Hard to Believe South Georgia Beauty...

King Penguin colony in early morning light

This image was created at St. Andrews Bay, South Georgia, with the hand held Canon EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS II USM lens (at 100mm) and the rugged Canon EOS-1D X. ISO 800. Evaluative metering +1/3 stop: 1/800 sec. at f/10 in Manual mode. AWB.

Center AF point/AI Servo Expand/Rear Focus AF on the front row of penguins and re-compose. Click here to see the latest version of the Rear Focus Tutorial. Click on the image to see a larger version.

When we landed at St. Andrews Bay just after 4am on November 9, 2015 the skies were clear and blue. I quickly realized that with the sun offshore it would be difficult to impossible to photograph the King Penguin colony while on shore. I found the expedition learner, Ted Cheeseman, and asked him if it would be possible to do a zodiac cruise in front of the colony so that we could get on sun angle. He said that there was a good chance that he could make that happen. I rounded up all the BAA group folks that I could and advised them on what to bring. Five minutes later six of us climbed back into a zodiac and enjoyed the time of our lives. Assistant expedition leader Hugh Rose did an excellent job at the helm.

Photographing the colony in early morning light from a zodiac was a huge challenge in part because of the extreme contrast and in part because a zodiac is always rocking gently even in calm water. After an hour we were sated and returned to shore just as it began to cloud up; I pray for clouds both in the Southern Ocean and on my Galapagos trips. Thanks to my idea dozens of other guests got to do zodiac cruising in front of the vast assemblage of King Penguins throughout the long day. But only the BAA group got to enjoy the incredible early morning light. Thanks to Ted Cheeseman for being open to my suggestion and for making it happen.

If you’d like to join me on the OCT/NOV 2016 expedition to South Georgia and the Falklands, first click here and then shoot me an e-mail with the words “Cheesemans’ Last Southern Ocean Expedition” cut and pasted into the Subject Line.

As for the image, don't be shy; all honest comments welcome. a

I like the beautiful setting, composition and light. The seals mixed in with the colony adds interest. Excellent image Arthur!

I saw this image on your blog. It is truly amazing, love everything about it.

Hi Artie,

This image really speaks to me. The hiker in me loves the background mountains that are scaled by the perspective of penguins from shore off into the distance.

The crowds of many small penguins and the perspective from sea, seems to suggest "welcome to our land".

This is the kind of photo a person can look at for hours, and enjoy for years.

Thanks for sharing this one!
Ross

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Originally Posted by Ross Taylor

Hi Artie,

This image really speaks to me. The hiker in me loves the background mountains that are scaled by the perspective of penguins from shore off into the distance.

The crowds of many small penguins and the perspective from sea, seems to suggest "welcome to our land".

This is the kind of photo a person can look at for hours, and enjoy for years.

Thanks for sharing this one!
Ross

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YAW and thanks to all for their comments. Those are actually big penguins usually bigger than 3 feet tall. There are lots of hiking options on the OCT/NOV Cheesemans' trip; you should consider joining us by following the link. a

I keep trying to count the number of Kings (lol) ... totally awesome. The mountainous BG with shadows and highlights is perfect, and although huge, lets the Penguins have their center stage. Yes, this is a "looker".

What a view! Wish I were there.

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Originally Posted by arash_hazeghi

What a view! Wish I were there.

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Hey Arash, Thanks. You can be there. If you’d like to join me on the OCT/NOV 2016 expedition to South Georgia and the Falklands, first click here and then shoot me an e-mail with the words “Cheesemans’ Last Southern Ocean Expedition” cut and pasted into the Subject Line.

The funny thing is that photographing from the rocking zodiac was extremely difficult as far as focus and framing were concerned, and the contrast was beyond extreme with the birds pretty much in the shade. At first I did not like any of the images from that one hour session. But converting the RAW for this one in DPP 4 really evened out the contrast. Folks are invited to check out the DPP RAW Conversion Guide that Arash and I teamed up on.

I wound up really liking the image and folks were nuts over it on FB. a