Lake Kivu Fishermen

 Africa, Rwanda, Travel  6 Responses »
Feb 112012
 

As mentioned before, our 3 week journey through 3 countries in Africa ended with two days of relaxation at the Paradis Malihide in Gisenyi. It was the perfect way to unwind. This is another photo of the fishermen making their way out onto Lake Kivu, to work their nets through the night in search of talapia and little black sambassa. They have to fish with nets because, as Cameron discovered after an hour casting his fly into the lake, these are the only two types of fish in the lake and neither of them is carnivorous. Once Cameron discovered this, he turned to teaching one of the waiters how to fly cast. Across the lake, through the haze, you can see the hills of the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

Fishermen on Lake Kivu, Gisenyi, Rwanda, heading out at night to work their nets from their triple hulled boat in search of talapia and little black sambassa.

Guiding Light

 Bermuda, Travel  3 Responses »
Feb 092012
 

Gibbs Hill lighthouse, as seen from the Yacht Club on Albuoy’s Point in Hamilton, Bermuda. Bermuda has two lighthouses. This one and St. David’s lighthouse in the East. Bermuda’s waters are treacherous. The 21 mile island is surrounded by reef. Its large collection of ship wrecks helped to earn it the moniker The Devil’s Isles back in the days of tall ships. It was the reefs that resulted in the eventual settlement of the island when the British ship, the Sea Venture, on it’s way to Jamestown, was shipwrecked here in 1609. All survived the wreck and lived on the plentiful wild hogs, fish, and birds until they were able to build two new ships from the island’s substantial cedar supply and move on to Jamestown. In 1611 the British returned, to colonize the island.

View of Gibbs Hill Lighthouse as seen from Albuoy’s Point in Bermuda with a pink and blue sunset.

Upper Zambezi Sunset

 Africa, Travel, Zambia, Zimbabwe  5 Responses »
Feb 062012
 

Jollyboys Hostel menu of activities includes a combo price for white water rafting and a booze cruise. It sounds like a fantastic idea and it really is. What’s not such a good idea is indulging in the booze cruise  the night before the rafting. Although, taking category 5 rapids head on is probably the best hangover cure in the world, unless you’re Cameron.

There are a lot of booze cruises going on in Bermuda and they’re great. But this one was a completely different concept all together. First of all, we were on a river. Second of all the water was chock full of hippos and crocodiles. On shore, you can see elephants and warthogs. It really is an incredible experience. The open bar doesn’t hurt. We paused to watch the sun dip below the horizon before heading back to dock, and I snapped this photo. It’s a  pretty basic sunset shot, which I wouldn’t normally take, but I thought the clouds were particularly interesting. I used my 14mm lens to compress the sky into the image.

 

Glorious sunset over the Upper Zambezi River in Zambia with really majestic clouds.

Purple Haze

 Bermuda, Travel  No Responses »
Jan 292012
 

This is the view from Mount Island, Bermuda . It’s just off Spanish Point, I actually waded out to it. This was shot right after the sun had dipped below the horizon. You can see the cruise ships in the background moored up in Dockyard. I dialed back the effect of the HDR process on this one. It was useful in bringing up a bit of detail in the foreground but I liked the way the island looked as a silhouette.

I’m planning on committing my day tomorrow to finishing up my free HDR tutorial and getting it online.

View from Mount Island, Bermuda, just off Spanish Point, right after the sun had set below the horizon with the cruise ships in the background moored up in Dockyard.

 

New York Skyline at Sunset

 New York, Travel  2 Responses »
Jan 252012
 

This is the trip where I really got to test out my new Canon 5d Mk II and L-series lenses. I walked across Brooklyn Bridge and actually got my timing completely wrong. The sun had set by the time I got there. I set up for a night shot of the skyline, and then the sunset provided an encore, spreading pink light across the sky.

I’m a little embarrassed to admit that I was initially annoyed to have cranes ruining my skyline shot. This was taken a week before the marking of the tenth year after 9/11. I processed this while watching a documentary on the progress of the World Trade Center’s new tower. Suddenly, I realized that is the building with the cranes in my photo. I understand that when this photo was taken it was at about half of the height it will reach.

Night shot of the skyline of New York with the sunset spreading pink light across the sky (cranes shown are at the site of the New World Trade Center).

 

Bermuda Sunset on the Dock

 Bermuda, Travel  3 Responses »
Jan 032012
 

This shot is from my friends’ house in Spanish Point, Bermuda and looks out across the Great Sound. I spent a good deal of my summer here after they moved in. I also took a ton of photos here and neglected the rest of the island. It’s tough not gravitating to this point at sunset as it’s perfectly located and seems to have unlimited vantage points and new angles to use. On top of this there’s always a beer or two available and the potential for spontaneous barbequing.

This image was created using one picture, shot in RAW format, rather than multiple images. I adjusted the exposure of the raw images to provide three images ranging from -2 to +2. Then I ran these through Photomatix before Photoshop where I used the Topaz Adjust to bump up the contrast and sharpen the image. I wish I could give you a sound reason why I used this method and not multiple exposures. But, it’s just because I used my multiple images and wasn’t happy with the results. There was far too much noise in the foreground and sky. So I started playing around with different methods  and found this worked far better in this instance.

Fiery orange sunset from a dock in Spanish Point, Bermuda that looks out across the Great Sound.

 

 

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