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Svartifoss and Boulders in the Rain, Iceland

Nov 272012

Featured by Suzy Guese

I found out, on Twitter, that a fellow traveler, Suzy Guese, has a weekly competition for travel bloggers. For a week, she views submissions from all over the world and then chooses five of them. I decided to give it a shot by providing a link to one of my earliest posts, from Zambia. Check it out, along with four other exciting travel stories and follow her for a weekly dose of travel writing:

Suzy Stumbles Over Travel: Week of November 26, 2012

Today’s Photo: Svartifoss and Boulders in the Rain, Iceland

This is another photo of Svartifoss from the “nearly falling in the water” series. My travel partner and I clutched onto each other as we teetered on minimal boulder real estate. She held the umbrella, I worked the camera. There were a few errors resulting in half the umbrella breaking into the frame and the tripod inadvertently getting kicked after somebody slipped. I won’t say who. We were in this awkward position when two other photographers turned up with tripods in tow. They didn’t choose to balance themselves in the middle of the river while trying to operate an umbrella, camera, and prevent each-other from falling into the chilly current like we did. I think it was worth it. At the very least, it was good fun.

Victoria Falls double rainbow, Zambia

Africa, Travel, Victoria Falls, Waterfall, Zambia 1 Response »

Nov 262012

I’ve been talking with my travel buddy a lot today about our future plans. We’re confident that we’ll be going to Livingstone and the Victoria falls. This will be my second visit and her first. As you may be aware the last time I was there I went swimming in the Devil’s Pool. As it turns out, it looks like the water levels will still be low enough when we get there for us to take a dip atop the falls. I am very much looking forward to watching the look on her face as she takes the plunge.

With that in mind, I thought I’d post a picture capturing what we’re likely to see as we make the walk to the Devil’s Pool. Last time, this beautiful double rainbow greeted me shortly before we prepared to swim across the top of that waterfall to the Devil’s Pool. When I hung my head over the edge and looked down from the Devil’s Pool I realized that rather than a double rainbow there was actually a triple rainbow in the swirling mist. Next time I’m there I hope to get down to the falls for some sunrise/sunset shots.

Father and Son, Mountain Gorillas, Rwanda

Africa, Animals, Mountain Gorillas, Rwanda 186 Responses »

Nov 232012

I’m not going to say much about this photo, other than that I feel like the eye contact made between this silver back and young gorilla is pretty powerful.

The Unfinished Church Interior, Bermuda

Bermuda, Travel No Responses »

Nov 222012

If a building doesn’t have a roof, does it still have an interior?

This is the unfinished church up in St. Georges. Writing this post has made me realize that I don’t know much about it. A quick Google search tells me that construction was started in the 1870s after that parish’s church, St. Peters, was damaged by a storm. As it was thought that the damage was irreparable they began building. However, the replacement was not completed. Apparently, one of the issues was that the parishioners couldn’t agree on whether they should build a new church or fix St. Peters.

Unfortunately, it’s been deemed too dangerous to enter and big metal gates bar entry. It makes for an interesting challenge trying to find a good angle. I tried a few different methods. One of which involved setting my tripod on a windowsill while standing on a small ledge. The problem was that to frame up the picture I needed two hands. One to move the camera, the other to lock it in place. Every time I took both hands off I’d slowly fall off the wall. The solution was to have my girlfriend stand behind me and push me against the wall. In this position I was able to operate the camera. I did forget to mention to her when I’d finished using two hands and she could let go. We stayed in that position, with me balancing on my own, for quite a while longer than we needed.

For this shot, I stood at the metal gate and propped my tripod against it. I only used two legs so that I could slip the lens through the gaps in the metal. I only shot 3 exposures, from -2 to +2, because the sun was high enough that this would do the trick. I combined the three exposures using Photomatix and then cleaned it up a bit in Photoshop.

Hotpot at Geysir, Iceland

Europe, Iceland, Travel No Responses »

Nov 212012

This picture is the result of intense sleep deprivation and hunger. The sleep deprivation was the cumulative results of night after night out shooting followed by a few hours before moving to a new location. The hunger was due to a lack of planning.

Earlier, we’d enjoyed the incredible experience of swimming in the rift between the North American and European tectonic plates. The water was a crisp 2 degrees centigrade and tasted delicious. I spent most of the snorkel drinking the glacial melt water, which enters the rift via a spring after being purified by trickling through volcanic rock for years. This did result in my near drowning on a few occasions when I confused breathing through the snorkel, and drinking the water, however.

