This morning we awoke to cold air temperatures, two inches of snow on the deck, heavy overcast skies, and some areas of fog. The ship was heading into the Lemaire Channel, a narrow passage between the Argentine Islands and the Antarctic Peninsula mainland. The temperatures here were at freezing, and the amount of ice floating in the channel was surprising compared to what we had witnessed so far. 

Small icebergs, bergy bits (smaller than 5 meters in height) and brash ice (small pieces floating together) littered the passage and the ship just pushed them away; smaller pieces of ice rafted together in the currents and created patterns.  Even with the dark grey skies, the blue ice of the icebergs was surprisingly vivid. At the end of the Lemaire Channel there were many large icebergs in the distance.

The morning stop was Peterman Island, inhabited by colonies of Adelie and Gentoo penguins as well as a small colony of Antarctic shags. The snow here had large areas of greenish or reddish snow; the color due to algae that grows in areas of permanent snow. The landing on a rock shelf was easy, and paths led to Gentoo penguin colonies to the right and left, with the Adelie colony further up the hill on the right.  A path on the left led uphill to an overview of a small inlet that had an accumulation of grounded icebergs or various shapes.

The afternoon stop was six miles further South at Vernadsky Station, a Ukrainian research base.  While waiting for our arrival time at the station, we spent time exploring the nearby waters which were filled with icebergs of every shape imaginable. These large icebergs were carved by currents, flipped over as the center of mass changed, and carved again. We never witnessed a large iceberg turn over, but it was easy to imagine how impressive it would be.

The station was originally established at this site on Galindez Island, part of the Argentine Islands chain, as a British facility in 1954 and was sold to the government of Ukraine in 1996 for one pound.  The UK had no further need of the station, and the cost of dismantling the base due to Antarctic agreements would be costly.  Scientists from Ukraine lost access to Antarctic research facilities with the dissolution of the USSR, so it was a win-win situation. The Ukrainian Antarctic Center conducts projects in geomagnetism, seismology, upper atmospheric physics, meteorology, biology, and physiology research. Expanded to house 24 people, and operates the world’s most southern gift shop and public bar serving homemade vodka. One of the scientists conducted a tour of the facility which ended at the gift shop and bar, where we sampled the vodka.

After our visit here, we returned to the ship and started our two-day journey across the Drake Passage.  It started off with high seas; I spent most of the time the first day in bed, which was not a loss since the fog was fairly thick and the horizon could not be seen until two days later when we approached the Beagle Channel.

In early February, we had a pair of bluebirds come to our feeders. Bluebirds generally eat insects and there are not many around this time of year. They watched the other birds eating and gave it a try. It was amusing to watch a bluebird pick up a piece of bread and try to get it past its beak. One beat it against a branch until it was long and round then ate it. Over the next several weeks the number of bluebirds grew to four pairs. They would only visit on days that were cold; up to five of them on the suet feeder at a time. In the past, such visits by bluebirds in the winter were brief, only a day or two. This year they visited for more than four weeks. All the images in this post were captured in February 2023, with the exception of the two images of Robins which were made in December 2022.

My initial photographs were through the kitchen and lavette windows with the target areas being the bird feeders and birdbath. Once it was clear that they would be staying a while, I set up two light stands with natural perches attached to them with plastic straps. To increase my chances of getting the birds to use the perches, I strategically placed them between one of their favorite spots and another. One perch is between the bird bath and the suet feeder, and the other is between the suet and the tray feeder.  At some times of the day there could be 20-30 birds visiting the feeders and the perches provide some convenient places to wait for a spot on a  feeder to open.

I choose the perches to have a vertical and horizontal branch to provide variety. If you intend to photograph  over many days, it makes sense to change the perches every so often and even change the position so that you have an assortment of images with a variety of branches and backgrounds.

