Ever wonder what the side of a giant 50 foot high iceberg looks like? Well here it is. Traveling in Antarctica we convinced our captain of the boat we were cruising on the get us as close to cool icebergs as he cold. He was more than happy to help us. This is the side of an iceberg and it is just beautiful with the color and things happening. You can see melting, re-freezing and a gorgeous random texture. This was shot from around 50 feet away using a 70-200mm zoom on a Canon 5dII.
Playing is so much in photography. Lots of times I’ll go someplace and try something different. I went to this rodeo a while back and I could have shot it like a Sports Illustrated event, sharp, stop action, or I could do something totally different. So, i decided to shoot the whole thing at slow shutter speeds. I wanted to be able to still define the subject (horses and people) but show the movement in the shot at the same time. I shot a lot of images and some worked and some didn’t. here is one that worked.
While in China last week we were at a restaurant and I saw all these metal pipe like devise in a corner. I asked what they were and got a demo. You take a cigarette and place it in a small holder at the bottom. Then you take giant deep breaths through the pipe. You get a large lung full of air. And exhale. personally it would have knocked me out. Seems that certain heavy smokers enjoy this.
So while we were on top of this mountain in China I looked down the road and saw these two figures emerging from the fog. I started shooting them. They then stopped by a small pond and started to rake some items out of the pond and put these items in they baskets. They then continued walking. This shot was made as they began to disappear in the fog the same way they came out of the fog.
The last few weeks I have been in China leading a PODAS workshop. Interesting are to photography. Unfortunately the weather didn’t cooperate much and we were stuck in the thickest fog I have ever seen. Actually we were in cloud as we were very high up on a Mountain in the Yusmnyang area of Southwest China. Never the less every now and then the fog would clear a bit and present some amazing images. This si a shot of a lonely tree with terraced fields in front as the fog opened up for just one minute. I opted for grain and BW to give more of the mood to the image.
I have been gone for about two weeks. Had some business in Bangkok and then was a leader of a PODAS workshop in souther China. The area of China we visited is a very interesting area for sure. I have a lot of stories to tell. This image was made while visiting a typical Hani Village. It was located on top of a large mountain completely cloud covered. We spent a few hours walking through tis village and were photographing the people and homes. Quite a lovely place and good glimpse into how some people still live today. I had a group of 20 Chinese photographers with me and we were busy shooting two girls sharing some food in front of their house. Off to the side I saw two boys playing and trying to get our attention. I broke off and went to shoot the boys and they hammed it up and were having all sorts of fun. Then all of a sudden one of the boys grabbed his brother and gave him a great big kiss. And, BINGO there it was. A fleeting innocent happy moment.
If you have ever visited Iceland you know there are a lot of waterfalls. I like to make things look a bit different so I shot this waterfall in a way where you can’t see the top of bottom and what you get is nice water and great rock texture. I like this shot and the way it works.’
One of the most photographed beaches on the west coast is second beach in Olympic National PArk. It’s a short hike to the beach and once there you’ll understand why so many people shoot it. I wanted to try and get somethings a bit different. I placed the rock in the foreground and as the sunset, I made some captures. I knew I wanted to catch the waves in a particular way. I also knew that since I was shooting a Phase One IQ camera I would have a wide enough dynamic range retain details in highlights and shadows.
One more image from today’s image edit session. While cruising on a Zodiac around the Iceberg Graveyard we happened to spy a leopard seal. Nasty animals. As we cruise by his iceberg island I saw another Iceberg in the distance. I waited for the shot to line up and bang, I got it.
I usually can be found editing my images with coffee or wine. Today I had my coffee going through some of my Antarctica images. I have been cataloging my past work using CApture One 7 a cool program by Phase One. I found this image in my search and have a bunch more I am working on. I kept coming back to this one though because it just seems to work. Once I cropped to almost square it even worked better. I really do love Antarctica.