In the previous post for my exhibition, I think most people only saw the poster. They didn’t realise the post included 28 images for the prints on exhibition plus an extra ten. If that’s you or you didn’t see that post:
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A2: Pencil Pines on Cradle Plateau,
Overland Track, Tasmania, August 2017
Fujifilm X-T2, 55-200mm f3.5-4.8
Epson P800, Canson Rag Photographique.
(One of the 38).
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As you can see, I am about to hold an exhibition. For those who cannot attend, I am holding a concurrent virtual exhibition here in this thread. You can if you wish, purchase an A3+ print of any of the images below. A3+ is larger than A3, actually an American size also called Super B, 13″ x 19″ or 329mm x 483mm.
Free postage in Australia and New Zealand. $10 for US, Canada, UK and Northern Europe. For other countries, please enquire. If you are interested in purchasing a print, make a comment below or send an email to zenophon@iinet.net.au. If you are in Canberra, there’s the exhibition at Smith’s Alternative.
All images were taken and processed by me and also custom printed by me to a professional standard.
Note that there will be some difference between the images on screen and the prints because you are looking at a projected image rather than an image on paper, and your screen may not be calibrated.
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Links below the images go to corresponding colour posts in this Blog. even in the case of monochrome images, because the colour posts have more information.
If you click on an image, instead of 640 x 640 px, as you see on the page, it opens much larger to 1900 x 1900 px.
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The following images correspond to prints in the actual exhibition (rows A and B). They are from Victoria, Tasmania, South Georgia, Falkland Islands, Hokkaido (Japan), Iceland, Easter Island, Patagonia, Madagascar and Ladakh (far north India).
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A1: Path to the Sand Dunes
Point Hicks, Victoria, November 2016
Nikon D800, Sigma 180mm f2.8 macro
Epson P800, Crane Museo Portfolio Rag.
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A2: Pencil Pines on Cradle Plateau,
Overland Track, Tasmania, August 2017
Fujifilm X-T2, 55-200mm f3.5-4.8
Epson P800, Canson Rag Photographique.
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A3: Penguins in front of mountain range
Right Whale Bay, South Georgia, November 2015
Nikon D3s, 85mm f1,4
Epson P800, Canson Rag Photographique.
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A4: Red-crowned cranes at dawn (-26ºC)
Otowa Bridge, near Kushiro Wetlands, Hokkaido, February 2012
Nikon D3, 300mm f2.8 + TC20E III (stitched panorama)
Epson P800, Canson Arches Aquarelle Photo Rag.
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A5: Hokkaido Trees (planet view – link goes to original image)
Hokkaido, Japan, February 2012
Nikon D3, 300mm f2.8 + TC20E III
Epson 3880, Ilford Gold Fibre Silk .
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A6: Hofsjökull icecap
Central Highlands, Iceland, September 2013
Nikon D800, 300mm f2.8
Epson P800, Canson Rag Photographique.
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A7: Wake of Ketch
Wineglass Bay Sail Walk, Tasmania, September 2017
Fujifilm X-T2, 100-400mm f4.5-5.6
Epson P800, Canson Rag Photographique.
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A8: Lone Moai at Ranu Raraku
Easter Island, April 2011
Nikon D3, 105mm f2
Epson 3880, Ilford Gold Fibre Silk.
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A9: Verraux’s Sifaka in tree
Berenty Nature Reserve, Madagascar, October 2015
Fujifilm X-E2 (Infrared), 55-200mm f3.5-4.8
Epson P800, Crane Museo Portfolio Rag.
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B1: Stellar’s Sea Eagle over ice and snow
Nemoro Strait, north of Hokkaido, Japan, February 2012
Nikon D3, 300mm f2.8 + TC14E II
Epson 3880, Ilford Gold Fibre Silk.
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B2: Whooper swans
Lake Kussharo, Hokkaido, Japan, February 2012
Nikon D3, 180mm f2.8
Epson 3880, Ilford Gold Fibre Silk.
