The problem is that the camera does not handle the white balance well in video mode. As explained earlier, I bought the camera for use underwater (speaking of difficult light conditions!). In below video, pay attention to positions 22, 30 en 38 seconds where the color shifts occur.

Full video on YouTube here.

Please note that the camera was set to a specific white-balance; auto-white balance was off. It seems that as soon as the camera needs to cope with different lighting situation, it also automatically tries to improve the white balance, with the disastrous effects as shown in the video. Now I need to find a way to color-correct video dynamically throughout the video. New challenges ahead I’m afraid. If someone has a quick-tip to color correct the above video, then I would appreciate that very much. Please leave a comment in the blog or send me a private message.

Wednesday, December 30

The day started with a lecture about the adventures of The Endurance in Antarctica. After that I wanted to go outside. That means: dressing up for cold. The temperature is around freezing, so that is not too bad. But if you are on the top deck, you are almost unprotected against the wind and the chill factor caused by the speed of the ship: 10 knots (18 mph).

On deck, the lower part of your body is protected by the construction of the ship. However the wind has unprotected grip on your head and torso. Earlier I got a headache after being outside too long, caused by very cold forehead and ears.

I now wear thin fleece pants and over that good ski pants. For my body, I wear a t-shirt, sweater, a thin fleece jacket and a parka. Then a scarf around my neck, two (!) ice caps on my head, and finally the cap of the parka to make it windproof. My parka has thin fingerless gloves. Over this I wear windproof gloves with which I can control my camera quite well.

To keep warm I wear two pairs of socks, first a pair of cotton socks and woolen socks over them. Cotton is not recommended but I have no problems with cold this way. I wear conventional sneakers to be able to walk comfortably on deck. I save the clumsy boots for going ashore.

Dresses like this, I can stay on deck for a few hours. I was rewarded with a group of whales.

After lunch, the second half of the documentary Life in the Freezer was shown. Afterwards: back to the deck, so again a change of clothes. This effort was soon rewarded when we spotted some whales. Most of them were far away, some others were close.

Late afternoon we attended another recap and briefing. We planned to arrive at South Orkney in the late afternoon to have a landing there. We were also told about tomorrow’s party (New Year’s Eve), and that we must prepare for an improvised costume ball. Shane and Wolfgang took their time for the recap. Wolfgang explained why ice is blue. We learned it’s not caused by the blue-eyed worms. Because of the pressure of tons of ice, all air is squeezed out of the ice. And the less air in the ice, the bluer the ice.

Thursday, December 31

Icebergs! More and more icebergs were to be seen and the number of icebergs was still increasing.

The ship sailed with short distance between two huge icebergs, a very spectacular sight.

The number of animals we saw in the sea was also increasing. Lots of penguins in the water and many prions, petrels and giant petrels in the air.

The first penguins were spotted on icebergs.

Because temperature was dropping and hard winds, it was too cold to remain on the upper deck for a longer period of time. Even four layers of clothing was not enough, so we stayed one deck lower. The leeward side of the ship provides enough shelter from the cold wind.

After lunch we arrived at the South Orkney Islands. We saw the snow-covered islands and even more icebergs in the water.

We intended to pass the eastern tip of the South Orkneys and land on the south side of the largest island, Coronation Island. Unfortunately there is too much ice. The captain tried to avoid the ice and find an alternative route to our destination, but we had to give up. Unfortunately that means no visit to the South Orkney Islands.

As an alternative, the captain sailed at short distance around the numerous icebergs. Some icebergs are inhabited by a large number of Adelie and Chinstrap Penguins.

Some penguins climbed to seemingly impossible places.

We sailed back eastward around the South Orkney Islands. The captain decided to sail to Antarctica from the north side of South Orkney. This to prevent getting stuck in the same ice flow that we encountered earlier that day, when we approached South Orkneys.

It is one and a half day of sailing to reach Antarctica. In the meantime, we were entertained by other activities: New Year’s Eve party. At the end of the afternoon we were in the bar, talking. We could hear that members of the Russian ship crew organized their own party on the deck. Somewhat later, at 18.00 hours, the ship’s horn blew, indicating midnight in Moscow.

In the bar, the Dutch tourists counted the seconds to 20.00 local South American time. New Year in the Netherlands! The dinner started immediately afterwards: traditional Russian food was served.

Just before midnight we were all invited to the upper deck. We got champagne and we toasted at midnight. It was a magical moment. Because it is not completely dark outside we could see the icebergs all around us. Afterwards the party continued in the forward lounge.

Friday, January 1

The next morning we woke up to find that we very slowly sailed over a very calm sea, that was completely filled with small and large icebergs. We were awakened by pieces of ice hitting the hull of the ship. Even from the cabin this was a magnificent sight. We immediately went to the upper deck to watch. Because of our low speed, there was hardly any wind and it was a wonderful sight to see the ship sail very slowly through the ice landscape.

