Category: Photographs

Photographs

February Photo of the Month – Road to Oblivion

Posted in Iceland, Landscape Photographs, News and Updates, Photographs, Travel PhotographyLeave a comment

The photograph of the month for February was taken toward the end of my last workshop to Iceland. We had risen before dawn and driven into the highland region of Veiðivötn in the hope of some magical light at sunrise. What we discovered was a sea of fog had descended over the area during the night and reduced visibility to near zero. Exhausted from ten days shooting with no real sleep we pulled the four wheel drive super jeep over and decided to grab some shut eye in the hope the rising sun would burn off some of the fog. An hour or so later the sun had risen and the fog had started to lift revealing the alien landscape of Veiðivötn where iridescent green moss spreads its tendrils across the black volcanic sand landscape.

This photograph was taken only a few metres from where we pulled the car over and was shot looking back across the road on which we had just driven. Shot with the Canon 1DX and Canon 70-200mm F2.8L IS at ISO100 F8 1/13th of a second on a tripod.

Winner! Outdoor Photographer of the Year! – ‘The Spirit of Adventure’

Posted in Antarctica, Landscape Photographs, News and Updates, Photographs, Sport Photographs, Travel Photography1 Comment

I recently blogged that I had received email notification that one of my photographs from Antarctica had been selected as a finalist in the 2012 Outdoor Photographer of the Year ‘Spirit of Adventure’ category. This was the first time I have entered Outdoor Photographer of the Year and I was thrilled to have been selected as a finalist. I was subsequently very humbled a few days ago to receive news that I had not only been selected as a finalist, but had won the 2012 Outdoor Photographer of the Year competition in the ‘Spirit of Adventure’ category. The winning photograph was shot on my last expedition to Antarctica and was of mountain climbers nearing the summit in rapidly deteriorating weather. It was photographed from the deck of the Ocean Nova with a 300mm F2.8L IS lens at F7.1 1/2500th of a second hand held with the Canon 1DMKIV. The announcement of my win was officially made on the 16th of January on the Outdoor Photographer of the Year website and will also appear in the March issue of Outdoor Photography magazine. There was an awards ceremony on Saturday the 19th of January at the Outdoors Show in ExCel in London. An exhibition of  all the finalists work, including my own winning photograph was on display from the 17th – 20th of January. I am told the quality and quantity of images entered was exceptional across all categories. Unfortunately I was unable to attend the exhibition and awards ceremony due to other commitments.  If you stopped past please let me know what you thought. I admit to feeling really inspired and re-invigorated with the news and am very much looking forward to returning to Antarctic this November. A higher resolution version of this photograph can be seen on my website in the Antarctica Portfolio.

Antarctica : The Lemaire Channel

Posted in Antarctica, Landscape Photographs, News and Updates, Photographs, Travel Photography, Workshops and Expeditions1 Comment

One of the most spectacular features of Antarctica we are looking forward to visiting on the expedition I am leading this November aboard the Polar Pioneer is the Lemaire Channel. This natural, narrow channel is flanked on both sides by high mountains and snow dusted rock spires and rates as one of the most wondrous and beautiful places I have ever had the pleasure to photograph. Slowly cruising through the channel is akin to what I imagine it would be like aboard a space ship gliding between towering and precipitous mountains on an alien world. Whether you are on the bow, aft, port or starboard the landscape is equally awe inspiring and impressive. On my last trip the conditions were overcast with frequent heavy snow and dark brooding clouds as we made our way slowly through the channel. Whilst a few photographers were bemoaning the lack of clear skies for sunset colour I was secretly thankful for the dark and ominous atmosphere. Antarctica is so often depicted for its brilliance that I find it refreshing to see images that depict a more ominous and portentous landscape.Frequently clogged with icebergs and pack ice the channel is really only safely navigable  early in the season in an ice hardened expedition class ship such as the Polar Pioneer. Later in the season when the weather warms and the ice thins the channel is frequently visited by larger tourist based cruise ships; although the danger of ice bergs to their thin steel skin always remains. One of the real benefits of a photographic expedition to Antarctica aboard an ice hardened ship is the ability to not only get close to very large icebergs, but also to push pack ice out of the way greatly increasing the photographic possibilities in locations such as the Lemaire Channel. Although passage through the Lemaire Channel is never guranteed we do plan to sail through it (weather and ice conditions permitting) this November. I am secretly hoping for more dramatic weather and evocative atmospherics.

