Where's Jay?

View from my cabin, CM Ranch

Months of preparation, weeks of intensity as the workshops grew near, sleepless nights worrying about the minutiae of the event, and before we knew it, we were immersed in the National Geographic CM Ranch Workshop in Dubois, Wyoming.  Two, back-to-back workshops, running from Sunday evening until the following Saturday morning.  Within this time frame, photo opportunities were created both early morning and late afternoon-it’s all about light and moment.

Horses running through pasture at CM Ranch

When I met Jeff Vanuga in 1988, during the fires at Yellowstone, little did we realize at that time that we’d be working together years down the road, both for my FirstLight Workshops, and now as my co-instructor for the CM Ranch event.  Jeff knows the area, he’s a tremendous photographer and he works incredibly well with people—all components of a successful instructor-student relationship.

Johnny Lucas after a bit of a fall

I had proposed this workshop to Deb Harris at National Geographic about two years ago. I’ve worked with Deb on several other National Geographic events, and she was very open to my CM workshop proposal.  During our FirstLight Dubois workshops in 2006, ’08, ’10, & ‘12, I’d visited the CM many times; it’s always provided great photographic opps, incredible wranglers & horses, and the people at the ranch were great to work with, making it an obvious choice for this new concept under Geographic. Luckily, Ranch managers, Hunter & Mollie Sullivan, were receptive to my idea and then worked with me over these two years to make it all happen.  Their enthusiasm continued through the workshops, receptive to whatever idea Jeff & I came up with – at least until we proposed some really wacked-out ideas, but we won’t go there.

Hunter Sullivan

Hunter and Buck Draney ride near Dubois Badlands

For those of you familiar with FirstLight, you know the mantra of the workshop is “Subject to Change,” with our schedule really a “best intentions” document.  We adapt accordingly, due to weather, horse moods, wrangler abilities, and many other considerations.  Our students at the two CM workshops really took this in stride, in large part because the photo opps were so incredible.  Try telling wranglers they need to hold 60 head of horses at a gate for an additional 15 minutes because the light’s not right.  Won’t happen.  But, it did happen with CM.  Daily projection sessions were held, and we’d always see Hunter and Buck (lead wrangler at the ranch) in the audience; I know that they were taking in the discussion on what went right and what went wrong with a particular shoot.  As the workshop progressed, things became more fluid, with the wranglers really becoming perfect subjects for our many cameras.

We also had two incredible assistants: Frank Varney and Anita Nowacka.  Frank recently retired as the Photography Chair of the Art Institute of Colorado, and was the tech editor for “Perfect Digital Photography”, the photography guide written my Jay Kinghorn and me.  Anita is a family portrait specialist from Seattle.  Both Frank and Anita did incredible jobs at the workshop.

Buck Draney overlooking Dubois Badlands

Opening night of second week, we had an amazing storm

Hunter with Ramshorn Mountain in background

Father and daughter, Buck and Mari Draney

Afternoon shoot after storm

Dawn overlooking Dubois Badlands

Morning shoot of Buck and Hunter, Dubois Badlands

East Pasture, CM Ranch

CM Wrangler Denny Ley with 2 friends

Wednesday night was our portrait session

Jeff Vanuga led shoot around teepee on CM

4th of July parade with Luke Sullivan

4th of July parade in Dubois

Mason Slider getting blasted during 4th of July parade

4th of July, fire trucks spraying crowd

Last run through the Boneyard

First morning run through Boneyard

1st morning run through Boneyard

Lower pasture, panning exercise

Lower pasture, panning exercise

CM wrangler Denny Ley

Couple of mornings after “SuperMoon”

Hunter Sullivan and Anna Vanuga, Dubois Overlook

Dubois Badlands

I hope you enjoy the images. I shot the entire workshop with the Olympus OM-D, which is becoming my tool of choice for travel and location photography.  I can carry the camera all day, I have a choice of optics that are real-world for a pro, and the image quality is incredible.

Heavy winds approaching S. Georgia

It really is all about weather, or the continuing dance of weather in the Southern Ocean.  Bright and sunny hours are interspersed with blowing sleet, rain, overcast, gale-force winds, and then repeat those conditions.

