johnny peacock » Traverse Earth

Arboral Reflex

Canada, Ontario, Toronto, Travel 7 Responses »

Apr 122012

It’s amazing what you can find when you leave the road and set off on foot. I pulled over because I saw a lone tree standing at the end of a dirt lane surrounded by dried up grape vines. The sun was setting behind it. I kept walking closer, trying to find a picture. I fired off a couple and then decided to continue on past the tree. It looked like it was at the precipice of a hill and I thought there my be a view out over the landscape from there. As it turned out, the elevation wasn’t as great as I’d expected. Despite that though, I’d stumbled upon this scene and quickly set about trying to capture it.

Spare Doors for Sale

New York, Travel 3 Responses »

Apr 112012

Iceland Planning

My upcoming trip to Iceland is starting to come together. I’m going for the solstice so that I can take pictures during the extended sunsets/sunrises. The sun only dips under the horizon at this time of year so it’s going to be light 24 hours a day. To take advantage of the golden hours I’m going to have to be shooting from about 10:00pm until 4:00am. My original plan was to stay up all night taking photos and sleeping during the day. I was trying to plot a route that would allow me to arrive at a new hotel every morning. The next step was going to be convincing hotels to let me stay for just the daytime.

This got frustrating because, assuming I’d managed to book hotels, it was very difficult to make these jumps from hotel to hotel on the back roads I want to photograph and manage to make it all the way around the island in a week. It also made it impossible to schedule in a few activities I’d like to do that take place during the day – snorkeling the rift, whale watching, and a somewhat odd museum.

I’ve come up with the solution. I’ll be sleeping twice a day. So, I’ll drive from hotel to hotel in the middle of the day, sleep for the evenings and then head out all night for the best light. Then, I’ll go to sleep again from about 4am until about 5 minutes before the hotel forces me to check out.

This route actually means that I can spend a couple of nights in two locations, allowing me to dedicate a day to whale watching as well as a day for snorkeling the rift. The only thing I need to fit in now to make me perfectly happy is a visit to the ice caves of Kverkfjöll. They’re in the interior so I’m not sure I want to drive there on my own. Apparently, there’s also a chance of cave-ins so a guide is pretty essential. Unfortunately, the only tours I’ve found so far last 12 hours! That’s not going to do the trick.

Spare Doors for Sale

I found these taxi garages in New York really interesting. They were really long and narrow, this one particularly so. It must be a real pain getting cars in and out, having to empty the shop every time. I took this photo with a wide angle lens in order to emphasize the depth. As i mentioned in a prior post I didn’t have my tripod with me as checking in at the Yotel was proving complicated and I’d let them store my bag without removing my tripod. As a result, I had to shoot handheld so I had to use a smaller depth of field than I would have liked.

Ticket Booths by Night

Canada, Ontario, Toronto, Travel 9 Responses »

Apr 102012

I’d have liked to get out to Toronto Island during my time there. In fact, my plan was to head there immediately after checking into my hotel. Unfortunately, I missed my connection in New York and got in far too late. I walked by and decided the ticket booths would make for a good photo.

Crystal Coast, Tobermory, Ontario

Canada, Ontario, Travel 2 Responses »

Apr 092012

Growing up in Bermuda has made me a bit of a water snob. It’s hard to imagine anywhere topping the beautiful turquoise waters cocooning the island. Now I’m not sure I’m allowed to say this, but, the waters of Lake Huron, just off of Tobermory, at the very end of the Bruce Peninsula, are definitely a contender. It was nothing like I expected, so blue and clear. Amazing. After taking a few photos I just sat and stared at it for a while before heading back up to the car.

Bermuda Morning, Harrington Sound

Bermuda, Travel No Responses »

Apr 092012

I’m looking forward to dragging myself out at the crack of dawn for photos before work as we move into summer. I took this photo last year at Harrington Sound. There were these stormy looking clouds all over the sky but it was completely calm. Then these opened up and allowed some of the sun’s pink rays to get out.

Sun’s up, Sky’s Blue

Canada, Ontario, Travel 3 Responses »

Apr 072012

Tip-toeing about the lot enclosing this dilapidated barn I was on edge. There was a small house about 20 feet away, but I couldn’t tell for sure if it was inhabited. There was no-one about to ask if I could wander about the property, but I knew there would be some good photos about. Sure enough, there were.

