Wading

Not so much wading out in the field, but through the 10,000 images from Alaska and British Columbia.
Some wildlife photographers opt for a policy of shooting on continuous by default, so even static subjects get 8 or 10 shots exactly the same (especially with a Canon 1D-X) with the lightest of shutter presses. For post-processing they quickly flit through and pick out the stand-out shots, and delete the rest. If that works for you then fine. Not for me though! I can't pick out subtle variations in shots flitting through them at speed, so I prefer to shoot carefully, and choose carefully afterwards. But I've still got 10,000 images to sort through from 6 weeks in the American North West! So it's taking a while. We were so lucky with breaching whales, that there are probably hundreds of decent shots, so selection is tricky!
At least I've got the first batch up on the website, so hope you like them. Here's one of the rejects:

 

Amidst the Big Guys

Away on another "A" mission, after Australia, Argentina, Antarctica, Arctic and Africa. This time Alaska, and the big guys in question are Humpback Whales, and Bears. And a variety of the latter with Black, Brown and White on the menu.
Actually it can be argued that there are only Black and Brown Bears in North America, with Grizzly and Polar bears both being genetic variants of Brown Bears. While the White Bears we're after in British Columbia are not Polar Bears, but an elusive white variant of Black Bears.
The Whales are just Humpbacks. Except for the odd Killer Whale.
And if you want some more detail on where we are and what we're shooting, see:

http://blog.travelpod.com/travel-blog/imageyonder/2/tpod.html

Now heading off from Petersburg, and up to Alaska's capital, Juneau.

Nepal and those Big Mountains

I've been back a week or so since the wonders of Nepal. It's been a long time in the back of my mind, that one day I'd have to go and see what the Himalayas are really like. So now I can't believe that it's actually all happened and I'm back home.
It's a bit of a contrast is Nepal: two weeks trekking up into the thin air and and the thick atmosphere of the mountains with the wondrous peaks, precipitous scenery, snow, forests and village life. Then back to Pokhara and Kathmandu and the turmoil and bustle of streets which mix cars, cows, motorbikes, pushbikes, dogs, pedestrians and rickshaws in an apparently orderless chaos. Quite how they all miss each other can only be described as a virtuoso demonstration of human spatial awareness.
But for the mountains, trekking up steps for what seemed like perpetuity, surviving downtime in freezing temperatures, and putting up with medieval facilities are the hardships, made worth putting up with for the scenery.
But we only reached Base Camp of Annapurna and 4200m - it's beyond comprehension to imagine that's just the start if you're there to climb the world's highest mountains, with another 4000m of ice, snow and vertical rock to contend with. It's perhaps no wonder our highpoint was christened the "Annapurna Sanctuary" in 1956 by the British climber Jimmy Roberts - it's only as you arrive that the view opens out with half a dozen huge peaks surrounding you, and the immense Annapurna South glacier creaking past. Photography - well I tried, but weather, the need for light luggage and time constraints, are constant pressures which make it all the more tricky. But there are few now up on the website under Recent or Nepal.

View up to Annapurna from the Sanctuary and across the vast South Annapurna Glacier

London Exhibition

We're exhibiting some prints at the end of March at the prestigious Mall Galleries in London at the end of March (24th-29th). This is with a few of our Light & Land trip colleagues amongst many others, and organised by Charlie Waite, trying to promote actually printing photos, as opposed to keeping them just for on-screen viewing.
It should be an interesting event, with hopefully quite a variety of work from around the world.

This is the link for more details:
www.lightandland.co.uk/exhibition

Blown away in Bordeaux

Just back from 9 days in South-West France with Jonathan Chritchley on an Ocean Capture workshop and tour.
We didn't quite get blown away near Biarritz, but almost - perhaps to be expected on the Atlantic Coast in February.
The idea was to try some long exposures, concentrate on Black & White, and get some hints from Jonathan on his mastery of minimalist ocean pictures.
We were experimenting with exposures into the minutes, to get an atmospheric silky water look sometimes, or a hint of stormy seas without freezing the moment at others.
Subject matter tends to be something sticking out of the water, whether it be a jetty or the carrelet fishing huts which pepper the coast down there.
Do the long exposures give an unrealistic and artificial image that is unrepresentative and unnatural, or an artistic vision and atmosphere that transforms the everyday to a different level? See the image below or in Recent Images or France on imageyonder.com and let me know what you think.