The definite highlight from my trip to the South Island of New Zealand just on a year ago was the helicopter flights over Fox Glacier and the Southern Alps. A helicopter ride is far and away the best way to see, experience and photograph both Fox Glacier and the Southern Alps. Whilst you can walk up to the Glacier (and even climb on sections) most of the glaciers slowly moving mass is generally just to unstable, too difficult to traverse and too dangerous to access in any other way except by helicopter. Not to mention its otherwise impossible to get these kind of shots from ground level. This photograph was taken over Fox Glacier leaning out (but well strapped in!) with the door off for better visibility during one of the many passes we did over the seracs and crevasses. Although quite hard to tell in this small jpeg the scale of the ice wall running through the frame is immense and that crevasse seemingly bottomless. A higher resolution version of this photograph is on my portfolio website at www.jholko.com in the New Zealand section. At this stage I am likely heading back to the South Island of New Zealand early next year and will definitely be returning to Fox Glacier for more aerial photography.
Category: Photographs
Photographs
Wildlife Portraits Project – Parrot
Birds have not been high on the list of subjects for my wildlife portrait photography. The longest lens I own is a Canon 300mm F2.8L IS; which even when coupled with my 1.4 Tele-Extender on my full frame 1DS MKIII still only gives me quite limited reach for photographing birds. Most serious bird photographers I know are shooting with a minimum of 500mm on crop sensor cameras (often with Tele-Extenders) for seriously long reach; because you need that kind of each most of the time. In this case I got lucky, and was able to catch this Parrot with his colourful wing extended with the 300mm lens. The light was quite dull and overcast so I used fill flash to bring out the colours in the plumage. I am hoping I get an opportunity to photograph some of the native Icelandic birds (including the Puffin) later this month and August whilst I am in Iceland.
Wildlife Portraits Project – Australian Dingo
Every time I have visited Healesville Sanctuary in the past to photograph wildlife the Dingo’s have been sleeping (I think they might actually sleep more than cats). On my last visit they were up and moving around so I couldn’t resist ripping off a few frames on my way past. This frame ended up as quite a nice portrait – handheld with the 300mm F2.8L IS at F5.6 1/100th of a second.
Iceland Volcano – Katla Situation Update
T-Minus three weeks until I leave for Iceland and all is quiet on the volcano front. Eyjafjallajokull is quietly steaming away in the background on the webcam (when visibility is good – lately it has been terrible) and Katla is eerily silent. Even the earthquakes have slowed of late with only minimal activity in the last week – I hope this is not the calm before the storm. This is the quietest Katla has been since I started monitoring it back in May. The Modern Survival Blog has an interesting story today on earthquakes – in 2010 they are apparently up 133 percent across the globe – Mother Nature stretching her legs? I am continuing to monitor the status of both Eyjafjallajokull and Katla on a daily basis and will do so up until I leave later this month. The Icelandic Met Office has some great reports for anyone interested in daily updates.
Snow Leopard – Its a Mac Thing
It isn’t really a ‘Mac Thing’ (or maybe it is!) – But the Snow Leopard is definitely my ‘favourite’ of the big cats (I also have a soft spot for the Persian Leopard); which accounts for my continual return visits to photograph them whenever possible at the Melbourne Zoo. This photograph was taken during the same shooting session as ‘Snow Leopard in Profile‘, but captures a very different moment and feeling. My only regret with both of these photographs is that this is a captive animal and not wild. But since Snow Leopards are native to a foreign country, endangered and extremely rare I hope you will forgive the captive nature of these photographs and instead enjoy them for their merit in their own right. I used the Canon 300mm F2.8L IS lens for this shot at ISO400 on the 1DSMK3. I have had a few emails from readers asking me how I photograph these animals without any ‘bars or cages’ in the shot – ‘Did I have special access?’ The answer is no – I photographed all of the animals either in the wild or from normal public Zoo access. The trick when faced with caged animals is to use a lens with a wide aperture like the Canon 300mm F2.8L IS and to put the lens as close as possible to the bars; whilst putting the animal as far away from the bars as possible. This effectively throws the bars or cage so far out of focus that they become invisible. Its a very useful technique to photograph captive animals.
www.WILDNATUREPHOTOTRAVEL.com 