I visited the United Kingdom for the second time this year.
The primary purpose for my journey (14 hours crunched into an economy middle seat—argh) was to attend the award ceremony for the 60th anniversary of the Wildlife Photographer of the Year (WPY60). It was really nice seeing my fellow judges again—Kathy, Roz, Chien, Miranda, and Paula—after our marathon photo-review week in February. It would have been even better had Luciano been able to join us as well, but he was in the field for an assignment.
The photo above is from the welcome reception, during which Kathy presented Gemma with a beautiful sculpture of Hope the blue whale to commemorate 25 years of shepherding photographers through the WPY process. Over that time, she has become a treasured friend to many, as evidenced by the clapping and cheers. Personally, I (so very much) enjoyed watching Gemma squirm when she realised she was about to be shoved front and center in front of all who had gathered 😊
Thank you Gemma, for putting up with us.
Speaking of Hope the blue whale, I was finally able to take a decent photo of the exhibit at the Natural History Museum:
I had never packed a proper camera on previous visits.
On this occasion, I took along a Sony a1. For the photos above, I paired it with a 1970s vintage lens—an SMC Pentax 28mm f2—and HDR-ed the scene.
Yup, HDR!
Some of you might recall the wild-and-crazy early days of HDR photography, when hyper-insane luminosity and super-spiked saturation was all the rage.
Barf.
HDR doesn't have to be like that. HDR can be used in a judicious manner to produce non-pukey results. In this case, seven handheld exposures at ±0.7 intervals was perfect for balancing out the harsh differential between dark and bright areas.
It was my first opportunity to play with the old 28mm. The lens performed much better than I had anticipated (sharp, barely noticeable CA), which is always nice. It is also a heckuva lot lighter than any modern 28mm f2 lens would be (which means I'm much more likely to carry it around). And it has a different personality than modern glass. The colours and tones end up sorta film-like (for those of you who've used film), not sure how else to explain it. In short, I like the lens.
I also had a chance to revisit something that has been on my mind since I saw it in February:
Given all the years I spent with humpback whales, this progression of embryonic development caught my eye and etched into my memory earlier in the year. The hope of photographing this was the main reason I packed a camera. Hurray for Miranda for taking time out of her crazy-hectic schedule to indulge my obsession!
There is a lot of other stuff hidden away at the museum too. Being respectful of Miranda's time, I only photographed a couple more things.
First was this sample from the historic Discovery Expedition of the early 20th century:
It is a tentacle club of a Mesonychoteuthis hamiltoni colossal squid. This species is found only in the Southern Ocean. It is massive, the sumo grand champion of the squid world. Architeuthis dux is better known, but M. hamiltoni is no slouch.
And then there was this:
Apparently Darwin had a pet tortoise. Being a super-fan of all things chelonian (thanks to Oogway), I had to get a snapshot.
I wonder what the tortoise's name was?
A special treat was the invitation we received to attend a reception at 10 Downing Street:
The reception was nice, but the best part—truth be told—was seeing Larry, who at the end of our visit strolled up to the front door and was promptly let inside. No security check required.
But of course, I did get an obligatory snap in front of Number 10, together with Roz and Chien (thanks Shane!):
The photo above was taken with another old lens, one I picked up in the UK—a Sigma 24mm f2.8 Super Wide II. It is tiny and light in weight. The files look good. It focuses really close, down to 18cm. And it was (super) inexpensive. What's not to like?
And finally, I traveled to Bristol to give a brief talk for WildPhotos. A number of images were on public display at College Green, including my Shooting Star photo:
I enjoyed my brief interval on land seeing friends and making new ones, but now it's time to head back to the ocean where I belong.