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B3: Huemul Glacier and Mt Fitzroy behind
North of El Chalten, Argentina/ Patagonia, March 2011
Nikon D3s, 180mm f2.8
Epson P800, Crane Museo Portfolio Rag.
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B4: Panther chameleon capturing insect
Peyrieras Nature reserve, Madagascar, October 2015
Nikon D3s, 85mm f1,4
Epson P800, Canson Museo Portfolio Rag.
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B5: Rockhopper penguin with nesting material
Berkeley Sound, Falkland Islands, November 2015
Nikon D800, 300mm f2.8
Epson P800, Canson PrintMaKing Rag.
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B6: Ponies returning to Rumbak Village
Hemis National Park, Ladakh, far north India, January 2018
Fujifilm X-T2, 100-400mm f4.5-5.6
Epson P800, Canson Rag Photographique.
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B7: Ana Kakenga (lava tube)
Easter Island, April 2011
Nikon D3, 14-24mm @ 14mm, ISO200, 1/250 sec f4
Epson 3880, Ilford Gold Fibre Silk.
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B8: Stars at night near Rumbak Village
Hemis National Park, Ladakh, far north India, February 2018
Fujifilm X-T2, 14mm f2.8
Epson P800, Canson Platine Fibre Rag.
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B9: Walking in to Rumbak Village
Hemis National Park, Ladakh, far north India, February 2018
Fujifilm X-T2, 56mm f1.2
Epson P800, Canson Platine Fibre Rag.
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I have also included some additional images below from South West Canyonlands (US), St Kilda (Scotland), Antarctica, South Australia, Greenland and Hawaii. They are also available for purchase.
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XP1: Antelope Canyon
Arizona, October 2014
Fujifilm X-T1, 55-200mm f3.5-4.9
Epson P800, Canson PrintMaKing Rag.
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XP2: Main Street, Hirta Village
St Kilda, Scotland, July 2013
Nikon D800, 85mm f1.4, R72 Infrared filter
Epson 3880, Crane Museo Portfolio Rag.
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XP3: Salt bush country near Oonatra Creek
Boolcoomatta Station, South Australia, March 2015
Fujifilm X-E2 14mm f2.8
Epson 3880, Crane Museo Portfolio Rag.
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XP4: Deception Island from Ship
Deception Island, Antarctica, March 2011
Nikon D3s 300mm f2.8 (stitched panorama)
Epson P800, Canson PrintMaKing Rag.
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XP5: Polar Bear on Ice Floe
Greenland Sea, August 2013
Nikon D3s, 300mm f2.8 + TC20E III, ISO1250, 1/2500 sec f11
Epson P800, Canson Rag Photographique.
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XP6: Red crowned cranes in mating dance
Akan international Crane Centre, Hokkaido, Japan, February 2012
Nikon D3, 300mm f2.8 + TC14E II
Epson P800, Canson Rag Photographique.
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XP7: Na Pali Coast from helicopter
Kauai, Hawaii, March 2015
Nikon D800, Sigma 35mm f1.4
Epson P800, Canson Platine Fibre Rag.
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These are mainly images from the Blues Festivals I have been Official Photographer for, over the last ten or twelve years. (Once again, $A90 each, should you want to order prints).
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C1: Darren Jack
Thredbo Blues Festival 2012
Nikon D3s, 85mm f1.4
Epson P800, Canson Platine Fibre Rag.
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C2: Dallas Frasca
Down by the River Festival, Wangaratta, March 2018
Fujifilm X-T2, 80mm f2/8 macro
Epson P800, Canson Platine Fibre Rag.
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C3: Guitarist, The Tommyhawks
Narooma Blues Festival 2015
Nikon D3s, 180mm f2.8
Epson P800, Canson Platine Fibre Rag.