Half Moon Bay in Antarctica

Posted in Antarctica, Landscape Photographs, News and Updates, Photographs, Travel PhotographyLeave a comment

It has been sweltering hot the last few days in Melbourne Australia with temperatures today peaking at an oven roasting 40+ degrees Celsius. Those of you who know me well know that I would much prefer to be caught in a snowstorm unprepared than stuck in this kind of weather. With the mercury at a summer high the only way I could find to cope with the heat was to crank up the air conditioner and think of icebergs. So with the air conditioner working overtime in my studio I have been reviewing some of the images I shot in Antarctica in 2011 and found one I had not yet processed from Half Moon Bay. This photograph was taken during one of our early shore landings and was one of around a dozen frames I shot of this particular iceberg. This was one of the few images on the entire trip that I utilised a tripod for as I wanted a very slow shutter speed to soften the water and to better emphasise and juxtapose the chalky blue iceberg against the distant soft fog and snow. This frame was also the only sharp frame from the series as the iceberg was imperceptibly moving with the current which resulted in the rest of the frames suffering from motion blur. I used the Canon 70-200mm F2.8L IS at the 200mm end at F11 with a 10 second exposure and the LEE Big Stopper. A higher resolution version of this photograph can be seen on my website at www.jholko.com. This photograph is also my photograph of the month for January 2013.

Outdoor Photographer of the Year Finalist 2012

Posted in Antarctica, Landscape Photographs, Media, News and Updates, People Photographs, Photographs, Travel Photography4 Comments

I received notification via email yesterday that one of my photographs from Antarctica has made the finals in the 2012 Outdoor Photographer of the Year Competition. I feel I have been very fortunate this year as I was also a finalist and highly commended with 3rd place in the Travel Photographer of the Year ‘Single Shot Water Category’ and was a finalist in the ‘Fine Art Photographer of the Year’ competition in Paris a few months ago. This was the first time I have entered Outdoor Photographer of the Year and did so more or less on the spur of the moment as one of the category titles (‘The Spirit of Adventure’) really struck a chord with me whilst browsing their website. I had a particular image from Antarctica; which I felt really summed up ‘The Spirit of Adventure’. The photograph in question was taken from the deck of the Ocean Nova near the Lemaire Channel and is of mountain climbers nearing the summit of one of Antarctica’s precipitous mountains in rapidly deteriorating weather. The truth of this photograph is that I did not see the mountain climbers (or at least I do not recall seeing them) when I took this photograph. I do recall being attracted to the sinuous ridgeline, dark sky and swirling clouds as we cruised slowly past and perhaps on a subconscious level I did see the climbers; but my memory of this particular photograph is a little foggy. It was, after all, just one of more than 13,000 images taken on the trip.From the exif data I know I used the Canon 300mm F2.8L IS lens on the Canon EOS 1D MKIV body, which gave me an effective focal length of 390mm for this capture; which should help give an idea of just how far away these climbers were when I made this photograph. It was shot at ISO400 F7.1 at 1/2500th of a second. You can’t see it on this small jpeg; but there are two large sea birds perfectly sharp and frozen to the right of frame. A higher resolution version of this photograph can be seen on my website in the Antarctica Portfolio.

Footnote: Unfortunately, Outdoor Photographer of the Year is not judged on the ‘Print’; but rather on the submission of digital files. To their credit they do require the submission of the original RAW file as proof the photograph has not been significantly tampered with. As I have previously blogged however, I far prefer to have my work viewed in Print, which I regard as the ultimate output. Nevertheless I am very honoured to have made the finals of this prestigious competition and look forward to seeing the winning entries when they are announced early next year.