The perches are about ten feet from the windows and placed to have a distant background. All the photographs in this post are captured with a handheld Olympus O-MD E-M1 Mark III camera body with the Olympus M.Zuiko 300mm f/4 PRO lens, mostly at f/4 and shutter speeds as slow as 1/15 sec. Because of the small sensor size of the Olympus camera, the 300mm lens has a field of view equivalent to a 600mm lens on a camera with a full size sensor. I photographed through the double pane window glass; although it did take some experimentation to discover which window sections offered good results. When the weather is warmer, I will also shoot with the lavette window open, ensuring that the door is closed should a bird investigate the open cavity.

When photographing through a window it is important to be aware of two optical effects: distortion through the glass and reflections on the glass. Check for distortion by shooting through various parts of the window at a bird feeder or the perch and review the images with magnification to ensure detail is preserved. Reflections will most likely be caused by brightly lit objects in the room or from the windows across the room. By positioning the camera lens perpendicular to the glass you may solve both problems as I have found less distortion when shooting straight through the glass. Getting close to the glass also blocks reflections. If you have storm windows, you may want to open the lower section to reduce the amount of glass between your camera and the subject.

Photographing birds from a window in your house can very productive, and especially so in winter when the birds’ need to eat is necessary for their survival. They are acclimated to people being the window watching as they visit the feeders and ignore anyone standing there for the most part.

Make your plans now to take advantage of the springtime migration bringing new birds to backyard feeders, all hungry as they need the energy to build new feathers and to fly on to their summer areas.

I was walking around in my yard which I left mostly wooded, and found a newly emergent pine tree with the seed pod still attached to the end of the pine needles. I set up and was rewarded with a nicely backlit pine tree, but with half the background in bright sun.  What to do! I knew I would try to use Highlights and Shadows controls to brighten the shady area and knock back the bright area, as can be seen in the second photo. It is an acceptable result, but if I were done taking photographs, this post would be over also.

While maximizing the highlight and shadow adjustments of Lightroom results in an acceptable image, I know that I can do better, or at least different. And I better do it while I have a cooperative subject.

My approach here is to provide shade for the entire scene by placing my body between the sun and the subject. To accomplish this I need a couple of tools that I happen to carry with me whenever looking for small objects to photograph. First, the camera is placed on a stable platform such as a tripod or the Platypod if I’m getting very low to the ground, to keep the camera framed properly. Second, I control the camera using a remote control to trigger the capture. Although this can be a wired remote I prefer using a wireless remote because of the flexibility it provides. I’m no longer limited by the length of the cord plus the length of my arm. And third, I take advantage of the articulating screen on my camera body to be able to observe the scene I have framed in my camera, while I am maneuvering my body to block the sun. This ensures I properly position myself for the desired results.

By watching the monitor that I have flipped around to be facing me as I block the sun, I am able trigger the capture with the wireless remote when I am certain I am in the correct position. In the second image above, you can see the pine tree seedling in the green circle, the receiver of the wireless remote is on the ground to the right of the camera. To the left of the camera is a Litra Torch LED light on a Platypod Ultra, spigot adapter and small ball head. Before turning on the light, I made a few captures for comparison. The resulting image (below, left) has a nice even light to it, But the upper right quarter seems a little brighter than the rest of the scene. I feel my eye is being pulled from the seeding and to the upper right, but there is nothing significant there.

I dropped the overall exposure by about 2/3 stop and used the LED light to help separate the seedling from the dark background. It also brought out the texture of the seed and in the stem.

I used my body as a sun block and a remote control to trigger the capture in these two examples. For the Spotted Wintergreen I stood to the left of the plant while making the exposure.

For the red fungus growing on the side of the tree stump, the offending sunlit spot is to the far right of the subject. I set up the camera with the screen flipped around so that I could see it, stood behind the stump and held my hat in the path of the sunlight so that I cast a shadow in the correct location. In this case I also added a Litra Torch to the left side of the stump to light the underparts of the fungus.

The trip is based out of the Best Western in Gardner, MT, just outside the north entrance to the park.

The primary focus of the group was wildlife and that’s where we concentrated our efforts; to find the iconic animals in the park. Our group had a very good trip, seeing and photographing everything on the list of mammals except for the hibernating species. We didn’t have a “three-dog-day” but did have a three dog week as we photographed coyote, wolf and red fox. Our driver, Mark Kundzins, was very knowledgeable of the park and had driven John’s tour group last year and worked well with him.