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C4: Tomcat Playground
Sydney Blues Festival 2016
Nikon D800, 14-24mm
Epson P800, Canson Platine Fibre Rag.
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C5: Ian Moss
Sydney Blues Festival 2012
Nikon D800, 180mm f2.8
Epson P800, Canson Platine Fibre Rag.
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D1: Rick Estrin, Rick Estrin & the Nightcats
Narooma Blues Festival 2014
Nikon D3, 300mm f2.8
Epson P800, Canson PrintMaKing Rag.
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D2: Dutch Tilders
Rose Cottage Canberra, March 2008
Nikon D3, 180mm f2.8
Epson P800, Canson Museo Portfolio Rag.
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D3: Leesa Gentz, Hussy Hicks
Sydney Blues and Roots Festival 2017
Nikon D3s, 105mm f2
Epson P800, Canson Platine Fibre Rag.
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D4: Rosscoe Clark
Sydney Blues and Roots Festival 2017
Nikon D800, 50mm f1.4
Epson P800, Canson Arches Aquarelle Photo Rag.
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D5: Brian Cadd, Cadd and Morris
Narooma Blues Festival 2009
Nikon D3, 300mm f4
Epson 3880, Ilford Gold Fibre Silk.
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A few more that aren’t in the actual exhibition, including one from Cuba.
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XM1: Kid Anderson, Rick Estrin & the Nightcats
Narooma Blues Festival 2014
Nikon D3, 300mm f2.8
Epson P800, Canson PrintMaKing Rag.
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XM2: Turner Brown Band
Blues on Broadbeach 2017
Fuji X-T2, 10-24mm
Epson P800, Canson Platine Fibre Rag.
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XM4: Street musician
Havana, Cuba, September 2016
Fuji X-Pro2, 56mm f1,2
Epson P800, Canson Rag Photographique.
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29th to 31st October 2015. Antananariva, Madagascar to AbuDhabi to Sao Paulo, Brazil (and thence to the Falklands).
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I now resume with final posts on my journey to Mauritius, Reunion, Madagascar, Falkland Islands, South Georgia Island and the Atacama Desert. The last post covered Port Dauphin and leaving Madagascar from Tana (Antananariva).
My trigger for this journey was signing on for a cruise to South Georgia Island. I then realised that it was possible to combine this with a photographic tour of Madagascar, there being a little over a week between the two. It seemed appropriate to spend that week in the Falklands because the ship for South Georgia left from there and I was thus minimising my chance of missing the departure. The problem was that the plane for the Falklands left from Santiago in Chile only once every week. At the time there were no cheap direct flights from Johannesburg direct to Sao Paulo that fitted in with my timetable and I chose to save over $1,000 by flying via Abu Dhabi. That left me with a massive 55-hour transfer from Tana to Johannesburg to Abu Dhabi to Sao Paulo to Santiago (where I managed to snatch three hours sleep at a hotel) to Punta Arenas to Port Chalmers to Pebble Island.
This will be the first of three posts of views from my seat on the airplanes. I didn’t have a window seat from Tana to Johannesburg or from Johannesburg to Abu Dhabi so no images there. This post covers the flight from Abu Dhabi to Sao Paulo. No images after that for the night flight from Sao Paulo to Santiago. The second post shows views of the Andes and the third post aerial views of the Falklands.
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Abu Dhabi Control Tower. Either an example of post-modern architecture, a representation of the crescent moon, or the result of strong winds that weren’t in evidence when I was there.
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A highway near the Airport. As you can see, this really is a desert environment.
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Dormitory suburbs and an elaborate clover leaf. One wonders what it’s like living there when the wind gets up and the sand blows in.
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In the Gulf near Abu Dhabi. Probably an exclusive hotel on the left, perhaps an exclusive residence on the right. Accessible only from the sea.
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This is five hours later over Africa. This is an arid region and my guess is Sudan or South Sudan.
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This image and the next one are at a similar location.
