Rhode Island Blue Shark 1

Rhode Island Blue Shark 1

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I recently returned home to the island of Kauai after spending the last month visiting family and friends on “the mainland”. While vacationing with my wife’s family on the East Coast, I spent a few days photographing sharks from Rhode Island. It was a fantastic experience and I might even go so far as to claim that it was my favorite shark trip that I have ever done. Brian was a fantastic host and guide, and though the boat ride left me a little green in the gills each day, I would highly encourage any aspiring shark photographer to book a trip with Pelagic Expeditions.

I had hoped to photograph a mako shark during my 3 days on the water, but only saw one a few fleeting times. Dang, it was fast and my photos unremarkable. Fortunately, there were a lot of curious blue sharks that stayed around the boat and provided me with plenty of photo opportunities. This is one of my favorite images of a blue shark passing incredibly close to my dome port. I need to point out that I was not in a cage, but simply floating on the surface while having the hull of the boat against my back for safety. There were usually 2 or 3 blue sharks swimming around, so it was easy to keep track of them, but by my last dive there were at least a half dozen sharks taking turns at bumping into my camera. I spent about 30 minutes in the water solo before deciding that I had enough of sharks bumping into me.

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Hvitserkur Sunset 1

Hvitserkur Sunset 1

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I photographed this dramatic seastack known as Hvítserkur on Iceland‘s north coast this past June. Tony Wu and I had experienced several days of horrendous weather before we finally read a forecast that looked promising up north, so off we drove with this destination in mind. Hvítserkur is an old basalt lava plug that has withstood the erosion by the sea. Legend has it that the rock was a troll who forgot to retreat from the light and was turned to stone at sunrise. It is one of Iceland’s iconic landscapes, so we were surprised to have it all to ourselves the one night that we photographed it. Nothing all that memorable was happening in the sky until this cloud suddenly burst into flame. We were also very fortunate to unintentionally arrive during a low tide, so I was able to compose this wide-angle image with sand patterns in the foreground.

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Latrabjarg Atlantic Puffin 36

Latrabjarg Atlantic Puffin 36

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As I mentioned in my previous post, this was my third visit to Iceland, but Tony Wu’s first. As part of his pre-trip incentive to live out of a van with me for two weeks, I had promised him that I would take him to see Atlantic puffins. The bird cliff at Látrabjarg is among the best locations in the world to photograph them, but in order to get there it requires a long drive along some awful roads.

Our goal was to spend two days and nights photographing puffins, during which we were rewarded with ideal conditions. We kept an Arctic summer schedule by sleeping during the day while most of the puffins were out at sea fishing, anyway. By the time the light starting getting good in the early evening, the puffins had returned. The sun barely dipped below the northern horizon after midnight, so we simply stayed up and prepared for another round of fantastic light. I enjoyed photographing the puffins and observing their comical expressions, but I told Tony that I do not think I ever need to drive all the way out to Látrabjarg again.

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Kirkjufell Sunrise 1

Kirkjufell Sunrise 1

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This past June, I traveled to Iceland for the third time in my photography career. Tony Wu, my good friend and photo tour business partner, joined me for two weeks of driving around in a van, sleeping in obscure locations, eating whatever happened to be left in our non-functioning refrigerator, and chasing photographic opportunities. We had a great time together before co-leading our first sailing expedition in Norway’s Svalbard. I’ll share more about that incredible trip soon.

The weather in Iceland is always extreme, but I found it to be especially difficult during this trip. Before leaving home, I vowed not to drive from one end of Iceland to the other as I had done during my previous visits because the distances and roads often require 6-10 hours to drive between locations. However, once the weather continued to be uncooperative, I spent a lot of time checking the forecast for various parts of the island and adjusted our plans to chase the light no matter how much driving was involved.

One of the locations that we abruptly made a decision to drive to was the iconic Kirkjufellfoss waterfall located across from the witch-hat summit of Kirkjufell mountain. I was vaguely familiar with photos of this beautiful setting and only knew that it was located on the Snæfellsnes Peninsula. Since I was driving around in the middle of the night with limited internet access, we initially drove to the end of the peninsula thinking that the famous name-sake volcano must be the the correct location before realizing that we had to turn around and drive back in the opposite direction.

