Uploads from haelio, with geodata

To the citadel

nobody@flickr.com (haelio) — Tue, 14 May 2013 04:35:50 -0700

haelio posted a photo:

Sighiṣoara is a town in central Romania with a colourful past. Its strategic location, which had been used by the Romans in ancient times, is one of several used as garrisons in the region. Initially a border town the King of Hungary had built up for strategic reasons, the town soon flourished and now is one of the best kept middle age towns I've been to on my travels.

One of the town's most arresting views is that of the Clock Tower as you climb up to the citadel through one of its southern entrances.

This photo took some work. It's a 3 frame panorama shot in landscape, but each of those 3 shots are made of several more so that I could remove the people walking up and down the pathway. What has resulted is a tourist attraction without tourists :)

Canon EOS 5D Mark II with Canon EF 17-40mm f/4L

Golden Gate

nobody@flickr.com (haelio) — Sun, 12 May 2013 05:46:10 -0700

haelio posted a photo:

After a long day at work, I head out into rush hour hoping to make the trip from Mountain View to the Golden Gate in time for dusk. It was a long, hot and noisy drive, but this only added to the sense of peace, cool and quiet when overlooking the bridge here.

The shadow on the water is cast by the bridge's lights shadowing itself and the strange colours in the clouds are from the city. The shutter was left open for several seconds which leaves these clouds looking like a gentle brushstrokes.

Canon EOS 5D Mark II with Samyang 14mm f/2.8

Scicli at dusk

nobody@flickr.com (haelio) — Fri, 10 May 2013 05:09:52 -0700

haelio posted a photo:

The town of Scicli in Southern Sicily has had quite a colourful past. From it's bronze age beginnings with the Sicels it was conquered by the Arabs, the Normans until becoming a part of the Kingdon of Sicily. Following that era, the town came under the control of the Spanish before finally becoming a part of the Kingdom of Italy.

The most interesting fact, however, was that in the earthquake of 1693 which devastated large swathes of Eastern Sicily, the entire town was rebuilt in a unique baroque style currently referred to as Sicilian Baroque.

Our party got to the town hoping to view it as the sun set without knowing the city well at all. While driving in, we looked at topo maps and photos taken by others but couldn't determine a good spot. Finally on arriving we spotted a hill that overlooked the town from the South and we set of to climb it. Despite difficulties driving the narrow streets and finding that the hill was actually privately owned and closed off we managed to find this spot from where we could view the town at Dusk.

This is how I spent the evening of my birthday in 2013 :)

Canon EOS 5D Mark II with Canon EF 17-40 f/4L

Alpha male

nobody@flickr.com (haelio) — Thu, 09 May 2013 03:41:04 -0700

haelio posted a photo:

We spent the majority of the chilly South African morning hearing this alpha-male roaring several miles away. After a quick breakfast we head out in search of him using his roars as a guide.

It's a chilling experience to be within 10m of one of these powerful animals. You get a better sense for just how large they are and when their eyes catch yours, the open jeep you're in doesn't seem to offer much in the way of protection.

Canon EOS 5D Mark II with Canon EF 70-200 f/4L IS

My favourite nuclear explosion

nobody@flickr.com (haelio) — Fri, 12 Apr 2013 04:45:01 -0700

haelio posted a photo:

Although a simplification, our sun is pretty much a massive fusion bomb that is so huge that its gravitational force keeps it from exploding fully outwards. This in turn means that the explosion continues on and on as it has for the past several billion years.

Anyway on this particular day my favourite nuclear explosion happened to set onto the calm Pacific Ocean as I watched it from the north side of the Golden Gate in San Francisco. Although the iconic bridge was behind me glowing in evening light, I found this angle with Bonita Cove in the midground, more interesting.

Sony RX100

Malostranská

nobody@flickr.com (haelio) — Wed, 10 Apr 2013 06:52:40 -0700

haelio posted a photo:

There wasn't much of a light at the end of this tunnel in the Prague underground. Luckily things were far prettier up on the surface.

The Prague metro is the most used underground rail network in the world on a per capita basis. It wasn't being used all that much when this picture was taken though.

Canon EOS 5D Mark II with Canon EF 24-105 f/4L IS

The Elusive Lady

nobody@flickr.com (haelio) — Tue, 26 Mar 2013 05:21:03 -0700

haelio posted a photo:

Hunting the Northern Lights is probably the most fun I've had trying to get a photo.

