Thursday, February 18, 2010

Pictures from Antarctica


Gentoo Penguin_DSC4143, originally uploaded by jc_on_vacation.

Friend Justine Carson recently returned from a month long, photography workshop/trip to Argentina, the Falkland Islands, South Georgia Island and Antarctica and brought back incredibly beautiful and amazingly close-up pictures of penguins, seals, birds, ice and mountains. When they were not on land taking pictures, they were studying wildlife photography techniques and listening to lectures about the animals and geology they had travelled so far to see.

Only back a few days, Justine kindly threw together an excellent presentation for our February workshop. Those pictures and many more are now up in her Flickr gallery. Thank you Justine!


King Penguin_DSC4613, originally uploaded by jc_on_vacation.

Sunday, February 14, 2010

Maverick's Photo Roundup

Several people have asked if I was able to photograph the Maverick’s surf contest this weekend. I was on my way to ski Kirkwood when I heard the Maverick’s competition was on. We had an excellent time skiing and I have no pictures from the contest.

Photo: Carlos Avila Gonzalez / The Chronicle

But there are plenty great pictures to view. The weather was excellent and the waves were huge. It’s not easy getting these shots since the breaks are about ½ mile offshore. Either you climb the slippery cliffs with a very long lens or you beg, borrow or pay your way on a boat to get the close-ups. As of Sunday night, here are some links to the pictures that I have been able to find.

Flickr has a “Maverick’s Surf Contest 2010” group with over 300 pictures.
http://www.flickr.com/groups/mavericks2010/pool/

I like to watch the group as a slideshow. It fills your browser window with the largest picture it can and border’s it in black. Maximize your browser and try it.
http://www.flickr.com/groups/mavericks2010/pool/show/

Several encore videos of the live action and commentary is on Mavericksurf.com.
http://www.maverickssurf.com/contest/see/webcast.php

Check out this raw video footage taken from the Channel 5 news copter.
http://cbs5.com/video/?id=61790@kpix.dayport.com
Note: look for the "Chopper 5 News of Maverick's Surf Contest" video

The Sunday Chronicle has 2 stories on Maverick’s, one on the front page and another in the sports section.
Huge waves at Mavericks injure spectators
and
MAVERICKS - Biggest of the big waves

And the Chronicle also has 2 photo galleries of the event with over 200 pictures combined.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/object/article?f=/c/a/2010/02/14/SPBQ1C1FN9.DTL&o=
and
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/object/article?f=/c/a/2010/02/14/MNTA1C1AAA.DTL&o=

Regulo Zapata Jr. has pictures up on Facebook.
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2056640&id=1215168613&l=3ff43523e4

Slideshow in the Santa Cruz Sentinel:
http://www.santacruzsentinel.com/localnews/ci_14396254

That’s a start and there are more out there. Some of the pictures are absolutely fantastic. The photographers caught beautiful angles with surfers framed by the curl of the wave, shots of wipeouts are captured second by second in burst mode and the spectators and the spirit of the event. It looks like Mavericks delivered big time this year and there are some award winning pictures that document it.