Burrard-Lucas Blog - Wildlife & Travel Photography

Travel Photography Contest: Mysterious Places

Posted on June 28, 2009 at 9:47 pm

We are excited to announce the second Burrard-Lucas photography competition! With over $2,000 in prizes, this contest promises to be even bigger than the first!

This is a travel photography contest with the theme “Mysterious Places”. Let your imagination and creativity run wild!

This competition has been generously sponsored by Lensbaby and SmugMug. We have some fantastic prizes on offer…

Prizes

1x Overall Winner:

1x Peoples’ Choice Winner:

2x Runners up:

8x Highly Commended:

The “Peoples’ Choice” winner will be selected by public vote at the end of the contest.

The deadline for entry is 31st October 2009. You can upload your photos here. Please read the rules before entering.

More about the prizes…

Lensbaby

Lensbaby makes selective focus SLR lenses which work on Canon, Nikon, Sony, Olympus, and Pentax cameras.

The Lensbaby Composer is the prefect travel companion; it is compact, lightweight and full of creative potential! Based on a unique and innovative ball and socket configuration, the Composer delivers smooth selective focus photography with unparalleled ease. Photographers simply tilt the lens to a desired angle and then focus with a focusing ring. The result is an area of sharp focus (the “Sweet Spot”) that can be moved around the frame.

Click here to find out more about the Composer.

The Lensbaby Muse is an easy to use lens that opens up a new realm of fun in focusing! Squeeze the Muse to focus, and bend your “Sweet Spot” around the frame.

Click here to find out more about the Muse.

The new Lensbaby Optic Swap System gives you the freedom to break the rules and express your vision even further. The system works with all of Lensbaby’s new lenses and includes Double Glass, Single Glass, Plastic, and Pinhole / Zoneplate Optics. Each optic has its own unique look and feel.

Click here for a comparison of different optics.

SmugMug

SmugMug offers you everything you need to kick start your online presence! From displaying photos on your own personal website through to printing and selling your work, Smugmug provides an easy to use, customizable and fully featured solution. Features of both pro and power accounts include unlimited storage and bandwidth, customisable themes and web addresses, video hosting, password protected galleries, dedicated support and much more! Pro accounts also allow you to make a profit by setting your own prices for print and digital download purchases - exactly what you need to get your online photography business up and running!

Click here for an overview of SmugMug’s services.
Click here for a description of SmugMug’s Pro service.
Click here for a full listing of SmugMug account features.

Rules

• This competition is open to participants worldwide, aged 18 or over on the closing date.
• There is no entry fee.
• You must be the photographer and owner of the copyright for any image entered.
• Entrants can submit a maximum of three images to this contest.
• Please keep digital manipulation such as cloning and compositing to a minimum; your photograph should faithfully represent the scene as you saw it.
• Submitted images should be a minimum of 1024 pixels along the long edge.
• Images must not include a watermark or border.
• You will retain copyright of your entries at all times and will always be credited alongside your picture.
• By entering this competition, you grant us a non-exclusive licence to display your photograph in connection with this contest. This may include syndication of the 12 winning photographs by the media (but only in connection with this contest). Winners will always be informed if their photographs are syndicated and will always be credited next to their image.
• Under no-circumstance will we use submitted images for commercial gain unless it has been agreed on a case by case basis with the photographer.
• The deadline for entry is 31st October 2009.
• Peoples Choice prize voting will run from 7th-14th November 2009.
• All winners will be announced on 16th November 2009.
• You can enter online here.

Click here to enter now!

Supporters: Photo Competitions, Current photo contests, Photography Blog, PhotographyCompetitions.net

Indonesia: Orangutans & Volcanoes

Posted on June 22, 2009 at 2:45 pm

I have recently returned from a fantastic ten-day trip to Indonesia. I started in Tanjung Puting National Park on the island of Borneo where I spent several days photographing Orangutans. I then flew on to Java where I explored the ancient Buddhist monument of Borobudur and some spectacular volcanic scenery.

Kalimantan, Borneo

Indonesia is the world’s fourth most populous country and as a result there is tremendous pressure on the land. Large-scale deforestation (much of it illegal) threatens the survival of many endemic species. Tanjung Puting National Park is a large area of protected wilderness in southern Borneo which was established in the 1930s to protect Orangutans and the unique Proboscis monkey. The park is very remote and it took me two days just to reach the village of Kumai on the boundary of the park. The interior of Tanjung Puting can only be accessed by boat and so I spent the next four days sleeping, eating and chugging along on a colourful “klotok” (river boat).

My primary base in the park was Camp Leakey. This research facility was set up in 1971 by Louis Leakey who was mentor for three world famous primatologists; Jane Goodall and Dian Fossey (known for their work with Chimpanzees and Gorillas respectively), and Dr Birute Galdikas, who has been based at Camp Leakey since 1971 and is a leading authority on orangutans.

