Archive for the ‘island’ Tag
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“Curious Dragon”- Komodo Island, Indonesia – Will & Matt Burrard – Lucas – Featured Photographers
When we saw this image by the Burrard-Lucas brothers the Photobotos brothers were blown away. You don’t get inches away from 10 foot lizards with killer saliva so we had to know how they did it. These guys as you will see are not only great photographers, but are very clever in how they obtain them. You can find them at http://www.burrard-lucas.com/
After checking out their Komodo dragon photos, hop over to their Giant Panda Expedition at http://blog.burrard-lucas.com/2011/10/giant-panda-tracking/. The photos are incredible.
Also here are some links to keep up with them on Facebook and Twitter
http://www.facebook.com/BLphotography
https://twitter.com/#!/willbl
Take it away guys!
We recently spent three days traveling around the Indonesian islands of Komodo and Rinca, photographing the legendary Komodo dragons.
Preparation for the trip commenced several weeks earlier, as I attempted to devise an effective and safe way of getting wide-angle, close-up shots of these notoriously dangerous creatures. I would not have time to set-up camera traps, and I didn’t have enough room to take BeetleCam, so I came up with something a little more basic!
I mounted my camera on top of two wheels (generously donated by my computer chair) and then attached this to a monopod so that I could push the rig up to the dragons. I figured this would give me a 2 meter head-start if one of them decided I looked like lunch! I named my new contraption “KomodoCam”!
Reaching Komodo Island was an epic undertaking… I had to fly to Singapore, then Bali, then the island of Flores, before taking a boat to Komodo Island and Rinca Island. Komodo dragons only live on a few isolated islands in this part of Indonesia.
It is hard to describe the excitement and trepidation I felt as the foreboding volcanic peaks of Komodo Island loomed up in front of me. The island was shrouded in ominous dark clouds and even the sea seemed to have turned black. It really felt like a land lost in time.
Towards the end of the second day of my trip, an opportunity to use KomodoCam at last presented itself; I came across a large dragon in a flat, open clearing in the forest. I nervously set up the rig and pushed it towards the dragon. The dragon treated the camera with curiosity and obligingly flicked its tongue in and out to investigate the unfamiliar object. To my relief, the beast decided that there was nothing edible and I was spared seeing a Komodo dragon eat my Canon 1Ds mkIII!
“The Backside of Water”- Near Hvolsvöllur, South Iceland – Marius Monton – Guest Photographer
When you are on the Jungle Cruise at Disney World, they take you behind a man made waterfall and joke “Ladies and Gentlemen, The backside of water!”. That was the first thing I thought of when I saw this photo. Actually, I thought this should be on a calendar as well. Marius is a R & D Engineer in Barcelona, Spain and a great photographer in his spare time. After gawking at the photo for a little longer and reading his story below, head on over to http://mariusmonton.com/photos/ and http://www.flickr.com/photos/mariusmm/ for some more good fun.
Here is Marius…
This picture was taken in Iceland, it is a beautiful waterfall named Seljalandsfoss, south of the island.
We did a 10 days trip around Iceland, and it was one of the most exciting and amazing experience in our lives. All the country is a continuous beautiful landscape, and at every point you shoot you take a great picture!
The picture is a HDR from 3 photos (-1 EV, 0, +1 EV), 12mm f/8.0 @1/125 and ISO 100, with an Olympus E-510, with Zuiko12-60mm.
Royal Albatross Chick (Diomedea epomophora) – Otago Peninsula, New Zealand
On the southern edge of New Zealand lies the wind swept Otago peninsula. It is home to several species of penguins, sea lions, dolphins, whales, and sea birds. On the very tip is Taiaroa Head, home to a Royal albatross colony. The place is spectacular. Rather than building a little birding platform they built an entire visitor center around the site http://www.albatross.org.nz/. What makes this place so special is that they are nesting on the very large south island of New Zealand. Normally, they will only nest on islands without rats. I guess the locals have a good way of keeping the rats out of this highly protected area. While this little guy was at home in the blustering wind, we were warm and dry trying to spot them like Easter eggs in the tall grass. If you are ever in this part of the world, it is a must see for everyone.
