Projects and Stories
Checking out the "big freeze"
It's been nearly six months now since Sue and I returned from South America. Yes, youv'e guessed it, wev'e got itchy feet again. The next trip is planned and booked; we are off to the Antarctic. At the end of February, (it's only a few months away now!) we start what may be our most exciting trip yet.
Flying to Beunos Aires via Madrid and then taking a couple of days filming of course. The next flight takes us as far south as it is possible, without getting your feet wet as we fly to Ushuaia. From here on in, its stormy seas, sea sickness tablets and penguins!
We sail south to the great white continent taking in the Falklands and South Georgia on the way.
As usual, several months before a trip it's time to start checking the equipment, ordering any spares or "new" stuff; (somehow I always manage to find a new bit of kit that I can't possibly do without!) and researching techniques to make the most of the conditions that we might be faced with. Polarising filters for all thread sizes and lots of practice with fill-in flash I think.
Flying to Beunos Aires via Madrid and then taking a couple of days filming of course. The next flight takes us as far south as it is possible, without getting your feet wet as we fly to Ushuaia. From here on in, its stormy seas, sea sickness tablets and penguins!
We sail south to the great white continent taking in the Falklands and South Georgia on the way.
As usual, several months before a trip it's time to start checking the equipment, ordering any spares or "new" stuff; (somehow I always manage to find a new bit of kit that I can't possibly do without!) and researching techniques to make the most of the conditions that we might be faced with. Polarising filters for all thread sizes and lots of practice with fill-in flash I think.
Life in the Office
Whilst I was photographing the incredible wild life out in the Galapagos, a thought occurred to me!
Pink Iguanas and Blue footed boobies
In June this year, 2009, we are travelling to the Galapagos Islands;
Tigers and exploding hard drives!
The pictures contained in Big Cats 2, are all from our trip to India in October 2008. Without doubt none of these would have returned to the UK if it had not been for the help of "Big" John Pearce. I always download my pictures onto a hard drive at the end of each day and disaster struck halfway through this trip. My hard drive decided to "go south" leaving me with a real shortage of memory and no where to store my precious pictures!
Fortunately one of the members of our group, (who were all fantastic by the way)had just about every gadget known to man with him including a trusty laptop whivch he kindly transferred all my pictures onto daily. On our last day John copied all these to DVD and stored them safely away in case I managed to lose these as well.
I am in your debt John, cheers big time.
Invaluable lesson number one; always always carry more memory cards than you think you will need and double up on everything.
Oh and by the way; with transport like this,
dont forget to pad your camera bag out with EXTRA padding!
Fortunately one of the members of our group, (who were all fantastic by the way)had just about every gadget known to man with him including a trusty laptop whivch he kindly transferred all my pictures onto daily. On our last day John copied all these to DVD and stored them safely away in case I managed to lose these as well.
I am in your debt John, cheers big time.
Invaluable lesson number one; always always carry more memory cards than you think you will need and double up on everything.
Oh and by the way; with transport like this,
dont forget to pad your camera bag out with EXTRA padding!
Only available in Black and White
Susan and I returned from China at the end of September, having travelled from Beijing to Xian and from Chengdu to Wolong. The trip packed an awful lot into a short time but was an incredible experience.
For us the highlight had to be the time spent at Wolong; and yes, Pandas really are as cute and cuddly as they look in the photos!
The research being carried out at Wolong is paying dividends as so many baby Pandas have been born and we were privileged to see some very young babies.
As a photographer I am not keen on the usual tourist type shots of the two of us posing; but the opportunity to have our picture taken with an extremely cute Panda was too much of a temptation for even me.
For us the highlight had to be the time spent at Wolong; and yes, Pandas really are as cute and cuddly as they look in the photos!
The research being carried out at Wolong is paying dividends as so many baby Pandas have been born and we were privileged to see some very young babies.
As a photographer I am not keen on the usual tourist type shots of the two of us posing; but the opportunity to have our picture taken with an extremely cute Panda was too much of a temptation for even me.
Tales from the North!
Susan and I recently returned from the frozen wastes of the Canadian Tundra,,,,,,,,except for one thing; it wasn't actually frozen.
The fact is this. At the end of October, polar bears are getting pretty hungry having not fed through the summer and are dependent on the Hudson bay freezing over so as to allow them to feed on seals. However it seems to take longer each year for this to happen as temperatures refuse to drop. Like it or not, global warming does appear to be having an impact.
We did see a lot of bears; it was simply that these majestic animals were lying around, trying to conserve energy until such time as dinner arrived! Although these bears look pretty big; they are actually around half the weight that they will be by the springtime, providing that the ice comes in time.
It really is about time the worlds big powers woke up to global warming.
The fact is this. At the end of October, polar bears are getting pretty hungry having not fed through the summer and are dependent on the Hudson bay freezing over so as to allow them to feed on seals. However it seems to take longer each year for this to happen as temperatures refuse to drop. Like it or not, global warming does appear to be having an impact.
We did see a lot of bears; it was simply that these majestic animals were lying around, trying to conserve energy until such time as dinner arrived! Although these bears look pretty big; they are actually around half the weight that they will be by the springtime, providing that the ice comes in time.
It really is about time the worlds big powers woke up to global warming.