South Georgia is sensory overload…what could have been a manageable population of King penguins instead becomes a massive colony of 400,000+ plus of these fantastic creatures. Late season finds us amidst the huge groups of incredibly cute fur seal pups.  If not trying to scare us away with an initial charge (almost always followed by a very fast retreat), the pups will scootch up to us with a great display of head-turning curiosity.

A morning spent in Zodiacs cruising Hercules Bay allowed us to watch and photograph the highly amusing Macaroni penguins.  Later, we followed Shackleton’s trail from Fortuna Bay to Stromness on a 4-mile hike.

leaving Antarctica and Elephant Island

crossing the Southern Ocean

Crossing the Southern Ocean

King penguins, Fortuna Bay

Macaroni penguins entering water, Hercules Bay

King penguin chick and parent

Food covered king penguin chick

Nesting Gentoo penguin in Tussock grasses, Hercules Islan

fur seal pup, Prion Island

Gold Harbour King penguins

Full moon

sunset and clouds

Grey-headed albatross (Thalassarche chrysostoma) chick on cliff-side nest on Eleshul Island OM-D 12-50

Hello AXL!!  I’m back in the Antarctic, and have had a great time viewing and photographing ice, snow, chicks and pups of all sorts!  Adelie, Gentoo, Macaroni and King penguin chicks on many places and fur seal pups by the thousands have provided an amazing view into this other-worldly place.

Hi Miss D’s 2nd Grade Class!!!

We learned that the Wandering albatross will go to sea for 4 or 5 years, never setting foot on land during that time.  This giant sea-bird can have a wingspan of 11 feet.  They’ll come back after those years at sea to lay an egg then fledge (raise)  their young. The egg can weigh as much as 11 pounds and can be up to 6 inches long!  Plus, the egg will take about 80 days to hatch, then it will take another 270 days for the chick to grow large enough to finally fly.    Pretty amazing birds!

Mad King penguin and fur seal pup

Elephant seals, Gold Harbour

Heading home Olympus OM-D 9-18mm

Moon setting over Gerlache Straits

On short notice, I’m back aboard the National Geographic Explorer for another trip to Falklands/S. Georgia/Antarctica.  Having been here on the first trip of the summer in November of 2012, I was very curious to see how different it would be traveling on the last voyage of the season (summer is winding down in the Southern Ocean).

Major differences: most of the snow is gone on many landing sites, and in its place are thousands of penguin chicks.  Early season saw a lot of ice accumulated in bays, now we see more open water in most places-along with many whale sitings.  In November, daylight was extended by a few minutes each day, creating longer and longer days as we traveled.  Now, the hours of sunlight are being decreased as the days grow rapidly shorter.

We also reversed the direction of travel: November saw a clockwise trip; Falklands (Islas Malvinas) followed by South Georgia and finishing in the Antarctic.  This voyage, Antarctica was our first site; we’re now heading to South Georgia and will finish the trip in the Falklands.  The rapidly diminishing hours of daylight are one reason for this reversal.  After this Expedition, the Explorer will transit to Capetown in South Africa for another “West Coast of Africa” trip.  I was aboard the Explorer for the inaugural West Coast of Africa trip in 2012, and you can see my blog from that trip by scrolling down through this site.

Crossing the Drake was a “boisterous” experience, and as much as I’d like to say I am 100% seaworthy, that would be an inaccuracy.  15-20’ foot seas produced, in me, a discomfort that was handled with pharmaceuticals.

Once you do reach the Antarctic Peninsula, the jutting landmass into the ocean helps to considerably calm things down and the discomfort of constant ups and downs disappears quickly.

Our first landing was Half Moon Island, which is a small Antarctic Island with a large rookery of chinstrap penguins, nesting Antarctic terns and kelp gulls.  Our son, Matt accompanied me on my first Antarctic trip in 2009 and this was one of our landing sites as well.  Beautiful rock formations with malachite intrusions produces a dramatic landscape in which penguins with chicks complete the visuals of this island.

Next day found us in the Gerlache Strait, first explored by Adrien de Gerlache during his expedition of 1897-99.  It certainly was a small world of polar explorers at that time, as Gerlache’s chief officer was Roald Amundsen, who was making his first trip to the Antarctic.  Our afternoon was spent at Port Lockroy and Jugla Point, with a good-sized colony of gentoo penguins and blue-eyed shags on Jugla.

21^st February, we landed on King George Island, home to both the Chilean (Frei) and Russian (Bellingshausen) research stations.

