Rwandan Insect Repellant

 Africa, Rwanda, Travel  4 Responses »
Jan 272012
 

We didn’t have much of an issue with insects while in Africa, except for one member of our group with an odd fear of moths, and the men’s bathroom in Lusaka airport. It was like a horror movie. Lights flickering, bugs flying around and making the floor squirm along with the shuffling of an individual sweeping live bugs to the corners. Horrifying, but an experience none the less.

The reason I’m going on about bugs is that the flowers in this photo are farmed in Rwanda and used to make a natural insect repellent. I took this photo on our way up to see the mountain gorillas in the volcanoes national park. I’ve mentioned before that it was a tough walk. Pausing to set up for a photo is a great way of taking a rest without admitting that you need one. This is made easier by the fact that wherever you look in the Rwandan countryside you’re confronted with a beautiful view.

I’m pretty sure this is also the hillside where I left my Black Rapid camera strap. If you haven’t heard of these camera straps you should check them out. They let the camera hang comfortably at your hip or lower back and the connection system prevents the strap from twisting and getting in the way when you raise the camera to your eye. Going without it in Prague made life a little more difficult for me, I’ll be ordering a new one this weekend.

This photo is comprised of 7 images ranging from -3 to +3. I had to open up the aperture to get the flowers sharp enough. Unfortunately, I’ve traded off depth of field and the background gets a bit blurry. I’ve started experimenting with blending photos at different apertures to capture moving subjects while maintaining the depth of field only achievable with a smaller aperture. As soon as I find some success with this I’ll post an example.

View of mountains, clouds, green landscape, and white flowers farmed in Rwanda and used to make a natural insect repellent.

Wenceslas Merry-Go-Round

 Czech Republic, Europe, Prague, Travel  2 Responses »
Jan 262012
 

For some reason I’ve gotten stuck on producing panoramas. Tomorrow night I am going to ensure that I process a photo that isn’t a panorama!

This is a picture of Wenceslas Square. It’s an odd square as it’s actually a skinny rectangle. As you can see it’s more like a wide boulevard with a divider down the middle. It was originally the city’s horse market. Also, while there I was informed that it was also the location of the fall of communism following student protests.

It’s funny how you can try to imagine how your picture of a place is going to look prior to getting there. I did just that with this location. I had this image of light trails from traffic rounding various bends and going off in different directions. When I arrived this isn’t quite what I found. In fact the first thing I discovered was what I’m sure was a politician stood atop a van with a megaphone. He was yelling excitedly at the crowd of 30 or so onlookers that had gathered. I encountered him numerous times throughout the night. However, on each of those occasions he’d given up on speaking and was just driving around blasting out classical music at an ear-splitting volume – fantastic from a distance, horrible up close. It certainly set a great mood when he cruised through the Old Town Square though.

Wenceslas Square in Prague lit up at night with light trails from traffic rounding the bend.

New York Skyline at Sunset

 New York, Travel  4 Responses »
Jan 252012
 

This is the trip where I really got to test out my new Canon 5d Mk II and L-series lenses. I walked across Brooklyn Bridge and actually got my timing completely wrong. The sun had set by the time I got there. I set up for a night shot of the skyline, and then the sunset provided an encore, spreading pink light across the sky.

I’m a little embarrassed to admit that I was initially annoyed to have cranes ruining my skyline shot. This was taken a week before the marking of the tenth year after 9/11. I processed this while watching a documentary on the progress of the World Trade Center’s new tower. Suddenly, I realized that is the building with the cranes in my photo. I understand that when this photo was taken it was at about half of the height it will reach.

Night shot of the skyline of New York with the sunset spreading pink light across the sky (cranes shown are at the site of the New World Trade Center).

 

Large Lunch Companions

 Africa, Animals, Travel, Zambia, Zimbabwe  9 Responses »
Jan 242012
 

Our last day paddling our way down the meandering Lower Zambezi was an exciting one. By now, the surroundings were familiar and comfortable. Working in tandem to navigate the river was almost second nature. It even became easier to suppress the fear of crocodiles that occasionally welled up in my mind. This was despite coming closer to the eerily calm reptiles than we ever had before.  As we approached midday, we spotted a group of elephants on an island. After paddling into a small inlet, and walking a very short distance, we were approximately 30 feet away. The elephants acknowledged our presence, but continued munching away and even moved closer. I was completely focused on grabbing a good photo. Once I realized that most people had already moved on to return to the canoes I turned to follow. It turned out that we weren’t departing. Our guides had prepared lunch for us, the usual beautiful fresh salad to accompany the most processed meat in the world. They were some form of Frankfurter, but were fluorescent pink on the outside and white in the middle. So, we ate and watched the elephants munch their way back across to the other side of the island. Then, they started to head to the water and we followed. They took the plunge and meandered their way down the Lower Zambezi.

