3 Little Birds, Tampa Bay, Florida

 Florida, Travel  306 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.

Three birds sitting on the light posts on the Grand Hyatt Tampa Bay's Boat Dock

Getting to the Bottom of Svartifoss, Iceland

 Europe, Iceland, Travel, Waterfall  7 Responses »
Nov 132012
 

After teetering on the edge of collapsing into the river along with my camera gear and my travel buddy (aka my umbrella holder), I scrambled back onto the bank and decided to further my attempt to fall in by crossing the rope barrier to get a closer look at the incredible Svartifoss.

It was raining and gloomy. We’d walked for about an hour to get here, but when we arrived, we forgot about how cold, damp and miserable the hike had been. This waterfall is beautiful. I’d decided I wanted to capture the thin veil of water that tumbled onto the jagged rocks at its base. I was able to climb an outcrop and set my camera up with tripod on the lowest level, to snap this shot.

I tried processing this through Photomatix as I normally do to produce HDR images but eventually decided it wasn’t necessary. I just used one exposure and tweaked the contrast and saturation in Photoshop then boosted the detail a bit using Topaz Adjust.

Thin veil of water tumbling on to the jagged rocks covered in green moss landing in a pool of water at the base of Svartifoss waterfall in Skaftafel, Iceland

More Ice on the Beach, Jokulsarlon, Iceland

 Europe, Iceland, Travel  1 Response »
Nov 122012
 

These glaciers melting on the beach were really cool. We spent about 2 hours wandering amongst them. I really liked the one on the left in this picture. I think it looks like that because it’s been melted by the rain that fell the night before, but I don’t really know if that’s the case. We tasted some of it too. Delicious!!

Glaciers melting on a black sand beach with ocean waves in Jokulsarlon, Iceland

Westfjords Waterfall

 Europe, Iceland, Travel, Waterfall  No Responses »
Nov 052012
 

In previous posts I’ve mentioned that on our first full night in Iceland we set out to drive the full length of the southern coast of the Westfjords. I also mentioned that we didn’t make it. In theory it should have been possible. It was a four hour drive there. We’d spend two hours photographing puffins on the most westerly point in Europe, and drive back. We expected to stop occasionally on the way down and I actually had a couple of stops planned near the end of our journey.

On this ill-fated journey I realized that I had to rethink ambitious plans like these. The problem is that, in Iceland, unexpected photo opportunities appear frequently in whatever direction you head in. Today’s photo is an example of this. There are a lot of waterfalls in Iceland. There are a load of named, famous waterfalls, but there are even more beautiful small waterfalls like this one.

The next time I go, my plan is to take the ferry out to the puffins and drive back from there. This should guarantee we see what we missed last time. I’m determined to photograph some puffins.

Waterfall meandering down the green covered rocky hills to a stream in Westfjords Iceland

 

Gardur Lighthouse, Iceland

 Europe, Iceland, Travel  No Responses »
Nov 042012
 

I took a lot of photos on my first night in Iceland. You’re probably all getting sick of seeing this lighthouse. This is the last one I’ve got, I promise… at least until I go back there again this June.

Gardur Lighthouse at end of long cement path on rock coast with clouds and sunset in the background in Iceland

 

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.

Boat Dock in Blue, Hyatt, Tampa Bay

 Florida, Travel  219 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

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