After New Year’s brunch we quickly went back to the deck. Lots of ice floes in varying sizes and shapes could be seen. Some of them carried penguins or leopard seals. Or both…

Next picture is one of my favorites. I printed this one at 180*60cm (roughly 71*24 inch) on alu-dibond. Every morning I see that picture, and have one of these WOW moments!

Probably I have been on deck too long, as I started to see imaginary things, such as large, frozen dog.

And a big outdoor Jacuzzi

A few hours later we went to the forward lounge to view the documentary “March of the Penguins”. We had seen the documentary before, but seeing the documentary while being there seemed like something special, even though we might miss something on the deck. The documentary is really impressive.

Shortly after the documentary finished, the crew announced that whales were spotted. There were two humpback whales, which showed their beautiful curve of their backs (hence humpback) just before getting submerged.

We skipped the next lecture, the sights outside were too beautiful. And rightly so, because we sighted whales …

… and orcas!

At the end of the day the traditional end-of-day operations: transferring photos from the camera to a hard disk. That is to say: two hard disks, I make a duplicate copy of every picture. One of the hard disks is a 320GB Freecom ToughDrive Sport, which can be dropped 2 meters without breaking it. Never needed it yet, but still a good and recommended investment.

Earlier episode in the series:
• Falklands
• South Georgia

To be continued
• Antarctica

Or visit the Gallery for an overview of the best images of the trip.

UPDATE: Please read my update to this post!

Basically I am a dSLR lover. I love my Sony Alpha a850 and use it for serious shooting. That camera unfortunately cannot record movies. And although I’m not really into videography, I like to have the possibility to capture a movie now and then. The IXUS gives me 640*480 movies, but I really hate the noise that the camera makes when zooming and the the sensor noise.

The IXUS 980IS is hacked, by adding the excellent CHDK firmware – Canon Hack Development Kit. A benefit of CHDK is to provide RAW photo images from an IXUS. Isn’t that great!

So why did I want to buy a new camera? Plenty of reasons.

• Better image quality: the sensor of the G1X is much larger, giving better quality images, higher acceptable ISO settings.
• Video: 1080p.
• Native RAW: not to have to wait 3 seconds before the RAW images is written to the SD card.
• Wide angle: 28mm instead of 36mm at the widest setting (although I would LOVE a 18-70mm lens [35mm equivalent] for underwater purposes !!!).
• Zooming: the Ikelite zoom-knob often locks the camera as it does not fall back to the default center position after zooming.

To be honest, I would have preferred to buy a Sony NEX-5N. The Sony has better quality and is faster and cheaper. The main reason to choose the Canon G1X is the availability of a cheap underwater housing, the WP-DC44.

To do the math:
Canon G1X (€749) + WP-DC44 housing (€239): a bit under €1.000.
Sony NEX-5N (€599) + third party underwater housing and lens port (€1.700) totaling €2.300

!! Please SONY, start building underwater housings for the NEX line. You lost a sale today !!

So here are my first thoughts (viewed as a replacement for a standard compact camera):

• Amazing picture quality
• Big lens
• Big camera (this is not a “compact” camera)
• Heavy
• Excellent build quality
• Fast (I read several reviews complaining about shutter lag, but I’m happy as it’s an improvement over the IXUS)
• Large LCD screen

Tips for Canon, to include in the G2X:

• If you again opt for a fixed lens, start with 24mm (less is more)
• Make up your mind about the form factor and stick to it for the next 20 years (so I can re-use underwater housings).
• Add three custom (programmable) buttons

At this moment, I’m certain that this is a major improvement for the old compact camera. However, I’m pretty certain that I will upgrade this camera in the next 2 to 3 years. When will we finally reach the moment that you can buy a camera and have the certainty that your investment is safe for the next 10 years?

Camera makers, I love you. But I also hate you.

I will shortly do an extensive review for the G1X as an underwater camera. Watch this blog for an update.

UPDATE: Please read my update to this post!

The story began three days ago, when my mouse started to misbehave. A good, precise mouse is a indispensable tool, and only then I realized how often I use the mouse wheel for computer operations and to zoom in and out pictures.

Never afraid for doing some DIY projects, I did not hesitate to open the mouse to find the cause and to fix the issue. I did not expect to see that many dirt, gathered around the scroll wheel.

This picture shows the mouse after opening it. Not too bad. What you can see is a the mouse wheel. Inside the wheel you can see little holes.

It seems that the scroll wheel functions like this. Please refer to the picture below.

One side of the mouse wheel provides a light emitting source (see the blue component a little bit below the center of the image). The hole in the center normally contains the scroll wheel. Yikes, yes, you can see a lot of dirt down there!!! As always, I blame my cats

The other side of the scroll wheel (little bit above the center of the picture) is a light sensitive sensor. As the scroll wheel turns, the sensor picks up the motion and translates that to movement (up or down: scrolling).

