Wednesday morning the 27th we woke up at Punta Vicente Roca on the north-west corner of Isabela Island. The scenery was stunning. While eating breakfast, we could see some sea-life outside the boat, including turtles and the fins of several Mola Mola:
Mola Mola fin
The first order of the day was a panga ride to observe the wildlife along the cliffs. We started out with a sea lion and Green Sea Turtles in the water:
Sea Lion
Green Sea Turtle
Green Sea Turtle
Nearby on the rocks were a Noddy Tern and Boobys and Frigatebirds:
Noddy Tern
Blue-footed Booby and Frigatebird
Blue-footed Booby
Blue-footed Booby
There were also quite a few Marine Iguanas on the rocks:
Marine Iguanas
Marine Iguana
Marine Iguanas
Marine Iguana
But we were really excited when we found the Flightless Cormorants:
Flightless Cormorants
Flightless Cormorant
Flightless Cormorant and shadow
Flightless Cormorant
We cruised further, seeing a variety of Galápagos Fur Seals:
Galápagos Fur Seal
Galápagos Fur Seal
And then, the second high point of the morning occurred when we spotted Galápagos Penguins:
Galápagos Penguin
Galápagos Penguin
Galápagos Penguin
Galápagos Penguin
Galápagos Penguins
Galápagos Penguins
Galápagos Penguins
Galápagos Penguins
Galápagos Penguins
Galápagos Penguins
As you can tell, I had a hard time staying away from the shutter button! We returned to the ship and our next order of business was snorkeling. We came across the Attack Cormorant:
Flightless Cormorant
Despite our best efforts, this Flightless Cormorant wanted to interact with us. I got pecked on the arm. The cormorants were very fun to watch in and under the water:
Flightless Cormorant
We also got a nice view of a group of Green Sea Turtles:
Green Sea Turtles
We got back in the panga and returned to the ship:
John, Francois, Cedric, Jill, Barb, Natasha
It was time to cruise to our next destination. As we cruised, we watched for whales and other wildlife. We did not see whales this day, but we saw other things. A large splash far toward the horizon turned out to be a Swordfish jumping:
Swordfish
Swordfish
Swordfish
Galápagos Petrels, Frigatebirds, Brown Pelicans, and the Moon kept us company:
Galápagos Petrel
Frigatebird
Brown Pelicans
Moon
We arrived at Urbina Bay mid-afternoon. We boarded the Pangas and went on-shore, watching the Brown Pelicans dive as we went:
Brown Pelican
The highlight of our excursion was the giant Galápagos Tortoise. We found them hiding in the vegetation along the trail:
Galápagos Tortoise
Galápagos Tortoise
Galápagos Tortoise
We caught view of a couple of invaders - Smooth-billed Anis brought by the ranchers in hopes they would reduce parasites on the cattle:
Smooth-billed Anis
And, of course more finches:
Darwin Finch
There were also land iguanas. We found evidence of them again before spotting them:
Iguana by-product
But we found several of the large reptiles as well:
Land Iguana
Land Iguana
Land Iguana
Land Iguana
Land Iguana
Land Iguana
Land Iguana
Land Iguana
Land Iguana eating
Land Iguana
The male was courting the female - he would lick her tail as part of it. Here is an animation:
Returning to shore to wait for the pangas, I watched the pelicans dive while others swam at the beach:
Brown Pelican
Brown Pelican
We returned to the ship and had our briefing for the next day - a quick trip to Fernandina and then back to Isabela:
As we cruised toward Fernandina that night, we stayed up on top for a bit talking and watching the night sky:
Moon and Frigatebird
Jill, Mariangela, Pedro, Fabricio
And then we slept another night, ready for our next morning "in paradise" as our Concerige Roxane liked to remind us!
Like millions of other people, we went chasing the Great American Eclipse. We chose Nebraska, since everybody we knew was going to Wyoming, and the climate models suggested a good probability of clear weather. Our initial camp was at Lake McConaughy, which is just inside the line of totality. My sister Danielle and her husband Edward got there early to start scouting. Our plan was to check weather forecasts and then go mobile the day of the eclipse. The morning of August 19 I got up early and snapped this shot of the moon on its way to its date with destiny: Sunday morning we checked the forecasts. It was not looking good for Nebraska in general, but east-central Nebraska seemed better than western according to the forecasts. So we packed up camp and headed out to Camp Augustine, a Boy Scout camp near Grand Island, Nebraska: They had camping spots available, and a large field which would be good for observations. After a rather hot, muggy, sleepless night (dry camping wi
My wife, Jill, and I were in the Savannah, Georgia area at the end of June and beginning of July. We spent the first part of the trip exploring the built environment. Savannah is a fun, diverse city with a lot to do. We found this amazing metallic Diplodocus in the lobby of the JW Marriott Savannah Plant Riverside District hotel : JW Marriott Savannah Plant Riverside hotel lobby We found lovely Spanish-moss-draped Live Oaks in the parks - this is Forsyth Park: Forsyth Park We found more of them in the cemeteries - this is Bonaventure Cemetery: Bonaventure Cemetery We found the amazing Cathedral Basilica of St. John the Baptist: Cathedral Basilica of St. John the Baptist Cathedral Basilica of St. John the Baptist We found many blooming Crepe Myrtles, draped in, of course, Spanish Moss: Crepe Myrtle We were staying on Tybee Island, which is about 30-45 minutes from downtown Savannah. On the island, we visited the Tybee Island Light Station, which was to feature prominently in our photos
In my previous post on this lens, I used a 1.4x teleconverter on both lenses. I got a request to repeat the test without the teleconverters, so here are the results. These are all shot at ISO 400, f/5.6 at 400mm, 1/1600s, autofocus with the center point, RAW. It is later in the day, and it looks like light clouds and shadows moving in the breeze are slightly changing the lighting between the shots, so caveat emptor. First the whole image with the old lens: Next, the new lens: Here are the locations of the crops I took: First, the center crop. The old lens: The new lens - again, sharper even in the center (although the moving shadows from the windy day make it a little harder to tell): The left edge crop, the old lens: The new lens - significantly sharper: And now, the corner crop, the old lens: And the new lens. It is no contest: The chromatic aberration is not as bad with the old lens without the teleconverter - but the sharpness i
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