Lighthouse to Lighthouse, Gardur Iceland

 Europe, Iceland, Travel  14 Responses »
Nov 012012
 

In this shot, I’m stood atop the lighthouse featured in a number of earlier posts (here, here, and here). While set up to take this picture I got the scare of my life. It was about 3am and there was no one around. Then suddenly I felt the need to turn around. I spun around and discovered to my horror a man climbing through the hatch in the roof. I couldn’t help myself and a stream of expletives escaped my mouth. We spoke with him briefly. He was Icelandic but not from the area. He never really made it clear what he was doing up there. I left him up there after I finished taking the photos.

The weirdest part is, the only way to get into the lighthouse is via the path in this photo. As you can see, I had a good view of the only approach and was watching it very closely as I was photographing it. I didn’t see anyone approach the lighthouse. He just appeared out of nowhere. Come to think of it, this probably would have been a good post for Halloween night.

Elevated view of white Gardur lighthouse with roads leading to and around it with ocean, clouds and blue sky in background in Iceland.

Rock Pile, Westfjords

 Europe, Iceland, Travel  4 Responses »
Oct 302012
 

Why is it that wherever you go in the world, if are out in a remote area, with a great expansive view, people will create rock piles of various shapes and sizes? It’s an interesting phenomena. I’ve seen them in South America, Africa, and, most recently, Europe. I captured one of the rock piles I found in Iceland in today’s photo.

Rock pile in remote area with expansive view of water and sky in Westfjords, Iceland

Boat Dock in Blue, Hyatt, Tampa Bay

 Florida, Travel  221 Responses »
Oct 292012
 

I recently spent 4 days in Florida visiting my girlfriend. My first two days were spent in Williston. It’s a beautiful area with moss draped trees punctuating fields for livestock. Unfortunately, I’d just done a lot of traveling in a short space of time and was completely worn out when I got there. As a result, I didn’t summon the energy to get the camera gear out until we’d made it to Tampa, where we decided to spend a couple of nights.

We stayed at the Grand Hyatt Tampa Bay and were given the option to stay in the resort area of the hotel which had a pool, tiki bar and table tennis. It was also where this interesting looking dock was located that I’d spotted on google maps. Our first morning there we dragged ourselves out of bed at sunrise and I photographed this dock from the beginning of the blue hour right up until the end of the golden hour. As a result, I’ve got a series documenting the subtle changing of colours from night time until daylight. The first of these photos is the Blue version, below.

Long wooden boat dock with lights on calm blue sea during the blue hour at the Hyatt Resort in Tampa Bay, Florida

The Fisherman, Zambia

 Africa, Travel, Zambia  No Responses »
Oct 282012
 

I found this image of a fisherman in Zambia, with his dugout canoe, that I processed quite a while ago but never posted it. I think at the time I was going through a panoramic phase and decided I needed to post something that wasn’t in this format. Then, I forgot about this image. Upon finding it, I remembered I like it and that it should be online.

Standing fisherman in a dugout canoe on the lower Zambezi river in Zambia with vegetation and hills in the background

Elephant Damaged Baobab

 Africa, Travel, Zambia  2 Responses »
Oct 242012
 

Baobab trees really are fascinating. Grand in stature they loom over the Zambian landscape like giants frozen in time. Surprisingly, they are completely hollow on the inside. We got to experience this first hand when our guides took us to a lodge where they’ve actually put a door in the side of one of these mammoth trees that opens up to reveal a bathroom! This discovery was pretty shocking, but  I found that people actually used this toilet more shocking. Just above head height, sleeping inside the tree were a handful of bats. I wonder how many people wound up running out with their pants around their ankles after startling the bats.

Another interesting thing about baobabs is that their greatest enemy is elephants. Using their tusks, they peel the trees and eat the bark, causing big holes to form. We can see the result of this practice in today’s picture.

Baobab tree with large doorway-size hole in trunk caused by elephants in the center of a dirt field in Zambia.

Golden Cliffs, Westfjords, Iceland

 Europe, Iceland, Travel  2 Responses »
Oct 232012
 

Every time I work on a photo of Iceland I look forward to going back. Today’s shot was taken well after midnight, as the sun dipped just below the horizon. I’d hopped out of the car to take the picture featured here Fjords and Flowers. When I packed up and started making my way back to the car, I noticed the golden light hitting portions of the mountain above me.

Golden cliffs with majestic sky with green field dotted with sheep in Westfjords, Iceland

My First Macro

 Animals, Bermuda, Macros, Travel  1 Response »
Oct 192012
 

I mentioned a while back that I managed to stretch my insurance money for the stolen equipment pretty far by purchasing second hand items as much as I could. This meant that I added a macro lens to my arsenal. I’ve always been interested in macro photography but never really given it a try. It’s definitely not easy and I’m already learning that shooting macro in natural light is incredibly difficult. I’ll be purchasing some sort of flash as soon as possible.

One bonus I’ve got is that one of my windows functions like an ever changing terrarium. It’s got a load of leaves and vines over it and all sorts of little creatures turn up, including today’s photo of a lizard. This guy was about 4 inches long.

Macro closeup of green and yellow Bermuda lizard with protruding eye on a leaf

Sailing Lake Como

 Europe, Italy, Travel  1 Response »
Oct 172012
 

Today’s photo is another shot from Lake Como with a sailboat dwarfed by the surrounding mountains that rise, almost vertically, from the water’s surface. Can’t write much tonight as I need to get packing. I’m off to the Bahamas tomorrow for a meeting then taking a few days off in Florida. Don’t have a big enough bag to take all my camera gear at the moment so have some tricky decisions to make.

Sailboat dwarfed by the surrounding mountains that rise, almost vertically, from the water's surface on Lake Como, Italy.

Photo Opportunity near Keflavik Airport, Reykjavik

 Europe, Iceland, Travel  1 Response »
Oct 162012
 

Straight out of Keflavik, Camera Blazing

It seems like a lot of flights to Iceland arrive in the middle of the night. During the long days of summer this means arriving under the midnight sun. As I landed I was desperate to get out of the airport and break out my camera as the sunset lit the sky. Luckily, I was booked into a guesthouse in a picturesque little place called Gardur. There’s two lighthouses there so you can happily fill your first night in Iceland shooting.

Today’s Photo: Approaching the old Lighthouse, Gardur

As I approached this lighthouse I didn’t expect that we’d actually be able to go up to the top  of it. Then, my travel buddy disappeared through the open door. Climbing to the top was pretty tricky with my camera, backpack and tripod. It’s a series of ladders with little openings in each floor to climb through. There’s some strange art installations inside as well. All in all, it was pretty creepy.

Red and white Gardur Lighthouse with long straight road leading to it along rocky coast with midnight sun in background in Iceland

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