My cat’s hair (along with some loose fabric ends) seemed to got in the way of the light path, effectively disabling scrolling functionality of the mouse.

After removing all hairs, fabric and debris, the mouse is working properly again!

I just could not resist to take a macro shot, and this was the result:

For scientific discovery, give me Scott;
For speed and efficiency of travel, give me Amundsen;
But when disaster strikes all hope is gone,
get down on your knees and pray for Shackleton

During the night the sea was quite rough, but in the course of the day it got even worse. During lunch, it became clear that more and more travelers began to suffer from the circumstances: there number of empty seats in the restaurant was increasing. Wind and waves continued to increase in force and speed. I decided to skip the lectures and stayed on bed as a precaution. During the day the storm increased to wind force 9 and waves were 6 meters high. The ship was rolling to about 38 degrees. The Russian crew said that the ship can handle a maximum of 45 degrees.

Even the bar was almost deserted. The storm continued to rise and all loose and less fixed parts of the furniture started to move and fall to the ground. Much was broken: crew and expedition members did their best but they were unable to rescue everything.

On leaving the lecture room, a passenger was thrown to the ground by a big wave. She broke a rib and was not able to attend any of the future landings during the expedition. Needless to explain her pains.

The dining room was badly affected. All starters were served, but everything fell to the ground. A big mess. In the kitchen, a refrigerator was not fixed well and fell over. The Christmas tree was no match for the conditions either.

One of the cooks came to the bar. It was a big mess in the galley. This was his third season and he had never seen worse conditions. The staff decided that Christmas dinner (it’s Christmas Eve) was postponed: eating in the dining room was too dangerous. They said that we changed course: we did not sail in the direction of South Georgia anymore, but in the direction of New Zealand. This time, that´s not the right direction …

Through the intercom we got the urgent advice to go to the cabin because that is the safest place. That´s where the food was served in a plastic cup.

The staff are doing the best they can.

Around half past nine, the ocean calmed down a bit. We had already noticed that the ship was sailing slowly, presumably to prevent us from wandering too far from the original sailing plan. During the night the engines were fired up and we came back in a slightly heavier storm. A restless night.

Friday, December 25

We were back on course, heading for South Georgia. The ocean was much calmer, waves no more than three meters high.

The Christmas dinner was skipped for today as well, the ocean was still quite rough and they would not risk the extensive dinner they had in mind.

Saturday, December 26

In the morning we got a briefing about South Georgia, where we plan to arrive at the end of the day. We lost half a day because of the storm. We expect to arrive half past six at South Georgia. If possible, we would make a landing before we start the Christmas dinner. The cooks are not happy because that implicates that we would eat at 9 pm. First things first, we are here for the landings, not for Christmas dinner.

During the morning there were more and more animals to see in the water, dolphins, fur seals and penguins.

In the afternoon, we watched episodes 1 through 3 of the BBC documentary Life in the Freezer, on South Georgia and Antarctica. A very nice documentary with David Attenborough.

At the end of the afternoon there was land in sight. There was not much to see because there was a fairly dense fog. We were lucky and were able to land at Right Whale Bay at half past six. Huge amounts of fur seals were on the beach.

Fur seals are not very friendly…

We walked to the king penguin colonies that were close by.

Overwhelming.

The quality of the pictures suffered from the low light conditions. For this landing I only used my Sigma 24-70 F2.8 lens. But with shutter speeds getting as low as 1/5 sec at f2.8, it is very difficult to get motion free shots, hence I ended up with lots of pictures that appeared blurry, even though shot with a tripod.

Sunday, December 27

The next morning the alarm rang at 4.55 pm. We knew that shortly after five o’clock would go ashore and we were keen to arrive early. Shortly after that Kara came over the intercom: 6 degrees Celsius, cloudy and rainy. Useful information to prepare for appropriate clothing. We were not the first in the zodiac, but were quick to land at Fortuna Bay. On the beach we immediately saw fur seals and penguins.

We left the beach and went inland, heading for a colony of king penguins. Halfway a group of deer ran past. That’s quite impressive as they come running towards you.

We arrived at a large colony of king penguins. A small hill near the colony gave a nice view of the entire group of several thousands of penguins.

In this picture, I stitched three photos taken at 24mm, to be able to capture the whole penguin colony and merge them in a panorama.

As it was raining quite hard, I was not able to make a lot of pictures. I used a plastic bag to protect the camera and lens from the rain. This is not only inconvenient, it also introduces camera shake. The wind was blowing hard and the plastic bag moved a bit in the wind, which resulted in slight camera shake even while using a tripod. Tip for next trip is to buy a better, more sturdy tripod. I also decided to buy a professional rain cap for my camera gear.

And then the moulting penguins. The poor animals are waiting in the rain for the renewal of their fur. During the moulting period, the penguin cannot swim as the fur is not waterproof. When the itching is over the penguin knows that the old fur is gone and that he can return to the water.