Over the years, orangutans orphaned by deforestation and the illegal pet trade have been taken to Camp Leakey and returned to a life in the wild. These rehabilitated orangutans live alongside and breed with wild orangutans in the area. I was fortunate enough to photograph both rehabilitated and wild orangutans during my time in the park.

Observing these lively primates was fascinating because their behaviour can be so human; the mothers were tender & caring and the youngsters playful & mischievous! However, the highlight of the trip was when I came face to face with a dominant male orangutan whose size and strength was quite awe-inspiring! Dominant males such as the one shown above can have an arm span of 2.3 m and weigh over 118 kg – females by comparison weigh just 45 kg!

Borobudur, Central Java

Having survived the mosquitoes, leaches and ferocious ants of Borneo’s rainforest, I flew on to Yogyakarta in central Java. Here I got up at the crack of dawn to visit the ancient Buddhist monument of Borobudur at sunrise.

Borobudur was built over 1,000 years ago in the ninth-century AD. The monument comprises six square platforms topped by three circular platforms, and is decorated with 2,672 relief panels and 504 Buddha statues. A main dome, located at the centre of the top platform, is surrounded by 72 Buddha statues seated inside perforated stupa (shown in the first image above). The monument looks out over the twin-volcanoes of Mt. Merapi and Mt. Merbabu.

Mt. Bromo, Eastern Java

The final leg of my Indonesia trip was to Eastern Java, home of the picturesque Mt. Bromo. I first saw pictures of Mt. Bromo a few years ago and I was instantly captivated by the mythical prehistoric nature of the landscape.

Photographing Mt. Bromo at sunrise involved rising at 3.30am and getting into a jeep that looked like it was designed for driving on Mars! I suffered an uncomfortable 45 minute drive along a steep and bumpy track in order to get to the view point before the sun came up. I hastily set up my gear and took some long exposures while the stars were still visible and the landscape was lit by the first hints of dawn.

Later in the day, the light was not good enough for taking photographs, so I decided to capture the steam billowing out of Mt. Bromo by shooting a time-lapse clip. As I shot the sequence, the clouds rolled in overhead and added an extra dimension to the scene. You can view my time-lapse clip here.

Kawah Ijen, Eastern Java

The last stop of my trip was Kawah Ijen, a huge volcanic crater with a one-kilometer-wide turquoise-coloured acid crater lake. To one side of the lake is an active vent where gaseous sulphur billows out from the earth. Local people funnel this gas through ceramic pipes in order to cool and condense it. The sulphur drips from the end of these pipes and freezes into solid rock. The miners then hack the sulphur into slabs and carry up to 90kg of it up the treacherous path to the crater rim and a further 4km down the side of the volcano. Each miner will make the trip two or three times a day and will earn a total of around $5 per day. I can safely say it is the hardest job I have ever witnessed!

While trying to photograph the miners at work, I got a first hand taste of what their working conditions are like. On one occasion I got too close and the wind blew the noxious gasses over me. I almost fell over as I was hit by a stinging, burning pain in my nose and throat. Many of the miners had just a flimsy scarf wrapped around their faces and were right next to the active vents – I have no idea how they survive it! Here are a couple of pictures me in action: before being suffocated and while being suffocated! After my “near death” experience, I decided to keep a safe distance from all manner of mining operation!

For a few more photos from my trip to Indonesia, please visit my photoblog.

Wildlife Photography Competition Results

Posted on May 7, 2009 at 12:30 am

We would like to thank everyone who entered our recent Wildlife Portraits competition. Matthew and I have been overwhelmed by the response and have spent the last week sifting through the 3,500 photographs that were submitted.

The overall standard of photography was fantastic and we had an extremely difficult task in whittling the submissions down to a final selection. We had to be very harsh and eliminate any photo that wasn’t technically perfect. We then took into account more subjective factors such as composition, originality, atmosphere and character to pick the images that stood out the most.

In the end Matthew and I unanimously settled on Thomas Vignaud’s Tompot Blenny as our winner. The perfect framing and spot-on exposure combine to beautiful effect. Thomas has used the strobe light masterfully to gain a sense of the blenny looming out of the darkness. Ultimately however, it was the blenny’s characterful face and frilly appendages that clinched it for us! Congratulations to Thomas - he has won a Olympus SP-570UZ digital camera.

We have also selected two runners-up and eight highly commended entries which we feel exhibit the wonderful quality and diversity of the images that were submitted. All of the photographs appearing here fought off stiff competition and deserve special praise.

Given the success of this first competition, we have decided that we will launch another photo competition soon! If you would like to be notified when this competition is announced then please subscribe to our blog via RSS feed or email updates.

Now without further ado, click here for the winning pictures!

Read more

New Zealand

Posted on April 26, 2009 at 6:21 pm

While Will was exploring the historic sights of Rome, I was the other side of the world experiencing the incredible natural beauty of New Zealand.

