I’ve finally completed the tedious process of getting new material on my website from recent international travels.  If you care to take a quick look, follow the links here:

While in the Galapagos with my 5DII in a housing, I played around a bit with the video capture, and the emphasis is definitely on play. If things got good I focused on still images, but this is a little video I captured of sea turtle swimming gracefully. They are such amazing creatures. It’s not great, but gives a feel for the turtle and its environment.

Now that I’ve processed all the images from my April 2010 trip to the Galapagos, I’ve gathered a few favorites to share in a gallery. It was black-lava-hot down there, especially for an Alaskan, but in spite of that overhead sun, some color leaked out of the landscape. You can see all of the photos on my website: Galapagos Islands photos

I’ve seen pictures of Machu Picchu over the years, but none of them really prepared me for the first hand view. This “lost city of the Incas” is a commanding site, filled with mystery, and perched in the most spectacular mountain jungle location. I shared a few pics on a post a while back, just after the visit, but they were just Iphone snap shots. Here are some more vivid images from my real cameras. I know this place has been photographed over and over again, but I was happy to have my crack at it, and the moody clouds and lighting falling on the stone city was impressive. I was there for less than 24 hours, with one try at morning light. The disheartening clouds slowly dissipated, and in the course of 1.5 hours, I ran around frantically assessing the scene and attempting various compositions.

Here are a few of the many keepers that resulted from that brief visit. They were shot with the Canon 5D Mark II, with an exposure optimized to extract the greatest dynamic range out of one file, without the use of a split-graduated neutral density filter. I’ll discuss how I achieve this in an upcoming post.

The Waved Albatross, sometimes called the Galapagos Albatross, breeds primarily on Espanola Island. Like other albatrosses, it comes to shore only to breed and rear young. In the Archipelago, this happens in response to food availability, which is generally in early April, and we were fortunate enough to see the very beginning of their arrival to land. They are a beautiful, large bird, with a wingspan of about 7 feet, and enter into an elaborate courtship ritual which includes bill clacking and bowing. There were just a few pairs on land, with many flying over looking for nesting sights and mates.

I used all my lenses to photograph these birds, and the warm, late afternoon light helped make exposures of a white headed bird manageable.

South Plaza Island was our first shoreside visit, and it was perfectly timed with sunset, which happens quickly along the equator. The gentle afternoon light was warm and luminous accent to a landscape rich in green and yellow, due to recent abundant rains and the short-lived blossoming period of the portulaca plant. Plants in general, although they do receive the attention that the wildlife of the islands do, were and are a critical component in understanding natural selection processes in the archipelago. We had the rewarding experience of watching both a reptile and birds feeding on the abundant yellow flowers. In particular, a ruddy turnstone was eating the pollen, certainly something I’ve never seen before.

I had high hopes for an evening landscape here with the flowers in the foreground, but the sloping angle of the island, in combination with clouds and the fact that one can’t deviate much from a trail, prevented that. I did however find the tall prickly pear cactus on this island offered some vertical spatial dimension for a landscape. The warm and cool color combination always seems to work well together, offering some tension in the palette, but still very pleasing.

As clouds obscured the sun, the low light made stopping motion in the bird and iguana photos challenging. I moved to 800 ISO since 1/200 sec was not fast enough to stop the quick action of an iguana chowing down on blossoms. Unfortunately many good compositions were a little blurry. The 400 f/4.0L  IS DO with a 1.4x was a valuable lens choice for this area, although I did not use it much throughout the trip.

There was a news headline back in 2009 that excitedly reported a female tortoise, paired with the famous Lonesome George, laid a clutch of eggs. Unfortunately, the eggs were infertile, and it appears that the possibility of offspring is grim for this last remaining of the Pinta Island subspecies of Tortoise. George continues to play a critical role as an icon for conservation in the Galapagos Islands. His age is not known, but the average lifespan is expected to be 100-150 yrs, an amazing span of life. They can weigh up to 600 lbs, the males being typically larger. Since the 17th century, their populations were effected by both hunting and loss of habitat, the latter largely from the introduction of feral grazing animals like goats. Recent plans to exterminate the goats from some of the islands have proved successful.

