Sitting here, after taking this photo, I came to the conclusion that we were not going to make it to the bird cliffs at Latrabjarg. They are the furthest point of land in the direction this photo is looking in. As you can see, we still had a long way to go. It was still a great night with some pretty dramatic scenery. All of the photos I’ve released from Iceland thus far are from this night. It offered up the best sunset we had the entire time we were in Iceland.
Having so many photos from Iceland makes it pretty difficult to decide what to process first. I wanted something that typified Iceland for me, and was taken early on in the trip. This was taken towards the end of my first full night of shooting as the sun made its way back up over the horizon to track across the sky. The farm, the ocean and the mountain really do give you a good taste of the extremes experienced as you travel around the country. This was taken in the Westfjords, shortly after the decision was made to stop taking photos and get to bed. But, how could we not stop here?
Heading off to Husavik soon to go to the Phallological museum, whale museum and then out whale and puffin watching! Apparently they spotted blue whales two days ago. Hopefully they’re still about. Last night, we visited Lake Myvatn and it’s weird lava field surrounds, including an under ground hot spring that made for a pretty cool photo opportunity. Having a jeep paid off last night as our GPS directed us up a rough track, it didn’t look anything like a marked road. After driving a fair way in, the GPS beeped and asked if our car was suitable for that road. I have no idea how it can direct people up that road as most cars wouldn’t be able to take it.
This is the last of the photos that I have of Boulders Bay South Africa. I love the way these rocks have been carved by the elements. The tall skinny one jutting up feels like a modern, abstract sculpture.
I took a lot of pictures on that morning down at Horseshoe Bay. I won’t be publishing all of them but think this is pretty cool. It’s taken with my 14mm prime lens. One of the things I really like about this lens is the fact that it allows you to look off into the distance and almost straight down at the same time. It’s particularly effective when stood at the top of a cliff such as this one.
Next Saturday I’ll be visiting the most Westerly point in Europe, in Iceland. There’s a huge cliff there that’s home to multiple species of birds, including puffins. You can bet I’ll be using this lens to give a view straight down the cliff. With any luck I’ll get close enough to a puffin to include it in the foreground. I’ve heard they let you get really close, especially if you crawl up on your belly.
If you’re into photography that breaks from the norm, you should check this out. This photographer takes multiple shots through the days and combines them into amazing night and day photographs. I feel a need to figure out how to do this: http://9wows.com/day-and-night-in-new-york-city-captured-in-single-images-8-pictures/
This was a tricky shot to get as the light was low and there was an occasional breeze. I had to drop the aperture down lower than I’d have liked to keep the shutter speed fast enough to catch the flowers without the wind blowing. Even so, I had to make about 10 attempts to bracket 3 photos with a minimal amount of breeze. If I’d had a flash, it probably would have come in handy in this instance. I think I’ll go back another time with more light to try for full sharpness from front to back. But I think the blurred background in this version is kind of interesting.
I know I told you that my first time-lapse would be of an ice cube melting and that you’re all really excited to see that. Unfortunately, I’ve got to disappoint you. Yesterday, I shot a time-lapse of my friends as we cruised through Hamilton Harbor, Bermuda. The intervalometer was set to take a photo every 10 seconds. The end result is a 30 second video. I feel like it needs a sound-track, but can’t think of anything.
As a happy side effect of buying a second camera body, I took out one of my backup memory cards. Happily, I discovered some photos from New York I thought I’d managed to lose. Early in the morning, just before last Christmas I decided to set out and take some photos without anyone else around. The streets were empty as I’d expected. It was also really cold. Colder than I’d expected.
Bergdorf Goodman always has pretty extravagant window displays, so I decided to try to incorporate them in a few photos. I had seen a picture someone took on a train, where half the photo showed what was outside the window, the other half showed what was inside. This made me decide to try taking a similar approach with this shot.
I’ve been trying to decide on a photo to use as an example in my long awaited HDR tutorial. I’ve actually decided on a few, taken all the screenshots I need while processing it, and then lost the files. The first time, I somehow just forgot to save it. The second time, my computer froze on me just as I was preparing to save the images.
Finally, I got all the images I needed. Today’s photo will be the sample. So, if you’re interested in how I produced this photo, and the general method I use to produce all of my images, I suggest you follow this blog by entering your e-mail to the right, or follow me on twitter or just make sure you check back daily… AND, while you’re at it, tell your friends to check out the site! Tell all of your friends! You can do this by sharing posts you like on Facebook, Twitter etc. and sharing’s made easy via the buttons below the image!
Going down to Horseshoe morning after morning I grew more and more shocked by the level of activity going on. It seems a lot of Bermudians engage in a morning ritual revolving around Horseshoe Bay. There are people walking the length of the beach, people running and even, gasp, people swimming before May 24th. The swimmers turn up randomly and converge at the point where everyone leaves their dry clothes and towels. They all seem to know each other. Then, they swim out and float around together, chatting away. You can hear them from the top of the rock, where today’s photo is taken from! I decided I wanted to capture some of this action within one of my landscapes and when the swimmers formed a neat circle and drifted out to about the middle of the bay I decided that was my opportunity. It really is a nice time to be down there, you’re surrounded by beautiful scenery and friendly people. There’s supposed to be lightning tomorrow morning. I’m tempted to go down just to see if people still turn up.
This morning marked trip number 5 down to Horseshoe Bay for the sunrise and today, it paid off. Admittedly the photo I was picturing did not involve the top of the cliff as the foreground. However, after firing off a few shots with my 24-70mm lens, composed as planned, I broke out my favorite lens – the 14mm prime. Going that wide required that I include a nearby foreground and I’m glad I did. I’m happy with a number of shots from this morning that I’ll release over the next few days, but I think this is my favorite.
I’ve started enjoying going down to horseshoe before sunrise. It’s surprisingly active with people walking and jogging for exercise and surprising a number of brave individuals wading out into the chilly waters. Everyone down there is just friendly and happy. It’s pretty nice. I think I’ll keep going down to horseshoe a couple days a month for sunrise shots, it’s a big beach after all. I think I’ll sleep in tomorrow though.
I’ve had a few questions about what camera equipment I use so I’ve put together a “My Gear” page outlining what I use and what I like. I’ll update it with more bits and pieces as I get them.
Setting out on a cloudy day to attempt to photograph Somerset Bridge was never likely to work out well. It did provide opportunity to scout out the area. Upon arrival, it became clear that photographing the smallest drawbridge in the world may not be as easy as expected. It’s beautiful and in a beautiful area but portraying this on camera may not be as easy as it seems. It was high-tide and one conclusion that can be made is that it will be best to go at low tide, to wade out more in front of the bridge. This would not be possible.
After scouting out the area I went to check out a couple more locations. Unfortunately, as it turned out the researched spots were all on private property. After wandering a bit lost in Hog Bay Park I arrived here, the beach covered by the tide. I snapped a few photos, well after sunset, not really expecting to make anything of them. However, I did get today’s photo. It’s simple, but I like it.
After climbing over and crawling under the large boulders here I began my walk back to the entrance. On the way I made sure to get a few shots of the surreal beachfront scenery and Boulder Bay. This shot is a combination of 7 exposures, first aligned in Photoshop and then merged into one image in Photomatix before returning to Photoshop for last touches.