Elephants eating grass on an island in the Lower Zambezi in Zamiba.

Prague Skyline

 Czech Republic, Europe, Prague, Travel  No Responses »
Jan 232012
 

I took this on my last night in Prague. I went out for what I thought was a couple of hours, it turned out I was out for 5 hours just wandering and taking photos. I discovered this viewpoint in a park by the river up from Charles Bridge. This photo is most interesting viewed at full size where you can scroll around the details of the skyline. On the right you see St. Vitus Cathedral jutting above the Prague Castle. Moving to the left the dome of the Church of St. Nicholas is visible with the gateway to Charles Bridge leading into the bridge itself to the left. Up on the hill opposite the castle can see an Eiffel Tower like structure. You could probably take photos all night long in Prague on an overcast night as the lights from the city give the clouds a yellow glow.

Nighttime view of Prague skyline including St. Vitus Cathedral, Church of St. Nicholas, gateway to Charles Bridge leading into the bridge with lights reflecting on river.

 

Times Square Headlights

 New York, Travel  No Responses »
Jan 222012
 

Another shot portraying the hustle and bustle in Time’s Square, New York. It’s very easy to spend hours here, every few steps presents a desirable angle. This is a combination of 7 exposures processed with Photomatix, Photoshop CS5 and Topaz Adjust. I used the de-ghosting tool in Photomatix to select this group of people and to select the streaks for the headlights.

Nighttime hustle and bustle in Time’s Square, New York

 

The View from Lunch

 Africa, Animals, Travel, Zimbabwe  31 Responses »
Jan 212012
 

On the first day of our canoe safari, on the Lower Zambezi, we stopped for lunch under a big shade tree on the Zimbabwe side of the river. While everyone stretched out to nap after a sandwich and a salad I started getting my camera gear out. I wanted to get a photo of a hippo yawning. Typically, the hippo let out a huge yawn as I was setting up. Then I had to wait quite a while for him to do it again. It worked out for the best though, as these elephants moved into frame just before the hippo let out a huge gaping yawn.

 

Hippo making a big yawn while in the Zambezi River with three elephants on the shore in Zaibabwe.

Get Away From my Woman

 Africa, Animals, Cape Town, South Africa, Travel  1 Response »
Jan 202012
 

This is the second and third penguin we found. If you look in the background you can see the reason for this penguins terrifying, aggressive stance. He’s got his lady sat in the back of the nest. I’ve included a second picture to include Cameron’s National Geographic-esque attempt to get a better view. My 300mm lens prevented the need for me to get quite so close.

Penguin with an aggressive stance protecting his mate behind him under the rock in Cape Town, South Africa.

 

 

 

 

 

Hidden Penguin

 Africa, Animals, Cape Town, South Africa, Travel  2 Responses »
Jan 192012
 

We arrived in Cape Town after two back to back overnight flights. But, it was important that we kept moving. We could have sat around our hostel all day and been bored, then fallen asleep far too early to kick our jet-lag. So, we had a plan. We left the hostel immediately for Simons Town (via KFC for the two heathens in our entourage).

We were going to Simons Town to visit Boulders Bay. This is the location of the Western Capes penguin population. The trip was worth it for the train ride there. The tracks hug the coast and you feel like the waves could break into the trains window. Along the way we saw cormorants, seals, and surfers frolicking in the surf. It was incredible.

We arrived in Simons Town without a clue how to get to Boulders Bay. It was Sunday and the tourist information centre was closed but we kept walking. Eventually, after we’d split up to seek out sources of local information we found that it was a 15 minute walk away. We’d already twenty minutes on our weary jet-lagged legs and had little confidence in our sources time estimate. But, we persevered and it was worth it.

Upon arriving at Boulder Bay we were initially disappointed. It felt like a real tourist trap. We hit a fork in the path. To the left is where all the tour bus crowd were headed. We went right. We discovered penguins huddled under the bushes, but this was not the image I was in pursuit of. Looking down we could see the beach, with a few people sunbathing, with no penguins. However, it looked like the boulders weren’t fenced off, so we decided to do some rock hopping.

Once we got there our suspicions were confirmed and we went in search of penguins. I think we saw four in total, but it was great getting to be so close to them. Climbing over and under the rocks was good fun too. I got a lot of help from my friends in getting my gear through some pretty tight spaces. The below photo is the first penguin we saw on our exploration.

Western Capes penguin in the rocks at Boulders Bay, Cape Town, South Africa.

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