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Midnight Horses, Westfjords, Iceland

Animals, Europe, Iceland, Travel 10 Responses »

Jun 292012

After failing to reach the giant bird-cliff at Latrabjarg we were making our way back to the hostel. I stumbled upon this scene. Three identical looking horses hanging about a ruin in front of a shack. It was definitely time to make a stop. My travel buddy was a large animal vet who had been trying to catch some sleep on the drive back. She didn’t mind getting woken up for these guys though.

Icelandic horses are pretty incredible. They’re little stout things but incredibly photogenic with rugged coats and flowing manes. You could probably spend all of your time in Iceland photographing just the horses. There were a number of fields full of horses I could see myself spending hours at if I had more time. I’m hoping to spend all of June in Iceland next year. If I do get to do that I’ll definitely spend a lot of time hopping fences for closeups of Icelandic horses.

Charles Bridge, Prague

Czech Republic, Europe, Prague, Travel 14 Responses »

Jun 282012

This is the last of my photos from Prague, for now, anyway. It’s a great city and I’ll certainly be heading back at some point. This is one of the most recognizable landmarks in Prague, Charles Bridge. It’s pretty difficult to get a shot with no tourists crossing the bridge. I’ve talked about other methods I’ve used involving combining multiple images to mask out any people or just getting there really early. With this shot, it all came down to patience. I set up and waited until there was no one in the way.

The Journey

Travel, Zambia, Zimbabwe 269 Responses »

Jun 272012

Late Night Tonight

I’ve decided to stick with my rule of not posting photos from the same country two days in a row (I know I’ve broken it in the past), but I’m desperate to work up some of my Iceland photos. I expect I’ll be up late tonight doing just that. On top of that I was in the middle of redesigning the site when I had to take a break to travel to Iceland. I really want to make a little more progress on that tonight.

For those of you patiently waiting for my tutorial, I did make a lot of progress before leaving. I find I work best on the weekends when I can really dedicate a lot of time to it. I’ll be putting in some more effort this weekend.

Today’s Photo: The Journey

Canoeing down the Lower Zambezi makes use of the old cliché “the journey is half the fun” really come into its own. Drifting casually down the river (while carefully keeping your limbs in the canoe) is punctuated by moments of intense activity and excitement. A lot of the time this is brought on by hippos hanging about in the shallows. The problem posed here is that when hippos get scared they head for deep water. So, if you’re in between the hippos and the deep water, you’ve got a problem. As a result, the approach is simply a bold game of chicken, in which you steer straight at the hippos in an effort to move them into the deep. Other exciting moments resulted from elephants coming down to the water to drink and play, which Chris and I may or may not have gotten dangerously close to. Other times the excitement was that we had an opportunity to get out of the canoes, whether it was to eat lunch, make camp, or go for a swim in a “safe” stretch of river. I say “safe” because, when asked, our guide said we were safe from crocodiles in the shallow water because we could fight off a crocodile there. Now, I don’t know about you, but in my opinion, if I’m having to fight off a crocodile I am already in serious trouble!

This photo was taken at one of the calmer moments as we floated through a narrow channel of the river. I’ve changed my approach to photos with moving subjects. Rather than trying to combine three different exposures I’m working with one RAW. Using Photoshop’s RAW converter I create three images by adjusting the exposure of the original. Then I combine these three images using Photomatix. This way, I don’t have to deal with loads of ghosting issues. If you look through my gorilla photos by clicking the category to the right, the last few have employed this method and you should be able to see an improvement over my earlier attempts.

Golden Morning, Iceland

Iceland, Travel 3 Responses »

Jun 262012

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?

Cute and Fuzzy Gorilla

Africa, Animals, Mountain Gorillas, Rwanda, Travel 12 Responses »

Jun 252012

I’m back home from Iceland now so can get back to my daily photo posting. It was difficult to get them done while in Iceland as any time that I wasn’t desperate for a few hours sleep I was out exploring. I’m looking forward to processing and posting the photos I took there. That being said, I’m still pretty worn out so you get a quick post today and a photo of a really cute, fuzzy Gorilla.