Fortunately, the light this far north and lack of tourists on the road at 1am made it easy for us to find it, park, and stroll up to the falls in plenty of time to set up for this dramatic sunrise. I had expected to have to scrum with other tripod-toters to shoot this composition, but was pleasantly surprised to have this beautiful setting all to ourselves. As the colors in the sky started to explode, I coached Tony on how to use his filters and in general how to photograph a landscape, since he is usually underwater when he pushes the shutter release button. I have been intentionally avoiding photo “hot-spots” the last few years, but I am pleased that I allowed myself to indulge in photographing this graceful scene.

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Gold Harbor King Penguins Abstract 1

Gold Harbor King Penguins Abstract 1

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This is an abstract image of king penguins that I created while visiting Gold Harbor during my South Georgia Island expedition. I initially photographed this scene with the aid of my tripod using traditional depth of field and sharp focus techniques, but later decided to explore it using slow shutter speeds and hand-held camera movement. I like how this image represents the dynamic chaos of the penguins as they group together, but constantly move about. I searched for repeating patterns and then used a shutter speed of 0.5 second while panning my camera from side to side. Hundreds of experimental images eventually produced a few, like this one, that realized my artistic ambition. I created this image using my Canon 5DmkIII and Canon 70-200mm f2.8 IS II lens. I processed the RAW file using Aperture 3, Photoshop CS6, and Nik Software’s Color Efex 4‘s White Neutralizer filter.

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Salisbury Plain King Penguins 33

Salisbury Plain King Penguins 33

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Baby king penguins are simply adorable. I was very fortunate to be able to spend as much time as I did photographing them at Salisbury Plains. The juveniles, like this one, were especially curious. I think that it was hungry and hoped that I would feed it. Keep in mind that in order to visit South Georgia Island, I chose to sail on a small sailboat and suffered for almost a week each way. It was much more difficult than what your average cruise ship visitor experiences. However, I did not join the trip for the misery of the sailing. I paid to be able to spend time photographing wildlife up close and personal. I hope that everyone who admires my photography appreciate the special risks and challenges that I undertake in order to create images that are truly unique. I also hope that people appreciate the drama and humor that I strive to integrate into my work. I created this image using my Canon 5DmkIII, Canon 17-40mm f4 lens, and Singh-Ray LB Warming polarizer & 2-stop Hard Graduated Neutral Density filter. I processed the RAW file using Aperture 3, Photoshop CS6, plus Nik Software’s Color Efex 4‘s White Neutralizer filter.

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Prion Island Wandering Albatross 10

Prion Island Wandering Albatross 10

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Another cute baby animal picture! One of the first locations that I visited during my South Georgia Island ordeal expedition was Prion Island, which is home to a declining population of wandering albatross. The reason that the population is in trouble is due to long-line fishing. The albatross are attracted to the baited hooks that the long-liners use. Once they bite a hook, they get pulled underwater and drown. It is very sad. There were not many albatross around during my visit, so I was fortunate to be able to spend the better part of an afternoon with this beautiful, photogenic creature. I created this image with my Canon 5DmkIII, Canon 17-40mm f4 lens, and Singh-Ray LB Warming polarizer & 4-stop Soft Graduated Neutral Density filter. I processed the RAW file using Aperture 3, Photoshop CS6, plus I applied Nik Color Efex 4‘s White Neutralizer filter.

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Tiger Shark 100

Tiger Shark 100

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I have just returned from an incredible week scuba diving with Jim Abernathy’s Scuba Adventures. The goal of the trip was to get as close to sharks in their natural environment as possible. The sharks did not disappoint, but unfortunately the cloudy weather last week in the Bahamas was not as ideal for underwater photography as I would have liked. Most people probably do not consider being surrounded by 50+ lemon and Caribbean reef sharks, as well as a few tiger sharks to be a good time. However, let me assure everyone that diving with sharks is not something to fear, let alone regard as a death wish.