The water resistance of our stuff was challenged because it was raining pretty hard. Especially the gloves did not meet their expectations. Even though it was not freezing, the rain soaked the gloves and that resulted in cold hands. I have yet to find gloves that are waterproof and are useful to operate the camera. Until that moment, I advise to bring at least two pairs.

Time to leave…

Back on the ship we put on dry clothes and had breakfast! We were ready for it. You are not allowed to bring food to the island and since the wakeup call was over 4 hours ago, we were very hungry.

Half past ten the next landing: Stromness. This is the whaling station where Shackleton arrived after his ship The Endurance was wrecked on the ice of Antarctica.

His story challenges your imagination, when you walk through the valley where he has walked and climbed over the mountains. Even now, during high summer, everything is covered with snow and ice, and leaves you speechless.

On the beach you can find huge numbers of fur seals. Especially watch out for the males, because they do not like you come too close, and get aggressive. The puppies are very cute. They look at you with their big black eyes and twist their necks in all directions.

On the beach you see the whaling station Stromness. The buildings are challenged by heavy winds and material can come loose from the buildings. Metal can be tossed in the air and there is asbestos in the roofs. For this reason, the site is prohibited territory and you must stay at least 200 meters away. The fur seals don’t mind and are there in large numbers together with small groups of king penguins.

At about a mile from the beach there was a colony of gentoo penguins. Why they are at that place, is beyond me. Nearer to the coast they can also find peaks, as high as the top of the hills where they are breeding now. But it was a strange place: Gentoo penguins tend to breed on rocks, but here they make nests on bare ground. Well, we’ve already established that penguins were not prioritized when the Creator was handing out brains.

Back on board it was time for lunch. Soon after lunch, news came that the first icebergs had come in sight. They are very small at the moment, but now it is real. It was predicted that we would see icebergs here, as the Antarctic current brings water from Antarctica and therefore icebergs to South Georgia.

Learned from the weather conditions, my priority was to make my camera waterproof. A plastic bag, scissors and some tape works wonders and now the camera can be used when it rains. In South Georgia it rains 300 days per year so that is not a luxury.

During lunch the ship sailed to the next landing spot. With a short zodiac ride we reached Jason Harbour. We were already accustomed to the welcome of the fur seals. Always a beautiful sight.

On the border of beach and grassland, we found the first elephant seals. The first ones we saw were much larger than the fur seals, but these were only the little ones.

The area was a piece of grassland where many streams flow through the grassy area. Several mud pots were filled with a number of elephant seals.

They enjoy each other’s company, lying and wallowing in the mud. It smells terrible, which may have to do with the fact that they do everything in that mud. Everything.

The fur seals do what do do best, like sleeping…

Making fun of tourists…

Enjoy the view…

In this picture, I merged three images to a 60mpix photo. The stitching software nicely merged the in-focus parts together to create a composite that is in focus front to back.

Monday, December 28

The Orlova entered the small bay of Godthul, which is surrounded by mountains and therefore provides some shelter from the wind. Somewhat later we are dropped off at the beach. Many fur seals, king penguins, gentoo penguins and elephant seals await us.

If you want to view the animals up close, just sit down, wait and see what the animals do. Often the animals will approach you, as they are very curious. Humans must allow at least 5 meters distance from the animals, but the animals do not bother with these rules. Gentoo penguins emerge from the water and walk right past you to go to their nest.

King penguins prove that they are not afraid of sea elephants: when these giants come too close, they start making a lot of noise and peck as a warning. And the sea elephants respect this. It’s very nice to watch the different species and see how they interact.

Posing for the camera

Moulting…

More posing for the camera

Did I already mention enjoying the sun?

And scaring away tourists in the zodiac

We have been told that if a fur seal is behaving aggressively, you can best try to scare him away with your voice. Failing that, try to get something between you and the animal. For example a stick. Or a whale’s bone (there are plenty on the beach). Or your tripod.

In the afternoon we arrived at Grytviken, the only inhabited place on South Georgia. We were dropped off near the small cemetery at Grytviken. Here are many whalers and fur seal hunters buried, but also Shackleton: the reason for our visit to Grytviken. At the grave, Shane held a brief eulogy and then we drank a sip of rum on Shackleton.

Who has a great view from his grave

Then we examinated the old whaling station. Many of the buildings are in very poor condition, but signs tell you what they were for.

They use the same paint for everything.

Dinner that night was a bit unusual: barbecue on deck. After dressing to the occasion, we went to the back of the ship, deck 7. There was a buffet with lots of meats, vegetables, salads, everything. There were tables and benches at the stern, so we could eat while enjoying the view of snow capped mountains around us. It was chilly, but we had a great time.

