Digital Photographer Magazine Issue #149 – Natural Wonders Feature

The UK based magazine, Digital Photographer, interviewed me back in June / July this year and subsequently ran a feature article on my photography titled ‘Natural Wonders’. The article appeared in issue #149 and you can now download a PDF copy of the article HERE or by just clicking on the image below. Digital Photographer magazine is available to purchase through the i-Tunes store or directly from the Digital Photographer website.The last few weeks have been an absolute whirlwind so I am currently taking a few days off  up in the Victorian High Country with my family to catch up on some rest and relaxation. I hope to get some time over the next few days to finish the trip report from the two Iceland workshops I led this summer as well as the expedition report from my trip to Greenland. Both of these trips were remarkable and I am looking forward to sharing some images and experiences from the time in Iceland and Greenland.

In just under a month I will be heading to South America in preparation for a twenty-one day South Georgia and Antarctica expedition experience with Andy Biggs. At the conclusion of this expedition I am taking a couple of weeks for a private photographic trek with some friends through the Argentinian side of Patagonia. I spent some time on the Chile side of Patagonia last year and I am looking forward to the contrast of visiting the Argentinian side. I will then led a second twelve day Antarctica expedition just prior to Christmas to the Antarctic Peninsula. Time permitting I hope squeeze in a quick ten days in Iceland (prior to leaving for South America and Antarctica at the end of October) in a couple of weeks time to photograph the fissure volcano currently erupting north of the Vatnajökull ice-cap. I had hoped to be in Iceland when the volcano began erupting last month, but had to depart a few days prior to the eruption to lead the expedition to Greenland. I had camped out with my friend Antony near the giant ice-cap in the hope the volcano would erupt whilst we were in prime position. As luck would have it we missed the eruption by just a few days. Photographing this particular eruption is somewhat problematic at the moment as access to the eruption site is extremely restricted. The fissure is currently ejecting a huge amount of sulphur dioxide that can make the volcano quite dangerous to approach at ground level depending on the prevailing winds. Currently the volcano is best viewed from the air and this is how I hope to photograph it (assuming it is still erupting when I arrive).

In the meantime I still have more than seven thousand photographs to sort through, edit and process from my time in Iceland and Greenland as well as several speaking engagements and print workshop commitments to complete before I can even consider leaving for the volcano in Iceland. In addition, my friend Antony and I have literally terabytes of video footage to sort through from our experience in Greenland this year that we hope to share over the coming months.

I also want to share the very exciting news that I have just appointed Abraham Joffe and his crew from Untitled Film Works to film a second Polar Photography Expedition Experience next year. If you have not seen the video we produced last year in the Arctic in Greenland and Svalbard you can watch it online HERE. We will be filming the experience next year on a 6k RED Epic Dragon system as well as several Canon 1DC Cinema Cameras. I will have more to say about this new production over the coming months. Lastly, I also have some exciting announcements I will be making here on my blog over the coming weeks in relation to future workshops and expeditions. Stay tuned for those details in a future post.

Outdoor Photographer Magazine – Antarctica: What’s in my Bag?

Outdoor Photographer magazine are running a multi-issue (six + issues) feature on the expedition I am leading this November to South Georgia Island and Antarctica with Andy Biggs.  This series of feature articles is sponsored by my good friends and manufactures of my preffered camera bags – Gura Gear. The fourth part of the new series is featured in the brand new October 2014 issue. Subsequent issues will include what leads on from South Georgia and Antactica and then at the conclusion of the expedition there will be an issue reporting on our experiences along with a number of photographs taken during the expedition. You can click on the image below to Download a Larger Version of the second article.  Be sure to Subscribe to Outdoor Photographer magazine for the follow up issues. Subscriptions are available in single issue or multi-issue in Print, iPad, Zinio and more. Just choose your favourite reading medium, subscribe and enjoy. The South Georgia and Antarctica expedition is now sold out, but I will soon be announcing a future expedition to both the Weddell Sea and South Georgia Island. If you are interested in joining us please Contact Me with your expression of interest.

September Photograph of the Month: Super Moon at Landmannalaugar

One of the most anticipated and exciting events of my last trip to Iceland was the scheduled super moon that I had hoped would coincide with clear skies whilst I was in the highlands of Iceland. As luck would have it we were blessed with absolutely perfect conditions and just about ideal light under the midnight sun. My friend Antony and I hiked up to the top of one of Landmannalaugar’s highest peaks where we were able to watch and photograph the rising super moon set against the incredible rhyolite mountains with spectacular light. I have lost track of the number of times I have been to this location now – but this was only the second time I have ever experienced such magical light in the highlands.

August 2014 Photograph of the Month: Puffin Landing

Due to recent travels I am more than a few weeks late with updating my photograph of the month for both August and September. I hope to get to September in the next few days; but in the meantime my photograph of the month for August is of an Atlantic Puffin I photographed at Ingólfshöfdi in Iceland on my first Ultimate Iceland Summer Workshop in July this year. Photographed with the 600mm F4L IS MKII Canon lens on the 1DX during driving rain and wind I used a shutter speed of 1/1000th of a second with a wide open aperture to partially freeze the action. Puffins are like missiles in flight and even at 1/1000th of a second there is blur in the furiously flapping wings.  I could easily have raised the ISO further and frozen the entire Puffin, but I decided after some experimentation on the day that I really liked the sense of movement created in the image with the motion blur in the wings. In this instance the strong wind worked in my favour as it made landing on the cliff edge difficult for the Puffins which forced them to slow down earlier than usual. This photograph was taken just a fraction of a second before this Puffin landed on the cliff edge. The image is full frame and uncropped.

Photokina 2014 – Moab and Legion Paper Stand

If you are visiting Photokina this year be sure to stop past the Moab and Legion paper stand where one of my images of the ice hardened expedition ship ‘Polar Pioneer’ parked in the pack ice in Antarctica is on display. Printed on my personal favourite paper – Moab Somerset Museum Rag at a whopping 40″ x 60″ inches.