orange. blob. blog.

Les Eclaireurs Lighthouse, Beagle Channel

Tim — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 03:19:49 +0000

Les Eclaireurs Lighthouse, standing near Ushuaia in the Beagle Channel, Tierra del Fuego in Argentina…

Still operational, the lighthouse is about 10 metres tall and uses solar power to beam out flashes every 10 seconds. Said to be the most photographed lighthouse in South America, boats travel out from Ushuaia to reach the lighthouse which Argentines call ‘The Lighthouse at the End of the World’, or ‘Faro del fin del mundo’.

Everyone who was standing on the deck of the boat as it left the town of Ushuaia soon huddled inside as the temperature dropped and we headed out into the expanse of the Beagle Channel. I managed to stake out a spot outside by the railing of the boat, protecting the camera from the spray until the lighthouse came into view. Fired off a number of shots as we circled the small island, and this was the one that caught my eye.

Ushuaia is commonly regarded as the southernmost city in the world and at times it feels like it – one day of lashing rain, the next of warm sun. It’s also the jumping-off point for expeditions to Antarctica – everyone seems to be in a state of transition, about to head out to the ice, just back from the ice, or just enjoying a Beagle beer…

Canon EOS-5D Mark II (wet)
1/4000 sec at f/2.8
ISO 200
45mm

Perito Moreno Glacier Trek

Tim — Sun, 28 Feb 2010 02:07:59 +0000

The shot above was taken on the same trip as this other shot of a Tree at the side of the Moreno Glacier. We were about to do the ice-trek and this was taken looking towards the supply hut where we picked up the crampons…

Again, the picture was taken slightly underexposed to bring out the blue in the ice, and the clouds in the sky. I used the tilt shift (45mm) lens again too, focussing on the shard like glacier ice.

If you click on the image above to view the image large, you can see the line of small dots snaking away from the hut, and onto the glacier – that’s the ice-trekking tour people. Gives some idea of the size of the glacier, truly enormous and humbling!

With the glacier moving past the hut (which is on the solid ground to the side of the river of ice) at about 2m per day, the tour guides have new scenery outside their base every day, and no doubt have to re-plan their routes through the ice crevices and pools.

Canon EOS-5D Mark II
1/8000 sec at f/2.8
ISO 100
45mm

La Recoleta Cemetery

Tim — Wed, 17 Feb 2010 00:21:22 +0000

Lush greenery amongst the stone, in La Recoleta Cemetery. Located in the Recoleta neighbourhood of Buenos Aires…

The rich and famous of Buenos Aires come to rest here, and the cemetery is literally full of private mausoleums. This is one of the few areas where there is some greenery, and the geometry of the bush and stonework caught my eye.

Unlike the cemeteries of New Orleans, these mausoleums also have basements, and when you peer in through open or broken doors, you can see stairs leading down to the basements of the various families.

The area in the photo almost seemed like a bench for people to sit on, but the carefully manicured bush had already beaten people to it.

Canon EOS-5D Mark II
1/500 sec at f/2.8
ISO 200
55mm

Thames Barrier London

Tim — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 06:02:14 +0000

The picture of the Thames Barrier in London was taken from the north bank of the River Thames… and I managed to pick the coldest, wettest evening to do it…

I tried to get this shot about a year ago when I arrived too late, and the barrier park was closed. Landed up getting this shot of Canary Wharf and the Dome from the Royal Victoria Dock instead. This time I managed to check sunset times and head out on time. I was tempted to head back to about 15 times on the trek out to the barrier park. The rain didn’t stop at all, and it was darker than I’d hoped but there was a railing where I could steady the wet camera for the exposure.

Protecting London from extremely high tides, the Thames Barrier is one of the largest movable flood barriers in the world.  Opened in 1984 by the Queen, the barrier divides the river into a number of sections, with four 200 foot sections in the middle for ships to fit through. Semi-circular gates swing up from the river bed between the piers when the barrier is raised.

Things went pear-shaped in 1997 when a dredger collided with one of the piers and sank, leaving London prone to flood. Luckily things were sorted out before the barrier was needed to be raised.

Canon EOS-1D Mark III
1/13 sec at f/2.8
ISO 800
90mm (Tilt shift)

PopPhoto Magazine Runner Up

Tim — Sun, 10 Jan 2010 17:42:46 +0000

First post of the year, so Happy New Year to everyone reading this!

Discovered by mistake the other day that one of my photos had won ‘runner up’ in the Popular Photography Magazine’s 16th Annual Readers’ Contest…

I just happened to be looking through their weekly email, and noticed that they’d announced the winners and had an online gallery – I was looking through the different photos, and then had a pleasant surprise when I was faced with my Empire State Building picture, taken during Earth Hour 2009, with a tilt shift lens.

You can see the full gallery of winners and runner-ups at the Popular Photography gallery.

I was also pretty happy to start the new year with my first photo that’s made it into print in a magazine. You can see the image second down on the left, in the grid of runner-up images. They always say to start small… so I guess that image fits the bill – I actually missed it the first time I was looking through the magazine to see if they printed the runner-up images!

Anyway, it’s a good start to the new year, and the image was then also featured on their Photo of the day – Photo of the Day, Jan 8th 2009, which you can see in the screenshot below.

