MY ARCTIC EXPEDITION IN SVALBARD

July 2013

When my husband and I booked for this Photographic Experience last year, I think I was thinking it was going to be a cruise on a ship with some great opportunities to take images of Polar Bears, nice landscapes and of course other species of wildlife found in this part of the world. Maybe I had still in my mind our wonderful trip we had to the Antarctica in 2007. This was certainly different – this was an expedition, not a photographic holiday or tour. Not for the faint hearted or for the unfit person. If asked would I do it again my answer would be “Yes if I was 20 years younger” having said that, it is something that will live in our memories for many years to come and we will continue to talk about it also for a very long time. AN EXPEDITION OF A LIFETIME.

Did I prefer this trip to the Antarctica trip? Yes. Why? It was a very small ship, only took 24 people on board, which included the crew so the opportunities to go on land were more frequent. In fact we had at least two landings per day on the zodiacs for as long as it was necessary compared to one landing per day in the Antarctica and then we were only allowed on land for one hour – this is the difference of going on a cruise liner compared to a small expedition ship.

So does one give up the luxuries of a cruise liner – almost definitely to experience this part of the world and capture the beauty, feel the spirituality as you cruise in among the glaciers, pass the icebergs with different species of bird life all around you.

The Arctic is Polar Bear country albeit with global warming, they are moving further north due to the ice melting. Did we see Polar Bears, yes but only six and not on the floating ice as I think many photographers would like to capture. You are not allowed on land if the Polar Bears are near so all our sightings were taken from the zodiacs, albeit we were only 50 metres away from them and had of course the water between us which was our safety factor. One image that I managed to capture (attached for you to enjoy) was the one of mother and child having some loving moments together – I call this one “The Dancing Bears” – as I pressed the shutter, the tears were running down my cheeks, it was a very special moment. Unfortunately one of the photographer’s memory card ran out a few seconds just before this happened and he did not get his new one in on time to get this moment, he was very sad and upset. He offered to buy mine (ha ha), still waiting on his price offer.

There is plenty bird life, walruses, we did not see many seals, (perhaps this is also the reason we did not see as many polar bears as seals are their prey) some of the photographers saw the arctic fox and we saw one reindeer.

The beauty of the landscapes for me was very very special, perhaps due to my passion and forte with landscapes. I have attached a couple of landscapes hopefully showing you that beauty.

Camera equipment I used mainly the D800 with wide angle lenses for the landscapes and the D4 with an 80-400 lens for the wildlife. Tripod was used mainly from the ship or on land when photographing, as it was very difficult on the zodiacs to use a tripod. I also used various graduated filters for the landscapes.

It was a bit rough at times on the ship and we had to pop the pills every now and again for the nausea. The temperature was never below zero at anytime but the wind chill factor plays a role and yes I did feel very cold some days out in the zodiac and wondered if I had any fingers and toes still belonging to me.

I hope to be able to share with you at some stage the presentation that my husband and I are putting together on this wonderful trip. Yes it was expensive and our children are still worried that we spent their inheritance!!! The Expedition was organized and run by ODP in conjunction with Vega Expeditions (a Swedish company) and the ship Origo is a Swedish owned ship.

Thank you for allowing me this opportunity to share at this stage a part of this wonderful challenging experience.

Evelyn

Centurion Camera Club Prints Exhibition 2013

“A picture is worth a thousand words; A fine art print so much more.”

30 September –5 October 2013

Centurion camera club proudly presents our annual showcase photo exhibition at Nikon House, Louwlardia. For directions from the Nikon site click on: "contact us" or Click here for a map

As club members you are invited to make use of this occasion to exhibit your best works of the year - simply upload your images and we do the rest.