I’ve just returned to the UK… I’m exhausted from the jet lag and the 24 hour journey but somehow I’m still finding the energy to write this post. The trip was a milestone for me (though not a very significant one) in that it was the first time that I have managed to fill an 80gb portable hard drive! The main reason for this is that I was shooting almost exclusively with the Canon 1Ds MK III. The 21 megapixel files from this camera munch through megabytes at a disturbing rate!

New Zealand is an amazingly diverse country, famous for its stunning landscapes and unusual wildlife. High levels of rainfall across the whole country lead to a land of verdant hills, snow capped mountains and glaciers that stretch down into temperate rainforest. The downside of this is that when the weather turns nasty, your camera can be rendered unusable. I discovered this during a 3 day spell in which I only managed to take about 20 photos! On the whole, however, the weather was good during my trip and it didn’t hinder me too much. I managed to explore both the North and South Islands and visited a variety of locations that gave me a good flavour of the country. Amongst my favourites from the trip were White Island, the gannet colony at Cape Kidnappers and the Franz Josef glacier.

White Island is recognised as New Zealand’s most active volcano and is located within the Bay of Plenty. People can reach the island either by boat or helicopter. I left from the mainland at sunrise which ensured that I could explore the island without any large groups of people getting in my photographs. The hour long boat journey was choppy, but I was filled with anticipation and suspense. We made landfall on the island at an abandoned sulphur mining factory. The buildings had been destroyed in an eruption in 1914 that killed all 10 of its workers.

Shortly after landing at the dock, a helicopter arrived to take me up and get some unique perspectives of the island’s features. The pilot was absolutely brilliant and he was more than willing to let me have the door taken off to improve my mobility and the quality of my images. Leaning out of a helicopter at 5000 feet with nothing but a harness holding me in was definitely one of the most exhilarating experiences of my life!

Since the only native mammals of New Zealand are a few bat and seal species, most wildlife photographers tend to focus on the country’s birdlife. One of the best parts of my trip was photographing the Australasian gannet colony at Cape Kidnappers. Unfortunately most of the birds had left either for Tasmania (the adults) or the Great Barrier Reef (the chicks) but luckily a few stragglers were left behind for me to photograph. It was great being able to crawl up close to these beautiful birds, despite having to lie down in all the excrement and cemented feathers!

My final stop in NZ was the Franz Josef glacier in the Westland. From here I did another scenic helicopter flight into Mt. Cook (Aoraki) National Park. Just after the sun had risen up above the peaks, we soared along the Franz Josef glacier and into the midst of the highest mountains in the Southern Alps, including the likes of Mt. Tasman and Mt. Cook. Once again I had the door of the chopper removed, but this time the 13,000 foot altitude took its toll on my fingertips – they got so cold that I couldn’t feel the shutter button on my camera. In the end I resorted to deftly forcing my frozen index finger onto the top of my camera in the hope of hitting the right button. This was probably my most painful, but also one of my best photographic experiences to date!

I hope you enjoyed looking at some of my photographs. Will also visited New Zealand a couple of years ago and has a few pictures on his photoblog.

Easter in Rome

Posted on April 19, 2009 at 10:27 pm

Over the Easter weekend, what better place to visit than Rome? I was fortunate enough to spend last weekend exploring some of the historic sights of Rome and the Vatican City.

Although I tend to focus on nature photography, I believe that photographing a broad range of other subjects makes me a better photographer. I therefore spent the weekend snapping travel shots, some of which I have included below.

St Peter’s Basilica, Vatican City:

St Peter’s Square, Vatican City:

Ancient Rome:

Wildlife photography interview on deviantART

Posted on April 14, 2009 at 6:30 am

I have recently been interviewed by John De Bord for deviantART, a popular online art community. John asked a series of great questions and I provided some fairly in-depth responses.

Here are some of the topics that were covered in the interview:

• How I got started in photography
• What gear I use
• How Matthew and I work to together as a team
• My wildlife photography tips
• Wildlife photography destinations
• Some of the ways I market my work
• And much more!

I also included a few photographs in the interview which I have not previously displayed online.

Read the full interview here.

If the interview prompts any further questions then feel free to leave a comment on the interview page or on this blog post.

Behind the shot: Celestial Storks

Posted on April 3, 2009 at 12:31 pm

Matthew and I took this photograph last year in the Pantanal, Brazil. It shows two Jabiru Storks sleeping in their nest while the stars rotate overhead. The camera was positioned so that the southern celestial pole was behind the nest and an exposure time of 40 minutes was used to capture the star trails. The tree was illuminated by a single lamp placed about 100m away.

The southern celestial pole can be located by identifying the Southern Cross constellation and following it down about four and a half cross-lengths. In the Northern Hemisphere, you can find the north celestial pole by pointing your camera at the North Star. You can find out more about locating the celestial poles here.

This is photograph is one of our all-time favourites – it looks fantastic when printed large. If you are interested in buying a print then please get in touch.