Finally got around to creating a dedicated gallery of landscape images from my trip to Patagonia in Argentina. It’s a relatively small gallery of 8 images, showing a few of the best images…
Feel free to click the image above to to to the gallery online, and you can also take a look through the individual blog posts about some of the photos:
ICE
Crampons
Grouse on the Glacier
Les Eclaireurs Lighthouse
Perito Moreno Glacier Trek
Moreno Glacier Argentina
A view of the ice on the Perito Moreno Glacier in Argentina. Taken while we were trekking up and down the ice…
For some other views of the Glacier trek (and a lot more text about the Glacier itself), check out the post about Crampons on the Glacier Trek, as well as a view of People Trekking on the Glacier.
Canon EOS-5D Mark II
1/6400 sec at f/2.8
ISO 100
45mm Tilt Shift
Related Posts:
Ice Crampons hanging at the preparation point before heading onto the Perito Moreno Glacier in Patagonia, Argentina…
To make things easier to clamber over the Perito Moreno Glacier on an Ice-trek, we threw on some crampons for the trek. Ok, technically we sat back while the guides threw on the crampons for us. I guess at least this way everyone avoided that ‘tying shoe laces for the first time’ feeling. The crampons sit on the ground, you put your foot (with your regular hiking boot) onto it, then lash it into place with the straps.
Walking around with the crampons takes a little getting used to – it feels more like ‘stomping’ around the glacier rather than trekking. The technique I settled into was putting each foot down firmly and relatively flatly, so that all the spikes did their bit. Going by the steep hills and valleys that we tackled on the glacier, everyone seemed to get the hang of it.
The ice itself was the main attraction – the deep colour blue of the ice was incredible, and looking down into gulleys where meltwater had carved a deep crevice was mesmerizing. Why blue? The red (longer wavelengths) part of the light spectrum is absorbed by the ice – the further the light travels through the ice, the more blue it appears.
In some places where there were large flat areas of glacier surface, meltwater had pooled, but underneath was still areas of solid ice. From the surface it looked like an infinitely deep pool of water, but you could actually stand with your feet on the ice, a tiny bit below the surface of the meltwater. Totally freaky feeling. And highly recommended. Just make sure there is actually solid ice underneath first!
Even after finishing up a Grouse with fresh glacier ice, everyone made it through the remainder of the trek back to dry land. According to another website, the answer to ‘Does Glacier Ice last longer in drinks’, is actually ‘yes’. Apparently because the ice crystals are larger, which in turn melt more slowly. After an energetic hike though, I’m not sure anyone had a chance to notice the extra ice-melt time.
Canon EOS-5D Mark II
1/3200 sec at f/2.8
ISO 100
45mm
Related Posts:
Famous Grouse on the Glacier
Perito Moreno Glacier Trek
Moreno Glacier, Argentina
According to Wikipedia, In Scotland – 300 drams of the Famous Grouse are drunk every second. In the case above, we had a brisk drink after doing the ice-trek on the Perito Moreno Glacier in Patagonia, Argentina…
As we rounded the last ice-corner on the ice-trek, we found a wooden table set up, with a number of cases of Famous Grouse Scotch whisky. Need ice? No problem, turn around and hack a chunk off the glacier and dump it in the ice-bowl. There’s even an ice-clear mini river of glacier water flowing through the ice in the background to wash the glasses.
Taken with a 45mm tilt shift lens which I focussed on the Famous Grouse bottle label. The ‘Est. 1800 Perth’ moulding in the bottle is also visible above the label. In the background, other hikers are also chilling after the ice-trek, still with their crampons on.
I have to admit it was the freshest ice I’ve ever had in a Scotch!
Canon EOS-5D Mark II
1/3200 sec at f/2.8
ISO 100
45mm
Related Posts:
Perito Moreno Glacier Trek
Moreno Glacier Tree, Argentina
The Maker’s Mark
Les Eclaireurs Lighthouse, standing near Ushuaia in the Beagle Channel, Tierra del Fuego in Argentina…
Still operational, the lighthouse is about 10 metres tall and uses solar power to beam out flashes every 10 seconds. Said to be the most photographed lighthouse in South America, boats travel out from Ushuaia to reach the lighthouse which Argentines call ‘The Lighthouse at the End of the World’, or ‘Faro del fin del mundo’.
Everyone who was standing on the deck of the boat as it left the town of Ushuaia soon huddled inside as the temperature dropped and we headed out into the expanse of the Beagle Channel. I managed to stake out a spot outside by the railing of the boat, protecting the camera from the spray until the lighthouse came into view. Fired off a number of shots as we circled the small island, and this was the one that caught my eye.
Ushuaia is commonly regarded as the southernmost city in the world and at times it feels like it – one day of lashing rain, the next of warm sun. It’s also the jumping-off point for expeditions to Antarctica – everyone seems to be in a state of transition, about to head out to the ice, just back from the ice, or just enjoying a Beagle beer…
Canon EOS-5D Mark II (wet)
1/4000 sec at f/2.8
ISO 200
45mm
Related Posts:
Perito Moreno Glacier Trek
Moreno Glacier, Argentina
La Recoleta Cemetery, Argentina
The shot above was taken on the same trip as this other shot of a Tree at the side of the Moreno Glacier. We were about to do the ice-trek and this was taken looking towards the supply hut where we picked up the crampons…
Again, the picture was taken slightly underexposed to bring out the blue in the ice, and the clouds in the sky. I used the tilt shift (45mm) lens again too, focussing on the shard like glacier ice.
