Galapagos - preliminary report
Discussion
Righty ho this will be part one of a two part report for reasons which will become clear later on. Seems you guys have been very busy, congrats to Emma on her exhibition that Madonna and Child image is a belter 
First in summary I have to say these are simply magical islands, it's not the variety of species that hits you, even though there are a lot, but more the sheer quantity. If you have any interest in wildlife and natural history you simply have to go at some point in your life.
General tips
1. Pick your ship carefully. Bigger is more luxury but you will be restricted which islands / landing sites you can use and also it will take a lot more time to get off the ship and you will have to share the space on the various islands with more people. For us a smaller ship carrying only 15/16 passengers was more "expedition" in feel and got to some very small locations that were incredible. Two recommendations for the smaller end of the range are "Cachalote" which we were on and "Sagitta" which some other folk we met were on.
2. Choose your itinery carefully. Make sure you have enough time. A lot of trips are 3-5 days which quite honestly is not enough time if you are really interested as you will not get to the father away islands like Espanola. Both the small boats I mentioned do over 8 days which is much more like it and Cachalote also does a 15 day itinery which meant we could see a lot more and explore the different islands more.
3. Choose your time of year. Now is the hot but wet season, warm seas and generally calmer seas but the Waved Albatross have migrated away. Towards Nov&Dec you can see the Waved Albatross and their young but the seas are colder and rougher. Important if you are not a good sailor as some of the night transfers can be 13 hours or so.
4. Think about the memory cards you will need and then add enough to cover an extra 500 or so shots. In the two weeks we were there plus 4 days in the rainforest and two days in Miami Mrs CVP shot 1,445 images, me 1,181 and between us on the compacts another 870, a grand total of 4,196 images that have to be reviewed and processed.
5. Take lots of microfibre cloths, you'll get a decent amount of dust / spray even if you are very careful
6. Take dry bags for your kit as at this time of year it can hose down in minutes from a bright blue sky and wet landings can be a bit hairy sometimes. Available from all good walking shops pretty cheaply and gives that extra level of reassurance
7. Take a field backup device if possible as you really will shoot masses of images and it's nice to know you won't run out of space if you get your card calcs a bit off
8. For focal lengths the vast majority of the time I was using the 70-200 (D2x) and Mrs CVP 70-300 (D80). Ideally I think 80-400 would be idela for the Nikon user and 100-400 for the Canon users. Macros get a small outing and very wide angles 12-24mm type zooms even less.
9. I did not take a tripod as I thought it would get in the way jumping in and out of the little rubber zodiacs. If I was to go again I'd either take a small tripod that extends to about 3 feet in height or a monopod. The reason is you do a lot of visits in the early morning and late afternoon and the light rises and falls off very rapidly at the equator so a little bit of stabilty would occasionally have been useful where I had to sacrifice aperture for shutter speed.
10. Snorkel at any opportunity, the marine life is brilliant and comes up close. Take an underwater camera or housing if you can. We invested in one of the little Olympus compacts that is waterproof to 10m before going (approx GBP 250) and although the images are not brilliant they are a good memory jogger for what we saw and actually came out much better than I expected for such a tiny camera / sensor combo. One big downside of the Olympus is massive shutter lag.
I only have a few initial snaps to show at this time because Mrs CVP and I are moving to the USA with her work for two years from Thursday morning and our PC is already sitting in New York awaiting our arrival so no way of converting the raw files here. Big change but we are determined to have fun whilst there. Ying and Yang, I've sold my little Z4M Coupe
(awkward gearbox, over assisted brakes, chassis a bit unresolved on UK B roads, great looks and a simply staggering engine. I forgave all the other little discrepancies for that engine - sublime, but it does mean a D3 is now on the cards with the funds released ). It does mean I won't get round to the editing until the end of the month but will post the best of the images then.
So onto the snaps
A quick stop in South Beach Miami on the way to break the journey
You thought Martin's car was loud - try the colour on this Noble I found. Someone in the USA has excellent taste
Talking of taste, the art deco hotels are lovely, including their signs
Galapgos islands snaps
International Northerners need not worry, you can still get all your pet's requirements here
(actually boringly a hardware store)
Don't worry about the research centre, see these guys in the wild
Do step outside for sunset and sit up on deck to watch the world go by
Don't worry about these chaps and just enjoys yourself
The pale streak is actually a cornet fish rather than muck on the lens etc. The turtle was amazingly graceful underwater
Turtle, warm water, light cmoning down into the water in shafts, a simply wonderful experience
Don't get too close to the wildlife
A juvenile flightless cormorant gets a bit too territorial. Apparently they do grow out of it as they reach adult hood but are a bit shirty as teenagers.
Right I have to give my work PC back in a couple of hours and am likely then to be off line until later this month when we get a connection sorted in Brooklyn.
Cheers
Chris
First in summary I have to say these are simply magical islands, it's not the variety of species that hits you, even though there are a lot, but more the sheer quantity. If you have any interest in wildlife and natural history you simply have to go at some point in your life.