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Now we are closer to the coast (and nearly a couple of hours later). The cloud cover is just starting to break up and we can see a large river winding below us. In each case there are small towns beside the river.
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Here a large town is more visible.
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Now the coast and the Atlantic Ocean. Looking at the coast in Google Earth I couldn’t map the location but I think it’s probably the coast of Gabon or perhaps Congo Brazzaville. The previous three images are relatively close to here.
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Now we are on the other side of the Atlantic, seven hours later. This appears to be Guarujá, a seaside suburb of Santos, the port for Sao Paulo.
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This is Repressa Billings (or Billings Reservoir), the main source of (hydroelectric) power for Sao Paulo. There are problems with pollution and it was down to 20% of capacity in 2015 as a consequence of an El Niño drought in 2014/15.
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Sao Paulo, the most populous city in South America with 11.2 million people in 2013.
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28th to 29th October 2015. Port Dauphin to Antananariva, Madagascar.
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Continuing on from the previous post, still in Port Dauphin, we walked up the hill behind the wharf area and along some of the streets of town back to our hotel.
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This is an abandoned building on the street we were walking down. Across one of those doorways, I think the far one, was a web and an absolutely enormous spider which must have been a Golden Orb Spider. I did take a photograph but I didn’t get the focus right.
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Over the road was a small shop with this delightfully colourful display.
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Major street including a three-wheeled tuk-tuk.
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The last image from Port Dauphin. After returning to the hotel we headed for the airport.
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So, now we’re in the air and just outside Port Dauphin.
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Clouds en route.
I had heard lots of stories about Air Madagascar, initially known as Air Mad until they decided that might not be such a good name. Arbitrarily delayed flights, poor service, inadequately maintained planes, overbooking. We did get to the airports with lots of time to spare but we didn’t encounter any of that. The planes were fairly new and the service was fine.
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On the outskirts of Tana now.
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After landing, we headed off to a rather nice old hotel but I didn’t take any images there.
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Next morning, I took these images on the way to the airport from the vehicle.
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That was the last image from Madagascar though I will post some monochromes much later.
I was about to undertake an epic air journey from Antanariva to Johannesburg to Abu Dhabi to Sao Paulo to Santiago (Chile) to Punta Arenas to Mount Pleasant (Falklands) to Pebble Island. More of that much later including images from Falkland Islands, South Georgia Island and the Atacama Desert. But now I am off on another trip and posting will greatly decrease, especially as some places will have no internet. More on that in the next post….
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28th October 2015. Port Dauphin, Madagascar.
In the morning of the 28th, we went for a walk that ended up at the port.
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Above the port, a number of shacks where poor people live.
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And here we have the jetty of this mighty metropolitis.
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Getting closer, some of the canoes stacked up beside the wharf.
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No idea what this huge metal bowl was for.
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More canoes…
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On the other side of the wharf is a rusted wasteland that probably speaks of a time when the activity at the port was of a much larger scale.
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And here is a truck ready to take travellers to the interior, probably available at a very cheap rate from anyone who happens to be hanging around.
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… though there may be some limitations as to comfort.
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There is also some very large wharf-side machinery.
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… though perhaps not in the best of condition.
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As we get closer…
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… the details become more interesting.
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Either this is the effect of rust or the manufacturers have gone to great lengths to achieve a post-modern effect.
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A few other vehicles were available too.
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27th October 2015. Berenty to Port Dauphin, Madagascar.
Returning from Berenty to Port Dauphin….
Some people, perhaps farms workers, on top of a truck heading in the other direction. He was asking for water but unfortunately, by the time I worked that out, I was too slow to respond.
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A family in their zebu cart.
I might take this opportunity to quickly summarise a book, In Search of the Red Slave, that I read prior to going to Madagascar. It uses current on-the-ground research to validate a story first published in 1729 and ghost-written by none other than Daniel Defoe.
