galleries: Photo of the Week

This is one the many beautifully wild beaches on the west coast of New Zealand. It generated some interesting discussion when posted on the NPN forum this week where several versions were viewed. The first thing to note is that the image would be far weaker without the gull. As noted by one member "small subject, BIG impact." In fact it is doubtful whether I would have taken the shot at all without the bird, since it was what attracted me to this composition in the first place. The composition was made around the seagull on the rock rather than fitting it into the seascape. The next question posed was which direction the bird faced is better. Fortunately I have shots of the bird facing left, right and even looking down at the rock. 

I hiked to this location 4 times in 1 and a half days. This was on the final morning and I almost slept in because of heavy cloud and conditions that looked far from promising. An hour after my initial wake-up call, I noticed a clearing in towards the east and ran down to the valley to capture this image. I realised that to make it to the location in time for sunrise, I would have to travel light. Instead of hauling my usual camera backpack, I grabbed just my camera with the 16-35mm, filter and tripod and ran like hell. I made the distance which usually takes the better part of an hour in twenty minutes. Time enough to enjoy the moment and capture the peak of the light show.

Canon 5DMkII, 16-35mm 2.8L, ISO 100, f14, 1.3 seconds, 2 stop GND filter, Gitzo tripod.

With the camera only inches off the ground, a unique perspective of the cobblestone streets of colourful Trinidad. This image was facilitated by using the "Live view" mode of the camera to allow to visualise the framing with the camera at such a low position. 

Canon 5DMkII, 16-35mm 2.8L, ISO 200, f18, 1/100, handheld

Gothic architecture of the Southwark Cathedral in a composition emphasising shape, form and symmetry. This is one of London's more camera-friendly churches, with unlimited photography permitted for a small fee.

Canon 5DMkII, 16-35mm 2.8L, ISO 100, f11, 1/4, Gitzo Traveller Tripod.

An hour after sunrise, the first warm rays of sunlight fall upon the farmer and oxen working the field. It is hard work for man and beast, but if they had any complaints, they did not break the silence with it. We exchange a friendly greeting before continuing on our business. He has two more rows to plough before the heat becomes intolerable, and I run up and down alongside him, pausing to crouch down in the wet earth for a low perspective. In the distance, mist rises up the hilltops in the valley of Pinar del Rio, before evaporating like silent offerings to the heavens above. As I press the shutter release, I am in awe of the beautiful synchronicity between the farmer and oxen. It's an everyday rural scene but I feel I am witnessing something special. Surely, this scene belongs more in the past than the present?

This Cuban cemetery (Cementerio de Cristóbal Colón) is noted for its many elaborately sculpted memorials. There's a difficulty to photographing art in that for the photograph to stand on its own, it has to go further than mere documenting the piece of work. I have tried to do this by showing the congruent relationship between the second statue's head beneath the arm of the first. A shallow depth of field gives the swirls of cloud an amorphous surreal feel. one cannot be entirely sure whether it is truly cloud, another statue or even fire? 

Perfect timing and exposure was needed to nail this image of a double decker bus streaking past Westminster Bridge at sunrise. Firstly the bus had to be captured before it passed the London Eye. Secondly the shutter speed had to be such that the bus looked solid rather than ghosted. The warm colours of dawn was spreading around the sky but had not reached the left part of the sky. The entire scene was captured with usual MHT style - in one exposure. This meeting of night and day was coined the "magic hour" by Galen Rowell.

I met this man and his family on a dusty road in Pinar del Rio in Cuba. Although he was obviously poor, he exuded a sense of overwhelming positivity which was what I wanted to capture in this portrait. 

Canon 5DMkII, 85mm 1.2L

The timing couldn't be more perfect. On a day of strong winds and pouring rain, the decisive moment was captured : the dome of St Paul's was briefly bathed in light, its reflection faintly cast on the ground before us, the two figures giving scale to the Millennium Bridge. And of course the rainbow, surely sent from heaven. 

Behind the scenes. We are getting quite good at predicting rainbows. Our shooting session at this impressive bridge had finished and we were on our way to lunch. Just as the opening in the sky started to form, we rushed back to our positions and shot away.

This image, chosen as Photo of the Week on Naturescapes this week in the Digital Art Gallery is a blend of two exposure. The first exposure was to capture cloud movement in the sky, at 60 seconds, ISO 50 and f14. The second exposure captured the receding wave, at 2 seconds, ISO 200 and f9. The two images were blended by hand (no HDR).

This was one of a handful of experiences in my life as a photographer that no doubt will be etched in my mind forever. Clear skies meant that my shoot at the formation known as London Bridge would result in an average sunset. As the light faded, the Milky Way was slowly revealed in all its glory. In these situations the image often pales in comparison to the actual experience but I think the result runs a close second. 