Moreno Glacier Argentina

Tim — Mon, 28 Dec 2009 00:45:33 +0000

This picture was taken on a recent trip to Argentina, and shows the side face of the Perito Moreno Glacier. We were just finishing the ice-trek at this point so we had a few moments to look around…

The picture was taken in extremely bright light with the sun shining through some of the more dense cloud cover in the background. I then underexposed the photo slightly, and drained some of the more distracting colour (leaving as much as the blue as possible). It is also taken with a tilt-shift lens (the 45mm ts-e lens).

The average height of the glacier at the end is about 240ft above sea level, and it is also one of the glaciers that is still advancing – to the tune of nearly 2m per day. Huge chunks of ice regularly smash down into the sea from the front face as it advances – it’s hard to believe how loud the ice breaks really are.

Canon EOS-5D Mark II
1/6400 sec at f/2.8
ISO 100
45mm

Statue of Liberty

Tim — Tue, 15 Dec 2009 05:25:54 +0000

The inside of the Statue of Liberty, showing the pure copper sheathing, which hangs on the steel framework. Back in September of 2009, I managed to get a pair of tickets to visit the Statue of Liberty with Crown access…

The tour basically allowed me to do the same as the regular tours – boat over to Liberty Island and then into the pedestal of the statue – but then to go up the more restricted staircase leading up through the body of Lady Liberty, to the Crown itself.

One thing I never realised about the Statue’s torch was that originally it was a full copper torch – then in 1916 (the Statue was dedicated in 1886) they cut away large portions of the copper in the torch flame and installed glass windows, with an internal light inside. Because the windows leaked, moisture got into the arm, and eventually sped up the corrosion of the inside of the statue. In 1986 they replaced the torch with a solid version which you see now, with gold plating covering the flame which is lit by external flood lighting. You can see the original torch with the glass windows in the museum in the pedestal.

The photo above shows the inside of part of the ‘body’ of the statue, with what used to be Iron skeletal supports (they’re now steel) holding up the outside covering of copper panels. The copper panelling is just less than the thickness of two pennies. Built into the pedestal’s massive masonry are two sets of four girders, which connect up to part of Eiffel’s framework for the statue itself.

The picture above was taken from one of the stairways on the way up to the crown, looking directly at one of the sides of the statue from the inside of the Statue of Liberty. The whole area inside was a mixture of shadows and highlights due to the lighting – the lack of light also forced me to use a high ISO / very low aperture to get the picture – the light highlight you see is actually from one of the internal lights in the statue.

Canon EOS-5D Mark II
1/40 sec at f/1.2
ISO 1250
85mm

Guggenheim Museum

Tim — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 15:03:32 +0000

Opening its doors in October 1959, it’s full name is the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum.
Designed by Frank Lloyd Wright – the museum is instantly recognisable on the Upper East Side in New York City…

Wright made sure that every little detail was taken care of, from the location of the building (opposite Central Park), to the spiral design which imitates a nautilus shell. Another detail sometimes overlooked is the idea that you don’t have to retrace your steps when viewing the art – you take the elevator to the top of the museum, then wind your way gradually down the 1/4 mile long ramp, viewing art on the way.

Queues to rival the Apple Store’s new-product-day lines occurred at the opening in 1959, with 3,000 people queuing on the first Wednesday for the 2pm opening, and over 10,000 queuing the following Sunday in order to see the museum.

The picture above focuses on the South side of the museum, and using a Canon tilt-shift 45mm lens, narrows the area of focus to a specific area on the spiral.

Canon EOS-1D Mark III
1/800 sec at f/2.8
ISO 200
45mm (Tilt shift)

* Information about the museum taken from the museum visitor guide

PDN Photo of the Day – Nov 16th

Tim — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 03:30:19 +0000

A great way to start the week! PDN’s blog ‘PDN Photo of the Day‘, featured some of the photos from my recent ‘Manhattan – A Closer Look‘ series…

A big Thank-you to Daryl Lang for featuring them!

All the pictures in the full series were taken with a tilt-shift lens (mostly the 45mm version) and converted to black and white. Mostly. There is one which has some colour left in it. There are a number of blog posts throughout my blog describing the different photos, where they were taken, and how.

The series took about a year from start to finish.

Please feel free to take a look at the full series here!

New York Times Building

Tim — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 05:25:13 +0000

Completed in 2007, the New York Times building in the Times Square area of New York is 52 floors tall and 1,142 feet tall including the antenna…

The building is shrouded in distinctive horizontal ceramic rods on all sides except for the North side, which help to keep the building cool during the summer months but also let as much natural light in as possible.

It was also these rods that made it easier for Alain Robert to climb up to the roof of the building on the outside, during the summer of 2008 (June 5th).

For this photo (also included in the ‘Manhattan – A Closer Look‘ series), I started out at street level, looking for a decent angle. After a while I realised that I’d prefer to be more level with the wording on the building. Handily, there’s the gigantic Port Authority bus station opposite, with some handy outdoor car parks to shoot from (via some trial-and-error elevators). With the elevated position across the road, I snagged the shot above, again using the tilt function on the tilt-shift lens to narrow down the area of focus – this time it had the added effect of making the rods look further apart in this particular part of focus – sharper rods meant more ‘gap’ between them, while the others blurred into almost solid white.

Canon EOS-1D Mark III
1/640 sec at f/2.8
ISO 200
45mm (Tilt shift)