22^nd February, Gerlache Strait, Ciera Cove and Mikkelsen Harbors were our places to explore.

23^rd February was spent in the Weddell Sea, including a fantastic time watching sunset and viewing a large iceberg with a group of scrambling gentoo penguins hanging on its side.

24^th February, we actually were able to land on Elephant Island, which is a rarity as wind and/or surf conditions usually creates impossible landing conditions.  This is the site made famous by Shackleton’s 1914-1917 Expedition of the Endurance.  That expedition, locked in ice for 281 days as well as the sinking of the Endurance, forced the party of 28 men, using lifeboats and ice flows, to make their way north towards land.  Adrift for 3 months, they finally saw the rugged mountains of Elephant Island and landed there.  Shackleton and 5 others made their remarkable sea passage in a small lifeboat to South Georgia, more than 700 miles away for help.  The other 22-crew members camped on Elephant Island under upturned boats on Point Wild.  They survived for 137 days on penguins and whale blubber until rescue by Shackleton.

We’re now at sea heading to South Georgia, a 2-day passage.

Working the scene  When in a photo-rich scene, it’s easy to get so fixated on a great interchange between two critters.   What the aspiring photographer will often forget is to watch the edges of the frame in this situation.  The general tendency is to center the subject when things get “hopping,” forgetting to let your eye scan the whole frame for non-relevant stuff.  Branches sticking in the frame, a blown out bit of sky in the background, something protruding thru the subject, these are things that could be possibly dealt with/eliminated by a simple movement to left or right, or by stepping back or forward.  Everything in the frame serves a purpose; it either adds to the photo or detracts from the final image.  Work the scene.

In the Gerlache Straits Olympus OM-D

On Mikkelsen Harbour, a Skua watches a gentoo penguin nest, as the adult strikes a defensive pose

In the Weddell Sea, a group of penguins hang on the side of an iceberg Oly OM-D

a gentoo penguin chick rests on a rocky surface on Port Lockroy

Ice formation on iceberg at sea Olympus OM-D 75-300mm

photographing a sunset from the Explorer Oly OM-D

Elephant Island beach scene

Zodiac in Ciera Cove

gentoo penguin adult being chased by chick for food

pushing through ice in the Gerlache Strait

penguins on an ice flow in the Gerlache Straits

Russian Orthodox church at the Russian research station at Bellinghausen on King George Island,

a penguin scrambles to get a grip on iceberg in Weddell Sea

Gentoo penguin colony on Half Moon Island

Antarctic shags on Jugla Point

sunset in the Weddell Sea

In the Antarctic.

In the past few days, we’ve entered the Antarctic waters…the scenery radically shifted from South Georgia:  instead of greens of the Tussock grasses, we are in a very monochromatic world.  Black and whites in varying degrees of intensity with almost no intrusion of color.

One of first stops was Whalers Bay on Deception Island.  An old whaling station, this landing introduced us to Antarctic weather.  A heavy wind turned into near blizzard conditions ashore, it was wonderful.  Blowing snow, the landscape almost obscured by the snow and the penguins hunkering down in the 30+ knot winds.

Included in our stops so far has been Cuverville, Neko Harbor which were accomplished yesterday, and a passage through the narrow and gorgeous Lemaire Channel.  Booth and Petermann Island took us through Friday.

I’ve been shooting more and more with the Olympus OM-D, it was hard at first making the transition to such a smaller camera. Old habits die hard!  But, if you’ve been reading my blogs in the past, I have been championing this Micro Four Thirds (MFT) format for a while.  I constantly hear from photographers, but also from travelers aboard these trips that they are tired of carrying heavy cameras.  So, often these DSLR’s are left at home.  Many people depend on their smartphone for the main core of their photography.

But, I believe that there is a “look” that is found with most of the cell phone photos:  a slightly removed, generally more un-involved image.  And, how can it be any different when the photographer is holding the phone at arms length, trying to make critical decisions about the “choreography” contained within the photo?  How do you capture a decisive moment when you can’t see the subtlety of a facial expression, or watch through the viewfinder for the subtle glance between your subjects.   Holding that camera-phone at arms length, the background I also thinks creates “interference” in that creative process.