The protagonist, Robert Drury, was 15 and returning from India in 1703 when the ship he was in went down on the south coast of Madagascar. The crew were rescued by a local tribe and well treated but were not free. They decided to kidnap the local chief as a hostage and made for Port Dauphin, but didn’t make it. They all ended up killed except for Robert Drury and a couple of other youngsters. He was taken back to the village and made a slave. After some years he became a respected warrior and was allowed a wife.
He wasn’t satisfied with this and escaped to a tribe to the west that he had encountered in a joint military campaign. He was welcomed there but after a few more years he was taken in battle by another tribe further to the north. Initially he was enslaved again but after some time became relatively free again. Word of his survival had made it back to London and eventually he was rescued by a ship sent out to look for him. At this stage he had effectively forgotten how to speak English. He spent some years in London where Defoe wrote up his journal. This was widely dismissed as fiction in the following years but this book demonstrates how details can only have been authentic. Ironically, he became dissatisfied with life in London and returned to Madagascar – but this time not as a slave but as a slave trader.
The book is well worth reading for its account of tribal life at the time and the harshness and perils of life there today. The area in the South where Drury lived are much further to the west, much more remote and much drier than where I visited.
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A very overloaded taxi brousse.
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Back at the river, where we passed by on the way out.
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Just past the bridge and the river, we are passing through the town of Ambossary Sud.
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Obviously out of town now, passing a village.
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Not far from Port Dauphin now and a herd of zebu on the road.
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Inside Port Dauphin and an enterprising bicycle rider.
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27th October 2015. Berenty, Madagascar.
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On our last morning at Berenty, this is also my last wildlife post from Madagascar.
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Yellow-billed Kite.
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Ring-tailed lemurs.
Elephant birds would likely have roamed this region in previous centuries. They were three metres high and weighed half a tonne and survived until at least the seventeenth century. Much of the year they lived in the mountains but came down to the sand of the south coast to lay their eggs.
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Natural cactus garden. Actual colours.
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They look like funghi but they’re flatid leaf bugs. Click on the image to see them closer.
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Chameleon. Species unidentified.
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A conspiracy of lemurs.
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Octopus trees.
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Octopus trees and scrub.
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Sportive lemur.
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Baobab, probably Adansonia za.
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A clump of Alluaudia Procera or Madagascar Ocotillo, also known as Octopus Tree, showing the habitat and especially for Jeni (Skyscapes for the Soul), following a comment in an earlier post.
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A clump of the cacti common in the area.
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Where once was spiny forest, lemurs and other wildlife, now is sisal plantations and no wildlife. I wonder whether this is also a plantation crop grown by a foreign company with little or no benefit to the local population.
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27th October 2015. Berenty, Madagascar.
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With my time in Berenty drawing to a close, I dreamt in the ethereal spiny forest.
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Ring-tailed lemurs eating or drawing moisture from cacti.
It’s a photograph of course and therefore completely realistic in all respects.
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Ringtails in front of the cacti.
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This is what it may look like to a chameleon….
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… such as this one.
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(All IR).
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26th October 2015. Berenty, Madagascar.
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Some images of lemurs in their dream worlds.
A Verraux’s sifaka looking up.
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Ringtailed lemur on the ground.
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Verraux’s sifaka looking down.
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Ringtailed lemur.
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Ringtailed lemur hanging out.
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Verraux’s sifakas more deeply in their dream world.
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Very young Verraux’s sifaka.
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Ringtails.
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And a last Verraux’s sifaka looking down on us.
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(All IR)
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26th October 2015. Berenty, Madagascar.
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Sakalava weavers and their hanging nests (there is only one bird visible but there are others inside the nests).
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White man’s burden? Ringtailed lemur sitting on wooden sculpture.
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Plants from the desert garden near the cabins.
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… and also, a chameleon….
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More dancing sifakas, this one coming straight towards me.
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… and finally, one on a roof.
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