David's Images of the Day Photoblog
Wintertime walkabout in Tromsø, Norway. Random sights, ships and graffiti. Most in B&W. Images taken with a Leica X2 camera.
Individual images in the slide shows can be viewed here.
Gone to See Antarctica 2014/5 Day 4: Ushuaia, Argentina
After spending two days in Buenos Aires we flew to Ushuaia. This is known as the southern most city. The voyage to Antarctica on the MS Fram (Hurtigruten Line, Norwegian Flag) begins and ends in Ushuaia in Southern Argentina. You see a sign as you enter the port that loosely translated tells British pirates to stay away. Argentina does not allow British registered ships into the port if they have been to the Falklands Islands/Malvinas. During our voyage the Hurtigruten line was sold to a British investment group. They are going to have to be very careful to keep the ship registered in Norway to continue the voyages in and out of Ushuaia. Prior to embarking on the Hurtigruten MS Fram, we spent the morning touring the city, saw the Ocean Tramp anchored in the harbor, then spent the afternoon in Tierra del Fuego National Park.
I had some time to do a walkabout in Reykjavik, Iceland on a rainy winter day before joining a photo safari. These images were all taken with a Leica X2 camera, my favorite small travel camera.
A set of colorful murals covering the walls of a pedestrian underpass walkway in Gdansk. In camera panoramas taken with a Fuji X-T1 camera and 23 mm f/1.4 lens (ISO 640, 23 mm, f/2, 1/180 sec). JPG image processed with Capture One Pro, Focus Magic, and Photoshop CC. Best if viewed individually in full screen mode.
Individual images can be viewed here.
Eye Can See You. Street art at a construction site along the main shopping street in Reykjavik. Image taken with a Leica X2 camera (ISO 100, 24 mm, f/3.2, 1/60 sec). Let me know if you like the color or B&W version.
I am not providing the name or recommendation for the workshop leaders for this trip. One of the reasons I signed up was the opportunity to photograph Northern Lights from Iceland. In 2013 I got some great images of the Aurora Borealis in Tromsö, Norway and hoped to do the same in Iceland. I arrived in Reykjavik, Iceland two days before the workshop and arranged a private tour with TripsByLocals.com to go Aurora Hunting. It didn’t look promising when we left the hotel (snowing an hour earlier). For the first 2 hours the sky remained mostly overcast. We then found a spot where the sky started to clear, and started to see the Aurora. It was cold and windy, but I found a place behind the van where I could set up a camera on a tripod. I was able to get 80 images which I used to create a time-lapsed video. The moon was almost full, and lit up the snow covered lava field in the foreground. It turned out that this was my only opportunity to get some good images of the Aurora on this trip. My father commented that it was not as good as the images I got in Tromsö last year. The weather for the Iceland workshop did not cooperate – lots of rain and snow with significant cloud cover. On the first day of the workshop we were supposed to fly from Reykjavik to Höfn but the weather in Höfn didn’t cooperate (even though it was sunny in Reykjavik). After spending some extra time waiting in the Reykjavik airport, it was decided that we would fly to Egilsstadir and take a several hour bus ride to Höfn. On the positive side, I got to see some of the Fjords on the east coast of Iceland, and on the negative side I lost a camera battery on the bus ride between Egilsstadir and Höfn when we had to change from a big 55 passenger bus to a smaller van. Once we got to the airport in Höfn we transferred to the van that would be our transportation for the rest of the workshop. Our first stop was the black sand beach on the coast next to the Jökulsárlón glacial lagoon. Every day when the tide goes out, ice that calved from the glacier in the lagoon goes out to sea, then when the tide comes in, the ice lands on the black sand beach. The makes for some great photo opportunities. However, as we arrived the rain started. We could only stay out for about 15 minutes before getting soaked in the cold and windy rain. We then went to Hotel Smyrlabjörg. I stayed at the same hotel last summer. The Icelandic food served at dinner was outstanding. When I went to sleep it was still raining. During the night the wind increased to the point it sounded like a train was passing outside my window. At about 01:30 AM I woke up and could see some stars in the sky outside my window. I went outside to get a look. It was still very windy. Windy to the point that I could barely stand up. I took a couple of pictures, and could see that the Northern Lights were starting – but there was no way I would be able to stay out in the gale force winds. So I went back to bed. The next morning at breakfast our workshop leader was gushing about how great the Aurora was between 03:30 AM and 05:30 AM. Unfortunately, he didn’t bother to wake the majority of the workshop participants even though he stayed out taking images for his portfolio. There were lots of apologies and excuses that he didn’t know what rooms we were in, but we were all staying in adjacent rooms. This turned out to be the one and only night that the Aurora were visible during the workshop. I was lucky to get the one night before the workshop to see and photograph the Aurora. Most of the others that spent thousands of dollars to see and photograph the Northern Lights as part of the workshop were very disappointed.