I love design and abstracts of buildings. Looking for and photographing these kind of shots is something I look forward to when visiting small and large cities. This is image, is the well know Opera House in Sydney Australia. It’s an amazing building and very iconic. I have done a lot of images of this building and the ones I have that are different work best for me. I converted this to black and white and like the subtle tonality and angles. Hope you enjoy it.
This was a fun shot to do. We were in Iceland and it was windy and cold. We visited this location where the surf was just exploding on very rough rocks. The sun was breaking through the clouds and adding nice color. I dragged the shutter a bit to emphasize the breaking surf. While were there one photographer got a bit too cocky and got close to the edge. A big wave came up and knocked him and his tripod over and almost washed him out with the wave. I see this kind of thing a lot in Iceland. Everything from weather to waves is unpredictable in Iceland. Word to the wise, be careful.
There is so much to photograph in Antarctica. This image was made as we were cruising. I saw the grey sky and the blue of the icebergs as they floated in the sea. I must admit I saturated the blue a bit for effect but I like it and especially the way it contrasts with the background. This was shot with a long lens handheld from a moving ship. the Fuji XT-2 with the 100-400mm lens allowed me a long reach to get this image.
I really enjoy doing panorama photos. Not only do they make large files that I can print large but they also allow a viewer to see a lot more in an image than a traditional single shot frame does. There are a lot of photographers that make a big point out of doing perfect panoramas using special rigs and aligning the nodel points to perfection. While I do that sometimes most of the time I just don’t the gear or the time. As a matter of fact a lot of time I can really good panos just by panning the camera handheld. And, that’s exactly what I did with this image. I was on a moving ship traveling through the Lemaire Channel. It’s a most amazing place in Antarctica and while you can get great single frame images I saw an opportunity and thought I’d give it a shot by doing a handheld pano while the ship was moving. The water was calm and the sunrise was just happening. A gorgeous, moment is the only way to describe it. So I did two series of pans and one turned out. Photoshop where I did the stitching together of the images, was brilliant at compensating for the movement of the ship and thus this is the image I ended up with. The channel can be seen from one end to the other.
I really love Italy and especially Tuscany. The Dolomites are another favorite part of Italy I visit often. This was shot one morning early as the sun was coming up and I caught the fog in the valley. Made with a Phase One camera and an IQ180 camera, it’s kind of an iconic shot of Tuscany. I softened it a little bit to add to the feel of the picture.
Have you ever been under a glacier? I have and it is scary and cool at the same time. One of the best places to explore ice cave is in Iceland in the winter. Ice caves are the space between a bottom of the glacier and the earth the glacier is moving on. In the summer time there is usually a massive amount of water running through these caves from melt off but in the winter everything is frozen and as a result, you can explore these caves (carefully of course). The best way to see these ice caves is with a guide who knows the caves and where it is safe and not safe. This image was made in a cave where you had to crawl in many places. I loved this giant ice pillar. This image was shot with a Phase One camera and the exposure was several minutes. It is very dark in these caves and only a small amount of light filters through the glacier itself. I highly recommend this experience but only if you are not claustrophobic.
It has been a good year with moments of great sadness and wonderful happiness. Life goes on and sometimes we find strength from our losses and sadness. This was my case this year. I look forward to 2017. I am blessed to have a career I love. A wife I am totally in love with and our kids who we are very proud of and love dearly. This photograph was made by our friend Hans Strand an outstanding photographer from Sweeden who was on our trip to South Georgia Island and Antarctica. I wish all of my readers a happy holiday and a great new year.
On my visits to Santiago, Chile I usually make it a point to arrive a few days early so I can spend a day shooting in Valparaiso. Valparaiso is a coastal town about 2 hours away from Santiago. You can hire a car fo the day and take a tour of this city built on a hillside. The attraction is all the graffiti. It’s a city of Graffiti art and there are some incredible places to photograph. On my last trip there I had lunch at a small cafe and out the window of the cafe, I saw the scene above. I love rust and I really liked the story the photograph told. A lot can be interpreted by viewing this image. What do you see?
There are few things better than standing on a hill in Tuscany, Italy and watching the sun come up. Tuscany is a magical place with a charm and feel all its own. Small villages and magnificent landscapes are everywhere. I enjoy sunrises when you get the low fog in the valley showing up. It adds depth and layers to the landscape and the photograph.
I have so many images I’m working on from the South Georgia – Antarctica trip. This is a Pano shot converted into BW. I shot 10 separate exposures and stitched these together in Photoshop and then converted to Black and white in Silver EFX Pro. I was hiking around this portion of the landing we were on and then came over a ridge only to see this inlet and glacier and a plain below leading up to it. Just magnificent. I took a seat on a big rock and just looked at this scene before deciding it worked best as s stitched image. I’ll be making a large print of this soon. Shot with a Fuji XT-2 and 18-55mm lens.
Click On The Image To See Larger