Is it Better to Have Tried and Failed? Or was there some success? Your Call

Stuff

I went down to the lake this morning and almost headed back to get some work done. But then it got pretty good. I even had an Osprey posing in the grass. Then a nice swim, an acupuncture treatment, and an ice bath.

This educational blog post, the 96th in a row, took 2 hours to prepare and was published at one minute after midnight on Tuesday.

St. Augustine Short Notice IPT

With just three folks signed up, this trip represents a great opportunity to learn a ton in a great setting. See here for complete details.

From Pat and Stokes Fishburne

The Alligator Farm is quite good right now. Good spoonbill nests and lots of spoonbills. Also, Snowy Egrets, Tricolored Herons, and a few Cattle Egrets along with more than a few Great Egret nests with chicks.

This image was created at Right Whale Bay, South Georgia with the tripod-mounted Canon EF 300mm f/2.8L IS II USM lens, the Canon Extender EF 1.4X III, and the Canon EOS 7D Mark II. ISO 1000. Evaluative metering +1/3 stop: 1/250 sec. at f/4.5 in Tv mode. Center AF point (manual selection)/AI Servo/Rear Focus AF 1/3 of the way into the frame and re-compose. Click here to see the latest version of the Rear Focus Tutorial. Click on the image to see a larger version. Image 1: King Penguin rookery, Right Whale Bay, South Georgia

The Situation

Delayed by a Force 10 gale on the way from the Falklands to South Georgia, we arrived very late at Right Whale Bay, well after dinner in fact. Having taken our time at dinner Michael Viljoen and I were late getting to the zodiacs. When I saw how cloudy, dark, and gloomy it was and noted that the Ortelius was anchored right in front of the main portion of the King Penguin rookery, I said, “Let’s stay on the ship and see what we can do.” We grabbed a few lenses and our tripods, each equipped with a Mongoose M3.6, and went to work. We began trying to create relatively sharp images like the one above at fairly high ISOs. As it was getting darker by the minute, I suggested that we tried some creative stuff. So we did.

This 5-frame in-camera Multiple Exposure was created at Right Whale Bay, South Georgia with the tripod-mounted Canon EF 300mm f/2.8L IS II USM lens, the Canon Extender EF 1.4X III, and the Canon EOS 7D Mark II. ISO 1000. Evaluative metering +1/3 stop: 1/250 sec. at f/4.5 in Tv mode. Center AF point (manual selection)/AI Servo/Rear Focus AF 1/3 of the way into the frame for each frame and re-compose while shifting the camera slightly for each exposure. Click here to see the latest version of the Rear Focus Tutorial. Click on the image to see a larger version. Image 2: King Penguin rookery in-camera Multiple Exposure, Right Whale Bay, South Georgia

Multiple Exposure

First up I set up for five-frame Multiple Exposures as detailed in the 7D II (and the 5D III) camera body User’s Guides. I initially over-processed this image with too much contrast and too much Detail Extractor so I created a softer version by putting the optimized image on top of the converted TIFF and reducing the opacity to about 40%. It looked a lot nicer than my first attempt.

This image was created at Right Whale Bay, South Georgia tripod-mounted Canon EF 70-200mm f/2.8L IS II USM lens, the Canon Extender EF 1.4X III, and the Canon EOS 7D Mark II. ISO 100. Evaluative metering at zero yielded a base exposure of 1 sec. at f/11 +/- 2 stops. Center AF point (manual selection)/AI Servo/Rear Focus AF Center AF point (manual selection)/AI Servo/Rear Focus AF as framed and release. Zoomed out and then in very slowly during the three exposures. Click here to see the latest version of the Rear Focus Tutorial. Click on the image to see a larger version. Image #3: King Penguin Rookery in-camera Art Vivid HDR zoom blur, Right Whale Bay, South Georgia

Really Messing Around

As the ship swung on anchor, we had to move from the 2nd starboard deck to the first deck on the stern. I created some standard zoom blurs and then, borrowing a technique that I had developed at the flower fields in Holland, I made some Art Vivid zoom blurs with mega-slow shutter speeds….

Soon after we made our way down to the stern, the zodiacs began returning. It had been a short landing in very poor conditions. Both Michael and I agreed that the decision to stay on the boat was a good one. As things worked out, we had many landings with tame, wall to wall King Penguins in decent conditions.

Your Call?

Feel free to pick one or to improvise:

a-I liked all of them.
b-Image # __ was my favorite because.
c-I don’t like any of them because ….
d–They are all terrible. You should have stayed in bed.
e-….

South Georgia 2015

Like penguins? Be sure to shoot me an e-mail to learn how to become part of the BAA group.

Remember!

Each of us gets only one ride on the merry-go-round of life….

All of the images on the card were made on South Georgia. This remote wilderness island offers both spectacular scenery and hordes of tame wildlife and birds. From top left clockwise to the center: Southern Elephant Seal, courting King Penguin pair, King Penguin abstract, Grey-headed Albatross, King Penguin rookery on Salisbury Plain, Macaroni Penguin head portrait, King Penguin molting Okum Boy, Macaroni Penguin pair, King Penguin preening, Southern Elephant Seal yawning, the view of Gold Harbour from a Light-mantled Sooty Albatross nest. Click on the image to see an extra large version.

The Southern Ocean

South Georgia Expedition Voyage

I’ve been blessed. I’ve now made four trips to the Southern Ocean, three expeditions that visited the Falklands, South Georgia, and the Antarctic Peninsula, and one to the Falklands and South Georgia. Each was a truly amazing experience. South Georgia has been the star of the show each time: rugged snow covered peaks, tame and abundant wildlife including Southern Elephant Seal and Southern Fur Seal, and penguins: more King Penguins than you could ever have dreamed of. Gentoos. And my favorite, the golden-yellow spaghetti-topped Macaronis. With four trips to South Georgi under my belt, I have a pretty good idea about how to make great images at each of the iconic landings. In addition, we should have some pretty good flight photography sessions from the stern of the ship. I would love the chance to share my knowledge with you.

Questions?

I’d be glad to answer all of your Southern Ocean/Falklands/South Georgia/Antarctica questions. Please leave a comment if you’d like to learn more. If you’d like to join my group this October, shoot me an e-mail to learn how. Click here for additional details.

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