I photographed this wild tortoise in the highlands of Santa Cruz. His face is full of passion fruit seeds, remnants from his recent feeding on the abundant fruit. It was pretty dark under the forest canopy, and this photo reveals the amazing versatility of digital files, since at 800 ISO, it is nearly grain free and rich in color. The exposures were at the minimum to stop motion and have a tiny bit of depth of field. I sat low and froze until the tortoise relaxed and eventually walked past, and grabbed a few frames and  a short video.

The Galapagos Islands are the only place in the world you will find a marine iguana. The color variation differs from island to island among the archipelago, and on Espanola Island, the iguanas have a red and green hue. They are as bizarre to watch as they look, and like most reptiles, don’t move unless there is some efficient reason for doing so. Our guide told us that the internal body temperature is less than one degree different than the outside temperature, which is one reason they like to bask in the sun. Due to abundant rains, the background green is a bonus color for this often dry and brown landscape. I laid on my stomach to get this shot in order to grab some of the nice sky and clouds, which meant indenting the body with coral sand, especially the elbows and knees. It was often in the 90′s, and under the hot sun, I’m sure much warmer, not to mention the humidity. Add a little sun screen and you turn into a sticky epidermis that collects sand like a sugar coated doughnut.  The temperatures alone was a challenge for a body akin to the northern climate. I found the red, green and blue color combination of this image intriguing, along with  the elements of land, water and sky. Plus, the creature looks fresh out of Lord of the Rings, but its real.

The enchanted islands of the Galapagos are appropriately named. Located about 600 miles off the coast of Ecuador, they are uniquely situated at the convergence of warm and cool water currents, a contributing factor to the amazing diversity of life found among the archipelago. After a week exploring the region both above and below the water, the dose of natural history and unique sights will take some time to fully assimilate. It was my second visit there, and perhaps not my last. I spent a week on a small vessel with 14 people and a Galapagos born guide whose transmuted much local knowledge and critical logistics for maximizing the experience. I’ll share some of the experiences and photos in the next few weeks.

I was a little concerned about swimming and diving  just 7 weeks following shoulder surgery, but all went well in that regard. Thanks to my surgeon, Dr. M. Jabara in Grand Rapids, MI. Since my extensive snorkeling days in Hawaii about 25 years ago, I still had difficulty equalizing my left ear, and was a little hindered by that when trying to go deep.

For starters, this picture represents one of my favorite locations. While snorkeling, our guide led us into a labyrinth of coves connected by narrow passages into this pool filled with resting sea turtles. I did not do a count on how many were there, but there are at least 14 visible in this shot! I used the Ikelite underwater housing for the canon 5D Mark II, and the 17-40mm lens, mainly for flexibility and a wide angle view. There are many challenges to snorkeling and photography, and I often thought of the luxury of having a tank of air on my back. However, the simplicity of snorkeling is fitting for some great spontaneous moments. It was often the case that moving slowly was critical. This was especially true with the sea turtles so that they are not frightened, but that takes time, and you only have so much in one breath. Getting deep, thinking about composition, positioning, etc., well, it makes me want to go right back and do this over a second time. In general, the housing worked very well. It took a little getting used to the nobs and what they controlled, but it functioned without a flaw. While I’m happy with a few of the images, the first time around begs a second attempt. The underwater world is one of pure fascination, and I hope to explore it more in the near future.

Saturday morning was my only early morning photo opportunity at Machu Picchu and I woke at 5:30 to thick fog and rain. It made for a disheartening morning greeting, high in the Peruvian jungle, but afforded time for coffee and breakfast. The crowds arrived at 6AM,  and I ventured out after them and long after supposed first light, which remained hidden behind the dense clouds.

I did what landscape photographers do in situations like this–I sat and waited. I knew the chances for some intriguing light play loomed as an option in conditions like this and before too long the skies began to slowly brighten and the mist and fog dissipated sporadically. Machu Picchu all by itself is a sight to behold, but to watch it slowly take form like a print in dark-room developer solution was more than magical.

I took lot of photos, some panoramas, a few exposure blends, but I won’t know which is best until I have a good chance to review. However, if my Iphone produced a shot like this, then I must have something worthy in the bunch. After 2 hours, it was time to run to the hotel, pack and catch a 9 am bus back to the train station, which departs from the village of Aguas Calientes, along the Urubamba River.