The snowfall in the park was very light everywhere. In the norther area of the park, the road was clear down to pavement in most places. in the southern areas there was snow cover on the roads but generally was not deep. We did have some cold temperatures, the coldest being -17º F one day. Our days were scheduled based on the availability of the snow coach so we had two days in the van, three days in the snow coach and the last day in the van.

I’ve organized my images in two galleries, the first for the northern areas where we traveled by van, and the second in which we traveled by snow coach. To see my Yellowstone in Winter images from 2011, look here.

Images from the northern road in Yellowstone NP

Images from the snow coach in the southern areas of Yellowstone NP

Every few days I’d go out and photograph one or two specimens as new growths appeared.

I started researching the identification of the species I photographed, but it is slow going. Rather than wait to share these images, I am posting them without further detail, although I intend to add information as I can find it.

Most of the images use flash or LED light to provide adequate light in the deep shadow on the forest floor. I usually photograph each subject with both single capture and multiple focus stacking images. Focus stacking allows the merging of the sharp portions of a capture into a single image. This results in backgrounds to be presented in softer, out of focus rendition. I also capture the subjects using different techniques with the intent of using the images as illustrations in presentations and posts.

Enjoy the images.

The Foothills Parkway runs along the western border just outside the park and has large viewpoint pullouts to safely park a vehicle and look out over the hills in the park. We did this in the morning as the sun came over the hills and lit the valley below. There were no wide-angle views that I liked and stayed mostly with short telephoto views to isolate the trees and compress the hillsides. Another landscape location is the Newfound Gap viewpoint parking lots along the main road through the center of the park. That afternoon, we traveled to Cherokee just outside the southern border of the park. We found elk there, but none of them were very photographic. We also timed our return to be at the Newfound Gap overlook before sunrise, there were a couple of stops along the road and as we arrived with time to spare, we stopped to explore the possibilities at each one.  The leaves had not budded out on the trees at this elevation, and bare trees were everywhere. I used short and long telephoto lenses to compress the hills and isolation interesting segments of the scenery.

There are quite a number of old historical structures in the park. These structures date back to the mid-1800s and are well preserved by the park, with many open to walk through. I can see where photography in these areas is difficult as there are always people in these areas. Normally, this type of photography is not my thing, but I find I am trying more things that I previously didn’t bother with photographing. The hand-of-man gallery contains images where there is an element that is manmade; a structure, fence, or road.

I was extremely pleased with the trip, as I was able to learn about different locations in the park, what conditions to consider before selecting a destination for the day, and the driving times to consider getting around the park. I’ll definitely return to Great Smokey Mountains on my own for a longer stay and to spend more time in the different sites.

 John Slonina was a very capable guide, selecting the destinations based on the conditions, which in this case were mostly cloudless skies, not the best for landscape photography.  He is well organized and was considerate of all the participants needs. He explained our next destination, and what to expect. HE also told stories (photography based) and kept us entertained while we were traveling from one location to another. I’ll definitely consider his other offerings and sign up for a different tour soon.

Our lodging was located in Townsend, TN. There are several lodging choices in this town, and it is located to the northwestern corner of the park near Cades Cove, a popular area of the park for wildlife and historical structure. We made a late afternoon drive through this area on the first day of the trip and saw 14 black bears and cubs. However, due to the unpredictability of wildlife, we had only one sighting during the other four days of our trip. All the wildlife images were made in the Cades Cove area with the exception of the snail which was found on a tree near the river along the road to Tremont. While we occasionally sighted white-tailed deer and turkeys a few times, the opportunities were not great most of the time. That’s nature for you.

Wildflowers were everywhere in the lower elevations, the trees and other vegetation at the higher levels were still bare. Some species, such as the white trillium were past prime and showed a pink coloration. Occasionally, a blossom or two in good condition found their way in front of my lens. Since I was traveling with a group I was conscious not to get too carried away with any particular patch of flowers, although John encouraged me to get the images I wanted and did not rush me.  There were several roadside river locations that had a variety of flowers growing, and several images could be made in a short time. Once in a while I had to rely on flash or small LED lights to provide illumination in the darker areas of the forest.