Microlighting over the dunes of the Namib desert was undoubtedly the highlight of our trip to Namibia. We were able to take a variety of landscape and wildlife images from an aerial perspective using both wide and telephoto lenses. This particular image focuses on the abstract features of the massive sand dunes. The lower lying dunes tend to have more interesting shapes than the tall ones which reach heights of 300m. This image received a very positive response this week on the Nature Photographers Network and was recognized by an editor's pick in the Earth, Sea, Sky category. Although less of a mystery to us, viewers found the ambiguous scale, textures and flesh-like curves and tones to be appealing.

Photographing the landscapes of Namibia had the advantage of integrating wildlife into the images. There certainly was an added thrill associated with this. As the last rays of the sun caressed the tops of the red sand dunes of Sossusvlei this oryx approached the crest. As this animal is particularly associated with Namibia I could only hope that it would reach the crest. At the crucial moment, it turned around and started to descend the dune and as I knew the light would last a matter of seconds, I thought the shot would not eventuate. However the Gods were smiling; the oryx decided to come into the light and I managed to squeeze a few shots off from my high vantage point on one of the massive dunes in this grand sweeping landscape.

Canon 1DsMkIII, 300mm 4L IS, ISO 400, f4, 1/1000, handheld.

This waterfall was difficult to photograph in its entirety due to its height and the way the cascades made a right angle turn during its drop. The solution was to photograph two horizontal frames and stitch them together to make a large square format image. This was an idea we picked up from a workshop with Darwin Wiggett during our Canadian trip in 2007. 

Canon 5D, 17-40mm 4L, f16, 2.5 seconds, ISO 100. 

On the way back from a shoot at the more remote Kanangra-Boyd national park we tracked this storm towards the Blue Mountains. The electrical activity was very active with flashes of light and lightning occurring almost constantly. Luck was to play a part in capturing this image.  Fortunately it happened to settle over a point where I had been scouting earlier in the day - Govett's Leap. As luck would have it, returning to the location allowed a good view of the isolated phenomenon over a valley ridge. A problem solving approach led to this final image of a storm lit from within against a starry night sky. As it was completely dark, I started focusing manually at infinity and fine tuned till the horizon was razor sharp at 100% magnification on my LCD. My natural instinct was to aim for a low noise capture, long exposure and startrails. However the exposures at ISO 100 over several minutes blurred the details in the clouds too much and I found the shorter the exposure, the more attractive the result.

Canon 1DsMkIII, 24-105mm 4L IS at 45mm, ISO 800, f4, 40 seconds.

Clearly this view from the best vantage point of the Eiffel Tower is not treading any new ground. However I am putting it up as POW because of the discussion it raised on the Travel Photographers Network, where it was a recent editor's pick. Firstly to make an icon image work, the light has to be distinctive. The purple tones in the sky and reflected on the ground were pretty special at this dramatic sunrise. The critiques the image received on TPN were divided on whether it may have worked better with the scene composed in perfect symmetry. The discussions were interesting to read, and I believe hearing different opinions is healthy for one's creativity. My take on the shot? Having lived with the image for a couple of months now, I think the slight asymmetry was the correct way to go - it gives the patterns on the ground a better rhythm towards the Eiffel Tower.

Canon 1DsMkIII, 16-35mm 2.8L, ISO 100, f116, 0.6 seconds, Gitzo tripod, 2 stop soft GND filter.

This one's my favourite from the latest gallery, Paris. Apart from the majestic architecture I was particularly intrigued by the coloured light streaming through the stained glass windows of the cathedral. I wanted to also convey the sacred atmosphere of the church, not the bustle of tourists moving through. When I came across this secluded corner with the light illuminating the floor in a kaleidoscopic manner, everything came together. Ideally a tripod would have been set up and several exposures taken for highlights, midtones and shadows - the contrast in the scene was huge. Alas, like many churches, the use of tripods was not permitted and I had to make do with a single handheld shot. I exposed for the highlights since the colours of the bright light hitting the floor was the key to the whole image.

Canon 1DsMkIII, 16-35mm 2.8L, ISO 200, f9, 1/80.

We are proud to announce that Kah Kit's image, "The Power of One" was chosen as the Naturescapes 2008 Landscape Gallery "Image of the Year." The photos of the year and honorable mentions are beautifully presented as a slideshow this month at Naturescapes.net.

The Moeraki Boulders are huge spherical stones, found strewn along Koekohe Beach near Moeraki on New Zealand's Otago coast. The boulders weigh several tonnes and are up to three metres in diameter. Timing was the key in producing this image. The high tide on an overcast sunrise allowed me to capture water rushing around the most photogenic boulder on the beach. I wanted to create a composition that put the single boulder in a position of power to balance the drama in the sky.

Canon 1DsMkIII, Canon 16-35mm 2.8L, Gitzo tripod, ISO 100, f10, 1.3 seconds, 4 stop reverse neutral density grad filter.