General tips
1. Pick your ship carefully. Bigger is more luxury but you will be restricted which islands / landing sites you can use and also it will take a lot more time to get off the ship and you will have to share the space on the various islands with more people. For us a smaller ship carrying only 15/16 passengers was more "expedition" in feel and got to some very small locations that were incredible. Two recommendations for the smaller end of the range are "Cachalote" which we were on and "Sagitta" which some other folk we met were on.
2. Choose your itinery carefully. Make sure you have enough time. A lot of trips are 3-5 days which quite honestly is not enough time if you are really interested as you will not get to the father away islands like Espanola. Both the small boats I mentioned do over 8 days which is much more like it and Cachalote also does a 15 day itinery which meant we could see a lot more and explore the different islands more.
3. Choose your time of year. Now is the hot but wet season, warm seas and generally calmer seas but the Waved Albatross have migrated away. Towards Nov&Dec you can see the Waved Albatross and their young but the seas are colder and rougher. Important if you are not a good sailor as some of the night transfers can be 13 hours or so.
4. Think about the memory cards you will need and then add enough to cover an extra 500 or so shots. In the two weeks we were there plus 4 days in the rainforest and two days in Miami Mrs CVP shot 1,445 images, me 1,181 and between us on the compacts another 870, a grand total of 4,196 images that have to be reviewed and processed.
5. Take lots of microfibre cloths, you'll get a decent amount of dust / spray even if you are very careful
6. Take dry bags for your kit as at this time of year it can hose down in minutes from a bright blue sky and wet landings can be a bit hairy sometimes. Available from all good walking shops pretty cheaply and gives that extra level of reassurance
7. Take a field backup device if possible as you really will shoot masses of images and it's nice to know you won't run out of space if you get your card calcs a bit off
8. For focal lengths the vast majority of the time I was using the 70-200 (D2x) and Mrs CVP 70-300 (D80). Ideally I think 80-400 would be idela for the Nikon user and 100-400 for the Canon users. Macros get a small outing and very wide angles 12-24mm type zooms even less.
9. I did not take a tripod as I thought it would get in the way jumping in and out of the little rubber zodiacs. If I was to go again I'd either take a small tripod that extends to about 3 feet in height or a monopod. The reason is you do a lot of visits in the early morning and late afternoon and the light rises and falls off very rapidly at the equator so a little bit of stabilty would occasionally have been useful where I had to sacrifice aperture for shutter speed.
10. Snorkel at any opportunity, the marine life is brilliant and comes up close. Take an underwater camera or housing if you can. We invested in one of the little Olympus compacts that is waterproof to 10m before going (approx GBP 250) and although the images are not brilliant they are a good memory jogger for what we saw and actually came out much better than I expected for such a tiny camera / sensor combo. One big downside of the Olympus is massive shutter lag.
I only have a few initial snaps to show at this time because Mrs CVP and I are moving to the USA with her work for two years from Thursday morning and our PC is already sitting in New York awaiting our arrival so no way of converting the raw files here. Big change but we are determined to have fun whilst there. Ying and Yang, I've sold my little Z4M Coupe
(awkward gearbox, over assisted brakes, chassis a bit unresolved on UK B roads, great looks and a simply staggering engine. I forgave all the other little discrepancies for that engine - sublime, but it does mean a D3 is now on the cards with the funds released ). It does mean I won't get round to the editing until the end of the month but will post the best of the images then.So onto the snaps
A quick stop in South Beach Miami on the way to break the journey
You thought Martin's car was loud - try the colour on this Noble I found. Someone in the USA has excellent taste
Talking of taste, the art deco hotels are lovely, including their signs
Galapgos islands snaps
International Northerners need not worry, you can still get all your pet's requirements here
(actually boringly a hardware store)
Don't worry about the research centre, see these guys in the wild
Do step outside for sunset and sit up on deck to watch the world go by
Don't worry about these chaps and just enjoys yourself
The pale streak is actually a cornet fish rather than muck on the lens etc. The turtle was amazingly graceful underwater
Turtle, warm water, light cmoning down into the water in shafts, a simply wonderful experience
Don't get too close to the wildlife
A juvenile flightless cormorant gets a bit too territorial. Apparently they do grow out of it as they reach adult hood but are a bit shirty as teenagers.
Right I have to give my work PC back in a couple of hours and am likely then to be off line until later this month when we get a connection sorted in Brooklyn.
Cheers
Chris
Edited by CVP on Friday 7th March 12:45
Edited by CVP on Friday 7th March 12:50
S. Gonzales Esq. said:
There's some really nice stuff there - those swimming turtles are great. Looking forward to seeing the rest, but don't envy you the task of sorting through that many captures.