Tuesday, December 29

Breakfast at a little over six o’clock and at seven o’clock the zodiacs left for Gold Harbour. Upon arrival on the beach we were greeted by large elephant seals and a light snowfall. The elephant seals were lying on the beach, some were fighting (playfully). But even then you can already see why a fight between a beach master and his challenger does not take long. One will give up because of sheer exhaustion.

The number of king penguins is enormous. It was impossible to take the five-meter-rule into account. We have repeatedly seen that someone nearly stood on top of an animal while examining another. Two women were investigating a penguin and they did not realize that an elephant seal “ran” right behind them. Not a very elegant view.

At a certain point we were not able to walk any further: we were close to the heart of the colony. There were about 25,000 king penguins!

Lots of chicks, who are a lot fatter than the adults.

Some were trying to get rid of their last brown hairs.

Adults are moulting, busy courting or hatching an egg.

If you stand still for a moment or just sit down, it’s likely that animals will approach you. Particularly the king penguin chicks are curious and will come to have a closer look. Or confiscate equipment.

There were also lots of weeners, young elephants seals. The youngster is intensively fed and then left by its mother, who returns to sea to eat. The weener remains on the beach for six to eight weeks. In this period he continually grows. It´s mother´s milk is so rich in nutrients that it takes long to convert it into fat.

The pups seem a bit sad with their big round dog eyes, but they also seem happy with an everlasting smile on their face.

They are not aggressive at all, rather shy, but some are curious. One weener approached the tourists to see if there was any milk and began sucking pants.

Very funny but also sad because we had nothing, of course. If such an animal is so close and literally on your feet, and stares up with his big eyes, it is very difficult to keep your hands off and not to pet him!

On Gold Harbour, I only used my 15 year old crappy Cosina 70-210 lens, as I did the waterproofing activities only for that lens. Turns out that even that lens, with proper shooting technique, provides acceptable image quality and can be sold as a stock photo.

Once all the zodiacs were back they were lifted on deck and the anchor was lifted. At 11.00 the lunch was served, and although early, it was welcomed by the guests.

We set sail to Cooper Bay. We arrived one and a half hours later and quickly went into the Zodiacs. Here we took a zodiac cruise for about an hour. Chinstrap penguins, fur seals, elephant seals, kelp gulls, white albatrosses, cormorants and macaroni penguins were seen.

We went along the high cliffs that rise from the sea. A small bay that we entered was reminiscent of Mordor from The Lord of the Rings. It was a very nice trip.

Again all pictures were taken with the Cosina 70-210. Oh boy, I really want to upgrade to a 70-200 f2.8!

Somewhat later everyone was back on the ship and we left for Drygalski Fjord. The Orlova sailed into the fjord. Dramatic views at both sides of the ship. Brilliant blue ice glaciers.

Little wildlife was to be seen in the fjord. Weather conditions were still not great and I failed to get the beautiful blue colors of the ice faithfully on a picture. Also, the pano photo above is lacking a sense of scale.

Earlier episode in the series:
• Falklands

To be continued
• South Orkney
• Antarctica

Or visit the Gallery for an overview of the best images of the trip.

If Antarctica were music it would be Mozart.
Art, and it would be Michelangelo.
Literature, and it would be Shakespeare.
And yet it is something even greater;
the only place on earth that is still as it should be.
May we never tame it.
Andrew Denton

It was a somewhat nerve wrecking flight to Ushuaia (Argentina). As it turned out, every of the three flights was delayed, delays compensated other delays and in the end we arrived “only” three hours late. We flew from Amsterdam, via Paris and Buenos Aires to Ushuaia.

Sunday, December 20

After a relaxed breakfast with views of snowcapped mountains and a beautiful bay we put our suitcases outside, to be taken by Quark Expeditions to the expedition ship. Meanwhile, we took a taxi to the National Park Tierra del Fuego. The park provides magnificent views over beautiful bays with snowy peaks of mountains in the background.

One of the goals of the trip was to experiment with panoramic photography. Below is the first experiment. Lessons learned: when taking pictures for a pano, be sure to add plenty of additional space around the composite. You need a lot of additional space for the final crop.

Halfway during the Tierra del Fuego trip, and after 89 photo’s, my brand new Sony Alpha 850 refused to read my brand new 16GB CF-card. That was a moment in Panic. Even though I have a back-up camera (Sony Alpha 700) in case something would break, I was not expecting this to happen even before the start of the actual expedition to Antarctica.

Luckily, the Sony has two memory slots and the Sony Memory Stick still worked fine. Two minutes later, an old 4GB CF card proved to work as well. It seemed that the Camera and CF-card just did not like each other. Later I found out that the Sony A700 and the 16GB card worked fine.

The purpose of the 16GB card is to have enough memory to store all pictures that I want to make during a single landing. I do not like switching cards in the field. It can be rainy, especially in Falklands and South Georgia, and I prefer to leave my camera closed.

