Another shoal

Another picture of the shoal of Trevally just off the harbour in Bandos. As taken it was flat of contrast and washed out. Five minutes of Photoshop working some magic with filters and artistic enhancements and this turns out.

Having been around (and old) before computers were ever considered work tools let alone domestic necessities I'm still dazzled by the magic they can perform. I am also mystified by how they do it and regularly infuriated by their impressive ability to fail on you just when you have completed but just before you save an hour's critical work.

Thorn Forest

Another picture from Bonaire. If this land looks difficult to get through consider that the ground itself is old, exposed coral reef. It is sharp, hard and full of cracks, gulleys, spikes and holes. Walking across it with no vegetation is ankle-breakingly impossible. When covered with this aggressive forest of spikes and needles it is a truely hostile environment. Imagine being ship-wrecked or marooned in a place like this, as people were in the days of the 'Spanish Main'.

Mount Tiede

I once went to a photoclub talk entitled "Waiting for the Light". I thought this was a really powerful idea and something that should always be kept in mind. Then I started travelling and it became impossible to wait for the light and so good landscape shots had to be grabbed when they came along.

This late evening shot of Mount Tiede in Teneriffe was taken on the way back to the hotel after a day out last Christmas. We saw the shot, pulled up the car and waited for two or three minutes as the snow got redder and redder.

Trevally

I liked the composition of this picture of some Trevally but the exposure was wrong. A bit of work in PaintShopPro7 led to this. I hope you like the treatment; I think it's done more than just rescue a mediocre shot. The Trevally were in a largish shoal which invited all sorts of shots and angles. I hope to put a few more of them here soon.

Trigger Fish

I wasn't even diving! Just going for a brief snorkle and this character came up and stared into my mask. How cute I thought and watched for a minute or so as it swum round and kept coming back to stare at me. He drifted off up to the surface after something to eat and then came back and bit a (small) chunk out of my forehead!
It didn't hurt - much - but I did feel hoodwinked and betrayed. That's the last time I'll trust one of these!

Kayaks

It is possible to hire a kayak at Collias near Nimes and float down the River Gard to the Roman aqueduct Pont du Gard - a journey of about 6 miles. The kayaks are piled up on the river banks just waiting for customers and there are hundreds of them, each little business having kayaks in different colours.

Butterfly Fish

Another shot from Bonaire showing off the capabilities of the Olympus.  

Box Fish

First of my underwater pictures. One of the reasons for buying the Olympus was the fact that it was also possible to get an underwater housing for it. As well as finding it wonderful for top-side photography this camera help catch wonderful underwater shots. The biggest difficulty is shutter lag. The time between pressing the shutter and the picture capture is short but noticeable. You can end up with loads of pictures of fish-bums. This one just went off in time - half a second later ..... 

Waterstones

Looking down from the breakwater onto rocks washed over by the sea. As the waves moved the water, the rocks ebbed and flowed never leaving the same pattern twice. The light of the sunset glowed through water and left scraps of rainbows fringing the rocks and stones beneath.

Lava Flow

This flow, on Mount Teide in Teneriffe, is more than 100 years old. Several different types of plants have established themselves from lichens to pine trees.
I was playing with Phtoshop and purely by chance managed to differentiate between the lichens and the lava. In the original picture both were grey and looked very similar. In this false colour image, the lichens and some other living material show in blue.

The lichen was coating the lava and there was a thick growth.

I took this picture as one of a series looking at backlighting on natural subjects. The bracken was glowing with golden light which has been lost in the editing. I suppose one day I'll learn enough about Photoshop to get it to do exactly what I want, but I'm not there yet!