RickDB

...unless it's just touching the water to cause a spray of droplets. Trigger by Phototrap.

Cheers, Rick

Gaudi's genius for design captured beautifully - taking away the color, which is an important element of his work, emphasizes the architectural lines and lets us see his artistic vision in a different light. Thanks for sharing.

Great composition made outstanding with the fine balance of light. Very well done, thanks for sharing.

Often referred to as the poor man's Rolls Royce, definitely has an opulent air about it. Looks beautifully restored and I love your setting. I would suggest the composition would be improved if there was a little more space between the front wheel and the bottom border - you can afford to loose some sky (which has a sensor spot that needs removing) . Enjoyed seeing this, thanks for sharing. RickDB

Thanks Todd. Getting up before dawn and hiking in the freezing cold was rewarded with a great dawn sky....

Simple and yet elegant. Nicely done! RickDB

Thanks Daniel. Senja Island in Arctic Norway is spectacular - worth the effort of getting there for the landscapes.

Nicely done! A fine B&W rendering with great composition, I do like architectural verticals to be vertical. Thanks for sharing, RickDB

Absolutely. The huge divide between rich and poor is on display everywhere in India. The opulent and spectacular palaces of the Maharajas are adjacent to some of the poorest homes. Delhi reminds me of what Victorian London must have been like. It seems things have improved in the past twelve years since I was last there, but I suspect the very poorest may be even worse off. The key to change is education, and that is available to all children whatever their status.

Thanks! Timing is all electronic. The camera is pre-focused on the point at which a bat will break an IR beam, thereby triggering flash units. The short duration of the flash freezes the motion. Of course you don't know when a bat will come along so you set the camera on continuous shooting with the shutter set at 30s and hope just one bat comes through at a time. It does need to be pitch black, so out in the desert at night is ideal.

Hi Giangiorgio, Just in the right place at the right time with the right lens - I had been shooting the sunrise with w/a lens, switched to 100-400mm to pick out some architectural details and saw the hoopoe. That chipmunk is flying with all four feet of the ground.

Cheers, Rick

Hi Alain, We sailed to 82.5 degrees north to reach the ice and once there I really had my doubts we would actually find a polar bear. It's a vast empty place, but the polar bears are curious creatures and sought us out. After staying overnight in the pack ice we awoke to several lone males eyeing us up. Unfortunately, we didn't come across any females with cubs and so witnessed no interactions. The ice boundary is well defined and is often quite misty/foggy making photography of distant polar bears all the more difficult.

I agree these trips are costly and these small old research vessels getting more and more expensive to maintain/refit; perhaps these photo expeditions will become a thing of the past. Not a family vacation though, so to keep the cost down find a couple of photographer buddies and a triple cabin in the bilges. However, if I could do only one, I would, without a doubt, choose Antarctica over Svalbard; Penguins are a lot more accommodating since, unlike polar bears, you can be amongst them when you make a landing!

Great shot Alain - However, I think you make it look too easy! After hiking a mile up the mountain to Jigokudani Park, probably in deep snow, you need to be there well before the doors open for a prime spot on the narrow ledge around the small pool of warm water. It's wall to wall photographers and tourists. Portraits with a telephoto lens allows you to exclude the visitors, but the steam rising from the pool swirls about and always seems to be at it's most dense when the subject is at it's most alluring. Wide angle shots to place the monkeys in their environment will require a lot of cloning out of people, and then there are all the reflections in the water of their brightly colored jackets. Oh, and then be prepared for your head to be used as a stepping stone as the young monkeys chase each other about. A wonderful, but challenging, experience.

Thanks all for your comments. Two things you come away from Antarctica remembering are the stunning blue icebergs and the delightful penguins. Put the two together and you have a winning combination.

Thanks Dan and Pierre for your kind comments! I was pleased with this shot, the lighting was soft resulting in nice detail in both the black and white plumage. But to some of my photographer friends, an anhinga is just another bird and not very interesting. Actually, I think some of the most underrated photos on PN are panoramas, they just don't show well. Anonymous posting for rating is an interesting idea...

coordinates : 54°17'52.92"S 66°41'58.06"W

Thanks Tm J - the Tamron 150-600mm lens is a great travel lens, especially with the weight restrictions from the airlines. It is not quite as sharp as a telephoto prime lens and is definitely slower to focus, but stopped down to f/8 you can get some great results. There were a lot of atmospheric thermals which caused some distortion, even on the close rocks, but it is clearly visible in the distant mountains; even the finest lens can't fix that!

Thanks all for taking the time to comment! Gregory and Sevena - I took this using a fisheye lens in an Aquatech waterproof housing which I then half submerged in the water by hanging over the side of a zodiac. Very much a hit and miss affair, so I took lots and lots of shots and hoped for the best.

Shot using an Aquatech housing to see the extent of the iceberg

beneath the surface.

The first time I photographed humpbacks I zoomed in all the way and took some nice close-up shots, but without any background besides the ocean they could have been taken anywhere. For this shot I deliberately tried to include the background as a reference. If you are in a zodiac, you are down low and including the background is easier. From a ship the best thing you can do is get to the lowest deck and hope you get lucky.  5D2 + Tamron SP 150-600 at 329mm; Manual exposure 1/1,250s at f/8.0 ISO 800, handheld.

Thanks David, just one shot. It's a rather hit and miss affair trying to judge when the camera is exactly half in and half out of the water. Even small ripples on the surface can make a big difference; I have a couple of shots where you can only see the top of the mast of the ship because of small ripples.

Thanks Peter - Antarctica is an amazing place, especially for photography. Jumping into the ice cold water is way outside my comfort zone so I took these pictures by hanging over the side of a zodiac and just submerging the bottom half of my camera in the water and shooting blind. I took lots and lots of shots and ended up with a few keepers.

Thanks all for your encouragement. I wanted to take some different pictures on my trip to Antarctica and planned to try and photograph the icebergs above and below not really knowing how successful I would be. It is a rather hit and miss affair - out of 400 shots, I have about 10 keepers; this is my favorite one.

Fisheye lens and drone?

Hi Peter, the trick is to wipe a thin film of clear shampoo over the Perspex dome of the underwater housing. The plastic surface is very hydropobic and water beads up; shampoo (or any detergent) makes the surface hydrophilic and water just spreads to a very thin layer that is invisible.