Gone to See Europe. Semester at Sea Spring 2013 Enrichment Voyage on the MV Explorer. Day 30: At Sea.
The Netherlands Coast Guard Rescue Helicopter (G-BIMU, Stac Pollaidh) hovered off the Semester at Sea MV Explorer as we traveled along the coast of Netherlands on our way to Oslo, Norway. The helicopter did an amazing job of staying stationary right next to our ship. They wanted to do a drill, but had to leave as they were running low on fuel. I liked the expression on the pilot and co-pilots faces.
Netherlands Coast Guard Rescue Helicopter (G-BIMU, Stac Pollaidh) Hovering Near the Semester at Sea M/V Explorer in the North Sea. Image taken with a Nikon D4 and 80-400 mm VRII lens (ISO 800, 400 mm, f/14, 1/800 sec). (David J Mathre)Netherlands Coast Guard Rescue Helicopter (G-BIMU, Stac Pollaidh) Hovering Near the Semester at Sea M/V Explorer in the North Sea. Image taken with a Nikon D4 and 80-400 mm VRII lens (ISO 800, 400 mm, f/13, 1/640 sec). (David J Mathre)
Gone to See Europe. Semester at Sea Spring 2013 Enrichment Voyage on the MV Explorer. Ultimate Travel Photography Workshop IV with Michael Mariant. Day 29: Dover, England.
South Foreland Lighthouse. St. Margaret’s Bay, Dover England.
South Foreland Lighthouse. St. Margaret’s Bay, Dover England. Image taken with a Nikon 1 V2 and 6.7-13 mm VR lens (ISO 160, 6.7 mm, f/6.3, 1/1250 sec). Semester at Sea Spring 2013 Enrichment Voyage. (David J Mathre)
Gone to See Europe and North Africa. Semester at Sea Spring 2013 Enrichment Voyage on the MV Explorer. Ultimate Travel Photography Workshop IV with Michael Mariant. Day 15: La Havre and Paris, France.
Eiffel Tower Stairway. Image taken with a Nikon 1 V2 camera and 6.7-13 mm VR lens (ISO 160, 6.7 mm, f/3.5, 1/125 sec).
Eiffel Tower Stairway. Image taken with a Nikon 1 V2 camera and 6.7-13 mm VR lens (ISO 160, 6.7 mm, f/3.5, 1/125 sec). Semester at Sea Spring 2013 Enrichment Voyage. (David J Mathre)
A Male Northern Red Cardinal taken with a Nikon 1 V2 camera and the new 80-400 mm VRII lens (with the FT1 adapter). The lens is much bigger than the camera, but still easy to use hand-held. The field of view (FOV) with this lens is equivalent to 216-1080 mm on a 35 mm (FX) DSLR. The base ISO for the Nikon 1 V2 is 160, and at the base ISO the image of the red cardinal shows good colors and saturation. This image was taken hand-held. The new VR-II works well with this lens to stabilize the image. This combo should be good for birding.
Male Northern Red Cardinal in the Sun. Backyard Spring Nature in New Jersey. Image taken with a Nikon 1 V2 + FT1 adapter + 80-400 mm VRII lens (ISO 160, 400 mm, f/7.1, 1/500 sec). (David J Mathre)
Gone to See Norway 2013. Chasing the Northern Lights. Day 15: Tromsø.
For my second night of chasing Aurora I went with “Northern Lights with Green Fox Guiding- When The Sky Becomes Magic”. Green Fox Guiding is a relatively new company, but Jacek Orasinski has been working in the Tromsø area as a guide for the last 11 years. Jacek is originally from Poland. The group was picked up in front of the Tromsø Tourist Information center at 17:00 (5 PM). There was low fog covering Tromsø. Jacek was pretty sure that as soon as we got away from the city we would have some clear skies. The Space Weather report was also favorable for the appearance of auroras during the night. A little after 18:30 we had our first sighting. This was one of the earliest displays that Jacek had seen this season. We stopped along the side of the road and got some initial images. Jacek drove us a little further to a better location with mountains in the background. Even though there was just barely a sliver of the moon, a couple of Norwegians were climbing the mountain. While photographing the Northern Lights we watched these two tiny lights climb up the mountain and then ski down in the dark. Once down, they started up the mountain again. Jacek knew that I was looking for something unique to use as a background. He brought us to an abandoned coal mine which I thought was great. I think the others got board after a few minutes at the site. I framed an image of the Northern Lights display with the silhouette of a coal chute in the foreground. As I was taking the 30 second exposure, a tour bus drove by and lit up the coal chute. I wasn’t planning on doing light painting – but as can be seen below I am happy with the result. We continued on to several other locations, with the Northern Light displays getting better and better. Finally, we ended up on a beach where we continued shooting. Jacek built a wood fire to heat his signature “Fish Soup”. We were provided with reindeer skins to sit on as we ate the soup. After dinner the Northern Light displays continued for another 3 hours. Although I thought last night was great, this was an order of magnitude better. Jacek even said it was the best night he had seed this season. In all, I took about 1400 images. Many, many will be used for time-lapse videos. I didn’t get back to the hotel until 02:00 and then couldn’t sleep as I wanted to start reviewing the images.
Northern Lights and Coal Mine on Kvaløy (Whale) island in Norway. Image taken with a Nikon D800 camera and 16 mm f/2.8 fisheye lens (ISO 800, 16 mm, f/2.8, 30 sec). (David J Mathre)