Seeing these mirrorless system cameras becoming a real-world tool for the serious photographer is wonderful.  Between Olympus and Panasonic, many serious lenses have been released in this format.  Included are the Olympus 12mm f2, 45mm f1.8, 75mm f 1.8.  Panasonic has released a 7-14mm f4, a 12-35mm f2.8  and the 35-70mm f2.8. As always, double the focal length to obtain the shooting field of view, thus the 12mm becomes effectively a 24mm, the 75mm a 150mm, etc.  I’m anxiously waiting to see a serious, “super-telephoto” in the MFT series.  With this great stable of lenses, I can do my international travel, often in carry-on, size-restricted airlines, with all my cameras/lenses with me.  The smaller size factor reduces the weight considerably, as well as the “intrusion” created with larger cameras.  Working in many places today, a large camera is not desireable to carry as the photographer becomes more of a target for theft and/or harassment.

It’s an evolving world, with the photographer benefiting from  these technical developments.  I can’t imagine where technology will take us in the next 5 years.  Please look below text block for photos

Hello AXL and Miss D’s class!  I’m in the Antarctic; the number of penguins we’ve seen must now be in the half-million or so.  Wow.  In addition to those penguins, we saw a group of killer whales that were very close to our location.  In fact, one of our “Zodiacs” (big, rubber rafts with powerful engines) was checked out by a group of killer whales yesterday.

The Killer whales do a cool thing called spy-hopping, which means the whales will swim up to something of interest, then stick their heads out of the water to check out that object.  This is a hunting method as well.  The favorite dinner of the killer whale is a Weddell seal, which love to sleep on bits of floating ice.  The killer whales will be swimming along, looking up for the shadow of the seals on the ice. Once they find one, the group of whales will “spy hop” to visually confirm the sighting.  Then, acting as a group (the females are the leaders in a group of Killer whales) they will swim away from the ice, turn and all swim together near the surface. This will create a wave in front of the dorsal fins of the whales, the wave washes over the ice and sweeps the seal off…you can guess what happens to the Weddell seal!

The Antarctic is a wonderland of incredible shapes, many of the large icebergs looking like magic castles, dragons or other fantastic forms.

Here’s a question:  What season is it now in Antarctica?  Is it summer, winter, spring or fall?

The answer: we’re coming into summer down here.  Because we’re below the equator, seasons are reversed.  Pretty weird, huh?  The penguins will celebrate Christmas in summer!

Hi from Antarctica! My thumb is covering the "A"

Entering the cold waters of Antarctica Olympus OM-D 9-18mm lens

Blizzard conditions on Deception Island

Whalers Bay on Deception Island, Olympus OM-D 12-50mm lens

Lone penguin on Booth Island Olympus OM-D 9-18mm

Booth Island penguins Olympus OM-D 9-18mm

Entering Lemaire Channel

Ice sculpture within Ice Olympus OM-D 14-150mm

Hiking across Petermann Island

iceberg base

Grandidier Channel late afternoon

Dusk on the Grandidier Channel with tabular icebergs

Tabular iceberg in Grandidier Channel

dusk on the Grandidier Channel

Tabular iceberg in Grandidier Channel

Crabeater seal near Port Lockroy

cave in iceberg

penguins leaping on ice

penguins leaping on ice 2

penguins leaping on ice - 3

penguins leaping on ice - 4

penguins leaping on ice - 6

penguins leaping on ice - 7

penguins leaping

penguins moving about -- Olympus OM-D 9-18mm

penguin walk

Old whaling harbor of Grytviken

an elephant seal tossing sand on back to cool down

King penguins heading to surf on Gold Harbor

seals on beach at Gold Harbor

seals on Gold Harbor beach, South Georgia

Dawn on Gold Harbor, South Georgia

Elephant seal wakening

Dawn on Gold Harbor, South Georgia

Solo King penguin heading into ocean on Gold Harbor

Dawn on Gold Harbor, South Georgia

Gentoo penguins arguing

We’re en route from Gold Harbor on South Georgia to Elephant Island on the Antarctic Peninsula.  Overcast and cold, it looks like Antarctic conditions.

South Georgia was stunning, but Gold Harbor was a step beyond that.  We made an early morning landing, arriving the beach at 4AM.  Scores of Elephant seals, thousands of Antarctic Fur Seals, 100,000+ penguins, it was sensory overload.