I have a habit of shooting in RAW+JPG mode. I use RAW for quality purposes and JPG to show pictures on the computer to other people. 2 Cards of each 4GB, provide me to shoot 600 pictures. I tried to buy an additional CF card in Ushuaia but on Sunday most shops are closed.

The ship, Lyubov Orlova, was bigger than expected. The ship is not fully booked, 92 passengers in total on this trip. We quickly unpack while the ship is still stationary in the port. At 1800 hours we departed. That is really an incredible feeling: we’re bound for Antarctica!

From the port of Ushuaia we sailed through the Beagle Channel. Calmly we move between dramatic mountain tops. We are greeted by birds and somewhat later we had the first magic sunset.

Monday 21 December

The travel to Falklands takes one and a half day days, but even this trip is enjoyable. The first Whale was spotted quickly.

Since then, I have spent many hours on deck, in the cold, looking out for wildlife. There is plenty to enjoy. Almost every hour a Whale was spotted (mostly very far away, even with a big 500mm lens), and between these sightings you can watch the Albatrosses and Petrels glide on the thermal wind of the ship. This is a great opportunity to practice bird-in-flight tracking and get some wonderful shots.

The crew of the ship really do everything possible to give you a great time by giving a lot of lectures about the environment and Wildlife. They also really spoil the guests with 4 course lunches and dinners. They even vacuum clean your belongings .

Tuesday 22 December

In the morning we were awakened by the intercom. This morning the call is at six o’clock and Kara reports that we have arrived at the Falkland Islands, West Point. After an early breakfast we immediately went to the zodiacs.

At eight o’clock we arrive on the island. The weather is sunny and about 11 degrees Celsius. After a brisk walk through “the neck” we found a colony of Rockhopper Penguins and Black-browed Albatrosses.

After we returned from West Point, the anchor was lifted and we set sail for Saunders Island. After lunch we went to the deck. We were lucky: first a southern fur seal and then some Commerson’s dolphins.

After a few hours we changed clothes for a wet landing on Saunders. Wet landing means that you need to wade a little bit through water before you can hit the beach. Similar, you need to wade through water to board the zodiac on the way back to the ship.

On Saunders Island we were greeted by large numbers of penguins.

Here are several penguin colonies: Magellanic, Gentoo, Rockhopper and King Penguins.

Further along, we found two colonies of Black-browed Albatrosses.

This place is really absolutely stunning. The diversity of wildlife and the number of animals is simply amazing.

Almost every night just before dinner, the crew organize a “recap and briefing”. In the first part, experts explain what happened that day and what they have seen. They give plenty of opportunity to ask questions. During the second part of the briefing, program for the next day is explained.

During dinner we had a nice conversation with a retired American and his two sons about American politics. Of the advice “do not talk about sex, religion and politics with Americans”, we followed only the first. Very interesting to hear an American explain why he had voted for Bush. Twice. He came from Texas.

Wednesday, December 23

In the morning we arrived in Port Stanley, capital of the Falklands. We were dropped off with the zodiac in the village and that was a pretty wet ride. A lot of wind and high waves, so there was a lot of water in the zodiac. With Dmitri and a large group of other passengers we walked along the shore in search of birds.

Not much to see, so we went to the museum. Nice small museum about the Falklands. Partly about the history as an island group, about the history of whaling and fur seal hunters, but also much information about the Argentine invasion of 1982 and the British response.

After returning to the ship we attended the Recap & briefing, which revealed that we would be sailing for three days before reaching South Georgia. We had counted on two days of travel, so this was a bit disappointing.

To be continued
• South Georgia
• South Orkney
• Antarctica

Or visit the Gallery for an overview of the best images of the trip.

Landschaftspark is a former coal and steel production plant. Entrance to the park is free and the park provides great photo opportunities.

Although (and maybe because) seriously different from my usual wildlife photography style I had great fun. Thanks to Admar, Jorrit, Lesley, Lucas, Marc, Niels and Rob for a great day! Next to digesting espresso, apfelgeback, pommes mit majo and currywurst we also had some time to take pictures.

One week before this trip, I purchased new equipment (a Tamron 90mm macro lens). Next two shots are my first experiments with this lens. Quite difficult to get a sharp picture because of the small DOF.

The first image is a close-up of water drops in a spider web somewhere hidden in the rusty metal parts of a trolley.

The second image with this lens is a shot of a flower. Unfortunately not completely sharp, due to motion blur caused by the wind and a relative long shutter speed. However, good enough for presentation on the web.

One of my favorite tricks is to show interesting patterns of material without revealing what you are actually looking at. Note that the little red dots are actually very small spiders.

Next picture is a new experiment with photomerge functionality. This picture comprises of 5 photo’s that are merged to a 10328 * 5265 image, over 50 mpix

When I took next picture, I knew it had to be converted to B&W. The actual colors of this image were a bit distracting.

Next image is almost B&W of itself. A lot of back lite removes most color in the image. I like the converging an diverging lines and perspective.