Sharks are beautiful creatures that are being rapidly exterminated from our world’s oceans, almost exclusively because of the shark fin trade in Asia. Cutting the fins off of a shark and throwing the still live animal back in the ocean to die is a cruel and wasteful practice that I can only hope will eventually be stopped while there are still enough sharks remaining. I realize that most people reading this have probably never even considered eating shark fin soup, but too many people still consider it a status simple. Hopefully, my beautiful portrait of this curious tiger shark will encourage a few people to learn more about this despicable practice or even consider supporting environmental groups working to save sharks.

During my week long trip aboard the M/V Shearwater, I spent from 4 to 6 hours each day underwater photographing sharks. Though I was constantly surrounded by dozens of sharks, I was most interested in the larger and potentially more dangerous tiger sharks. Jim constantly reinforced that we could ignore the smaller sharks but needed to remain hyper-vigilant for tigers. Jim’s mantra was, “If you get bit by a tiger shark, you are going to bleed out and die!” As soon as we saw a tiger, we were supposed to point at it for the benefit of the other divers and not take our eyes off of it. It was amazing that a few of the European divers did not take this to heart and were sneeked up on more the once.

This is my favorite image from the trip. This photo is of one of the few tiger sharks that came curiously close enough to actually bump the front of my dome port. In order to get low enough to photograph this shark, I had to lay down on my stomach on the bottom right as the shark swam up to me. Most of the time, it was difficult to exclude the other divers, sharks, and fish from the image, but this encounter happened when Jim and I were the only 2 divers in the water. This was a much more “authentic” experience than my other dives with divers next to me. It also helped the underwater visibility, since no one was kicking up the bottom. I really like how this tiger shark swam straight towards me and then gave me just the right amount of a “smile”. I created this image using my Canon 5DmkIII and Canon 17-40mm f4 lens with a B+W +3 diopter inside my Ikelite 5DmkIII housing with an 8″ dome port and dual DS160 strobes. I processed the RAW file using Aperture 3 and Photoshop CS6, plus used Nik Software’s Dfine 2.0 to remove noise & Color Efex 4‘s white balance filter. I also cloned out the backscatter from my strobes and a few smaller fish that were distracting in the background.

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Salisbury Plain King Penguins 11

Salisbury Plain King Penguins 11

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This is a photo is of juvenile king penguin chicks, which are also called “Oakum boys”. I created it while visiting Salisbury Plain on South Georgia Island in October 2012. My senses were completely over-loaded by the smells, sounds, and scale of the king penguin colony containing several hundred thousand penguins, as well as the grandeur of the landscape. It really is one of the most spectacular settings on Earth. These juveniles were very curious about me, mostly because they were getting hungry and must have thought that I looked enough like mom or dad that maybe I would offer them a free meal. I was focused on getting “the shot”, but it was hard while doubled-over laughing at the hilarious antics of the penguins hopping around, flapping their wings, and running into each other. I created this image using my Canon 5DmkIII, Canon 17-40mm f4 lens, Singh-Ray LB Warming polarizer & 2-stop Hard Graduated Neutral Density filter, and processed the RAW file using Aperture 3, Photoshop CS6, plus Nik Software’s Dfine 2.0 to remove noise & Color Efex 4‘s white balance filter.

Also, check out this image published in The Guardian.

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Salisbury Plain King Penguins 2

Salisbury Plain King Penguins 2

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Aren’t these king penguins just adorable? I can not adequately describe how mind-blowing my visit was to Salisbury Plain during my South Georgia Island expedition this past October. After spending a week sailing in horrendous seas with terrible weather, I had finally arrived at my dream photography destination. Upon landing, most of the king penguins were somewhat skittish, but these guys walked right up to greet me! Oh, boy. It was cold, too. However, the fresh snow on the normally rocky beach helped make this already dramatic scene even more photogenic. In order to photograph this spectacle, I got down on my knees and used a wide-angle lens as these curious penguins inspected me. I created this image using my Canon 5DmkIII, Canon 17-40mm f4 lens, Singh-Ray LB Warming polarizer & 2-stop Hard Graduated Neutral Density filter, and processed the RAW file using Aperture 3, Photoshop CS6, plus Nik Software’s Dfine 2.0 to remove noise & Color Efex 4‘s white balance filter.

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