During sunrise, the black-sand beach and penguins were still in shade, while the peaks of the mountains in the background were in full sun.  This scenario really illustrates the limit of the camera, be it film or digital. The eye can see that dynamic range of sunlit to very dark far more effectively than the camera is able to capture.  How do you deal with this..either through software (such as Adobe Lightroom) or through the use of a neutral density graduated filter.  These tools provide a method of reducing the exposure in the background by up to 3 stops, while allowing the foreground to remain unaffected.  I used a Singh Ray Neutral Density Graduated Filter on some of these images.  Another group, I used the grad filter in Lightroom.  Both are very powerful tools for the photographer, the ease of use of the Lightroom tool is awesome, but for some publications, this isn’t allowed, as it’s considered manipulation.  Either way, this method is great/invaluable for compressing that light range.

Hi AXL School!!  I was just on this amazing place called Gold Harbor that is in South Georgia.  Very remote and very untouched, it’s the home to hundred’s of thousands of King Penguins, Elephant seals, Antarctic Fur Seals, birds of all kinds, it’s incredible!  Do you all remember how much I said an Elephant seal could weigh?  A scientist aboard the trip told me that there is some thinking that an Elephant seal will actually sleep as it descends to it’s feeding depth of that one mile.  Scientists have tracked the Elephant seal as it goes down, and they discovered that often the seal would go straight down, with no swimming motion, which indicates that it is not moving and probably asleep.  Pretty cool, huh??

A cool fact..the difference between a seal and a sea lion: the sea lion has ears that stick out from the body, seals have sound ports, but not ears

We crossed into the Antarctic waters a few hours ago..it’s coming up to summer here (seasons are reverses, since we’re below the equator) and its not terribly cold.  Around 32 degrees is pretty much what it’s been, so not the 40-60 degrees below zero it can get in winter.  Brrrrrrrr….

More from the Antarctic soon,

Miss D’s Dad

Jay

Seas in South Georgia

King Haakon Bay, South Georgia

Sea lion pup

Posing for a photo

Elephant seal

Sea lion pup

Crowded sleeping conditions!

Skua trying to sneak in and grab sea lion drool

Penguins "porpoising" as they travel in Southern Ocean

Along beach on Bay of Iles

King penguin chicks and mature -- Olympus OM-D 50-200mm lens

Elephant seal along beach on Bay of Iles -- Olympus OM-D 12-50mm lens

Life on the beach

Elephant seals courting ritual

muddy elephant seal -- Olympus OM-D 50-200mm lens

Penguin colonies

Some of the huge colonies of penguins

Skua nest overlooking Bay of Iles -- Olympus OM-D 12-50mm lens

Fur seal on beach

King penguin and downy chicks

After a two-day sail from Port Stanley in the Falklands, we arrived in South Georgia this morning.  A few hours before arriving, we crossed the Antarctic Convergence, announcing we are “officially” in the Antarctic.

Sailing into King Haakon Bay in South Georgia, we were fairly near the spot the Shackleton party prepared for their life saving crossing of the island to the whaling station at Stromness.  An amazing story of adventure, perseverance and survival.

With a large group of sea lions, Elephant seals and fur seals, there was certainly an abundance of photographic subjects. We also saw our first group of king penguins, but certainly under the numbers we’ll experience later in the trip.

Friday morning, November 16, after a night of ferocious winds, we made a Zodiac landing at Bay of Iles…pretty staggering..penguins, sea lions, fur seals, animal population had to exceed 200,000 critters. Weather conditions were blowing granular sleet, freezing conditions and 20-40 mile an hour winds. Hope you enjoy the photos!

Tips for photographing in cold climates:

1. Working in the cold brings a different set of problems for the photographer.  The obvious first thing to confirm is that your batteries are fully charged and that you carry additional batteries.  Cold weather is not friendly to batteries, exhausting them at a more rapid pace the colder it gets.
2. If you’re going to be shooting outside in cold, and plan to regularly go inside to warm up, think about either leaving your equipment in the cold, or if you bring it inside, place it inside a plastic freezer bag, squeezing the air out and sealing the bag before going inside.  If you don’t do this, the warm interior air of the room will condensate on the camera, resulting in a very wet camera that you do NOT want to take back out into sub-freezing temperatures.
3. If working in sub-zero temperatures, don’t allow the camera to come into contact with your nose (unless covered with a scarf/balaclava) as it can easily freeze to the tip of your nose.
4. Don’t use fingers or breathe to clean snow or sleet off of the front filter/element.  This will cause the snow to melt on the glass, further impeding the shooting process.  Carry a micro-fiber cloth for this purpose, or a chamois.
5. There are a number of manufacturers who make photographic gloves for cold weather.  Often very thin, or with cut-outs for fingers, it makes it much easier to feel the small buttons on the back of your camera.  I’ve been using a pair of gloves made by “Stealth Gear” that provide a good tactile feel.  They also have small holes punched in shooting fingers and thumbs, providing just enough contact with my camera.
6. If planning on shooting from a blind or other concealed spot, remember that you probably will be sitting in that location for a while, and you will get cold and colder.  Dress in layers, and here is where pocket warmers can really help