I’ve seen similar shots of the one below from the people who joined me on this trip. I decided to expose for the interior and took in total 3 (2-stop) bracketing shots. I did not need those bracketing shots at all, the regular shot shows all the detail. No HDR in this image below.

A variant of this image, the same image converted to B&W. Which do you prefer?

At least one happy face in this picture

I wonder how many people got this shot:

The last images of this day of one subject. Totally different images just by zooming in-out and moving the camera a bit to achieve two completely different compositions.

Please let me know if you like this, and drop a comment in the box below. Or better, please like / join me on social media (use the buttons at the top of this page).

I’m not, at least not always.

A sharp image is something else than applying (excessive) unsharp-mask in Photoshop. My <<<philosophy>>> is that the raw image should be AGAP (as great as possible). Yes, sharpening is required but only just before printing or publishing, and should be applied with care. This article provides my three step approach:

• Step 1 of this article describes the conclusions of my experiments to get the best in-camera image quality;
• Step 2 describes post-processing steps to convert a great capture to an even greater photo;
• Step 3 is intended to generate the final image based on it’s purpose.

This article describes a generic approach to taking sharp pictures. If you like this information, you might also like to read how to take a wildlife picture, or how to take a macro picture.

Step 1: Get the most out of your equipment

Several factors are important to achieve sharpness. I’m still experimenting with this. At this moment, my conclusions are

• Apply Stabilization techniques. My recommendation is, whenever possible, to use a beanbag (instead of a tripod). Beanbags rule!
• Shoot Digital (versus Analog);
• Use Modern and/or Expensive equipment;
• Shoot in RAW mode;
• Shoot at lower ISO ratings (use native image sensor sensitivity);
• Stop down the lens (usually 2 or 3 stops) by optionally compensating the ISO rating (for example from 100 to 400);
• Use Mirror lock-up;
• Use spot-focusing;
• Use cable release or (even better) remote release.

Note that several of these options include an implicit trade-off regarding compositional effects (for example the aperture setting which influences Depth-of-Field). Sometimes it is also a tradeoff between these factors, for example when stopping down the lens and lowering the ISO sensitivity, then you risk motion blur.

Step 2: convert a perfect capture to an even better picture

During capture stage (see step 1) it is important to get as many details in the RAW file as possible.

During post processing, we have several tools to improve the quality of the final output. There are several steps that you can take to improve the capture. The steps described below are based on my personal preferences.

I use photoshop and Adobe Camera Raw (ACR) to process my images. I use ACR to get all details into the frame and do some overall tonal adjustments. Then I use Photoshop to finetune the image.

As discussed in step 1, I shoot in RAW mode. This provides more control during post processing.

Activities in Adobe Camera Raw:

• Adjust the white balance;
• Apply minor exposure to retrieve blown-out highlights. This includes some overall recovery, brightness, contrast and clarity tweaking;
• No sharpening at this point;
• Some color noise reduction.

The purpose here is to spend a little time as possible in ACR. All corrections you apply in ACR (or any other raw processor) are to a certain degree destructive operations. Maybe I need to explain this. The changes made to white balance, clarity, noise reduction, exposure and all others are stored in XML files accompanying the RAW file. They can be changed on demand. However, when opening an image in Photoshop a copy is made based on the ACR settings. At that moment all settings are “burned” into the image and all you might loose details. Of course you can go back to the RAW file and reapply settings. However, this is somewhat cumbersome as you might loose all work done in Photoshop (for example cloning operations). So, in short, my strategy in ACR is to provide as many details from the original sensor data to Photoshop.

Photoshop is used for the detailed work. All operations are done in separate layers to make them non-destructive, in this order:

• Cloning out dust spots and minor annoyances (I do not clone out complete objects)
• Color correction (levels)
• Contrast correction (curves)

At this moment I’m done and save the file in PSD format.

Step 3: generate final images based on purpose

This step is my favorite. I have created several actions to convert the image from step 2 to versions that are suitable for printing (high resolution, high quality JPG), viewing on screen or iPad (a medium resolution, medium quality JPG) or publishing on my website (low resolution, high quality JPG using “save for web”).

Every action includes steps for sharpening the image.

As I can run the conversion as an batch process, I can process hundreds of images while having diner or watching a movie.

Lenses

My first lenses were a 28-80 Cosina and 70-210 Cosina. These provided decent images, at least for the money paid for them.

During the trip to New Zealand I noticed that I had most fun in shooting animals. As a result, these pictures were more pleasing than others. From that moment onward, I specialized in taking Wildlife pictures. The first upgrade was to invest in a big tele-lens. After searching for a long time, I decided to buy the Sigma 170-500mm telephoto lens. This was a relatively cheap lens and provides good quality results. Pictures taken with this lens are sellable. The majority of my pictures are taken with this lens.