Masked Booby with Egg – Clipperton Island
Almost 1,000 miles from anywhere lies the French coral atoll known as Clipperton Island. Although it is not inhabited by humans it is full of life. Frigate birds, booby birds, and land crabs make up the islands fauna and a few palm trees are the only shade. You could walk around the entire island in a couple of hours, but there is so much to see you could spend that same two hours only walking a few hundred yards. This particular masked booby was returning to her egg and chick in the foreground after switching with its mate to forage. Masked boobies usually lay two eggs but only the strongest will survive. This is usually the first hatched (bird to the left) which will out-compete the younger bird for food and space under its parents. Since they nest right on the coral rubble, the adult bird must shade the young through the hot sections of the day or they will die very quickly. On a side note, I think the little chick looks a lot like Gonzo from the muppets!
Steller Sea Lion Tossing Pup – Southeast Alaska
Steller sea lions are the largest of all the eared seals. In fact, an adult male can weigh over a ton. They are like giant swimming grizzly bears on steroids! Although they don’t look like it in the photo, the little pup is about the size of a full grown pit bull. The female however is about 600 lbs. and very upset. This pup most likely wandered or fell into the female’s territory from above. The other possibility is the female was returning from sea and looking for her own pup by a keen sense of smell. When she noticed it wasn’t hers she didn’t have time to walk around it. If sea lions had PPS (Pup Protective Services) then I would have called them right away. Either way it is a good example that nature isn’t always kind, but is seldom boring.
Short Beaked Echidna – Kangaroo Island, Australia
We all know platypuses are mammals that lay eggs. Well, this is his less well known cousin the echidna. These are the only two types of mammals that actually lay eggs and they can both be found in Australia. Sorry, but don’t hold your breath for any platypus photos. I looked everywhere for those little buggers and never found one. Oh well, next trip. The cool thing that I like about this photo is if you look closely you can see the little termites exposed from the ripped open mound. Some locals call them spiny anteaters because they eat ants and termites. If I was a termite I would call them “Godzilla” because of the ferocious way they tear open an ant city. They are like little bulldozers with giant claws and full of determination. The spines on their back are very sharp and should be handled with leather gloves. I found this out the hard way when I moved one out of the middle of the road that had curled up into a ball.
Witches Rock – Santa Rosa National Park, Costa Rica
Wow! My brother and I are really overwhelmed by the support we have gotten here at www.photobotos.com since we started a little over a month ago. I just checked our latest status report and we are up 7 million website rankings in two weeks! You guys rule! OK, I don’t want to get ahead of ourselves because we are still ranked 3.2 million by www.alexa.com. Just for perspective www.google.com is #1, but we are blowing the doors off www.basketweaving.com. Look out www.steve.com you are next in our sights and we are coming for you!
Today’s photo was created at a world class surf break in Costa Rica. Located in the Santa Rosa National Park, Witches Rock (Roca Bruja) was featured in the Endless Summer sequel. My wife and I camped during the rainy season in the park, but had to sleep in our car because we were overrun with raccoons. They were trying to get in our tent the entire night. When we woke up the next morning we were the only ones in the park. We walked down to the beach and an olive ridley sea turtle was laying her eggs in the sand. I surfed all day and then got this amazing photo at sunset when the sky caught fire.
Aleutian Volcano – Aleutian Islands, AK
Stretching 1,200 miles west from the Alaskan Peninsula to almost Russia is a chain of about 300 volcanic islands known as the Aleutians. They range anywhere from small flat rocks to thousands of feet tall volcanoes. While I was a marine biologist for the federal government, I spent as much as two months a year flying around almost all of the state of Alaska. Several weeks were spent in the Aleutian Islands where this photograph was taken from a small twin engine aircraft over an active volcano. It seems rather odd to see snow on a volcano, but when they start to heat up they can be the only mountains around that lack snow. We tended to stay away from those for obvious reasons. Twice while I was in the Aleutians I felt volcanoes erupting from several miles away. They felt like small earthquakes that we experience from time to time hear in California.