To AXL School-Hi, I’m in South Georgia and will be here for a couple more days.  We saw a colony of king penguins this morning, had to more than 200,000 of them.  They are hilarious to watch, the young ones are still in their downy brown coats.  They will actually come straight up to one of us, one started pecking my camera then grabbing my leg!

We also saw some Elephant seals, which can grow absolutely huge!  Large Elephant seals can weigh as much as 11,000 pounds, and can be up to 16 feet long. Plus, they dive in the ocean to catch fish and krill and can more than a mile deep, isn’t that amazing?

Here’s a question:  Where is South Georgia and the Falklands on the globe or map?

I’ll be posting more photos, it takes me a day or so to get them online…

 Falkland Islands:   New Island, Carcass Island and Port Stanley

Rockhopper penguin on New Island, Falklands-- Olympus OM-D 9-18mm

Rockhopper penguin on New Island, Falklands--Olympus OM-D 9-18mm

Rockhopper penguins approach ocean entry on New Island, Falklands

Lone penguin looking for someone on Leopard Beach, New Island, Falkland Islands--Olympus OM-D 9-18mm

Leaping penguins 3

Leaping penguins 2

Leaping penguins 1

Leopard seal on Leopard Seal Beach, Carcass Island--Olympus OM-D 9-18mm

Near perfect camouflage

Crossing Carcass Island, Falkland Islands--Olympus OM-D 9-18mm

Albatross coming in for a landing, New Island, Falklands

Gorse is in bloom in the Falklands--Olympus OM-D 9-18mm

Rockhopper penguin nest on New Island, Falklands--Olympus OM-D 9-18mm

Earlier this year it was an extended trip to the west coast of Africa, this fall it’s South Georgia, the Falklands and Antarctica.  I love the places the camera takes me!

After a delayed flight of nearly 24 hours through Houston, arrival in Buenos Aires allowed all of 45 minutes to enjoy my hotel room.  That short interval allowed me to shower and race back downstairs in time to meet the bus to the domestic airport for the flight to Ushuaia, Argentina..the “last place on earth.”  A full ship, the National Geographic Explorer headed out of port after dark, sailing into the Southern Ocean.

First stop was the Falklands, which included New Island, Carcass Island and Port Stanley.  I’ve been wanting to travel here for some time as the South Georgia trip always gets rave reviews-from both travelers and naturalists.  We hiked to cliff colonies of Rockhopper penguins, blue-eyed shags and albatross on New Island, with a great vista from the cliffs overlooking the ocean.  That afternoon we made our way to Carcass Island and it’s Leopard Beach. This had been named many years ago for the visiting leopard seals that frequented that beach. However, the locals claimed that it had been some years since seeing a leopard seal on that stretch of sand.   Within an hour after we arrived, and while photographing the sizable community of penguins at one end of the beach, a leopard writhed out of the ocean onto the sand.

Carcass was stunningly beautiful-it felt like a drier western Highlands of Scotland.  A 3-mile hike took us from Leopard Beach to the other side of Carcass where the zodiacs met us.

Next morning we docked at Port Stanley, where we took an afternoon hike of bout 4 miles to Tumbledown Mountain.  This site was the center of military activity in the Falkland (Malvinas) war of 1982.  It was impressive standing atop Tumbledown, and taking in the 360-degree sweep, which included almost all of the land-based battles of that war.  A cross atop the mountain along with personal affects left by next of kin of some of the war casualties certainly stays with you.

Today, heading for South Georgia, which is a two-day sail from the Falklands.

Hello to the AXL School!!  Especially the 2^nd grade… be extra-nice to Miss D today!  I’m on the National Geographic Explorer, a big ship that travels regularly around the world, a lot to the Polar Regions, both north and south.

