One-Year Ago (26-April-2013) — Spain

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 0: Barcelona, Spain.

Port of Barcelona container shipping dock in the mist at night. From the deck of the deck of the MV Explorer while departing Barcelona. Image taken with a Nikon 1 V2 camera and 18.5 mm f/1.8 lens (ISO 2500, 18.5 mm, f/1.8, 1/60 sec). Image converted to B&W with Capture One Pro 7. Semester at Sea Spring 2013 Enrichment Voyage.

Port of Barcelona Container Shipping Dock at Night. Image taken with a Nikon 1 V2 and 18.5 mm f/1.8 lens (ISO 2500, 18.5 mm, f/1.8, 1/60 sec). Semester at Sea Spring 2013 Enrichment Voyage/ (David J Mathre)
Port of Barcelona Container Shipping Dock at Night. Image taken with a Nikon 1 V2 camera and 18.5 mm f/1.8 lens (ISO 2500, 18.5 mm, f/1.8, 1/60 sec). Semester at Sea Spring 2013 Enrichment Voyage/ (David J Mathre)

Sunday (16-June-2013) — England

Gone to See Europe. Semester at Sea Spring 2013 Enrichment Voyage on the MV Explorer. Day 51: Southampton, England.

Queen Elizabeth (Cunard Lines) Docking in Southampton, England. Image taken with a Leica X2 camera (ISO 100, 24 mm, f/5, 1/200 sec). In camera B&W.

Early in the morning I saw a large cruise ship all lit up from the window in my cabin. The ship passed us relatively quickly. Once we arrived in Southampton we saw that the large ship that passed us was the Queen Elizabeth.

Queen Elizabeth (Cunard Lines) Docking in Southampton, England. Image taken with a Leica X2 camera (ISO 100, 24 mm, f/5, 1/200 sec). In camera B&W. Semester at Sea Spring 2013 Enrichment Voyage. (David J. Mathre)
Queen Elizabeth (Cunard Lines) Docking in Southampton, England. Image taken with a Leica X2 camera (ISO 100, 24 mm, f/5, 1/200 sec). In camera B&W. (David J. Mathre)

Wednesday (12-June-2013) — Germany

Gone to See Europe. Semester at Sea Spring 2013 Enrichment Voyage on the MV Explorer. Day 47: Kiel Canal, Germany.

I was part of a team of six photographers that took ~30,000 images as the MV Explorer (Semester at Sea Spring 2013 Enrichment Voyage) transits the Kiel Canal in Germany.Howard Ignatius used the images to create this time-lapse video of the passage through the canal.

Tuesday (11-June-2013) — At Sea

Gone to See Europe. Semester at Sea Spring 2013 Enrichment Voyage on the MV Explorer. Day 46: Copenhagen, Denmark.

Sunset on the Baltic Sea. Are there offshore oil platforms in the Baltic Sea off Denmark? Image taken with a Nikon 1 V2 camera FT1 adapter and 80-400 mm VRII lens (ISO 400, 400 mm, f/5.6, 1/500 sec).

Sunset on the Baltic Sea. Are There Offshore Oil Platforms in the Baltic Sea Off Denmark? Image taken with a Nikon 1 V2 camera FT1 adapter and 80-400 mm VRII lens (ISO 400, 400 mm, f/5.6, 1/500 sec). Semester at Sea Spring 2013 Enrichment Voyage. (David J Mathre)
Sunset on the Baltic Sea. Are There Offshore Oil Platforms in the Baltic Sea Off Denmark? Image taken with a Nikon 1 V2 camera FT1 adapter and 80-400 mm VRII lens (ISO 400, 400 mm, f/5.6, 1/500 sec). (David J Mathre)

Monday (10-June-2013) — At Sea

Gone to See Europe. Semester at Sea Spring 2013 Enrichment Voyage on the MV Explorer. Day 45: At Sea between Stockholm and Copenhagen.

Late night or early in the morning (hard to tell this far north when there isn’t much darkness at night) I looked out my cabin window on the MV Explorer and saw the electric blue Noctilucent clouds. I read about them before (http://www.spaceweather.com/), but had never seen them.  The clouds are ice crystals that are very high that you can only see for a short time when the sun is below the horizon. One theory is the crystals are nucleated when micro-meteors pass through the upper atmosphere. We were in the Baltic Sea traveling from Stockholm to Copenhagen and the sun doesn’t set until very late I set up a camera in my cabin and took a set of 99 images that I made into this time-lapsed video (Nikon D4 camera, 28 mm f/1.8 lens (ISO 200, 28 mm, f/1.8, 1 sec)).