

Software: Photoshop, Topaz Adjust

Icelandic Gem, Jökulsárlón

Europe, Iceland, Travel 74 Responses »

Sep 232012

Jökulsárlón Glacial Lagoon

Jokulsarlon is a large glacial lagoon in South East Iceland. Here, huge icebergs carve off of the glacier and head for the ocean. The lagoons exit is narrow and the glacier’s are bottlenecked here. They have to shrink in size before they make their way through the gap and out to sea. Once there, some of them are forced back onto the beach by the waves. It’s an incredible place, and I’ll definitely be making my way back there again.

Today’s Photo: Icelandic Gem

This small chunk of ice is all that’s left of one of the great bergs that made it’s way out to sea only to get washed up on the shore again. The ice comes in a few different colours. Some are crystal clear, some are black due to volcanic ash deposits. This one is an example of the amazing pale blue glow many of the bergs possess.

Not a Good Place for Lunch

Africa, Animals, Zambia, Zimbabwe 9 Responses »

Sep 212012

Today’s Photo: Lonely Lion

Our junior guide, who typically stayed at the back of the group paddled up ahead and caught up to our main guide. Then, they made for the shore. It was about lunchtime and I thought that was why we were stopping. Instead, we were told to stay in our canoes and just beach them slightly. Then, we saw her, camouflaged extremely well amongst the brush, a lone lion, just 30 meters away.

We sat and watched her for a while as she sat and watched us, very casually. She’s an old lion, we were told, and had likely had to leave her pack and attempt to fend for herself. She seemed tired and had a sadness in her eyes, that I think you can see here.

After pushing off and continuing down stream our guide praised his assistant for spotting her and confessed it was a good thing as he’d planned on stopping there for our lunch break!

The Technical Bits

Camera: Canon 5d Mk II
Lens: EF 70-300mm f/2.8L USM
ISO: 100
Exposure: 1/50 at f/8

Taking the Photo: I zoomed in far as I could and made sure that I set the focus on the lioness’ eyes as she gazed back at us. I was shooting handheld as I was sitting in a canoe at the time. I shot three bracketed images but chose not to use them.

Processing: I decided not to use the bracketed images as there was too much movement in the scene, from the lion to all of the foliage around her. I tried creating an HDR image by adjusting the exposure levels in Adobe RAW, but realized that I preferred the single exposure to the output from Photomatix so just adjusted contrast in Photoshop and bumped up the detail in Topaz Adjust.

I had to make a substantial crop in order to zoom in further on the lion. As the 5d mk II uses a full frame sensor this was possible without the resulting photo being too small.

Software: Photoshop, Topaz Adjust

The Dark Lighthouse, Gardur, Iceland

Europe, Iceland, Travel 3 Responses »

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

Sailing Lake Como

Europe, Italy, Travel 2 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

Sensory Garden Cherub, Botanical Gardens, Bermuda

Bermuda, Travel 22 Responses »

Sep 142012

I’m enjoying having my camera gear back, even though yesterday I went out to Spittal Pond to take some pictures of the waves breaking on the rocks there and was driven away by pouring rain! Today, after work I stayed close to home and slipped into the sensory garden of the Botanical Gardens where I set up for this shot.

Waterfall at the Rift, Iceland

Europe, Iceland, Travel, Waterfall 32 Responses »

Sep 132012

On my way to snorkel the rift I spotted this waterfall over a ridge. Following our swim I decided to go up and take a closer look. I’m glad I did. It was a really peaceful scene as the sun set. I decided to shoot a panorama and fired off 7 shots, each bracketed at -2, 0, +2 so this photo is the result of combining 21 pictures together.

Incredible Gullfoss

Europe, Iceland, Travel, Waterfall 7 Responses »

Sep 122012

This was the very last place I visited in Iceland. We were tired, hungry and somehow it was 3 in the morning. We considered turning back. I’m glad we didn’t. While I want to go back there and capture this incredible waterfall under better conditions it was well worth pushing on to see it. It’s massive, and seems to fall forever into a tear in the earth’s surface. We were able to walk right the way around it and, once again, were the only people there.

Acqui Terme Up Close

Europe, Italy, Travel 1 Response »

Sep 112012

I’ve got all my new camera gear in! So tonight’s not a long post as I’m in the middle of playing with it all. It seems fitting that tonight’s photo be another of the few photos I took in Italy before having all of my stuff knicked!

Svartifoss, Iceland

Europe, Iceland, Travel, Waterfall 9 Responses »

Sep 102012

This may be my favorite waterfall in Iceland. It’s isolated in the Skaftafel National Park, about an hours hike from the parking lot. We went there at about midnight, in the rain, and seemed to be the only people about. It’s a trickle compared to the more dramatic torrents at Godafoss and Gullfoss, but there’s something special about the way the thin stream of water spreads out as it plunges into a deep pool. It’s very soft and delicate, but surrounded by harsh decaying hexagonal columns of granite.

Taking this photo was interesting. The stream was about a foot deep but had a few loose rocks strewn about. I found three rocks in positions to accommodate each of my tripods feet and another one I could stand on. Then, I realised that I needed to keep the rain off my lens so had to call my travel buddy into the river with me, with her umbrella. We were stood, teetering on a rock, holding onto each-other for balance, when the only two people we saw the whole time we were there decided to turn up. Fortunately, they were photographers and didn’t seem phased by our odd positioning.

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