We were just in the Falkland Islands (find that on a world map) and are now heading to South Georgia.  This place is really famous for it’s huge colonies of King Penguins.  These birds are some of the largest penguins on earth, only the Emperor is larger.

It was surprisingly warm in the Falklands; it is late spring here going into summer-it’s totally opposite of what you all are used to!

I’ll post some photos of penguins in the next couple of days; they are so fun to watch!  They waddle when they walk, but they truly “fly” under water.  It’s incredible to watch the penguins launch themselves ashore, looking a bit like rockets shooting out of the water.  When we are in South Georgia, I’m told that we will see 250,000 or more King Penguins…wow!!

I’ll post some more photos, if you all have any questions about Antarctica, please have Miss D send them and I’ll send an answer back.  It may take a little time as we don’t have really great internet.

We just wrapped up our FirstLight Absaroka Cowboy Workshop, what an amazing event!  Driving into the Absaroka was a treat in its own, as the dramatic landscape in the photo above will confirm.  With the stunning background of the Absaroka Mountains, the setting was spectacular.

Budd Betts and the Absaroka staff were incredible; we ate all our meals together in the main building and Sheryl, the chef, outdid herself with each meal.

In this blog you’ll find an image from each of our students, I hope you enjoy looking at this very impressive body of photography, and hope to see you at a future FirstLight Workshop!

Thanks for having checked these out!  If interested in getting on our FirstLight mailing list, you can click here to be taken to a simple registration.  The mailing list is we first announce upcoming FirstLight events, we don’t share or sell this list.

Below is a list of workshops and lectures I’ll be doing over the next few months, hope to see you there!

Maine Media Workshop:

“Beyond the Single Image”
August 26 – Sept 1

NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC EXPEDITIONS EVENTS:

National Geographic Weekend Photography Workshop: Tucson
Oct 25-28, 2012
Feb 28-Mar 3, 2013
Apr 25-28, 2013

National Geographic Expeditions,  Antarctica, S. Georgia & Falklands:
Nov 7-30, 2012

Around the World by Private Jet:
Oct 8-31, 2013

Photography Workshop: Wyoming’s Cowboy Country:
June 23 – 29, 2013
June 30-July 6, 2013

National Geographic Traveler Seminars:

Creativity With Light
Sept 23, 2012  Denver, CO, Denver Art Museum
Oct 21, 2012   Columbus, OH – Columbus Museum of Art

Digital Photography Basics

Sept 22, 2012  Palm Beach Gardens, FL – Palm Beach State College
Dec 1, 2012   San Francisco, CA – San Francisco Art Institute

panoramic image of harbor on Nuku Hiva

Two young dancers on Christmas Island

Young dancer on Christmas Island

Cook Island

Bird life on Cook Island

Bird life on Cook Island

Cook Island

Reef life, underwater near Cook Island

On assignment in the South Pacific, landed in Papeete, then a flight to Nuku Hiva in French Polynesia. I’ve been shooting this entire trip, except underwater (can’t wait for the housing) with the Olympus OM-D.  I really believe this camera and it’s incredible form-factor is the future of photography.  The OM-D E-M5 is a weather resistant, solidly built body that just feels great in your hands.  I’ve been using the HLD6 power battery holder, which provides that great function of a vertical shutter release.  Shooting both RAW and jpeg, the camera is very fast, and in fixed focus, can operate at 9 fps.  With tracking it will accommodate 4.5 fps.  I’ll be posting a more in-depth reaction to the camera in a later blog.

On this assignment, in addition to Papeete (barely made my connecting flight)  I traveled to Nuku Hiva, Millennium Island, Kiritimati, Cook and Fanning Islands-a couple of those landings were not possible due to weather.  What I love about the South Pacific, most of it looks as you would hope it would look: beautiful atolls, aquamarine waters and the appropriate trees… On Christmas, my shooting time was quite short and the time of day was not the best.  The top two photographs of the little girl dancers were taken on Christmas, and are the subjects of the discussion below.  However, this is often the reality of travel photography and provides a window for a discussion of shooting in these less-than-opportune times.  What do you do when your experience in an amazing place is limited to those hours around “high noon”, with harsh light and extreme contrast?