This was about as far as I was willing to go down this dirt road. If someone had pulled in I’d have preferred to be visible from the road. I wouldn’t want anyone thinking I was a prowler hiding from view. It’d also allow me to walk straight over to them to say good morning and hope they were as friendly as everyone else I’d met around Niagara-on-the-Lake. As it turned out, nobody showed up.

This photo required a slightly different treatment to the usual. It was so bright that I realized my exposure bracketing would need to extend to -4. In order to get my Canon 5d Mk II to take this, I had to set it to auto bracket the following: -4, -2, 0. After this I fired off an additional three frames at -3,-1,+1. I took a look at the exposures and realized that the +1 had captured all the details in the shadows and I wouldn’t need to go any further. I combined these in Photomatix prior to polishing up in Photoshop.

The title of this photo is inspired by the Beatles’s. I had to go into work today and The White Album is my go-to when I need to get my head down and get some work done. I just decided to give it another listen so found it on YouTube. As I tried to think of a name for this photo John Lennon sang the line “the sun is up, the sky is blue” in Dear Prudence. I decided that was fitting.

If you’re ever in need of a bit of The White Album and don’t have it to hand, I found it all here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9a9TMpAwwBw

Paradis Malahide Morning

Africa, Rwanda, Travel No Responses »

Apr 062012

Another view of the shoreline of Lake Kivu occupied by the Padis Malahide Hotel. I was actually staying in the room you can see in the picture, just above the beach. If you look at this photo in full size you can see the church featured in this post. Just to the right of the frame is the dock where the fishermen set out every night and returned the next morning.

Flight Stop, Eaton Center

Canada, Ontario, Toronto, Travel 6 Responses »

Apr 052012

It’s possible that Eaton Centre was built with HDR photography in mind. There are so many lines and textures and bits hanging from the ceiling it can make for some very interesting images.

…and where do you think you’re going?

Africa, Animals, Mountain Gorillas, Rwanda, Travel 15 Responses »

Apr 042012

This gorilla is the same as the first of the gorilla shots I posted. After I’d shot the first photo he moved to this position and paused for a moment before he and the big guy behind him began walking towards me. I felt the guides hand on my shoulder and stepped back accordingly. The gorillas casually walked over the spot I’d just occupied and only a few feet from my current location. Amazing.

Rogers Centre

Canada, Ontario, Toronto, Travel 261 Responses »

Apr 032012

Before writing about today’s post I’d just like to state that the roads around Toronto are bloody terrifying for an island boy used to driving on the left. I haven’t got a clue how anybody from out of town ever could have navigated the corkscrewing web of highways prior to GPS. I was using a TomTom and even it got confused. Just as we were reaching our destination it instructed me to keep right. Somewhat unsurprisingly this lane split off, with no warning or recourse, before the off ramp that the TomTom thought it was directing me to. Fortunately, the little machine successfully assessed the situation and plotted a new route.

That was at the end of my trip, this photo was at the beginning but the traffic reminded me of my return journey. I’ve had a bit of a whinge in a previous post about some of the difficulties I encountered on the night I arrived. My flight to New York was delayed and resulted in me missing my connection. I got there far too late to hit all the points I had planned. I decided on my way into the city that I’d concentrate on taking some skyline shots with the last remaining light. Then, the fog, the all enveloping fog that obscured the city from view.

It seemed unlikely that the viewpoints I first had in mind would be possible in these conditions. I could only see a couple of blocks in all directions. I resigned myself to doing some research with the plan to have a really successful morning, if the fog had receded. Then, I realized I was near one of the viewpoints I’d researched and decided to check it out.

I arrived on top of the Queen’s Quay Parking Garage, with a view of the Gardiner Expressway, Rogers Centre and the CN Tower. On this night the CN Tower was just a stem, disappearing into the clouds, but, then the fog became my ally. The purple lights of Rogers Centre glowed in the fog and buildings faded in and out as traffic flowed into the city. Happily, I set up for my first successful photo in Toronto.

I keep mentioning my pre-planned view points of Toronto. I had discovered these points the day before I left for Toronto on the following site:

http://www.blogto.com/toronto/lists/the_top_views_of_toronto/

I processed this photo as usual but then brought back the shadows as I felt that the HDR process had actually pulled out features i couldn’t see (or didn’t notice) at the time. The photo felt more natural with darker shadows.

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