Martello Tower, Bermuda

Bermuda, Travel 1 Response »

Jun 222012

Iceland Progress

I wish I could say that I’ve missed the past couple of day’s posts because I didn’t have any internet. Instead, we’ve just been operating on a pretty exhausting schedule. We’re about to finish our circumnavigation of the country. Yesterday, I realized that I could film a pretty cool time-lapse while driving using my wide angle lens, my back-up camera, intervalometer and a Nikon lens cap someone left in our jeep before we picked it up. I realized this yesterday, on our second last day. I could have had a video of the entire journey, but I only realized it yesterday. It’s alright though, it just means I’ll have to come back, I’m thinking for the whole month of June next year. We’ve been talking about how to spend a month here as it’s painfully expensive – we’re dropping about $100 on gas alone every day. The country’s full of free campsites, so I think on my return I’ll be sleeping in a tent. It’s good though, as there’s no need to meet check-in times and you can decide to stop whenever you get too tired to go on. Today we head to Reykjavik, after backtracking a bit to the glacier bay. It was cloudy and rainy yesterday and last night, so decided to leave photographing the crystal blue chunks of ice until the sun was out this morning. Tonight, we’ll be snorkeling the rift under the midnight sun and then possibly touring the Golden Circle, which will get us truly back on the tourist trail.

Today’s Photo: Martello Tower

Back to Bermuda in a couple of days when I’ll actually get to process some Iceland photos! Here’s a shot from Bermuda taken a few weeks ago up at Ferry Reach.

Boulder Bay Sculptures

Africa, South Africa, Travel No Responses »

Jun 192012

Iceland Update

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.

Today’s Photo

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.

Queen’s View Panorama

Bermuda, Travel 1 Response »

Jun 182012

My plan to get all of my posts ready before taking off for Iceland didn’t pan out. So, I’m sat writing this from the Western Fjords. My first day in Iceland has been quite eventful. If you’ve seen my Facebook page you know what my logo looks like. The bird is an arctic tern. About an hour into our drive today I hopped out of the car to photograph a waterfall. I heard a screech, looked up, and realised I was under attack from my logo. They’re not big birds, but they’re bloody terrifying.

Today’s Photo: Queen’s View Panorama

This is shot from Lighthouse hill, just below Gibb’s Hill Lighthouse. I decided to try to capture the whole of the view that caused the Queen to pause and take it in. To do that I had to shoot 4 different frames, each with three exposures, and stitch them together.

I’m off now to spend the night driving through the Western Fjords. The light is already looking amazing on the mountains.

Winter Vineyard

Canada, Ontario, Travel 12 Responses »

Jun 172012

Where in Iceland is Johnny (hopefully)?

Today should be my first full day in Iceland. We’ll be picking up our jeep and making our way through Reykjavik to the entrance of the Westfjords. If we have enough energy, and leave early enough we may be able to take a detour to look around the Snaefellsness Peninsula on the way. After checking in it will be time for a nap before a full night of shooting. My plan is to drive along the south side of the Westfjords all the way to the bird cliffs that mark the most Westerly point in Europe. On the way there I’ll be stopping at a really big beach that looks pretty interesting on Google maps. On the way back to the hostel I plan on stopping at the Dynjandi Waterfall.

Today’s Photo: Winter Vineyard

After visiting Niagara Falls I drove the road running alongside the river towards Niagara-on-the-Lake. As I drove along the golden glow of the sun on these barren vines caught my eyes and I decided to stop to try to capture it. In the process of taking this photo I discovered that my camera was unhappy with the amount of water it had contacted while under Niagara Falls. It started firing off at will, the only way to stop it was to turn it off. This made taking my bracketed photos a challenge, and sifting through the multiple unnecessary shots the camera decided to add even more difficult. It was this incident that made me decide to buy a backup camera body. My Canon 7d‘s first big outing will be to Iceland where I expect it will first come into its own while photographing the puffins in the Eastfjords.

Something Interesting: Road Between Small Norwegian Islands

As it’s going to be my first day of driving in Iceland it seems fitting that I’d post this video of a drive, in Norway, that I’ve recently added to my to do list. This road looks absolutely insane! Especially with the waves crashing over it later in the video. Click here to view this amazing road.

Jus’ Chillin’

Africa, Animals, Mountain Gorillas, Rwanda, Travel 6 Responses »

Jun 162012

Where in Iceland is Johnny (hopefully)?

I’ve written these posts in advance so can’t tell you where I actually am. I can tell you where I hope to be, if everything goes to plan. There’s actually not much to report today. I arrive at Keflavik Airport at 11:50pm. Fortunately, my travel buddy will be getting in a day ahead of me so I’ll have a bed all ready for me. But, I expect I won’t be able to resist a first photo session under the midnight sun.

Today’s Photo: Jus’ Chillin’

The first question I get when I talk about visiting the gorillas in Rwanda is, “was it scary?”

Who could be scared of this guy?

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