The rules briefly are:

• You may enter up to 4 images, of which we guarantee to print and exhibit at least 3 depending on available display space and provided the images are of good quality.  Only full resolution files will be accepted (ie. Not resized) and in any case not less than 5 Megapixels per image. We prefer TIFF or alternatively JPG saved at the highest quality setting.
• Prints will be A3 sized and mounted ( it is ready to be framed as is ).
• Cost is  R100.00 per mounted photo. Payment is by way of direct bank deposit into the camera club account – please use your club membership number as reference, followed by “PRINT” ie 04020022PRINT.
• Photo's should be uploaded to the file sharing website utility: Dropbox (see entry form spread sheet for details) before midnight, 9th September 2013. (This is a regular club evening event)
• Detailed instructions are available on the downloadable Excel file on the website or directly from this link.

What do we do for you?

• Photo's are printed on heavyweight A3+ Premium Luster paper using the best of inkjet technology.
• Photo's will be mounted on 5mm foam core presentation board with surrounding 5cm border area.
• Author name and picture title will be embedded as part of the printed image in the lower right corner.
• We will set up a complete display of all prints at Nikon house.
• Pictures will be judged at the event and a bronze, silver and gold medal will be awarded.
• Pictures will be posted to an on line gallery, accessible from the camera club website
• Pictures will be exhibited at Nikon house for one week.
• A gala opening evening will be held on 30th September at 7:00 pm. The exhibits will be judged at this event and prizes awarded.
• The exhibition will be open to the public from 8am to 5pm during the week and closes on October 5th around 11am.
• There is no cost for this event – catering will be provided by facilities at Nikon house.

Direct all enquiries to:  Arnold Theron  arnold.theron@gmail.com
See you there!
Arnold

Verbyvaart – Beste voorgeskrewe onderwerp.

Ons was in November 2012 vir so 9 dae in Thailand met vakansie. Ons het die Sondagoggend ongeveer 06h00 in Bangkok aangekom en was so teen 09h00 by die Ibis Bangkok Riverside hotel waar ons 2 nagte oorgebly het. Die hotel is geleë op die oewer van die Chao Praya rivier. Ons het die middag verskeie tempels besoek en was nogal moeg met ons aankoms laatmiddag terug by die hotel aangesien ons maar min rus gekry het op die vlug na Bangkok wat so 11 ure deur die nag geduur het en ons die hele dag aan die gang was. Ek het uit ondervinding geleer dat as daar ‘n fotogeleentheid is moet jy dit dadelik aangryp want more is die geleenheid dalk nie weer daar nie. Ook maar goed so want die volgende dag het ons eers laat by die hotel aangekom na ‘n dagtoer en was die weer nie na wense nie en dit was ook al te laat vir nagfotos. Daar word in die algemeen gepraat van nagfotos maar die beste tyd vir nagfotos is egter net na sononder sodra die stadsliggies aangeskakel is. Later in die aand is die kontras te hoog en die lug kom swart uit i.p.v. blou wat beslis nie mooi is nie.

Ek het verskeie fotos geneem na sononder toe die stadsliggies mooi aangeskakel was. Daar het bote op die rivier heen en weer verbygevaar en ek het gedink dit sal dalk mooi wees om ook van hulle in die foto te laat beweeg behalwe vir fotos sonder bote. Dis altyd goed om alles te probeer en hierdie foto het toe goed uitgewerk. Die kamera was ‘n Pentax K5 met ‘n 18-250mm. Pentax lens op 35mm. teen f11, sluiterspoed 8 sek. en ISO 160. Ek het in RAW geneem met die witbalans op “Auto” alhoewel dit nie saak maak nie want jy kan in “RAW Editor” weer die kleurbalans verstel soos jy wil.

Redigering in Photoshop Elements 11 was “levels” verstel, met “skew” die geboue vertikaal gemaak “saturarion” so 10, hier en daar donkerder en ligter gemaak waar nodig en ook die kleur van die foto verstel sodat dit meer natuurlik lyk.

Maartin Coetser Meester – Goud APSSA

Klubinskrywing 8 Julie 2013 Goud - Beste voorgeskrewe onderwerp