After this experience a good, hot, filling meal is, naturally, on the cards. However, we made a near fatal mistake. Rather than just getting crappy food at the visitors center we asked for directions to another restaurant. It was our last night in Iceland and we wanted to have a proper dinner. Unfortunately, when we arrived at the restaurant, 45 minutes later, it was closed. At this point, the visitors center would also be closed.

This is when it happened. My travel partner went from a happy-go-lucky, cheerful soul to a grumpy, sarcastic hunger machine. We bounced from one restaurant to the next, desperate for a scrap of food. Unfortunately there was none to be had. Fortunately, for me, I found the grumpy, sarcastic hunger machine hilarious.

My spirits buoyed, by the hilarity of the melt-down occurring next to me, we pushed on with just a small supply of 2 day old gummy candies we found under the seat to hold us over. We visited what are probably the two most popular tourist sites in Iceland for any kind of tours. For the first time in our trip, we actually saw people in these locations after midnight. We were used to being totally alone.

Today’s photo is from a seismically active area called Geysir. The name gives it away, but the area is pockmarked by geysers, large and small. Today’s photo is one of the smaller ones that just perpetually churned away, spitting out hot steam.

After our visit here we made a visit to Godafoss, an incredible waterfall, before making the 2 hour drive back to Reykjavik where the leftovers of our Thai dinner the night before were waiting. I passed out immediately, without eating. My travel mate finally got to feed.

The Batoka Gorge, Zambia/Zimbabwe

Africa, Travel, Waterfall, Zambia, Zimbabwe 7 Responses »

Nov 202012

I’m planning on making my way back here in January. I can’t wait to see the cliff to the left, and actually the very spot where I was standing to take this picture, inundated by flowing and tumbling white water.

3 Little Birds, Tampa Bay, Florida

Florida, Travel 322 Responses »

Nov 192012

While I was out on the dock at the Tampa Bay Hyatt a load of birds decided to settle on the end of the dock. It was like a scene from Hitchcock. I set up and took a few photos of the birds. As I moved closer more and more would get scared away. In the end I was left with one bird per lamppost. I knew at the time that having just the three birds spaced nice and evenly made for a nicer composition than the earlier flock.

If you’re interested in seeing the effect that the time of day has on the light in an image you can compare this image to the one shot from earlier in the morning, during the blue hour. Today’s photo was shot shortly before the sun appeared above the horizon behind me and the stark difference in colour is pretty clear. I think there’s about 20 minutes between the two images.

Inside the Turf Church, Iceland

Europe, Iceland, Travel 2 Responses »

Nov 182012

I’ve uploaded a photo of this little church before. It’s constructed with a traditional turf roof. After poking my head inside I decided it could be cool to get a shot of the altar looking up from the ground. I sat down right next to the door and started trying to take a picture from the ground. I had to go lower than my tripod would allow so I was hand holding my camera and trying to line up the pews and the floorboards symmetrically. It was pretty tricky and I was in a pretty awkward position. At one point the door opened and someone came in. I was pretty embarrassed to be caught by a stranger in this odd position on a church floor. I was relieved when the person who came in to join me was my travel buddy who was used to me being in odd positions by then.

Flowers in the Wind, a Lighthouse, and a Boat on Land in Gardur, Iceland

Europe, Iceland, Travel 2 Responses »

Nov 172012

On my first night in Iceland I stayed out, excited by the lack of darkness, until I got too cold to go any further. On my way back to our guesthouse I decided to stop and take some more photos of the flowers moving around in the biting wind. I wanted to show the flowers’ movement so I stuck with a small aperture to let them blur and fired off 7 exposures ranging from -3 to +3.

I’ve been trying to avoid posting images from the same place day after day. However, I’ve realised that I’ve got far more pictures from Iceland than anywhere else, and I won’t get to do anymore traveling until the New Year. So you’ll be seeing a lot of Iceland photos for the next couple of months.

On the Road in Iceland

Europe, Iceland, Travel 1 Response »

Nov 152012

This is a photo I had to take in Iceland. Our trusty jeep that could take us wherever we wanted to go. We were either in this jeep or stood nearby the vast majority of the hours we spent in Iceland. I really don’t know how we got through with so little sleep. You can see my trusty driver sat waiting as I hopped out to take some photos in the crux of a Fjord in the East Fjord region of Iceland.

Pro-tip: When renting a car in Iceland, think about fuel usage, not just rental cost. You’re going to be doing a lot of driving and it won’t even feel like it. We got a good deal on the week’s long rental, but the fuel costs were astronomical!! Next time I may be on the bus!

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