It's inevitable there though. You take a picture of [insert favourite creature here] and think "that's the shot", then either it moves a little, the light changes a little or the most common is you move a few feet or round the corner and see another one of the same creature which looks even better and the next day you see another one of the same that looks even better! An example is the Flightless Cormorant, I was taking pics of a male as he came back from fishing and the female on the nest. I was happy with this when the male then stopped to pick up a gift of seaweed for his lady, cue another 10 shots or so. It's in the bag I thought but then the light chnaged very slightly and we got a great light highlighting his bright green eye, cue another 5-10 shots. You also always take more shots than you would at first think as you've got this nagging thought at the back of your mind that says "You're not coming here again, are you sure that last one was razor sharp don't you think you'd better take another to cover yourself?Edited by S. Gonzales Esq. on Friday 7th March 13:58
Culling marine iguanas / blue footed boobies should cut down the number significantly. The only worry is Mrs CVP and I do take different types of images so we're still going to end up with a lot. Quite how we are going to boil that down to 50 or so for a summary portfolio is going to be a difficult but great task as it will remind both of us of the magical time we had.
I will say other folk took more on their own but we did have both of us taking pictures. You do have to make enough time to put the camera down and just view and experience the scenes with your own eyes though as otherwise you can lose the magic a bit.
Right time to shut the laptop down, hand it back and walk out of the building.
See you all in a couple of weeks
Chris
Hey Chris good images and on the other thread too!!
Just to let you know Ted has arrived safe and well in the East Riding and may well get a few visits in here before we head off to India!!! I never realised he was such a 'big boy'!!!!!
Safe journey to the US and I look forward to the other images you put up!!
Peter
Just to let you know Ted has arrived safe and well in the East Riding and may well get a few visits in here before we head off to India!!! I never realised he was such a 'big boy'!!!!!
Safe journey to the US and I look forward to the other images you put up!!
Peter
Hello all, back on-line again from over the pond. Only intermittent acess from work as we still have not managed to get an internet line put into our flat. Sometimes the USA is very very backwards in technology terms.
I'd estimate we are about halfway through editing and whilst we work on finsihing I thought I'd share some of the better ones from the Galapagos trip.
A lovely juvenile Galapagos hawk that we got right up close to. It was not concerned at all that we were there, fantastic.
A Swallow tailed gull comes in to land at the nest
Lovely light that morning and a very beautiful bird
Semi-terrestrial hermit crab
Sometimes it's not the big creatures that are the coolest. The little guys were brilliant just scurrying around on the sea shore
On the crab theme these guys were also great. You just had to be very patient and sit there for a few minutes without moving and then they would slowly poke an eye out of their burrow to see if it was all clear - the Ghost Crab
Portrait of Blue Footed Boobie. In the words of Monty Python "lovely plumage"
Sealions everywhere, they just have trouble staying awake
Of course, what you go there for, the Iguanas
First of all the Land Iguana
and the magical Marine Iguana (not helped by the cheeky Lava lizard on the head)
Finally, if you love wildlife and have any doubts about going, two last Galapagos images. Yes it really can be like this sometimes, completely and utterly wild and amazingly tranquil at the same time and you can get amazingly close to the wildlife (oh and yes I'll never make a career as a model)
On two slightly different topics
1) I tried to do justice to the Z4M Coupe just before I sold it
2) My New York's are nothing like Nick's amazing book but I'm doing an album for the time we are here as a permanent reminder of this great city, favourite so far
Cheers all
Chris
I'd estimate we are about halfway through editing and whilst we work on finsihing I thought I'd share some of the better ones from the Galapagos trip.
A lovely juvenile Galapagos hawk that we got right up close to. It was not concerned at all that we were there, fantastic.
A Swallow tailed gull comes in to land at the nest
Lovely light that morning and a very beautiful bird
Semi-terrestrial hermit crab
Sometimes it's not the big creatures that are the coolest. The little guys were brilliant just scurrying around on the sea shore
On the crab theme these guys were also great. You just had to be very patient and sit there for a few minutes without moving and then they would slowly poke an eye out of their burrow to see if it was all clear - the Ghost Crab
Portrait of Blue Footed Boobie. In the words of Monty Python "lovely plumage"
Sealions everywhere, they just have trouble staying awake
Of course, what you go there for, the Iguanas
First of all the Land Iguana
and the magical Marine Iguana (not helped by the cheeky Lava lizard on the head)
Finally, if you love wildlife and have any doubts about going, two last Galapagos images. Yes it really can be like this sometimes, completely and utterly wild and amazingly tranquil at the same time and you can get amazingly close to the wildlife (oh and yes I'll never make a career as a model
)On two slightly different topics
1) I tried to do justice to the Z4M Coupe just before I sold it
2) My New York's are nothing like Nick's amazing book but I'm doing an album for the time we are here as a permanent reminder of this great city, favourite so far
Cheers all
Chris
nick_bbb said:
Wow great stuff, the Hawk is amazing. I'm jelous of you living in NY, I'd love to to that for a couple of years. Should have done it when I was at Citibank
Yes, that's the view Mrs CVP and I took "if we don't do it now when well we?" It's quite a churn to do the move, our cat is living with her parents for 2 years and we had to sell the cars, get the house rented out etc. But we didn't want to look back and not have tried. So far despite some frustrations there have been more brilliant things so glad we took the chance. Also glad to hear kitty is very happy with Julie's parents and has taken to sleeping under the duvet int he winter with them just as he did with us.Gassing Station | Photography & Video | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff