A common sight along the shorelines of the Galapagos Islands are Sally Lightfoot crabs which can be seen,  in quite large numbers,  clinging to rocks as shown here.    A question that occurs to me is,  "who was Sally Lightfoot?"   Was there actually a Ms Lightfoot?   Was she a naturalist/scientist etc?    Or does this species get it's name from some other source?   Don't know.    If I knew,  and it was an exciting story,  I'd share it with you.     

      Both shots on Pentax SF7 with Tokina 80-400mm zoom,  Kodak ISO 200 colour negative film.

Network invites,  20 questions. 

      From time to time I get invitations to join other's networks which is nice and these invitations come from a variety of people with various interests and backgrounds.   I never simply accept such a request without first checking out the inviter's site to ensure it's of interest and that I'm happy to be associated with it.    I haven't kept any record of how many invites I've declined,  but I think I've probably declined as many,  or more,  than I've accepted,  for a variety of reasons.

So if you're new to this page and are considering a network invite,  it might help to know about some of the things I consider when viewing such invitations.   Before you send an invite,  take the quiz and see how you're likely to score.      A "yes" answer gets or loses you the points indicated.

Do you have a profile picture and blog name?                                           give yourself 2 points.

Do you,  on average,  blog more than 3 times per month?                                       add 2 points.

Do you have a clean, uncluttered site design?                                                  another 2 points.

Do you feature your own original content?                                                              add 6 points.

Is your site largely image driven?                                                                              add 5 points.

Do you have more than 500 people in your network?                                         deduct 2 points.

Does your site display large volumes of glitter graphics?                                    deduct 3 points.

Have you published a photograph upside down on your blog and then left it that way?    deduct 2 points.

Do you display material produced by others without acknowledging their authorship?     deduct 6 points.

In the event that you do display the work of others,  do you provide both an acknowledgement and a link to the original source?    add 6 points.

Do you offer constructive comment on the sites of those with similar interests to yourself?   add 4 points.

Do you spell check and proof read everything you type before entering it onto a blog, guestbook entry, comment, etc?    add 4 points. 

Have you entered the comment  "OMG dude, u r da bomb" on the system within the last month?         deduct 2 points.

Do you hold strong political or religious beliefs?     score neutral (your beliefs are your own business)

Do you feel compelled to impose your political or religious beliefs on others whenever an opportunity arises?     deduct 5 points.

Do you use obscene, insulting or aggressive language in blog entries or comments?     deduct 5 points.

Do you claim to be "Natasha, 25 years of age, a swimsuit model from Russia who loves sex and is looking for a partner living in another country"?   deduct 15 points.

Do you believe that good dental hygiene is important?     add 2 points.

Do your blogging interests extend beyond the spaces.live system?   add 2 points.   

Do you welcome people into your network without regard to their race, religion, age or gender?  add 5 points.

   Possible maximum score 40,   possible minimum score minus 40.     There is no formal pass or fail on this,  logically if you're in the positive that's good,  if you're into the negative chances are you'll be declined.    For those already in my network,  relax,  I'm not applying this retrospectively,  and if I did,  I'd expect you to pass anyway!  (grin)      

Returning to regular programming.

     So as Manic March draws to a close  (I've done about 20 blog entries for the month),  I'll now try and return to my usual blog schedule of Mondays and Fridays.   Thanks KD. 

    I can't help it,  today's picture calls for a speech bubble,  "You think I'm ugly,  have you looked in a mirror lately?"     From the Galapagos Islands folder this is the land iguana, a lighter colour than his marine cousin and quite common throughout the islands,  he can often be seen either basking on rocks or sheltering under a cactus.

          Pentax SF7 with 80-400mm zoom.   Exposure details not recorded.

     Continuing the bird photography theme,  I'm pretty sure these birds are called oystercatchers,  if I'm wrong please let me know.   Photographed in the Galapagos Islands I recall we landed on a nice little beach one afternoon and it proved very nice for swimming and snorkelling but not before I'd done a little exploration with my camera at the ready.  Just back from the beach a short distance was a small lake,  actually lake is overstating it,  try large pond.   Anyway there were one or two of these oystercatchers "beachcombing" the water's edge.  I was able to approach to within about 10 or 15 metres without disturbing them and was able to get some shots with the 80-400mm zoom.  Not sure now but I may also have had a 1.5x teleconverter on as well so a focal length of 600mm.

Getting down low.

     One of the secrets to getting nice shots of birds on the ground like this,  or for that matter swimming as well,  is to get the camera down low,  indeed on the ground if possible.  By doing so you're looking at the bird at eye level,  it gives a more pleasing even intimate picture.    The same advice works for photographing children as well,  try not to photograph a bird or child from a standing position as it gives the impression that you are towering over them,  as indeed you are.   Much better to get down to eye level and enter the subject's world.   Much less intimidating,  the subject can relax more and better pictures tend to result.   In regards to birds,  it also means that you can approach more closely and therefore fill the frame more effectively,  also it means that you can generally isolate the bird against the background a little more too.   Notice,  particularly with the second shot,  the out of focus background which helps keep the attention focused on the bird.

     For these shots I was actually lying on my belly on the sand with the camera lens resting on the sand.   I wasn't using a tripod or monopod,  but by scooping up some of the sand into a small mound I was able to nicely support the lens just 2 or 3 inches above actual ground level.    This means I could concentrate on getting the focusing and composition right and know that camera/lens movement wasn't going to be a big issue.    

       Both shots Pentax SF7 with Tokina 80-400mm zoom on Kodak ISO 200 colour negative film

Grandpa,  "what was film?" 

       As I've already explained,  these shots,  which were taken in the Galapagos Islands in 2005,  were among the last photos I took prior to switching over to digital less than 4 years ago.    I had a good laugh just recently when reading a blog entry where the blogger,  a talented photographer,  felt it necessary to explain to his audience what film was.    Quote;  "Color negative film is like a roll of plastic film on a spool with (a) light-sensitive layer that people put into old photo cameras instead of CF or SD flash-cards."     I think maybe the need for such an explanation is a little premature but it's interesting to think that in a few more years time,  film may indeed be seen as a historic process alongside wet collodion plates,  cyanotypes and so on.    The quote is from Ilya Genkin  at www.genkin.org    Ilya's blog is one I check regularly and features some really nice work.   Recommended.     KD.

       I said at the start of the week that the feathers would be flying,  and so they are in today's first shot.   Taken in the waters of the Galapagos Islands it shows an adult male frigate bird,  with its red throat patch partially inflated,  being harassed in mid air by a group of adolescents.   There are six birds in total in the shot with one of the adolescents pecking at the the adult's bill as they fly.   It's likely that the adult has caught itself a feed,  the others will harass it in this manner in the hope that he will regurgitate the catch.   In the event that he does regurgitate,  it's likely that one of the others will catch the food before it falls to the water.   This behaviour is not unusual for these "pirates of the sky" and the one meal can go from one crop to another repeatedly before finally being digested.    Something to consider next time you feel like complaining about your family's table manners!  

       From the frantic to the serene.   The second shot shows the distinctive silhouette of a heron late in the day as it stalks the shallows.   I like the shot simply for the novelty value.   There was a ripple on the water at the time which, as luck would have it,  meant that the head of the bird was reflected twice,  the shadow is double headed.   I couldn't have planned this and wasn't aware of it at the time,  serendipity.    Both shots were on 35mm colour negative film using the Pentax SF7 and the 80-400mm zoom.     enjoy,  KD.

Both shots Pentax SF7 with Tokina 80-400mm zoom lens,  on Kodak ISO 200 colour negative film.     Exposure details not recorded.

      Today more pelican shots,  this time in flight,  soaring, skimming and flapping.    Someone commented recently that she thought pelicans had "personality" and I tend to agree,  there is something kind of endearing about them,  the long bill,  the round body,  a cartoonist could turn out a great caricature I'm sure.    Very little by way of post processing on these images,  some slight cropping but the colours and contrast are pretty much straight out of the scanner.    Given that the shots were taken with a lens that I now consider to be sub optimal and with an SLR that was "broken"  I'm reasonably pleased with the results.           KD.   

            Pentax SF7 with Tokina 80-400mm lens,  Kodak ISO 200 colour negative film.

           Pentax SF7 with Tokina 80-400mm lens,  Kodak ISO 200 colour negative film.

          Pentax SF7 with Tokina 80-400mm lens,  Kodak ISO 200 colour negative film.

Banners.

      Not visible on the RSS feed but on the regular blog,  I show a banner image at the top of the page,  expect to see one of the above images adapted for banner display in the near future.  I try and change the banner from time to time just for interest sake,  and clicking on the banner will link you through to my main site should you wish to explore further.  

Blog schedule.

       After a slow February (slow for blogging that is,  I was just too busy with other stuff!)  I've gone into overdrive this month,  it's turned into "Maniac March".   Once I get through the current backlog,  I'll endeavour to get back to a more normal scheduling.

     More from the Galapagos Islands series,  this time going with a more stylised look.    Similar to a shot I presented last week,  the frigate bird is essentially black and white in colouring anyway so the choice to go monochrome was an easy one.    As regular  readers know by now the toned effect is a favourite of mine.    The second shot is a true silhouette,  with strong backlighting,  the dynamic range of the image is too great to get both pleasing highlights and shadow detail so the choice needs to be made.   In this case retaining the background and allowing the cormorant to go completely dark.    In order for a silhouette to work well the subject needs to have a strong identifiable shape to it.   The cormorant is recognisable purely by its shape.  

     Both shots,  Pentax SF7 with 80-400mm zoom lens,  Kodak ISO 200 colour negative film.

      Continuing the feathered theme,  this time a pelican in silhouette.    This shot is uncropped and has had very little digital processing done to it,  the scene is very much as I saw it at the time.    I like the simplicity of the image and the graphical quality of it.    Going through some of my shots,  I'm tending towards a more graphic interpretation of some of the images.    Some upcoming posts may feature images that may polarise readers/viewers,  it could be interesting to see how people react.  

       Pentax SF7 with Tokina 80-400mm lens,  Kodak ISO 200 colour negative film.

     With the mangroves in the background and water below,  this pelican found a convenient place to perch.   (From the Galapagos Islands series)

       Pentax SF7 with Tokina 80-400mm zoom, Kodak ISO 200 colour negative film.

     Continuing to look back through some of my Galapagos Islands shots.   Having gone through most of my medium format negatives,  I'm now reviewing the 35mm negs and,  looking at my upcoming posts,  the feathers will be flying!   Lots of bird photography coming your way,  so if for some strange reason you hate pelicans and the like,  tune out now and come back in about a weeks time!    

      To start off with,   I was watching and photographing this pelican which was close to the shoreline as it swam around fishing.   This is one of several shots I took of him/her,  this one just after he'd caught a fish and had lifted his head up from the water leaving a trail of water droplets which have been caught in mid air in the picture.   I haven't recorded the exposure details,  but given that this was late in the day and with telephoto zoom the shutter speed would have been reasonably fast probably 1/500 second.   The reflection in the background is of the shoreline rocks and vegetation,  I was at the end of a small jetty when I took the shot. 

        Pentax SF7 35mm SLR with Tokina 80-400mm zoom lens and Kodak 200 ISO colour negative film.

RSS feeds

      At risk of sounding like a broken record,  I think RSS feeds are great and encourage others to subscribe to them.   One of my spaces.live friends,  whom I'd been prompting towards RSS feeds,  asked,  "how do I do it?"   This system isn't as intuitive as it could be in some ways,  so for those who have been meaning to make their space available as a feed but haven't figured out how,  try the following....  

     Go to your profile page then,  Options/more options/spaces/general options/   there you'll find,  "Syndicate this space",  check the box and save.    Once your space is "syndicated" it's available via RSS feed to whomever wishes to subscribe,  easy,  nothing further to do.        cheers KD

     Most of the posts this coming week will relate to bird photography but before I get to that,  I wanted to post this particular image.   It was taken very near to where the upcoming pelican shots were taken but is very different.   Personally it's an image that appeals to me,  high key,  simple,  realistic but almost abstracted as well.   I've mentioned before that one of the things I think about when taking pictures is the desire to simplify the image as much as possible.  This was an occasion and subject that lent itself to that approach and allowed me to get a fairly "graphic" image.     I even felt inspired to go green with the signature brush!       enjoy,  KD. 

      Pentax SF7 with Tokina 80-400mm lens,  Kodak 200 ISO colour negative film.  

    Another shot from my Galapagos Islands trip.    Notice the volcanic rock formation at the end of the short spit right of centre frame,  it's the same formation as in the second picture from my last posting,  only from a different perspective.    We spent a couple of hours swimming and snorkelling in a small bay just beyond that formation.    It was there that,  whilst admiring the many fish species present,  a marine iguana swam by just out of arm's reach of me (see earlier posting).   Also whilst there we observed some penguins sitting on the rocks near the water's edge,  difficult to get a good photo of them with their predominantly black colouring against the black rocks.    They are just one of the numerous natural curiosities of the islands.   When we think of penguins,  we normally think of Antarctica and the islands and shorelines on the Southern Ocean,  Southern Australia,  New Zealand, the southern tips of Africa and South America.   But the Galapagos are on the equator.         

     Bartolome Island.    Mamiya 7 mk 2 with 80mm lens.   Kodak 160NC film.

Tui De Roy.

      Whilst putting this blog entry together,  I paused at one stage to check some facts before committing them to type.   In doing so I referred back to a book about the Galapagos which I have and became immersed in it.   An hour later I remembered I still had the blog entry part completed on the computer screen and so went back to finish it.   The book is entitled  "Galapagos, islands born of fire" and is by Tui De Roy.   She lived for about 30 years on the islands becoming fascinated with the nature around her and with photography as a means of documenting it,  the result is that she has become widely published and admired for her work.   Her pictures are superlative.  If you are looking for a photography based book about the islands it's worth searching her name through amazon.com or similar.     Recommended reading.   

Tagging blog entries.

     The observant among you may have noticed that I've recently been experimenting with tags to my blog entries.   If anyone has any pointers or thoughts about this,  I'd love to hear from you.    It would be neat if I could index blog entries by tags so people could find what they're interested in,  in the archives,  not sure that it's possible with this system.   

cheers KD.

    A couple of shots here taken in the Galapagos Islands,  different,  but both revealing the volcanic origins of the islands.    Whilst some of the islands are well vegetated, others are fairly barren as shown here.   Many of the islands have restrictions on where you can and can't walk given the delicate nature of the landscape and the flora and fauna present.  The locals are aware of the need to carefully manage these fragile areas and tourists are accompanied by National Parks guides throughout.     

Mamiya 7 mk 2 with 43mm lens, Kodak 160NC film.

Mamiya 7 mk 2 with 80mm lens,  Kodak 160NC film.

Wide angle lenses. 

     The shot on the left was taken using the 43mm lens which on a 6x7 format camera gives an angle of view equivalent to a 21mm lens on a full frame 35 mm camera,  so,  wide angle,  getting into ultra wide angle,  lens.    I find that lenses of this focal length can be really pleasing to use and can give some good effects.    When most people think of wide angle lenses they think of broad coverage and the ability to look at a sweeping scene and "get it all in".    Certainly they can do that,  but they also have some other characteristics that I think are equally important.    Firstly,  there is the perspective they give where objects that are close to the lens are shown large,  whereas objects that are further away appear smaller.   If you look at the grasses in the foreground (closest to the lens) and then the grasses that are further from the lens you can see that perspective effect at work.   The second characteristic of the wide angle lens is its great depth of field, particularly of course if the lens is stopped down.   The immediate foreground of the shot is probably only 1 1/2 to 2 metres from my feet whilst the ridge line in the background is probably about 40 to 50 metres away,  yet it is all acceptably sharp,  the depth of field is sufficient to get it all.   The combination of this perspective effect and great depth of field means that such images can have an excellent sense of depth or 3 dimensionality to them.   Hopefully the viewer has the feeling of not just looking "at" the photograph but looking "into" the photograph.

     What this means in practice is that whenever I encounter an opportunity such as this I'm always looking for interesting foreground material and I don't think twice about going to vertical format either.   In this instance it's the detail of the clumps of grass and the way they contrast against the reddish sandy soil that prompted the photograph.    ....KD

    Continuing on with my frigate bird shots.   As I mentioned previously they are remarkable fliers and seem to glide through the air effortlessly.  Today's shot was originally taken on colour negative film and was manually focused given the broken auto focus system which I explained in an earlier posting.   Lens quality has improved since this lens was produced (late 1980s) and the image is a little "soft" compared to what I would now expect with digital.   I decided to go with the monochrome effect and very slightly accentuate the "wash" effect of the sky background.  

        Pentax SF7 with Tokina 80-400mm zoom exposure details not recorded.

    Today's image was taken in Guatemala near Flores and depicts a single white egret at the water's edge.   Originally shot on 6x7 colour negative film,  I decided to crop the image down, leaving out some featureless water in the foreground and also some of the vegetation at the top of the frame.  I think the panoramic format follows the horizontal lines in the image,  the line of the water's edge,  the line of the reeds and the line of the longer grasses behind them.    In most images,  particularly monochrome,  the eye is drawn to the brightest or highest contrast element in the scene,  in this case the egret.    If by chance your eye isn't immediately drawn to the egret,  then the bright thin tree trunk in the background acts as a pointer to lead you there.    

     I didn't record the camera settings used but believe I used the 150mm lens in this case,  the angle of view being equivalent to a 72 mm lens on a full frame 35mm camera,  so short telephoto.   The image was taken from a slow moving boat so shutter speed would have been about 1/250 second to overcome camera movement.    

         Mamiya 7 mk 2 with 150mm lens on Kodak 160VC colour negative film.

Digital cameras, choice of brand and model.

       Following up from my last blog entry,  where I described when and why I switched from film to digital cameras,  today I continue the story as to what choices I made when going digital.   

        From time to time people ask "what camera do you use?"     Well the simplest way to figure this out is to read the captions that I provide under the blog images.   Another question may be why one brand or model rather than a competing brand or model?    This is the subject of so many posts in blogs and camera site forums that it's amazing,  and often quite silly too.    People seem to associate themselves with a brand or identify with a brand and become quite defensive about their choice.  Some of the resulting debates boil down to childish  "my camera's better than yours',  "no it's not",  "yes it is too" nonsense.  A bit like when I was 8 years old and in the schoolyard arguing with my mates "my football team's better than yours",  but at least back then there was no question that I was right!   (Still am....go tigers!)     

        With the advance of digital photography there were two companies that really stood out when I was deciding,  Canon and Nikon.    Canon at that time were the leader in terms of market share for what that's worth,  but I'd had no previous experience with using either brand.    In my film days I'd used Pentax 35mm gear and Mamiya medium format gear but neither of these companies had a suitable digital offering at that time.    In the years that followed both these companies and others,  notably Sony,  would introduce interesting digital products.

       So I went with Canon.   Why Canon and not Nikon?    I always believed that I would ultimately go for a full frame sensor DSLR.    The full frame sensor would offer inherently better image quality over a reduced frame sensor.    Megapixel counts would increase with each new model but physics dictates that if those pixel sites are made smaller and smaller and crammed closer together then the problem of interference arises.   This interference becomes apparent in the image file as "noise" or distortion at the fine detail level of the image.    People get obsessive about megapixel counts,  more pixels means better image,  right?    Well not necessarily.   Take two cameras each of say 10 megapixels.   They should produce the same quality of image when printed up to a reasonable sized print,  right?    Well if one camera has its 10 megapixels spread out over a full frame and the other has its 10 megapixels crammed onto a reduced frame sensor,  then the first one will perform better.  Why?   Because the same amount of information (signal) is being gathered,  but in the reduced frame sensor there is more interference or "noise".     This signal to noise ratio impacts on image quality,  becoming particularly apparent in high ISO images.

        So back to the earlier question why Canon and not Nikon?    Both companies have really good reputations for build quality and performance and produce excellent lenses too.   However at the time of my moving to digital,  only Canon offered a full frame sensor camera,  the 1DS mark2.   Nikon had no full frame sensor available and there was no indication of them having one available in the, then, foreseeable future.  Indeed,  they appeared to be committed to reduced frame DSLRs.    Did I get the 1DS mark 2?   No.   It was just too expensive for me to justify so,  after all the research I did about the significance of sensor size,  I did buy a reduced frame SLR,  the Canon 20D.   As I developed my kit of digital gear I was intent on ignoring reduced frame lenses and only went for full frame lenses believing that I ultimately would purchase a full frame camera.    With the rapid advances in camera technology that were occurring,  and with Canon pursuing the full frame concept,  it was logical that their next move would be the introduction of a more affordable full frame 35mm DSLR.   The Canon 5D was that camera and for me it ticked most of the boxes.    I now use both the 20D and the 5D.

The same decision today?  

        If I was starting out in digital today,  I think the decision could be tougher.   Nikon have now produced their own full frame camera and the technology has moved forward even further.   The decision today,  if starting out from scratch would be based as much on the choice of lenses available as the cameras themselves.  Each company produces great lenses one of which is Nikon's 200-400mm zoom which has an excellent reputation and would be a great choice for wildlife and safari use.    In addition to the "big 2",  Sony have now entered the market with a vengeance and would also be considered.

        Comments welcome,  but be warned,  any comment containing the phrase "my camera's better than yours" will be ignored.   Oh,  and my football team IS better than yours,  so don't try that one on either (chuckle).       KD.

    My Latin America trip in 2005 took me through the Yucatan Peninsula region of Mexico,  Guatemala,  Belize and on to the Galapagos Islands.   Travelling into the Galapagos necessitated going through Quito,  I stayed in the Ecuadorian capital for a couple of nights before the flight into the islands.   Whilst there I took a wander around the centre of the city during the evening using the Mamiya medium format camera to capture a few images.   Being in low light and using 400 ISO film meant that I was using slow shutter speeds 1/4 second to 1 second being typical.   In the first shot the camera was mounted on a tripod,  you can see the effect of the slow shutter speed on the moving people who are recorded as a blur,  an effect I kind of like.

    The second shot,  if memory serves me correctly,  was at 1/4 second and was hand held.  The wide angle lens has given some distortion to elements of the building which I've only partially succeeded in overcoming in post processing.   As a rule of thumb a shutter speed of at least 1/30 second would have been required to give a reasonable result with the lens used.  As it was I braced myself,  and the camera,  against a nearby railing,  held my breath and squeezed the shutter button as smoothly as I could to get the desired result.  The use of the tripod at that location at that time wasn't practical.     

          Mamiya 7 mk 2 with 43mm lens,  Fuji NPH 400 film.

          Mamiya 7 mk 2 with 43mm lens,  Fuji NPH 400 film.

From film to digital.

        This trip was the last trip I did where my photography was film based.   I carried the Mamiya medium format rangefinder camera and three lenses and shot 6x7 colour negative film.   I also carried the Pentax SF7 with 2 lenses,  a 28-80 mm zoom and an 80-400mm zoom.     I had resisted the move to digital to that point for a couple of reasons.  Firstly,  I had made quite an investment over the years in film based photographic gear and secondly,  at the time I wasn't convinced that digital offered any compelling advantage over film.

         It was on this trip that the decision to change was effectively made for me.    In all the years of travelling,  I'd never been threatened with violence nor had anything stolen from me.    It was whilst in Mexico one evening,  in a small town where "nothing much ever happens",  that I was taking the short walk from a restaurant to my lodgings accompanied by a fellow traveller,  when 2 shadowy figures emerged from the darkness and attempted to steal our belongings.    I was carrying the SF7, with the 28-80 zoom attached, slung over my shoulder and one of the men grabbed the camera and tried to run off with it.   I reacted by holding onto the camera strap and a tug of war then ensued over the camera.   Being just a little bit aggravated (understatement) I threw a punch at the would be thief who then let go of the camera and ran off into the night empty handed.   Unfortunately whilst this drama was playing out,  the second offender succeeded in stealing my companion's handbag containing her passport, cash and god knows what else.   No one was hurt.

         In the course of the struggle,  my camera hit the ground smashing the lens and ruining the auto focus capability of the camera as well.   All this and I'm days away from visiting the fabled Galapagos!   

         As a result,  my photography was restricted to using the rangefinder camera and the SF7 manually focused with the 80-400.   I'd intended using the rangefinder as a "landscape" camera but as it turned out also used it for closeup wildlife subjects and general subjects as well.

        They say every dark cloud has a silver lining?   Well the silver lining in this case was that it pretty well compelled me to update my gear and this meant going digital.   By the time I started in digital,  the technology had progressed to the point where it not only rivalled film quality but clearly exceeded it.  It has meant punishing my credit card at times to acquire the necessary equipment,  but I don't look back to my film days with any regrets.      ......KD     

      Galapagos Islands:    pictured in the Galapagos Islands,  the blue footed booby is one of several species of seabirds that quite happily lay and hatch their eggs on the bare ground.   This is partly because on some of the islands there aren't many trees to use and also because there are few predators.    These birds could be approached to within a couple of metres and had no fear of humans.  They have never been subjected to hunting and as a result don't perceive humans as a threat.   

      The photographic techniques involved were fairly straight forward here,  a carefully handheld camera,  a short telephoto and shutter speed sufficient to overcome camera shake.    The only issue is the harsh lighting,  unfortunately taken middle of the day in bright conditions means that the images required careful post processing to get the maximum available shadow detail.     

           Both shots taken with the Mamiya 7 mk 2 rangefinder with 150mm lens (35mm equivalent approx 72mm) Fuji NPH 400 colour negative film.

Blog tags. 

          Following on from my recent comments about internet searching and how people come to the site,  I realised that Windows Live Writer has a facility for adding Technorati tags to entries.   So I figure, why not?   I'd like to be able to provide a subject based or tag based archive index as well,  some blogging systems allow for that but I'm not currently aware of that being available with this system.  If anyone's got any ideas on this,  please let me know.    cheers KD.

     One of the places I visited in 2005 during my visit to the Yucatan Peninsula was Isla Contoy near Cancun.   Cancun unfortunately is an overdeveloped beach resort which I have no desire to revisit,  however the nearby Isla Contoy is a national park with seabird rookeries and worthwhile.    Among the seabirds there were nesting frigatebirds.    These birds are quite impressive,  some of these shots were taken on the island and others were taken a little latter in the Galapagos,  but same species.   The chicks start out fluffy and white before taking on their darker adult plumage.   The adult males develop a spectacular red throat pouch which they inflate during the mating season to attract the female.

     In addition to this they are remarkable flyers,  with long thin wings,  they effortlessly fly over huge expanses of ocean searching for food,  often stealing it in mid air from other birds.   They are sometimes referred to as the pirates of seabirds.  

              Frigate bird chick on nest.

             Immature Frigate bird.

             Male Frigate bird displaying.

             Male Frigate bird displaying.

For more info about Isla Contoy try   http://www.islacontoy.org/     The narration is in Spanish but there's a neat little film clip to check out.

For more info about frigate birds there's a nice page at http://people.rit.edu/rhrsbi/GalapagosPages/Frigatebirds.html

    A couple of dudes hanging out at the beach!   There are two different species of iguanas found in the Galapagos Islands,  the land iguanas and the marine iguanas pictured here.   These fellows really do look like something out of a "B" grade movie....SONS OF GODZILLA!!!   a terrifying spectacle coming to a beach near you!!!  (feel free to use you own scary "voice over" voice,  deep and gravelly if you can)    They are actually pretty harmless and as the name suggests they spend a fair bit of time in the water.   One of the things to do in the Galapagos is snorkelling.   I was doing some snorkelling one day,  admiring the various fish and wishing I had an underwater camera,  when one of these marine iguanas casually swam past me quite close.  I tried to keep up with him but,  even with flippers on,  it was futile,  they are faster than you might imagine.   

    Fairly harsh light meant a bit of work was required in post processing to retain some shadow detail.

         Original image shot with Mamiya 7 mk 2 and 80mm lens,  Fuji NPH 400 colour negative film.

Website visitors.

        If you're like me,  you wonder from time to time about where visitors to your site come from and how did they get here.   With this in mind, I periodically check the visitor statistics,  last time I checked it was up over 11,000 visits since I started the blog,  which I think was about 18 or 20 months ago.   Whilst I'm not sure I quite believe the numbers,  it is interesting to see where the traffic comes from.    Obviously a large proportion comes from the spaces.live community,  particularly return visits by people in my network.   But also people arrive via search engines and in particular,  I find,  from Google searches and Google image searches.  

        So of all the pictures I've posted,  which have resulted in the greatest number of visits via searches?    Surprising to me,  about 90% of all such visits can be attributed to just 2 images.    Here they are:    "Cairo window display"  from the Egypt folder and "Cute monkey" from the Nepal folder.    Why?   Well in the case of the first image such search terms as "window display" and "dressed manikins" keep coming up whilst I guess a lot of people search for photos of "cute monkeys".   

        For what it's worth,  I personally am quite pleased with the window display image and consider it to be one of my good images.   As I said in the original blog entry for it,  I like the leading lines, the colours,  the juxtaposition between the neat store dummies and the crumpled looking man on the chair and so on.   As for the second image,  I don't consider it to be among my better shots.   Yep,  the monkey as the title suggests is cute alright,  but it's "just a photo" in my opinion.   

      It raises the issues of how effective and fair are search engines,  and what do people actually want from the Internet.  I was amused to read a blog entry from a respected travel photographer recently where he pondered if including the phrase, "Keira Knightly upskirt photos",  despite being irrelevant to his blog,  might be picked up by a search engine and draw traffic to his site.   It just might,  but of course,  his new "readers" are likely to leave disappointed (chuckle).    I'm sometimes left scratching my head at search engine results,  I still remember searching for "Microsoft"  years ago only to be directed to "i'vegotabigXXXXX.com" (actual name altered to be discrete),  I kid you not.      

      Further,  I sometimes wonder if what I want to show or discuss are in tune with what people actually want to see or hear.    Do my wishes and expectations match those of my readership?    It can be surprising at times to see what people do and don't respond to.    Some images and blog entries that I present and think are really worthwhile sometimes draw little response,  whilst others that I mightn't think are that notable,  draw a greater response.   Such is life....such is blogging!          

This site is G rated.

     Among my friends and visitors are all sorts of people with different interests,  different backgrounds,  different nationalities and many age groups.    They are all welcome.   I hate moderating comments on the site but recently did so with a comment I felt was flying close to the wind so to speak.    Fortunately this is a very rare occurrence and I'd like to keep it that way.    Also it can happen that people's motives are sometimes questioned,  sometimes unfairly.    For any of my readers under 18 years of age,  please invite your parents to have a look at my site.  Enough said. 

Blogging schedule.

     Having dragged my heels on posting just recently,  it is my intention to post a little more frequently over the next couple of weeks to catch up before settling back into a more predictable schedule.    As always,  comments, questions and suggestions welcome.    Want more content?   check out my main site at www.kevindowie.com 

cheers KD.

    Looking back again to my Latin America trip of 2005,  this shot was taken in a small town in Guatemala and gives perhaps a different take on the "graveyard around a church" theme.   You can see that the church would once have been an imposing structure but now is a ruin,  the interior and roof having been destroyed many years ago by fire leaving just the stone shell.   The graveyard too is simple,  no grand tombstones just simple wooden crosses.

       Mamiya 7 mk 2 with 43mm lens (21mm 35mm equiv)  Fuji NHP 400 colour negative film. 

      Following on from my last blog entry,  I thought I'd further explore the possibilities of monochrome processing this time using a photo I shot in Guatemala back in 2005.   The beautiful Lake Atitilan has several volcanoes nearby one of which is visible in the background here.    Originally shot on medium format film,  it was scanned into the computer and then processed in Photoshop CS3.    I decided to go with a monochrome treatment and use a toning as well.    This is similar to the treatment I used to pleasing effect on some of my lion photos from my Tanzania trip.   (try:  http://www.kevindowie.com/image%20galleries.html)    

      I suspect today's image might polarize readers between those that love the effect and those that think it's too much.   To remind you of what the location looks like in colour,  here's another entry from the blog archive:   http://krdowie.spaces.live.com/blog/cns!D8448019331ED62E!799.entry   

         original image on Mamiya 7 mk2 rangefinder camera,  Fuji NPH 400 colour negative film.  Exposure details not recorded.

Welcome to new friends.

      I've recently had several new people join my friend's list and so extend my welcome to them.   There are now 95 folks in my network,  closing in on the 100 mark,  not that that's a priority.   I'm more interested in quality than quantity.   For those that are new here,  you can find more of my stuff at my "main" site at www.kevindowie.com or simply click on my spaces.live banner for the link.

RSS feeds.

      This might also be an opportune time to remind everyone about the value of RSS feeds.   If you haven't already signed up for my RSS feed,  please do so.   Just go to the "Tools" drop down menu to subscribe.   I'm finding it's a great way to keep up to date not only with the efforts of my spaces.live.com network friends,  but with other blog sources as well.   One particular blogger,  whom I regard very highly,  is a little erratic in his blogging schedule,  sometimes posting entries 4 or 5 times a week and then going quiet for 3 or 4 weeks at a time.   I would previously go to his site every couple of days,  often fruitlessly.    Now I know via the feed whenever he's updated,  it saves me time and frustration.    cheers KD.