After hours of driving to find not only a clear sky but an interesting and sufficiently lit foreground, we found ourselves in the beautiful Lyngen Alps. We got out and braved temperatures well below -10C while looking up at the sky waiting for outer space to feel like showing off.

And then, just as the moon sank behind the highest of the mountains across the Lyngenfjord we spotted something looking like a pale cloud on the horizon. Moving in ways that made it clear that this was no cloud, the pulsing light brightened until vague colours could be made out from the darkness amid the stars. With the crescendo of colour the motion became more pronounced as it stretched all the way from the setting moon in the west to the darker horizon to the east.

Although the motion of the aurora became more energetic, it always remained graceful and dancelike: from green to purple, waving to shimmering and diaphanous to refulgent. Gazing up at the display, it was hard to believe that this was not something carefully choreographed.

Seeing -- let alone successfully photographing -- the aurora is a test of patience, endurance and determination. I guess this is why some people call it 'the elusive lady'. Is it worth it? Well we're already planning another trip...

In this photo, the brightest light just to the left of the aurora is Jupiter, and the Pleiades star cluster is visible just to the great planet's right. If you search around on the large size, you'll also see Orion's belt and other easily identified constellations. Even without the Northern Lights, the starscape was utterly breathtaking.

This photo is a composite of 3 frames show vertically at the widest setting on my widest lens. Correspondingly, the top of the frame is nearly directly overhead.

Canon EOS 5D Mark II with Canon EF 17-40 f/4L IS

Atop his cardboard stage

nobody@flickr.com (haelio) — Sun, 03 Feb 2013 04:01:59 -0800

haelio posted a photo:

Among the throngs of people milling about, donkeys pulling carts, motorcycles whizzing about and all around the shout of people bargaining, the clinging of cutlery, the toots of horns and distant rumbles of thunder this old man peacefully set up his stage.

He silently pulled out his musical instrument and lit his lantern. Light spread into a flickering and wobbling puddle separating him from the bustle of the medina. Atop his cardboard stage he began playing.

There's a lot to see in Marrakech, Morrocco especially after the sun sets. Wander about with a good prime lens and with some steady hands and patience there is a lot to photograph.

Canon EOS 5D Mark II with Sigma 50mm f/1.4 EX DG HSM

Observatory park

nobody@flickr.com (haelio) — Wed, 16 Jan 2013 04:17:52 -0800

haelio posted a photo:

A lovely spot to read in downtown Sydney: overlooking Darling Harbour, under a tree and still warmed by the sun.

Canon EOS 5D Mark II with Canon EF 24-105mm f/4L IS

McWay Falls

nobody@flickr.com (haelio) — Mon, 05 Nov 2012 04:33:56 -0800

haelio posted a photo:

Driving south from San Francisco along the California 1 highway is quite an exhilirating journey. After a few hours the road hugs the dramatic coastline as it heads to the Big Sur. There are many parks in this area, and this photo ws taken in the Julia Pfeiffer Burns State Park. The image is of McWay Cove which has an unusual waterfall (surprisingly called McWay Falls) which drops 25m off a cliff to land on the beach.

The falls are unusual in that they land on a sandy beach, but this wasn't always the case. It used to fall directly into the sea until a landslide filled up the cove resulting in the beach you see today.

(Panorama of 9 horizontal images shot in a 3x3 grid)

Sony RX100

Note: I'm changing the way I upload photos! Thus far I've been uploading images in chronological order and have got as far as my trip to Iceland in mid-2009. Since then I've been to many interesting places across 4 continents and I want to try something different. From now on I'll be posting things randomly. If a photo takes my fancy, I'll upload it immediately instead of adding it to a queue.

Since Iceland, I've learnt several different techniques and developed many others. I've also taken to restricting myself to my new point and shoot camera (the excellent Sony RX100 that was used in this image) to see what the added restrictions result in. I hope you like the changes and are looking forward to photos from South Africa, the USA, Morocco, Australia, Croatia, Corsica and many other places!

Extraterrestrial

nobody@flickr.com (haelio) — Sat, 22 Sep 2012 06:37:52 -0700

haelio posted a photo:

Of all the places I've been, Iceland is the most alien. From a complete lack of night to going for days without seeing a single tree to seeing smoking volcanoes enshrouded by gigantic slabs of ice, I've never felt like I was on another planet as I did during the nine days we spent there.