If you click on the image above to view the image large, you can see the line of small dots snaking away from the hut, and onto the glacier – that’s the ice-trekking tour people. Gives some idea of the size of the glacier, truly enormous and humbling!
With the glacier moving past the hut (which is on the solid ground to the side of the river of ice) at about 2m per day, the tour guides have new scenery outside their base every day, and no doubt have to re-plan their routes through the ice crevices and pools.
Canon EOS-5D Mark II
1/8000 sec at f/2.8
ISO 100
45mm
Related Posts:
Moreno Glacier Tree, Argentina
Earth Day 2009 – National Geographic
Earth Hour NYC – Empire State Building
This picture was taken on a recent trip to Argentina, and shows the side face of the Perito Moreno Glacier. We were just finishing the ice-trek at this point so we had a few moments to look around…
The picture was taken in extremely bright light with the sun shining through some of the more dense cloud cover in the background. I then underexposed the photo slightly, and drained some of the more distracting colour (leaving as much as the blue as possible). It is also taken with a tilt-shift lens (the 45mm ts-e lens).
The average height of the glacier at the end is about 240ft above sea level, and it is also one of the glaciers that is still advancing – to the tune of nearly 2m per day. Huge chunks of ice regularly smash down into the sea from the front face as it advances – it’s hard to believe how loud the ice breaks really are.
Canon EOS-5D Mark II
1/6400 sec at f/2.8
ISO 100
45mm
Related Posts:
Earth Day 2009 – National Geographic Photo of the Day
Stonehenge England
Opening its doors in October 1959, it’s full name is the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum. Designed by Frank Lloyd Wright – the museum is instantly recognisable on the Upper East Side in New York City…
Wright made sure that every little detail was taken care of, from the location of the building (opposite Central Park), to the spiral design which imitates a nautilus shell. Another detail sometimes overlooked is the idea that you don’t have to retrace your steps when viewing the art – you take the elevator to the top of the museum, then wind your way gradually down the 1/4 mile long ramp, viewing art on the way.
Queues to rival the Apple Store’s new-product-day lines occurred at the opening in 1959, with 3,000 people queuing on the first Wednesday for the 2pm opening, and over 10,000 queuing the following Sunday in order to see the museum.
The picture above focuses on the South side of the museum, and using a Canon tilt-shift 45mm lens, narrows the area of focus to a specific area on the spiral.
Canon EOS-1D Mark III
1/800 sec at f/2.8
ISO 200
45mm (Tilt shift)
Related Posts:
Link to the ‘Manhattan – A Closer Look’ Gallery
New York Times Building, New York
Maritime Hotel Building, New York
Completed in 2007, the New York Times building in the Times Square area of New York is 52 floors tall and 1,142 feet tall including the antenna…
The building is shrouded in distinctive horizontal ceramic rods on all sides except for the North side, which help to keep the building cool during the summer months but also let as much natural light in as possible.
It was also these rods that made it easier for Alain Robert to climb up to the roof of the building on the outside, during the summer of 2008 (June 5th).
For this photo (also included in the ‘Manhattan – A Closer Look‘ series), I started out at street level, looking for a decent angle. After a while I realised that I’d prefer to be more level with the wording on the building. Handily, there’s the gigantic Port Authority bus station opposite, with some handy outdoor car parks to shoot from (via some trial-and-error elevators). With the elevated position across the road, I snagged the shot above, again using the tilt function on the tilt-shift lens to narrow down the area of focus – this time it had the added effect of making the rods look further apart in this particular part of focus – sharper rods meant more ‘gap’ between them, while the others blurred into almost solid white.
Canon EOS-1D Mark III
1/640 sec at f/2.8
ISO 200
45mm (Tilt shift)
Related Posts:
Link to the ‘Manhattan – A Closer Look’ Gallery
Flatiron Building, New York
Frank Gehry’s IAC Building, NYC
And back to the regular programming…
The Puck Building in the NoLIta neighbourhood in New York City. The building housed the printing for Puck Magazine – named after Shakespeare’s ‘The Midsummer Night’s Dream’ character and which gave the building its now famous moniker…
The shutters were originally for fire protection – to stop fire jumping from building to building. However everyone seems to agree that they would have been useless at the task – they buckled and warped at relatively low temperatures.
The building in question for the fire-jumping is now a library just across a tiny street (more like an alleyway). There was also scaffolding all over the place, making it hard to get a decent angle on the wall of shutters on the Puck Building.
I spent a good chunk of an hour looking at different angles and the different combinations of open/shut/partially-open shutters, before settling on the image above. As part of the ‘Manhattan – A Closer Look‘ series, this image was taken with a tilt shift lens (the ts-e 45mm Canon lens) and the shallow band of focus was centred on the middle row of shutters.
Canon EOS-1D Mark III
1/320 sec at f/2.8
ISO 200
45mm (Tilt shift)
Related Posts:
Link to the ‘Manhattan – A Closer Look’ Gallery
Flatiron Building, New York
Maritime Hotel Building, New York
International Photo Awards 2010 PDN Photo of the Day National Geographic Photo of the day Patagonia Gallery of images Earth Hour NYC