Next improvement was to invest in a pro-level short-to-medium zoom lens. I had noticed that I needed a wider than 28mm lens. I decided to buy the Sigma 24-70 EX DG lens. Very nice lens with good optics. Downside of this lens is that it has broken 2 times already. First time the zooming mechanism was completely stuck. The second time it was not possible to focus under 1 meter. Sigma  fixed it (expensively ). The second repair took several months. Bad service for a pro-level EX lens.

Recently I bought a 1:1 macro lens. I have considered buying the 105mm Sigma but the reviews (and to a less extend the quality issues of the Sigma 24-70) convinced me to buy the Tamron 90mm.

Camera Body

Currently I am using the Alpha 850 full frame, 24,6 mpixel. Yes, I’m very happy and even proud to have one! Definitely recommended.

This article describes my way of storing my photo’s safely. I use these storage, archival and back-up measures for all of my important data. Currently I have almost 2 Terabyte of important data (!!!).

Why?

A good photo storage method should cater for a number of unfortunate events:

• Disasters (like theft and fire)
• Stupidity (for example overwriting an important file)
• Malfunctions (problems with your hard disk)

Furthermore, storage should be:

• SAFE
• AVAILABLE
• FAST

What?

My data is stored on several media:

• NAS (Network Attached Storage): data that I want to access anywhere, anytime, from anyplace (accessible over the internet). My NAS is configured in RAID-1 configuration. This means, if one of the hard disks dies, all data is still stored safely on the other hard disk. Drawback of the NAS is that it is relatively slow (roughly 40 MB/s over gigabit Ethernet);
• Internal hard disks: I have two 1TB hard disks in RAID-0 (striped) configuration. This gives me about 250 MB/s read speeds. The drawback is that if one hard disk malfunctions, I could loose all data on both disks.

In short, my most important data is on the NAS (safe and accessible). This includes all RAW photo files.

All other files, including all photo’s currently being edited or finished editing are stored on the internal hard disks. Advantage is that this data is retrieved very fast. My 24.6 MPix camera (see equipment) gives me huge files. An image edited in Photoshop in 16bits with a few layers gives files of up-to 500MB per image. Some stitched panorama’s a multiple of that. To edit these files comfortably, I need the speed of the RAID-0 disks as it takes “only” 2 seconds to load a 500MB image, instead of 12 seconds if I would use the NAS. Note that 2 seconds response time is considered “acceptable fast” when working with a computer. I have considered buying SSD’s instead but I would rather invest the fortune it requires to buy 2TB SSDs in new lenses.

But wait, I said that my files should be stored SAFE. Raid-0 isn’t safe, is it? Please read on .

Back-up and back-up tools

I have one external hard disk connected to my computer and regularly copy changes on the local disk and on the NAS to that external hard disk. If something happens, I can easily retrieve data from that hard disk. So, if one hard disk would die, I would only loose the work I between now and the last time I created the copy.

Roughly once per half year, I take the external hard disk and store it in a small safe that I rent from the local bank. That safe costs me less than 100 Euro per year and stores next to the hard disk some other valuables.

I’m lucky that I have the possibility to rent a safe. Strange but true: renting a safe in The Netherlands is not very easy as banks tend to close them. Probably they are not earning enough money (…). Alternatively, you could ask a friend or a relative to store a hard disk for you, or even leave the hard disk at the office of your day-job.

In the past, I used Microsoft SyncToy to copy my data to an external hard disk. I used the an ”Echo” folder pair and it worked perfectly. Only drawback of SyncToy is that it sometimes take a long time to determine what data has to be copied. The reason is that I have over 100.000 files on my company-laptop and SyncToy does not seem to handle large number of files well. In the end, I created my own Sync tool, which does the trick in a fraction of the time that SyncToy needs . For average work, however, SyncToy should perform the job just fine and I recommend the tool. Best of all: it is free!

Media

In the past I have considered backing-up my data on DVD media (or blue-ray). For all my data, I would need 400 DVDs of 50 blue-ray discs. That is not very practical to burn them one at a time unless you are very patient (unlike me). Please be advised that DVD media are not very reliable as well. They wear out relatively fast.

Similarly, also do not expect hard disk to survive much longer than 10 years. You can now buy an external hard disk for well under 100 Euro’s. I consider that a relatively low insurance cost, so by all means buy yourself a new one, once in a while. Or deep-format an old hard disk and rewrite your back-up data to that hard disk to make sure that you get no write errors.

Other considerations.

Something you might need to consider is compatibility. For example, can we know for sure that all RAW images you took are supported by imaging software indefinitely? I recommend to store at least a high-quality JPG (or preferably a lossless TIFF file) of each RAW file. I guess that JPG and TIFF are here to stay, in contrary to current wide variety of RAW formats. Another suggestion is to convert the RAW file to DNG which is more like a standard format.

Conclusions & recommendations.

Here’s a quick resume:

• Store data in at least three places, of which at least one on another physical location.
• Think about compatibility and media wear-out.