This photo was taken on the second-last and longest day of the trip. The previous morning at around 8am we began the four-hour drive to Landmannalaugar from Vík. Due to ice-blocked roads we needed to take the fractionally longer westerly route that traversed the Mydralsjokull glacier. After the drive and hiking for several hours, we decided to climb to the highest point in the region, a 600m ascent. Deceived by the nightless day, we began the ascent at nearly 9pm. After getting back down at 1am and a quick dip in a natural hot pool to soothe aching muscles and bruises, we began the drive home.

A short distance out on the dirt roads before the highway we spotted the following scene and had to stop to explore further. Dawn lasts for several hours when the sun rises at 2am, and this photo taken around 40 minutes after sunrise still has dawn's colours in the clouds and the morning mist clinging to the ground. If someone told you that this was taken on another planet, would you believe them?

This was how our last day in Iceland began!

Canon EOS 5D Mark II with Canon EF 70-200mm f/4LIS

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Impermanence

nobody@flickr.com (haelio) — Fri, 13 Jul 2012 04:00:44 -0700

haelio posted a photo:

Walking along the endless basalt beaches of Southern Iceland with the expansive Atlantic ocean to one side and towering cliffs to the other, you'd be forgiven for thinking that the chilly windswept scene had always existed. You'd be surprised!

Ten million years ago what would eventually coalesce into these basalt cliffs was belched out of the bowels of the earth in raging rivers of liquid fire. This violent birth ended several billion years of darkness within the Earth with a first glimpse of the sun. Over the next several million years the wind, ice and rain carved the newborn rock into the craggy cliffs, smoking volcanoes, riven fjords, lonesome boulders and cloud-shrouded peaks of Iceland.

Unsatisfied with their creation, these relentless sculptors continued to chip away at the rock. The rivers smoothed out pebbles, the glaciers ground out moraine and the wind scratched for manny millenia until all that was left was the innumerable grains of black sand on this beach. In this form they will soak up their last rays of sunshine before disappearing beneath the waves and sinking to the dark depths of the Atlantic.

Their story will not end there though. The Atlantic itself is young and changing. Formed around 100 million years ago when two continental plates began moving apart it has been expanding ever since. It is likely that at some point in the distant future that our fragments of rock will once again be swallowed by the earth, and then even further in the future, be spat back out onto the surface somewhere far away from Iceland into an unrecognizable world.

Although seemingly eternal when compared to our short lifespans, the cliffs, the mountains and the oceans are all constantly changing and being reinvented. Everything is impermanent.

Canon EOS 5D Mark II with Canon EF 17-40mm f/4L IS

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Reynisdrangar

nobody@flickr.com (haelio) — Fri, 29 Jun 2012 04:20:55 -0700

haelio posted a photo:

Just off the coast from Vík are three basalt sea stacks called Reynisdrangar. According to local stories, two trolls were trying to haul a damaged ship to shore when the sun rose, turning them to stone.

Today the stacks are home to many sea birds which can be seen flying around them in droves. Unfortunately you need to view the photo quite large to see them as they are rather small, apart from the gull that kindly floated past me as I was waiting for the right moment to complete the capture.

This photo was taken at the edge of the cliff looking down at the shoreline around 170m below. It is a panorama made up of two frames shot ultrawide, one essentially pointing straight down and the other pointing at around 45 degrees below the horizon.

Although you can tell from the photo, the rocks along the shore are very large. An hour or so later we had clambered down to sea level and were scrambling over and under them in search of puffins.

Canon EOS 5D Mark II with Canon EF 17-40 f/4L IS

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There's always a clear sky

nobody@flickr.com (haelio) — Thu, 11 Apr 2013 04:01:15 -0700

haelio posted a photo:

...above the clouds.

Taken on the final descent in to Sydney when I flew there from Melbourne. We were skimming the clouds and as the pilot banked to line up for the final approach the moon swooned into view.

A few seconds later we plunged through the clouds and underneath and all of a sudden it was night. The iconic harbour bridge's shape was clearly identifiable by the lights on its arch and all around the cars were leaving trails of ruby and diamond.

This is one more reason to carry your camera hand luggage!

Canon EOS 5D Mark II with Canon EF 24-105mm f/4L IS

Desert huts

nobody@flickr.com (haelio) — Tue, 09 Apr 2013 04:18:17 -0700

haelio posted a photo:

During our trip to Morocco, we visited the Sahara desert. We spent one night on the northern edge of the vast desert in the huts pictured here.