Rivers ran near many of the roads, and small cascades and waterfall were found in many locations. The ideal weather to photograph these water features is overcast, preferably after a rain. The overcast conditions provide an even lighting and the rain wets the rocks and vegetation darkening their color. The last day was the only one that was cloudy and we had saved the road to Tremont for the last morning. John said that we would have visited this area earlier in the trip if the weather had been better.

Additional images from the Great Smoky Mountain trip are coming in the next post.

After meeting the workshop attendees and leaders at the Quito Marriot we headed off to our first nature lodge, the Guango Lodge in the high cloud forest west of Quito. The accommodations were basic and clean, the food was great, and the photographic opportunities wide ranging.  Macro subjects included insects and amphibians and the birds consisted of mostly hummingbirds with a good opportunity behind one of the buildings to photograph a mountain cacique feeding a chick in a hanging nest. There was plenty of rain, downpours at night with some relief during the days. One day we had a day trip to two waterfalls west of the lodge, stopping at a bridge over a river where torrent ducks are sometimes seen.  We weren’t disappointed.

You may notice that there are many “clown frogs” and “rain frogs”, all of different colors and appearances. Also, the images are organized in the order they were captured.

Our second lodge was WildSumaco Wildlife Sanctuary in the Amazon foothills of the Andes. The lodge was modern, with a large library, lounge, sitting area and large comfortable rooms.  Hummingbirds were abundant, with at least 10 species regularly spotted. The surrounding environment also provided many species of frogs, toads, lizards and insects to photograph.

The third and final stop was at the Tandayapa Lodge in the Western Andes, and east of Quito. On our drive to Tandayapa we passed thought Quito, stopping at the Ciudad Mitad del Mundo, or Middle of the World City, where a French expedition in 1736 to conduct experiments to determine the shape of the earth. This site afforded the scientists a location on the equator which had sufficient altitude for the astronomical observations required. The site is host to several museums, restaurants and shops. The Tandayapa Lodge has many bird feeders attracting hummingbirds on a large patio, and has a covered porch where we set up multiple flash setups and wildlife setups for the lizards, snakes, frogs and toads that Lucas and Frank would collect for us at night to be returned where they found them the next evening. While some of the images appear to be taken at night, they are actually photographed during the day using flash techniques. The booted racket-tails here were like flies, they seemed to be everywhere.

Our stay in Costa Rica starts at the Bougainvillea Hotel near San Jose. The hotel boasts several acres of garden with a variety of macro subjects; plants, flowers, bromeliads, and orchids. A few birds frequent the gardens although the predominant subjects are the flowers and the insects that visit them.

Central Pacific Coast

Our days at the first lodge are divided between river boat trips on the Rio Tarcoles where egrets, herons, kingfishers and other water birds can be found, and the hotel grounds where there are opportunities to photograph iguanas, basilisk lizards, leaf cutter ants, acacia ants, poison dart frogs, and the local birds.  In the evenings, we concentrate on locating and photographing red-eyed tree frogs and golden eyed tree frogs.

South Pacific Coast

Further south along the coast we settled in to our next location with plenty of time for a trip to a nearby beach for sunset photography.  The next day we visited Manuel Antonio National Park to photograph white-faced capuchin and squirrel monkeys, iguanas, and crab-eating raccoons. The park contains a variety or trails and beaches that provide multiple opportunities for wildlife encounters, even though there are a lot of people visiting the park. Our days at the lodge included macro setups of several insects as well as a small land crab.