1.     Take control of the situation  I was on Christmas Island, there were locals performing dances and drumming under the palms…or coconut trees, with that filtered light providing not the best lighting conditions.  I sat and listened for a while, which gave me time to determine which of the beautiful kids I wanted to ask permission to photograph in a better area.  When there was a lull in the music, I approached the obvious leader of this group, and asked if I could, with their assistance and help, move two of the little girls to a point near the lagoon that provided both a great background and a bit of backlighting.

2.      Watch your light  The light around the lagoon where we were located was harsh, BUT it was just a few degrees west of being totally vertical.  I found that great background, and at the same time I determined where the light was falling…by using my hand held vertically, I saw that if I posed my subjects with their backs to the water, I would find just enough shade on their faces.

3.      Use that flash you carried with you  Almost being counter-intuitive to shooting in intensely-lit environments, your flash can make the difference in a photograph and a forgotten attempt.  Using that fill in light can bring the light value up on your subject, providing a very smooth light and a balance between foreground/background.

4.     Set the cameras  ambient exposure  A great time to shoot in manual exposure, as you’ll want the exposure on the background to be constant, shooting in Program, Aperture or Shutter can alter the exposure to less than ideal.  Think about establishing your exposure without the flash initially.  This will provide the perfect background, I find that generally my background looks best if about a half stop underexposed.

5.     Set your flash to TTL  Before you leave on your trip, work a bit with that flash to see if the TTL or auto exposure is where you want it to be…I’ve found that most flash units come from the factory biased a bit towards overexposure.  In other words, it’s too bright.  You’ll need to experiment with this, the worst time for that experimentation is in the field….do this at home, where you have the time to get this figured out.  I always carry a cord that the flash attaches to and the other end goes to the camera’s hot shoe…this allows you to move the flash off-camera, which can help create a more pleasing, more specific style of lighting.  I also have a small warming filter taped over the business end of the flash, which makes that light a bit more “golden hour”-ish.  Also, use that diffuser that comes with your flash, or buy an after-market diffuser. These simply fit over the end of the unit, which helps soften the light.

6.     The closer the flash, the softer the light   This maxim will always hold true…I’ve seen so many aspiring photographers use those clever mini-softboxes, with expectation of great lighting…only to be disappointed by the harshness of the light…they had the flash unit too far from the subject.  The light source became a point light source, which is harsh.  Think of the sun at noon, it’s a very intense light source (from a pretty far distance) that produces a very hard and contrasty light.  Now think of that same sun, late afternoon in a tropical environment.  That humidity in the air, and the low angle of attack of light(going through more atmosphere and often pollution) essentially creates a huge light box, which allows the light to “wrap around” the subject providing that beautiful, soft light.

Western Sahara: Dancer from Mallemin tribe dancing the Guerda

Western Sahara; where the desert meets the sea

Western Sahara: 4x4 trip through the Sahara

Snake charmer with cobra in Marrakech

Night guard in Medina of Marrakech

A trip of over 5 weeks, but over in the blink of an eye. Capetown to Morocco…an amazing journey of over 4, 000 miles, 37 days, 17 countries, and countless experiences.   There will not be a trip similar as this Expedition took us to ports that experienced the first passenger ship in decades.

Wrapping this up, our last stops included Western Sahara and the port of Ad Dakhla.  The Sahara Desert could be experienced in minutes as the sands of that vast expanse lapped to the edges of the port.  A drive into the desert took us to a beautiful spot where desert met the ocean.

Next on the list, Tenerife and the Canary Islands.  Slightly jolting, as this felt as if we were in a European city-and we were.  Great roads, beautiful buildings and beaches and a working infrastructure…then we went back to Africa.

Finally, we disembarked the Explorer for the last time in Agadir, Morocco, where we drove into Marrakech.   The pictures from Western Sahara and Marrakech are above.

Traveling and photographing with a mirrorless camera system was, bottom line, a delight.  Eliminating the weight of a digital SLR was not missed, and having a range of dedicated lenses to use was a huge benefit.   I worked primarily with an Olympus E-P3, the E-PL3 and an E-PM1.  I’m really looking forward to working with the new Olympus OM-D, as I think this will be the most professional “Micro-Four Thirds” camera out there, or the best mirror less system as well.  I’ve got an upcoming trip to French Polynesia, and I hope to have that in my hands for that trip.  Stay tuned for a blog from that beautiful place.