Although not in the middle of the desert, the conditions here were harsh. There was literally no water and even a light wind would lift the sand around us into an abrasive wall of air that dried up skin and got literally everywhere. I still have sand in my camera bag from this trip 3 years later. Walking here is many times harder than walking through the sand on a beach as the sand is far finer and provides little purchase or traction.

On the other hand, when the wind died and the sun set, a beautiful calm settled over the whole area and the stars were out in full force. Similar to the more remote parts of Iceland, you really feel as though the rest of the world has ceased to exist and all that remains are you, your thoughts and the impassive vastness of our planet.

Canon EOS 5D Mark II with Canon EF 70-200 f/4L IS

Bangkok airport

nobody@flickr.com (haelio) — Mon, 14 Jan 2013 02:56:46 -0800

haelio posted a photo:

Halfway on the epic flight from London to Sydney, I touched down in Bangkok. While enjoying the chance to stretch my legs after a 11 hours in a tube, I was pleasantly surprised to find the airport was extremely tastefully designed.

Noticing that the Sun was setting, I jogged over to an area of the airport where I could frame the sun at the right angle. This was the resulting photograph. Tip: always carry your camera equipment in your hand luggage!

Canon EOS 5D Mark II with Canon EF 24-105mm f/4L IS

Mud and snow

nobody@flickr.com (haelio) — Thu, 06 Sep 2012 08:37:11 -0700

haelio posted a photo:

In Landmannalaugar, down on the lava fields, several thousands of years of erosion by little streams as seen in this photo have turned the plan into sharp ridges.

The weather changes very quickly at these latitudes, the pale sun in which this photo is taken would soon be shrouded by the cloud in the background, and its gentle rain would add the the swell of the river which would, in turn, carve deeper into the lava plain through mud and snow.

Canon EOS 5D Mark II with Canon EF 24-105 f/4L IS USM

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Frozen lava

nobody@flickr.com (haelio) — Tue, 21 Aug 2012 03:41:42 -0700

haelio posted a photo:

One of the highlights in the Skaftafell National Park is the Svartifoss (Black Fall) waterfall. It's famous for being surrounded by dark basalt columns. Heaxagonal in shape, the columns of frozen lava break off faster than the water can erode them away meaning that this site will not last long.

Such crystalline structures are formed when highly fluid molten basalt cools rapidly. The resultant contraction results in horizontal fractures similar to what can be seen in drying mud. These cracks propagate down as the mass of lava cooled resulting in these intricate pillar-like structures.

Canon EOS 5D Mark II with Canon EF 24-105L f/4L IS

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Vík

nobody@flickr.com (haelio) — Thu, 28 Jun 2012 03:59:06 -0700

haelio posted a photo:

On our westward return leg to Reykjavik, we stopped for 2 nights at the southern village of Vík. The small village was to be our staging point to the Landmannalaugar region beyond the Mýrdalsjökull glacier just to the north. After arriving here from Skaftafell, we head out to investigate the nearby cliffs and beaches before getting an early night.

Just to the west of the town there is a rocky headland that offers good views up and down the coast as well as straight down to the water 150m below. This photo was taken from this headland looking eastwards along the coast. This is the wettest region in Iceland (and Iceland is the wettest place I've ever been) so I was lucky that visibility was as good as it was.

The beaches here are rather spectacular. The sands are black basalt and give the water by the shoreline a dark, steely look.

The area is also known as a good sighting spot for puffins which nest in the cracks up and down the cliffs as well as on the basalt sea stacks that can be found just off the coast.

The buildings on the plain below are on the outskirts of Vík, but are around half the size of the entire town.

Canon EOS 5D Mark II with Canon EF 24-105mm f/4L IS

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Tongues of ice

nobody@flickr.com (haelio) — Tue, 26 Jun 2012 04:30:54 -0700

haelio posted a photo:

Another photo of Fjallsárlón this time showing one of the glacial tongues that populate the lake with water and icebergs. Tumbling down the mountainside in an S-shape, the glacier finally meets the lake at the far right of the image. Higher up the mountain you can see the peaks where the glacier begins as light snowfall. It's difficult to convey the sense of scale and distance in this frame. The curve in the glacier is many times larger than the entire lake that is only partially visible in the capture; and the distant peaks even larger still.

This photo was taken when on the way back to camp after hiking around Skaftafell National Park and although evening light is visible in the sky by the peaks, it was nearing 11pm.

A crop of a panorama made of 2 frames each shot on a tripod.

Canon EOS 5D Mark II with Canon EF 70-200 f/4L IS

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