Pacific Cloud Forest

We leave the coastal area to a significantly different environment at 9,000 feet where oak forests of the Talamanca mountain range, the high cloud forests just on the Pacific side of the Continental Divide, offer chances of finding the Resplendent Quetzal.  Our time is divided between searching for this neotropical bird, and photographing perches set up near bird feeders and at two high speed flash setups for Fiery-throated Hummingbird, Green Violet-ear and Magnificent Hummingbird. One day we had a road trip to the Savegre River to stop at a lodge with known locations of Quetzal nests and hummingbirds. At this location we had two active nests to observe. On one occasion where we are all photographing with 500mm lenses, a male resplendent quetzal flew to a different perch to wait for the female to leave the nest so he could feed the chick. I don’t think anyone else saw where he went and I picked up my tripod and quietly but quickly moved to a better location.  I was so close that to capture the bird with its long tail required that I capture images with the intent of constructing a vertical panorama. On the last morning of our stay here, we set up for some landscape photography at a Jurassic-looking paramo swamp forest near the lodge.

Bougainvillea Hotel

We finished our trip at the Bougainvillea Hotel near San Jose with a farewell dinner.

The day started with heavy overcast as we cruised toward Orne Harbor, where a large glacier is the main feature at the end of the harbor and a large hill of exposed rock is on the south opening to the harbor.  This is the location of the Chinstrap Penguin colony we were scheduled to visit. A few chinstraps were in the water near the shelf of rock that served as a landing area, but there were thousands of penguins along the ridge. The path to the ridge was on the other side of the ridge, which we saw when the ship rounded the point on the way to the afternoon landing area. Oceanites reported 1000 chinstrap penguin chicks on the ridge.

Although these small penguins climb this hill (on the other side) perhaps several times a day, I found I was too unsteady on the climb up the hill to make it worth it and decided to stay near the landing area to photograph penguins in the water and on shore, an Antarctic Tern that stayed in the area, and a few landscape images. The zodiac cruise that followed went deeper into the harbor, up to the glacier at the end.  There was a large amount of brash ice here, and several reports from some of the zodiac drivers of whales flipping their fins near the kayaks and zodiacs.  By the time we arrived in the area it was over.  We did see images of the whales approaching the boats as well as some underwater images of the whales swimming by the boat.  There was a report, and later some shared images in a slide show, of a leopard seal playing with its food, a penguin.  We also cruised to the mouth of the bay, following a humpback whale hoping it would breech or take an interest in us. The vista of huge icebergs and nearby 3,500 foot mountains across the Gerlache Strait was spectacular.

 Our afternoon landing was on Cuverville Island, a rocky island in the Errera Channel between Rongé Island and the Arctowski Peninsula on the Antarctic Peninsula. The island is an important birding area as the large breeding colony of Gentoo Penguins resides here.  It is the largest Gentoo colony on the Antarctic Peninsula, and the Oceanites counters reported approximately 5,000 Gentoo chicks on the southern part of the island.  To my untrained eye, there seemed to be at least as many penguins nesting on the north end of the beach.

The skies were open overcast with patches of blue sky and the temperature here was warm, just above freezing with no wind so our waterproof coats came off to be more comfortable.  The coats are necessary in the zodiac because the speed of the zodiac causes a wind chill that is surprising for the low speeds involved. One the way from the ship to the beach we stopped to examine a relatively small iceberg that had an interesting shape. The icebergs are shaped by environmental forces; air temperature, wind, water currents.  Only ten percent of floating ice is above the surface, and when the center of mass of the iceberg changes due to erosion of the submerged portion, or a large piece breaks off, the iceberg reorients itself revealing a portion that had been submerged and carved by the ocean currents.

Gentoo penguins were everywhere; large colonies at either end of the beach, on the rocky slopes of the hill, and on the ridges high on the hill.  The rocky ridges are the first to show as the summer approaches, and those that make a nest here are able to lay eggs earlier, and the chicks have a greater chance of survival if the weather is severe during the summer months.  Bringing food up to the chicks on the ridge, adults develop trails of compressed snow that are chest deep.  Often there are two parallel paths, one up and one down. There were great opportunities to photograph penguins on the beach and at either end.  Prior to leaving the beach to cruise around the island, the hearty souls in the group took the opportunity to take an Antarctic plunge off the beach. We finished out visit to Cuverville Island with a cruise around the island where a few spectacular icebergs were found.

Day 4 – February 3 – Perterman Island and Vernadsky Station