Willet in the Valley of the Godwits – Coronado, CA
For some reason there were hundreds of shorebirds on the beach this day. I photographed about 10 different species, but in some ways this was my favorite photo of the day. It kind of gives me the “whistling past the graveyard feeling”. Or maybe when you can’t cross the street and you have to walk past the group of angry bikers. You can’t show fear, but you also need to be ready to run like HELL! Does this remind you of anything? If so please leave a comment above by pressing the “LEAVE A COMMENT” button above.
Steller Sea Lion Rookery – Forester Island, Alaska
I spent five summers photographing almost every Steller sea lion rookery (breeding ground) and haulout (resting place) between Canada and Russia from a small twin engine aircraft. They were some of the most fantastic and scariest things I have ever done. I can honestly say I have seen more individual Steller sea lions than just about anyone on earth. This particular six hundred foot wide rock is one of my favorites. It is a rookery in Southeast Alaska that produces about five hundred pups a year. On this day I was with the Alaska Fish and Game Department on a small Boston Whaler just off the rock. I used a 17mm-35mm Canon lens to capture the scene. In the foreground you can see a large male barking out orders to keep his females from jumping in the water. He is the gatekeeper. He controls who gets on and off his little portion of the rock until breeding season is over. This included my colleagues and I when we had to get on the rock for a ground level pup count. More of these photos to come…
Saving Species One Image at a Time –West Indian Whistling Ducks, Cayman Islands
Sometimes the story behind the photo is even better than the photo. This was the case for these rare West Indian Whistling Ducks. Due to lack of wetlands in the Caribbean and egg poaching these ducks have become threatened. So I was driving around gorgeous Grand Cayman Island looking for these ducks when I talked to a local and she said there were plenty down the road at Willie’s pig farm. Now I know you are thinking a pig farm in the tropics must be way better than a pig farm in the US. Well, sorry to bust your bubble, it looked exactly how you would expect any pig farm to look. It was uninviting to say the least. When I pulled up to the address the gate was open so I just walked on in. Next to a rather large wetland pool was the prize I came looking for. To my surprise this rather rare, shy, and nocturnal duck was none of the above. There were hundreds of them, out in the daylight, and I could walk directly up to them and get great shots in the middle of the day. Then I realized why they felt so secure. Hog farmers are really big guys and don’t like you on their land. I know because they told me in a rather loud voice. I apologized because I always do this much better than asking for permission. After I told them why I was there they just stared at me with a blank look on their faces, and one said “Oh he is just a birder.” Then I pulled out a $20 bill and asked them if they needed beer money. With that they smiled, took the money, and said I could stay as long as I wanted. I stayed another 10 minutes or so then the smell of hog and farm got too much to bear and I went back to the white sandy beaches that Grand Cayman is known for.
Since then this picture has been used in promotional material to help protect wetlands and endangered species throughout the Caribbean.
A Boy and His Turtle – Big Island, Hawaii
On the big island of Hawaii green sea turtles are everywhere near the shore. Just walk up to any small crescent shaped beach and you are bound to see one basking lazily in the sun. This one was on a black sand beach and my oldest son (3 years old at the time) hiked over for a closer look. He bent down and counted all of the turtles he saw. I can’t remember how many in total, but there were a lot.
I love my kids! I tell them all the time. I don’t do it so they will say “I love you, too” back to me. I do it so they will say “I love you” to their children. Well about a minute after I took this photograph my son turned around and said “Dad come look at the green sea turtles.” I was so proud. I knew at that moment he would be showing his kids someday everything I was showing him. My two boys may not grow up to be biologists, but I am positive they will grow up with a thirst for knowledge. I know I did thanks to my family.
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